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| Earth Market Street, 1910 |
We know a great deal about Rabbi Li Chen, especially when compared to the dozens of other Kaifeng Jews who we know only by name. After the Flood of 1642, the stone inscription tells us that water logged Torah scrolls were brought to "Li Chen, the head of the religion, and Manla Li Cheng-hsien, were invited to collate and examine them." Rabbi Chen survived the flood and was able to collate the water damaged scrolls to produce one useable copy.
Leslie has quite a bit to say about Li Chen in his work The Chinese Hebrew Memorial Book.
On page xxiv: "Le Chen was the Chang-chiao 'Leader of the Religion' and the only Shalichim (Representatives) names in the Memorial Book and Hebrew-Persian Colophons were of the Li family."
Here he is reminding us the the Li Clan traditionally provided the community the most rabbis. Later in the text, on page 172, Leslie identifies him in the Memorial Book as Rabbi Jeremiah, the Scribe, the Teacher, the Representative. Rabbi Li is named in the 1663 stone, and possibly mentioned in a gazette.
Leslie reiterates on page 216 that he knows the Hebrew name of Li Chen, written in the Memorial Book as Rabbi Jeremiah, the Scribe, the teacher, the Representative:
This is a later entry, written below the line, with the circle indicating where it would be inserted on the line above.
On page 200, Leslie again suggests that Li Chen could be a chu-jen of 1615. The chu-jen, or juren degree:
(舉人) was a title for those who passed the provincial imperial examination, roughly equivalent to a Master of Arts, granting social status and eligibility for the national jinshi (doctorate) exam
On page 235 Leslie has more direct comments about the possibility that Li Chen, the Chief Rabbi active in the mid-1600s, had a civil service degree:
"...he is equated with White with chu-jen 1615, appointed district magistrate (Hsiang-fu gazetteers, 1661, 4, p.21b, 1739, 12, p.26b, 1898, 4, p.28b). This is feasible, but there are strong arguments against. Would the head of the religion have left K'aifeng to become a magistrate? Perhaps before he became head of the religion. Would not his degree have been mentioned in the inscriptions? Not necessarily, for that of Chao Ying-tou (as of Ai T'ien) is not mentioned. We may discover one day where and when the Li Chen of the gazetteers was appointed magistrate, and this may be of help." Italics mine.
Will mor information about Li Chen ever be found? Not unless a scholar looks. Is Li Chen the degree holder and Li Chen the chief rabbi the same man?
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