PIS'MENNYE
PAMYATNIKI
VOSTOKA

Vol. 13, No. 3 (26)
Autumn 2016

Journal based in 2004
Issued quarterly

Selected Materials as a *.PDF file

PUBLICATIONS

“Li ji” (“Records of Rites”). Chapters 35—37. Introduction, Translation from Chinese, Commentary by Irina B. Keidun — 5
The publication contains translation of three chapters of the canonical Confucian treatise Li ji (“Record of rites”), composed in the 1st century BC. It consists of various standards related to li — the key concept of Confucian culture. The publication presents the following chapters of the treatise: “Inquiries [about] mourning” (“Wen sang”), “Guidelines [on] wearing [the willow]” (“Fu wen”), “Description [of] differences” (“Jian zhuan”). These chapters deal with various mourning-related issues — a respectful son’s behavior after his parents’ death, usage of mourning attributes (clothes, hat, staff), ways of conveying sorrow (through facial expression, body language, voice, words, in beverages and food, clothes, or place of living), main types of mourning (zhancui, zicui, dagong, xiaogong, sima) and their regulation, mourning rules for high nobility, etc.
Key words: Confucian canon, “Li ji”, rite-li, mourning rite, mourning clothes.

RESEARCH WORKS

Mikhail S. Pelevin. Chronograms in Early Pashto Historiography — 26
The article presents a brief study of formal characteristics, subjects and functions of the poetical chronograms (tārīkh) included in the texts of “The Khattaks’ Chronicle” (finished in 1724) which is the original part of the historiographical compilation in Pashto Tārīkh-i Muraṣṣa‘ by Afżal Khān Khatak. On account of irregularities in the early Pashto alphabet and orthography, Pashtun poets preferred to use Persian for composing complicated, or “suggestive”, chronograms (tārīkh-i ma‘navī) where dates are to be indicated in a disguised form by means of the abdjad system. The majority of the chronograms quoted in “The Chronicle” are short fragments (ḳiṭa), mostly quatrains, written to record the dates of birth and death of the Khattak tribal chiefs. Chronograms in Pashto are few and partly appear to have been graphically distorted; however, in some cases the context makes it possible to reconstruct their original form. On the one hand, the chronograms from “The Khattaks’ Chronicle” are of much interest as documentary records containing unique historical data, on the other, they illustrate the process of adaptation of the Persian literary traditions to the national Pashto literature at the early stages of its growth.
Key words: Pashto literature, historiography of Pashtun tribes, functionality of literary text

Youli A. Ioannesyan. A. L. M. Nicolas in the History of Babi Studies — 36
The article is devoted to A. L. M. Nicolas (1864—1937), the outstanding French scholar who studied the Babi Faith and translated Babi texts, and whose person is currently slightly forgotten. He was a pioneer of studies in the field and the one who accomplished high quality translations of some major Babi texts into French, which remain the first and unique complete translations of the Bab’s writings into European languages up to the present day. The article includes, among other things, quotes from Nicolas’ works and materials in which he articulated certain ideas and principles which are essential for every scholar specializing in Babi studies. The present author also pays tribute to Nicolas himself and his great heritage, unfortunately, often neglected by modern researchers.
Key words: the Bab, the Babi faith, religion, religious teaching, religious studies

Svetlana L. Neveleva. About the Poetics of the Ancient Indian Epic Mahābhārata — 44
The composition and figurative devices of the epic, which form its artistic language, contain a number of different peculiarities. Due to its long existence in oral tradition, the Mahābhārata incorporated many ancient myths, legends, stories. Thanks to these inclusions, the course of the epic narrative is interrupted by various temporal “hooks” and “craters” that refer us to the past. The content of the image creation devices — mostly formulaic epithets, similes and metaphors — as well as the content of the epic as a whole, is multi-layered. It carries the archaic, classical-heroic, religious and philosophical ideas. The destruction of the formulas and the appearance in the Mahābhārata of the so-called synthetic comparison (or the metaphor) attest to the impact of literary style on the epic.
Key words: the Mahābhārata, dharma, plot, composition, style, comparison, epithet, metaphor

HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY

Olga M. Chunakova. An Unpublished Manichaean Fragment from the Kohanovskii Collection — 59
The article contains the first edition of the Manichaean fragment SI 4909b from the Central Fund of IOM. The document contains a Sogdian transcription of two texts: Parthian (Verso side) and Middle Persian (Recto side), written by different hands. Their content suggests that the texts are liturgical, the second one being a hymn to Mani.
Key words: Manichaean religion, Parthian, Middle Persian, Sogdian

