Dr I. Zograph has devoted her entire professional life to the study of Middle Chinese Grammar, she is now an honored expert in this field, her works are reprinted and translated into other languages.

In 1954, she graduated from the Faculty of Oriental Studies of Leningrad State University and started to work as a bibliographer at the Department of Oriental Manuscripts of the Institute of Oriental Studies, the USSR Academy of Sciences (now the IOM RAS). From late 1955 to May of 1959, she was a doctoral student at the Institute and, in 1962, defended successfully her PhD Dissertation, The Peculiar Grammatical Features of Chinese From the 12th To the 14th Centuries (On the Basis of “Jing ben tongsu xiaoshuo”) [Грамматические особенности китайского языка XII-XIV вв. (по памятнику “Цзин бэнь тунсу сяошо”]. Following academic principles of her preeminent supervisor, Dr S.E. Yakhontov, she was the first scholar to make historical analysis of Chinese from 12th to 14th century as represented in a written text and issued her first monograph, An Account of Middle Chinese Gramma[Очерк грамматики среднекитайского языка] (1962).

While a participant of the group for the cataloguing of Chinese mss from Dunhuang, Dr I. Zograph used a chance to study the language of these texts and it resulted in a linguistic research paper and glossary issued as supplements for the edition of Pienwen “Requital for Favour” [Бяньвэнь о воздаянии и милости] (1972).

Dr I. Zograph used her research into Middle Chinese Grammar as a subject for the Habilitation Dissertation defended in 1980. A year earlier, she published her monograph Middle Chinese. Formation and Tendencies of Development [Среднекитайский язык (становление и тенденции развития)] (1979). In 1986, she was given the status of leading researcher at the Institute.

Her consequent monographs Монографии The Official Wenyan. Syntax of Simple and Compound Sentences [Официальный вэньянь (синтаксис простого и сложного предложения)] and Mongolian-Chinese Interference. The Official Language of Yuan China [Монгольско-китайская интерференция (язык монгольской канцелярии в Китае)] (1984) reaffirmed her authority as one of the major experts in the area of Chinese historical and comparative grammar.

During 1990s, Dr I. Zograph made excellent translations of a number of stories from Mediaeval Chinese literature. Moreover, in early 2000s, she translated some Confucian classics in cooperation with Dr A.S. Martynov.

Dr I. Zograph prepared some study guides such as The Reading Book on the History of Chinese from the 3rd to 15th Century [Хрестоматия по истории китайского языка III—XV вв.] (in co-op. with I.S. Gurevich, 1982) and The Reading Book on Chinese (Early Baihua and Late Wenyan) (2005). Her research methodology is reflected in details in her monograph The Methods of Description of an Isolating Language with Hieroglyphic Writing [Методы описания истории изолирующего языка с иероглифической письменностью] (2009). Many of the major works by Dr I. Zograph were published several times that prove their significance and importance for worldwide academic Sinology.

Dr I. Zograph spent much forces to supervise a number of doctoral students, to curate the doctoral program at the Institute and to work as the academic secretary at the Department of Far Eastern Studies.

All the colleagues and friends would like to congratulate Dr Irina T. Zograph with her Jubilee and wish her strong health and new academic achievements.

the IOM’s Director, Prof Dr I.F. Popova