PIS'MENNYE
PAMYATNIKI
VOSTOKA

Vol. 16, No. 1 (36)
Spring 2019

Journal based in 2004
Issued quarterly

The entire issue as a *.PDF file

PUBLICATIONS

N. M. Karamzin’s Report to the Emperor Alexander I in the Chinese Translation of the “History of the Russian State”. Introduction, Translation from Chinese and Manchu, Commentaries by Tatiana A. Pang, Dmitry I. Mayatsky, Liu Ruo-mei — 5
The first three volumes of the “History of the Russian State” by N.M. Karamzin were translated into the Chinese language by the student of the Tenth Russian Ecclesiastic Mission in Beijing (1820–1830) Zakhar Leontievsky. The manuscripts are housed at the three main Oriental collections in St. Petersburg: one at the Russian National Library, two at the Oriental department of the St. Petersburg University Scientific Library and four at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts RAS. Two manuscripts begin with a Chinese translation of Karamzin’s report to the Russian Emperor Alexander I. The copy of the University Library has a Manchu translation of the report. In his report Karamzin describes his work on the compilation of Russian history and compares Russian resistance to the Mongol invasion with the Russian battles against Napoleon that were headed by the Emperor Alexander I. The article gives description of all available copies of the Chinese translation of the “History of the Russian State” by N. M. Karamzin, as well as the first publication of Karamzin’s report with Russian translations from Chinese and Manchu languages.
Key words: N. M. Karamzin, “History of the Russian State”, Russian National Library, Oriental Department of the St. Petersburg University Scientific Library, Institute of Oriental Manuscripts RAS, the Chinese language, the Manchu language

RESEARCH WORKS

Helena P. Ostrovskaia. The Problem of Free Will in the Buddhist Anthropology — 35
The article explicates the anthropological content of the Buddhist doctrine of karma (action producing reincarnation) as it is discussed in Vasubandhu’s exegetical compendium Abhidharmakośa. The abhidharmic theory of human activity is examined in the aspect of free will. The amoral volitive act (akuśala cetanā) as a mental phenomenon (caitasika) determined by affects (kleśa) in considered fictitious. Real free will is the abstention from amoral types of action (akuśala karmapatha).
Key words: Abhidharma, Abhidharmakosha, Buddhism, India, Sanskrit, Vasubandhu

Youli A. Ioannesyan. Some Important Differentiating Features between the Khorasani Group of Persian Dialects and the Varieties of the Afghan-Tajiki Group — 50
The article contains a study of five characteristics of the Khorasani Group of Persian Dialects distinguishing it from the Afghan-Tajiki group. These characteristics consisting of two phonetic and two morphological features as well as of one relating to prepositions, despite the fact that they do not represent all the distinguishing features between the groups, have been singled out by the author as some most stable characteristics. The article is based on a wide range of sources, which include the author’s field research and numerous works of Russian, Western, Iranian, Tajiki and Afghan authors.
Key words: Iranian studies, Persian dialectology, Iranian dialectology, Afghan and Tajiki dialectology

Arthur A. Ambartsumian. The Feast of Baba-Shoja-ed-Din in Medieval Iran — 75
This article is devoted to the study of the origin of the little-known Iranian feast of Baba-Shuja-ed- Din, celebrated by Shiites in medieval Iran in the Safavid and Kajar periods. The author collected and analyzed the main sources on this feast, including the accounts of Western European travelers. This feast emerged from a well-known historical event, reflected in numerous versions of the story of the murder of the second righteous caliph ‘Umar ibn Khattab by an Iranian Piruz (Abu Lu’lu’) in 644. In the Kajar period, two different memorable dates have been confused: the days of the assassination of ‘Umar ibn Khattab and of ‘Umar ibn Sa‘ad, who was guilty of the death of Imam Hussein. A closely related story (A Story of the Iranian Prince and Caliph ‘Umar ibn Khattab) was used by the Zoroastrians of the post-Sassanid period to propagate Zoroastrian apocalyptic views.
Key words: Piruz Nahavandi, Abu Lulu, Omar ibn Khattab, Feast of Baba-Shoja-ed-Din, Zoroastrian apocalyptic story

HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY

Marat M. Yunusov. From the History of the Decipherment of West Semitic Writing: Events and People. (V) Decipherment of Palmyrene Alphabet: J. Swinton and J.-J. Barthélemy. Part I — 90
In the mid-18th century, Barthelemy and Swinton almost simultaneously deciphered Palmyrene writing. Previously well-disposed to one another, the two scholars later turned into bitter opponents because of the controversy over the priority in that discovery. High society and, partly, the scientific community took Barthelemy’s side while Swinton got a reputation of a dilettante and a tactless person.
Key words: Barthelemy, Swinton, Roma I, Roma II, Palmyrene alphabet

COLLECTIONS AND ARCHIVES

Alexander V. Zorin, Alla A. Sizova. On the History of the Formation and Processing of the Collection of Tibetan Texts from Khara-Khoto at the IOM, RAS — 114
The Tibetan manuscripts and block prints from Khara-Khoto that were passed to the Asiatic Museum with other texts brought by P. K. Kozlov from his Mongolia and Sichuan Expedition have been insufficiently studied. Their processing was initiated in the second half of the 1960s and continued in the post-Soviet period. The Collection of the Tibetan Texts from Khara-Khoto, according to our analysis, included a number of documents from other sources. Trying to understand such a state of affairs, we looked for and found some archival documents that shed light on the history of the formation of this Collection and, simultaneously, helped to clarify some general issues concerning the fate of P. K. Kozlov’s collection.
This paper presents the results of our study of the documents found at the St. Petersburg Branch of the Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Archives of the IOM, RAS, the Russian Ethnographic Museum and the Russian Geographic Society. The description of the events is divided into two parts: the first one reconstructs the chronology of the process of transferring manuscripts and block prints of P. K. Kozlov’s Expedition to the Asiatic Museum; the second one deals with the history of the processing of the Tibetan texts from Khara-Khoto starting from the 1920s and up to present, when the contents of the Collection have been critically revised. The appendices include texts of the most important documents and the table that reflects the current state of the Collection of the Tibetan Texts from Khara-Khoto kept at the IOM, RAS.
Key words: Khara-Khoto, Tibetan manuscripts and block prints, P. K. Kozlov, S. F. Oldenburg, Russian Geographic Society, Russian Museum, Asiatic Museum, processing of manuscripts

ACADEMIC LIFE

Tatiana V. Ermakova. Conference “Current Topics of the Buddhist Studies–6” (St. Petersburg, July 4, 2018) — 139

Alexander V. Zorin. The Seventh St. Petersburg Tibetological Seminar (St. Petersburg, September 7, 2018) — 143

REVIEWS

Yakov D. Eidelkind. The Song of Songs: А Translation and a Philological Commentary on Chapters 1–3. Moscow: Russian State University for the Humanities, 2015 (Orientalia et Classica: Papers of the Institute of Oriental and Classical Studies 53/1, 53/2). 2 vols. 536, VIII pp. (Cyrill von Büttner) — 146

Burton D. Buddhism: A Contemporary Philosophical Investigation. New York: Routledge, 2017. viii, 212 pp. (Sergey L. Burmistrov) — 150

Lashkarbekov B.B. The Wakhan Verb in Historical Aspect. Moscow: Languages of the Peoples of the World; THESAURUS, 2018. 172 pp. (Olga M. Chunakova) — 157

Anno Masaki. Nagasaki — the Jesuit City. The Society of Jesus in the 16th Century Japan. Translation from Japanese by V. Onishchenko. St. Petersburg: Giperion, 2018. 254 pp. (Karine G. Marandjian) — 164