Pis'mennye pamiatniki Vostoka

The published text presents a translation of chapter 6.18 from “The Essentials of Government of Zhen-guan Period” (Zhen-guan zheng yao 貞觀正要), a treatise by historian Wu Jing 呉兢 (640–749), which represents dialogs of Taizong (627–649), the second emperor of Tang, with his closest dignitaries.

The article introduces a Tibetan translation of the well-known Chinese Buddhist poem “In Praise of Monastics” by the Shunzhi emperor (reigned in 1644–1661) of the Qing dynasty. This poem was mistakenly ascribed by an anonymous Tibetan translator to the Kangxi emperor (reigned in 1662–1722). The Tibetan translation was printed from woodblocks at the Amchog Monastery in the present-day Gansu province of China. It was brought to Russia by Buryat scholar Bazar Baradiin. A comparison of the Chinese original with this slightly abridged Tibetan translation shows that it does not follow the original literally.

The system of plenipotentiary envoys (Shi 使) was extremely important for China of the Tang period (618–907). It was established immediately after the new dynasty came to power, and soon turned into a permanent element of the state structure, becoming eventually the bane of the great Tang Empire. The titles of such commissioners were very numerous, some often were replaced by others, and there is still a lot of confusion about this issue. A separate problem is how to translate the Chinese terms of assignments into Russian. In this article, the author—using materials from Chinese sources—attempts to briefly systematize the essential information about such envois.

The history of modern chemical terminology used in Chinese-language scientific discourse offers a vivid and compelling example of how, against the backdrop of shifting epistemological paradigms, traditional worldviews—formed over millennia—intertwined with innovative approaches and the creative ingenuity of native Chinese speakers and users of the ancient Chinese script. This article seeks to demonstrate how these complex and multifaceted processes influenced the development of inorganic chemical terminology, and how chemistry, having become an independent scientific discipline, penetrated the organic fabric of the Chinese language. Nowadays, this has triggered a new wave of linguistic creativity in online literature and digital communication in China. The article analyzes the methodological challenges faced in the 19th century by the pioneers of Chinese scientific terminology—translators John Fryer and Xu Shou—who devised an ingenious method for generating Chinese words for chemical elements. It also discusses the distinctive aspects of neographic innovation in the present-day context.

The early 20th century opens the beginning of a new epoch in the history of reformation and renovation movement in the Maghreb, as well as in the whole Arab East. The problem of women’s status in the Muslim society started to be viewed from a new angle in the works by the outstanding Tunis thinker Tahar al-Haddad (1899–1935), who wrote a treatise titled Womens’ Status in the Sharia and Society. The paper focuses on the crucial paragraphs of this work, which is not only a book on the fate of the Muslim woman, but also a fundamental historical and religious study in the social and legal influence of Islam on family relations, on the development of the system of education and upbringing, on contacts with the outer word, including the sphere of the so-called “gender agenda”.

This is the second part of an attempt of chronicling the history of Manchu studies in the German-speaking areas; the first part was published in a Festschrift for Claus Schönig, professor of Turkology at the Free University of Berlin, in 2015. Manchu studies in the present paper mean publications that are based on or deal with texts in the Manchu language; thus the vast area of material on the history and culture of the Qing dynasty is excluded if Manchu sources are not used. This approach allows to present a relatively detailed although concise survey. The arrangement of the material is more of less chronological by individual scholars whose contributions are briefly characterized. The present instalment is dominated by Walter Fuchs (1902–1979) whose publications easily qualify him as one of the outstanding scholars in the field.

The article introduces into scholarly circulation a Russian translation of two Manchu documents related to the contacts of the Sakhalin Ainu with the administration of the Qing Empire in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It also describes the history of these documents and their study by Japanese researchers, as well as the historical context of their appearance. Data are provided on the place of the Sakhalin Ainu in the system of trade relations in Northeast Asia in the specified period.

This publication raises the question of the sources of Kuang Yu’s biography included in the manuscript titled Liexianzhuan (Arranged Traditions of Transcendents) from the collection of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences. By referring to earlier collections of Taoist hagiography and another biography contained in the manuscript — the one of Liu Yue, it was possible to establish that the text was the result of the merger of two biographies from the collection Liexian quanzhuan (1600): a short biography of Kuang Yu and a more extensive biography of Liu Yue, in which one of the heroes bears the name Kuang Xu. Thus, the biography included in the manuscript combined the stories of two characters — Kuang Yu and Kuang Xu. Further attempts to trace the history of legends about them, conducted on the material of the surviving fragments of lost records of the Liuchao era (220–589) allowed us to establish that the images of both go back to the legend of Kuang Su, which was popular in the 4th–5th centuries in the region of the Lushan mountains. Among other things, the publication provides a complete Russian translation of the biographies of Kuang Yu and Liu Yue contained in the manuscript.

