Yang Shen (1699-1794) was a Shaanxi scholar renowned for his knowledge and achievements in sericulture, which also dominate the existing scholarship about him. Yang Shen's works, however, reveal much wider concerns beyond agriculture and demonstrate a highly inclusive system of thought that synthesized Confucianism and Christianity or Chinese Islam. To ascertain the availability of Christian and Islamic knowledge to Yang Shen, this paper first briefly discusses the history of Islam in China, especially in Shaanxi, and the development of Christian missions in Shaanxi during the early Qing.It then proceeds to study Yang Shen's thought based on a close reading of his work ”Zhiben tigang” (An Outline of Knowledge of Essential Principles). There is no modern reprint of ”Zhiben tigang”. Even though it has been little noticed in modern scholarship, it represents significant elements of the intellectual tapestry of the eighteenth-century China. By focusing on ”Zhiben tigang”, this paper elaborates on Yang Shen's ideas, including the creation of the universe by a personal God, the concept of personal soul, the similar principles between the invisible spiritual world and the concrete visible world, the ideal political and social orders, the duties of life, and the imagination of an afterlife. It also compares Yang Shen's thought with Christianity and Chinese Islam, expounds on the popular religious connotations in Yang's Confucian thought, and discusses both the innovations and limitations in Yang's thought in terms of personal salvation, gender equality, and political rights.