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Uspensky V. [Review:] Tatiana A. Pang and Giovanni Stary. New Light on Manchu Historiography and Literature: tile Discovery of Three Documents in Old Manchu Script. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998, III, 340 pp.; Dan Martin (in collaboration with Yael Bentor). Tibetan Histories: a Bibliography of Tibetan-Language Historical Works. London: Serindia Publications, 1997, 296 pp. // Manuscripta Orientalia. Vol. 5. No. 2. June 1999. P. 72.
Tatiana A. Pang and Giovanni Stary. New Light on Manchu Historiography and Literature: tile Discovery of Three Documents in Old Manchu Script. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998, III, 340 pp.
This publication presents to scholarly view three hitherto
unknown Manchu texts dating to the first half of the seventeenth
century and containing valuable information
about Manchu rulers of the conquest period. These texts
— one block-print and two manuscripts - are kept in
the Musée Guimet (Paris) under call numbers 61624,
61625 and 61626.
The book consists of the description of the manuscripts
and the block-print, study of the texts (pp. 1–52)
and their facsimile (pp. 53–340). Manuscripts 61625 and
61624 present variants of the same text containing essays
and historical episodes from the Chinese and early Manchu
history. The texts were carefully collated by the
authors to indicate textual divergences. The transliteration
is given in the introduction (pp. 21–46). In the authors'
view, these texts were not intended to serve bureaucratic-
administrative purposes only and can be qualified
as literary works too. Some translations of the prophetic
passages are also provided to prove this assertion
(pp. 18–19). As to the block-print 6 I 626, it contains
episodes from the Chinese and early Manchu history,
which are for the most part conveyed through the speech
of Nurhaci who tries to prove to the Chinese Emperor that
the mandate of Heaven has shifted to him. The authors
make assumption that this text represents “the earliest
specimen of a Manchu block-print” (p. 50). All the three
texts reflect the formative period of the Manchu writing
when its differentiating from its original Mongolian base
began, which makes the texts even more valuable for
linguistic and palaeographic research.
As is convincingly shown in the introduction, the
historical value of the texts is determined by the fact that
some events relating to the lives of Manchu rulers are narrated
here in much more detail. Besides, the narration is
more vivid than in later official historical compilations
made for the Manchu court. Especially interesting are descriptions
of attempts upon the life of Nurhaci undertaken
by his relatives; the authors conclude that there were six
such attempts in all. Some military campaigns’ descriptions
differ from those by later historiographers. The
authors made translation of a large portion of text to prove
that “Hong Taiji” was a personal name and not a title of
Nurhaci’s eighth son (pp. 11–3). The facsimiles are fine,
making the texts easily legible.
The scholars in Manchu, Chinese and Central Asian
studies would welcome this publication which is a valuable
contribution to the corpus of available texts on the
emerging of the Manchu state.
Dan Martin (in collaboration with Yael Bentor). Tibetan Histories: a Bibliography of Tibetan-Language Historical Works. London: Serindia Publications, 1997, 296 pp.
This exceptionally informative work aims to collect all
information about existing or known h1stoncal literary
sources in the Tibetan language available by the end of
the millennium. Prof. Dan Martin dedicates his book to
the Tibetan people and to the memory of A. I. Vostrikov
(1902–37). When comparing Vostrikov’s Tibetan
Historical Literature, published in Moscow only m 1962,
with the work by Dan Martin it becomes obvious that
great progress has been made in the field of Tibetan studies
since the scholar’s death. In the last few decades thousand
of volumes of Tibetan texts have been published in
various forms in different countries, and Tibetological
journals (some even in the Tibetan language) and computer
databases of Tibetan texts have appeared. To search
through all these materials, which are sometimes difficult
to have access to, much effort must be made by a modern
researcher. Therefore, Dan Martin’s book is an invaluable
research tool in searching materials needed.
The historical works described in the book number
altogether 702 entries arranged in chronological order, the
latest work dated 1996. Among the entries are found not
only Tibetan works seen by the author as well as those
about which information is available only from the old
Tibetan sources or modern publications. All kinds of literary
texts, traditionally regarded as historical writings, are
included in the bibliography with a few exceptions: biographies
and autobiographies, descriptions of monasteries
as well as such specialized works as thob yig and gsan yig
are excluded. Basic information on the author and contents
of a specific work are given followed by a list of
scholarly publications devoted to its study and reference
to catalogues of Tibetan works if possible. In case of
a controversy concerning authorship, chronology, etc. of
certain Tibetan historical writing, the author provides his
own approach to the problem or valuable hint.
For scholars who have devoted themselves to the
study of a limited number of Tibetan written texts, especially
those relating to a specific period, it would be not
a difficult task to criticize Dan Martin’s book for possible
lack of exactitude or incompleteness of information in
a certain entry. In my opinion, this is not a drawback for
such kind of edition: had it been otherwise, it would mean
that no further research in this field of Tibetology
is needed. For everyone familiar with the ocean of Tibetan
writings, this admirable book by Dan Martin will serve
a kind of compass.
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Ключевые слова литература историческая литература тибетская письменность маньчжурская
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