The article deals with factual data on chuci (verses of Chu) collections compiled during the Song epoch (960–1279) and presented both in different Song-time written sources and in the bibliographical treatise from the official historiographic work Songshi (The History of Song). Most attention is paid to the information on Chuci zhangju (Chapter and Verse Commentary to the Verses of Chu) collection by Wang Yi (II A.D.) and Chuci buzhu (Verses of Chu with Supplementary Commentary) by Hong Xingzu (1090–1155), as well as to its editions of the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) epochs. Taking into account that the both texts are available only in their Ming editions, firstly, it seems quite impossible to identify their original composition and, as a result, the original composition of the “classical” version of Chuci collection as consisting of 17 poetic pieces arranged in chronological order. Secondly, the idea that the Chuci zhangju and the Chuci buzhu were identical also became conventional under the Ming. Thirdly, during the Song there were several textual versions of the chuci collection, marked by compositional specifics, which could have served as the basis for Hong Xingzu’s work. There are some reasons to assume that the “classical” version of Chuci collection, including both Chuci zhangju and Chuci buzhu, became generally accepted in Chinese literature of the Ming and Qing times after being to some degree influenced by the Chuci jizhu (Verses of Chu with Complex Commentaries) by the great thinker and littérateur Zhu Xi (1130–1200).

A batch of Tangut manuscripts and xylographs from a private collection was acquired by the Hangzhou Branch of the National Archives in early 2024. These monuments prove to be Buddhist works produced during the Mongol-Yuan period, including Tangut versions of sūtras both within and outside the Tripiṭaka, as well as a few locally created works. Some of these items have counterparts housed in the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, Russian Academy of Sciences, while others are unique and not found in any other global collections. These newly disclosed materials may provide valuable insights into the Buddhist activities among Tangut descendants during the 13th to 14th cc.

In 2025, the attention of colleagues in Russia and modern Turkic states will be focused on the 145th anniversary of S.E. Malov, the distinguished scholar of the ancient Turkic runic and Uighur monuments, the history, language and culture of Turkic-speaking peoples, educator, and Turkologist, whose biography and legacy are associated with two famous research journeys to Western and Central China (1909–1911 and 1913–1915, respectively). The year 2025 marks another memorable date — the 110th anniversary of the completion of the expedition. The paper focuses on the coverage of events and the scholar’s role during the Kazan, St. Petersburg, and expeditionary periods of his life and work (up to 1922). This article presents a brief overview of some archival documents from that period and the milestones of S.E. Malov’s work that are preserved in his personal collection in the St. Petersburg branch of the Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences (F. 1079) and in other cultural centres. He is widely known and highly regarded today in Turkology in the Russian Federation and the CIS countries.

The article publishes the Crimean Tatar text and a Russian translation of the poem by the Bakhchysarai poet Habibulla Kerem (c. 1848–1913) based on an autograph kept at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts RAS (shelf-mark D 316). The poem is dedicated to the widely discussed issue of income for the maintenance of the Zincirli (Zinjirli) madrasa (founded in 1500 by Mengli Giray Khan in the suburbs of Bakhchysarai) at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries.

Secular holidays, as well as other borrowings from the culture of Europeans, began to spread actively in the colonial countries of England from the second half of the nineteenth century. After the establishment of the condominium rule in the Sudan, many achievements of Western civilization appeared in this Arab-African country. A new government and governance structure was formed, railways were built in the country to facilitate the delivery of raw materials and other products from the hinterlands to ports, ships began to sail along the Nile on a relatively regular basis, and construction of the renovated capital of Khartoum began. In the social sphere, new governmental positions began to be introduced for the leaders of local tribal groups, which covered almost the entire territory and included them in the orbit of British control. The leaders of the Sufi fraternities were in the same category. At the same time, an incentive system began to be introduced, which included giving awards to distinguished leadership officials on behalf of the British authorities. The most striking example of such festive ceremonies was the Birthday of King George V of England, described in the travel sketches included in the book Ten Days in the Sudan by the Egyptian Muhammad Husain Haikal. This major Egyptian writer and publicist was close in his political orientation to the Egyptian elite, who dreamed of a rapprochement and, subsequently, a merger of Egypt and Sudan into a single state. There was no intention of any form of English presence in either country. Нis remarks about the British and their political course were very critical, although he expressed them with caution.