The terms Qingzhen and HALAL are both related and distinct. Some things are given the label Qingzhen or Halal, such as mosques, Qingzhen (halal) food and Halal food. Below, we will talk about it from the aspects of the origin of Qingzhen and Qingzhen Halal food.
I. The origin and connection of 'Qingzhen'
The famous Qing-dynasty scholar Dong Youcheng, in his 'Postscript to the Nestorian Stele of the Spread of the Luminous Religion in China,' said: 'In general, the pure religions of the Western Regions all venerated the Buddhist dharma; later they created novelties and abandoned the old religion, so some worshipped Adam and some worshipped Jesus, while the tenets of qingzhen (purity and truth) and quietude were inherited by one another. The religion of the Hui came out of Daqin and Europe, and again came out of the Hui. The stele speaks of 365 kinds following one upon another, and the terms zhenji (true quietude), zhenwei (true majesty), shengzhen (ascending to truth), zhenchang (true constancy) and zhenjing (true scripture) already coincide in number with the Hui.'
Nestorianism (the Luminous Religion) enjoyed the grand spectacle of 'its teaching flowing through the ten circuits, its temples filling a hundred cities' in the Tang dynasty, and together with Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism became one of the 'three foreign religions,' the main faith of the Hu people who came east from the Western Regions; besides these, there were also Judaism, Shamanism, Buddhism and others. Many shared the meaning of 'light,' all brought in by the ancient Persians and Central Asian Hu merchants, who did not proselytize externally or translate scriptures. Only the Hu people believed in the three foreign religions; there were no Han people.
From ancient times to the present, the Hui people have had diverse types of faith, and their various venues often bear the characters 'qing' (pure), 'zhen' (true), 'ming' (bright) and 'jing' (clean); others are mostly named for an intuitive image, such as the Lion Temple in Guangzhou; Yangzhou has the Ruifu Temple, Xilai Temple, Crane Temple and Worship Temple; Hangzhou has the Phoenix Temple and Zhenjiao Temple; Quanzhou has the Qilin Temple and Qingjing Temple; Xi'an has the Qingjiao Temple, Qingxiu Temple and the Zhenjiao Temple of Xiaopiyuan; Jiaxing, Songjiang and Changzhou also have Zhenjiao Temples; Qingzhou in Shandong has a Zhenjiao Temple; Nanjing has the Jingjue Temple; Beijing has the Pushou Temple and Faming Temple; and there are the Jingjue Temple of Hebei, the Jingjue Temple of Dong'e, and the Jingjue Temple of Heilongjiang, among others. Although 'Qingzhen' was not yet explicitly used, the meaning reflecting the Hui tradition of 'purity, brightness and sincerity' has always been there, an connotation reflected in the Hui people's spiritual pursuit, way of conducting themselves and healthy diet, and so on.
II. Qingzhen Halal food
Qingzhen food is also called halal food. Qingzhen food certification is also called halal certification. Qingzhen food is food made strictly according to the dietary taboos of Halal principles. Except for things prohibited in the Halal regulations or prohibited by reliable and clear hadith, all other things are permitted for people to enjoy. The ancients used 'wholesome' and 'clean' as the standard for edible food. In addition to the five categories explicitly prohibited in the Halal regulations ('pork, blood, alcohol, carrion, and animals slaughtered in a name other than Allah's'), the hadith further elaborated on this basis, and later jurists also made some extended provisions on the basis of these two, thereby forming the Qingzhen dietary precepts of Muslims of various ethnic groups. For Muslims, the attitude toward these explicitly stipulated taboos is to comply and strictly observe them.
The above content about Qingzhen and HALAL is intended to give you a preliminary understanding of their relationship and historical origin. In general, Qingzhen and HALAL represent the same meaning, where HALAL is the English translation of Qingzhen, referring to clean food processed according to Halal principles.