PIS'MENNYE
PAMYATNIKI
VOSTOKA

Vol. 14, No. 2 (29)
Summer 2017

Journal based in 2004
Issued quarterly

Selected Materials as a *.PDF file

PUBLICATIONS

The “Second Logos of the Great Seth” (NHC VII.2). Introduction, Translation and Commentaries by Alexandr L. Khosroyev — 5
Here, we introduce a novel Russian translation of the “Second Logos of the Great Seth” that is meant to be one of the most mysterious Coptic pieces comprising part of the so-called Nag Hammadi Library. The text was translated in the first half of the 4th century by an amateur and therefore it contains numerous obscure passages; it is all too often that they remain unexplained yet. The text is supposed to be a sample of that layer of early Christian culture which cannot be easily placed among the various movements and trends of early Christianity. Confessing dualistic Christianity, the author of the SecLogSeth argues against the monistic Church Christianity. The author’s teachings are taken as a mix of concepts arising from a variety of gnostic teachings (e.g., Valentinianism, mythological Gnosticism and Basilidianism).
Key words: Early Christianity, mythological gnosticism, ancient translation literature

RESEARCH WORKS

Olga V. Lundysheva, Anna A. Turanskaya. The Text of the Uṣṇīṣavijayā dhāraṇī in a Xylograph from Khara-Khoto and Its Place in the Buddhist Tradition — 47
The paper focuses on the dhāraṇī text of the goddess of longevity Uṣṇīṣavijayā, blockprinted in Khara-Khoto. It contains a brief analysis of different versions of the dhāraṇī, presented in Central and Eastern Asian Buddhist traditions. Textual collation of some versions of the dhāraṇī, which were widely spread in the above-mentioned regions, is given as an enclosure to the article.
Key words: Buddhism in Central Asia, Uṣṇīṣavijayā dhāraṇī, xylograph from Khara-Khoto, Chinese versions of dhāraṇī, Tibetan versions of dhāraṇī

HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY

“The Koran of Musailimah al-Kazzab”. Preface, Translation and Commentaries by Faris O. Nofal — 67
The work offered to your attention is an attempt at research and critical translation of “Mysaylimah’s Koran”, which represents the cultural and religious situation in Arabian Peninsula in the early ages of Islam. The author also researches the communication existing between the “ayats of Musaylimah” and the modern text of the Koran.
Key words: Musaylimah al-Kazzab, Koran, ayat, Islam, Arab Peninsula, False Prophets, Tribes

COLLECTIONS AND ARCHIVES

Elisseeff S. G. Idealistic Landscape in Japan and Sesshū. Introduction, Publication and Commentaries by Svetlana I. Marakhonova — 76
Elisseeff’s manuscript “Idealistic Landscape in Japan and Sesshū” housed at the Orientalists’ Archive of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts was written around 1920. It may be connected with the series of his lectures on Japanese and Chinese art delivered at the History of Arts Institute in Petrograd in 1917–1920. In his article Elisseeff was the first among the professional Russian and European Orientalists to study the art of Sesshū, an outstanding Japanese artist. The author compares the individual creative style of Sesshū with his Japanese and Chinese predecessors. He shows an exclusive role of Sesshū in the Japanese monochrome ink painting (suiboku-ga) during the Muromachi period. Elisseeff shows the very beginning of the “ideal” landscape genre in China and its heyday in the Sung period connected with the Chan Buddhist philosophy. Its postulates were personified in artistic images, especially in scenery. He follows the development of the suiboku-ga painting in Japan and its departure from its Chinese origins. The suiboku-ga painting was connected with a lot of Zen Buddhist artists, the most prominent of whom was Sesshū. Biographic data of Sesshū and his connections are given.
Key words: S.G. Elisseeff, Sesshū, Japanese art, Chinese art, landscape, suiboku-ga, archives, Zen/Chan Buddhism, Muromachi period, emigration, the Institute of Art History

Letters by Daniel Wright to I. P. Minaev. Preface, Publication, Translation into Russian and Commentaries by Tatiana V. Ermakova — 97
Eight letters by D. Wright — a residency surgeon at Kathmandu — to I. P. Minaev explicitly demonstrate circumstances of Minaev’s visit to Nepal as a part of his large journey to India at 1875. The above-mentioned letters are stored at the personal Archives of Minaev at the Oriental Archives at the Institute of Oriental manuscripts, RAS — Asiatic Museum. Letters by D. Wright and their translation into Russian are published for the first time.
Key words: Oriental Archives of IOM RAS, I. P. Minaev, Nepal, D. Wright’s letters to I. P. Minaev, manuscripts in Indian scripts from Nepal

ACADEMIC LIFE

Irina F. Popova. International Scientific Conference “Written Legacy of Dunhuang. To the 90th Anniversary of L. N. Men’shikov (1926–2005) and L. I. Chuguevskii (1926–2002)” (St. Petersburg, September 1–2, 2016) — 111

Tatiana V. Ermakova, Helena P. Ostrovskaya. The 10th All-Russian Oriental Conference in Memory of O. O. Rozenberg (St. Petersburg, November 28–29, 2016) — 119

Vladimir P. Ivanov. Open Lectures of IOM RAS in 2016 — 125

REVIEWS

The Kings of the Pasai Chronicle / Translation from Malay, Research, Commentaries and Appendices by L. V. Goryaeva. Moscow: Nauka; Vostochnaya Literatura Publishing House, 2015, 190 pp. (Mark Yu. Ulyanov) — 129

Eugenia Zuroski Jenkins. A Taste for China. English Subjectivity and the Prehistory of Orientalism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013 (Global Asias). 304 pp. (Tatiana I. Vinogradova) — 134

IN MEMORIAM

O. P. Shcheglova (Youli A. Ioannesyan) — 140