A Hui Muslim scholar born in 1522 in Xianyang, Shaanxi (adjacent to Xi'an), universally credited as the founder of jingtang jiaoyu (mosque/scripture-hall education) in Chinese Islam and venerated as 'Hu Taishi' (Grand Master Hu). Dissatisfied with the poor instruction at his local mosque, he studied the Islamic sciences and, on returning, moved private teaching into the mosque, developing a graduated Arabic- and Persian-language curriculum (Qur'an, hadith, fiqh) and standardizing the translated texts used in mosques — a legacy that fed the later Han Kitab tradition of scholarship. He died in 1597 (Wanli 25); his tomb was relocated in 1662 to escape flooding to its present site at Hujiagou village, Yaodian township, Weicheng District, Xianyang, and has been a Shaanxi provincial protected relic since 2003. (Sources: silkroads.org.cn '胡登洲墓'; baike.baidu.com '胡登洲墓'; MDPI Religions 13(6):553 on jingtang jiaoyu)