Adelaida F. Trotsevich. Information about the Ancient “State” of Chin guk 辰國 and of the Han 韓 Domains Derived from Chinese Historical Works — 66
The sources “Han Shu” 漢書, “San guo zhi” 三國志, “Hou Han Shu” 後漢書 contain information on the ancient Korean “state” of Chin guk 辰國. That “state” was situated in the eastern part of the Korean peninsula, and at the time of the “Western (Early) Han” period, its wang governed the land of Han. In 108 B. C. the Chinese Han dynasty conquered Choseon 朝鮮, and Chin guk became one of the eastern Han domains that was named Chin Han 辰韓. In the middle of the 3rd century a Chinese punitive expedition destroyed the domain in question. In the Chinese official histories Korean estates situated in the southern part of the peninsula are termed “Han” 韓. The river Hangan 漢江 virtually served as their northern border-line. In ancient Korean, han had the meaning “grand” and “great” 크다, “high” and “prominent” 높다. It was recorded by means of different Chinese characters. When it was used for the meaning of a large river, the character with the “water” radical han 漢 was used. In Chinese history Han 漢 was the name of a famous dynasty that ruled the empire for about 4 centuries and that character could not be used to designate those who lived on the banks of the great Korean river 漢 and who were “eastern barbarians” 東夷 for ancient China. The character han 韓 was used for the population of the Han valley. Both characters 漢 and 韓 are used as phonetic signs to record the Korean word han 크다, 높다, whence: 漢 Han — “the great (prominent) river”, 韓 Han — “a country connected with the great (prominent) river” and 韓 han — “people who lived on the banks of the great (prominent) river”.
Key words: Chin guk state, country of Han, the Hangan river, Chin Han, Ma Han, Choseon, Chinese historical texts, Han dynasty, Chinese counties, ancient Korean language

Izabella S. Gurevich. Modality as a Category of Textual Grammar (Based on Chinese Sources) — 91
Modality, as one of the main categories of text grammar, is studied on the material of various Chinese sources like the Sutra of Hundred Parables and the Chan Buddhist yulu. The texts of Parables demonstrate modality in lexical, phraseological and syntactic forms, it can be understood from the context as well. Poetic material (yuefu and poems by Lu Yu) expresses the mood and attitude of the hero by means of textual modality, while phrase modality is not used at all (in the poem “Lines about wife’s sickness” by Lu Yu).
Key words: category of modality, phrase modality, textual modality, yuefu, poetry of Lu You

COLLECTIONS AND ARCHIVES

Olga V. Vasilyeva. “…Transferred to the Asiatic Museum”: Orientalia from the Library of General Peter Suchtelen at the Institute of the Oriental Manuscripts — 100
Count Peter K. Suchtelen (1751—1836), a Russian General of Dutch origin, and the Russian ambassador in Sweden, was a passionate book-collector. After his death his huge library was acquired by the Russian government and dispersed between several institutions. The Oriental collection was planned to be put into the Asiatic Museum (Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of today) and the Oriental Institute of the Ministry of the foreign affairs, although in fact it was divided among four depositories. However, later the bulk of the Orientalia came to the Museum, where it was divided between the collections organized by language and graphical principles, thus, now it is very difficult to restore the Suchtelen collection. Besides, several manuscripts are housed in the Oriental Department of the St. Petersburg State University and in the National Library of Russia. The results of our work on the reconstruction of the Suchtelen’s Orientalia as well as on the history of its acquisition are presented in this article.
Key words: Peter Suchtelen, collections of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, history of Oriental manuscripts’ acquisitions

ACADEMIC LIFE

Irina V. Kulganek. Meeting of the Department of Central and South Asia, IOM RAS, in memory of S. G. Klyashtorny (St. Petersburg, February 8, 2016) — 132

Youli A. Ioannesyan. Iranistic conference in memory of O. F. Akimushkin (St. Petersburg, February17, 2016) — 135

Tatiana A. Pang. The First scientific conference of young Petersburg orientalists “China and its neighbors” (St. Petersburg, March 3—4, 2016) — 139

Marat M. Yunusov. International scientific conference in memory of V. A. Jacobson “Jews in Europe and the Middle East: traditions and modernity. History, languages and literature” (St. Petersburg, April 17, 2016) — 149

Tatiana V. Ermakova. All-Russian conference “Buddhology in the 20th century. 150th anniversary of the Academician Fiodor Ippolitovich Scherbatskoy (19.09.1866—18.03.1942)” (St. Petersburg, April 25—26, 2016) — 151

REVIEWS

Esei Penghargaan kepada Professor Emeritus V. I. Braginsky. Mengharungi Laut Sastera Melayu (Festschrift in Honour of Professor Emeritus V. I. Braginsky). Murtagh, Ben and Jelani, Harun, eds. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2013, 700 pp. (Liubov V. Goriaeva) — 156

108 images of Buddha. Research of collection No. 5942 housed at the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), RAS / Compiled by E. V. Ivanova, A. F. Dubrovin, edited by I. A. Alimov. St. Petersburg: MAE RAN, 2014, 338 pp. (Julia V. Boltach) — 162

Buddhist ritual texts in the Tibetan manuscript of the 13th сentury / Fascimile, transliteration by A. V. Zorin with participation of S. S. Sabrukova, translation from Tibetan, introduction, commentary and supplement by A. V. Zorin. Moscow: Nauka — Vostochnaia literatura, 2015 (Pamiatniki pis’mennosti Vostoka. CXLVI), 241 pp. (Helena P. Ostrovskaya) — 165

IN MEMORIAM

Izabella S. Gurevich (1932—2016) (T. A. Pang, E. S. Rusinova) — 172