Academician-Orientalist V. P. Vasilyev: Kazan—Beijing—Saint Petersburg. (Essays and materials) [Академик-востоковед В. П. Васильев: Казань—Пекин—Санкт-Петербург (очерки и материалы)] / Valeyev R.M., Walravens H., Datsyshen V.G., Elantseva O.P., Zhukov V.Y., Kulganek I.V., Liu Liqiu, Martynov D.Y., Mayatsky D.M., Pang T.A., Uspensky V.L.; compiled by Pang T.A.; eds. Valeyev R.M., Kulganek I.V. Saint Petersburg, Kazan, 2021. 320 p., ill.

The monograph offers essays on the life and scientific work of the Russian scientist-sinologist, buddhologist, sanskritologist, academician in ordinary of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Dean of the Eastern faculty of the Imperial St. Petersburg University Vasily Pavlovich Vasilyev (1818—1900). It examines the main milestones of his biography in the context of scholarly thought in Russia at that time. The research career of V. P. Vasilyev can be divided into three stages — the Kazan stage, the Beijing stage and the St. Petersburg stage. This monograph provides analysis of his scientific works, which include the first ever attempt in the Russian science of a systematic presentation of the history of Buddhist thought, and the question of formulating an adequate language to describe the Buddhist spiritual experience and terminological criteria for the transfer of categories of Buddhist teachings into European languages.

The book has been prepared by a team of researchers from Kazan, Saint Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk, Vladivostok and Harbin.

The book is aimed at professional Orientalists, historians, literary scholars, experts on Buddhism, cultural historians, historians of science, as well as undergraduate and post-graduate students and anyone interested in the culture of the East. We hope that this publication proves helpful for professionals engaged in practical communication, to facilitate a profound understanding of the features of multilateral contacts in all areas of activity between the East and the West, as well as Russia and China.

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