The Scientific Status of Oriental Studies and the Fate of Russian Sinology

2021 ◽  
pp. 77
Author(s):  
Artem Kobzev

The objective duality of the world, man and mankind should correspond to the pairing of Oriental studies and Western studies, however, science and pedagogy know only the first, or orientalistics. This monopoly was the result of the formation of the modern system of sciences in the field of the global domination of the West, representing the East as its opposite — the Non-West and / or interpreting interaction with it in value-asymmetric categories of culture and barbarism. The publication in 2006 of the Russian translation of E. Said's famous anti-Eastern book “Orientalism” and the scientific and educational reform of 2010-2013, provoked a discussion of Russian orientalists in the sense of the concepts of the East and the scientific status of Oriental studies as a complex and supra-branch discipline, which is either a syncretic underscience, or a synthetic superscience. Similar problems have been discussed in Russian Sinology since the 19th, since of all the highly developed cultures of the East, Chinese is the most syncretic, and the science about it is the most synthetic. In traditional China, there were no divisions customary for the West into philosophy and religion / theologians, philosophy and science, humanitarian and natural disciplines, fine and applied arts, etc. Russian Sinology, created at the beginning of the 18th century, corresponded to this specificity, simultaneously with “cutting a window to Europe” to address similar government requests. In the USSR, it was divided into classical Sinology, which was concentrated in Leningrad, with an emphasis on philology and wen-yan, and Soviet Sinology, which was concentrated in Moscow, with an emphasis on history, social studies, and bai-hua. As a result, it was possible to find the most complete reflection in accordance with the standards of classical sinology of the 6-volume encyclopedia “Spiritual Culture of China” (2006-2010). The results of this convergence were also recorded by the 10-volume “History of China from Ancient Times to the Beginning of the 21st Century”, which largely inherited Soviet Sinology (2013-2017). After analyzing these historical phenomena, the article describes the main achievements and problems of Russian Sinology over the past decade and the challenges it faces in the light of the modern rethinking of the scientific status of all oriental studies.

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
Imam Turmudi

<p>This article explores the study of Islam by an orientalist, Bryan S. Turner. This study aimed to: <em>first</em>, to uncover the things that underlie the history of thought and movement of Orientalism. <em>Second</em>, to determine the thought Bryan S. Turner about Islam, which is specifically intended as a corrective to the thesis produced by Max Weber about his interpretation of Islam. The results of the study reveal that historically Orientalism, or the oriental studies movement emerged in the 18th century. This movement is often associated as a movement that pretend to control and weaken the East, especially Islam. It is not without basis, since the emergence of Orientalism has led to intellectual arrogance by claiming the West as a measure of civilization, because the East presented only in accordance with the construction used by the West.</p><p><strong><em> </em></strong></p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> Orientalism, Orient, West, civilization.</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 13-21
Author(s):  
Sh M Khapizov ◽  
M G Shekhmagomedov

The article is devoted to the study of inscriptions on the gravestones of Haji Ibrahim al-Uradi, his father, brothers and other relatives. The information revealed during the translation of these inscriptions allows one to date important events from the history of Highland Dagestan. Also we can reconsider the look at some important events from the past of Hidatl. Epitaphs are interesting in and of themselves, as historical and cultural monuments that needed to be studied and attributed. Research of epigraphy data monuments clarifies periodization medieval epitaphs mountain Dagestan using record templates and features of the Arabic script. We see the study of medieval epigraphy as one of the important tasks of contemporary Caucasian studies facing Dagestani researchers. Given the relatively weak illumination of the picture of events of that period in historical sources, comprehensive work in this direction can fill gaps in our knowledge of the medieval history of Dagestan. In addition, these epigraphs are of great importance for researchers of onomastics, linguistics, the history of culture and religion of Dagestan. The authors managed to clarify the date of death of Ibrahim-Haji al-Uradi, as well as his two sons. These data, the attraction of written sources and legends allowed the reconstruction of the events of the second half of the 18th century. For example, because of the epidemic of plague and the death of most of the population of Hidatl, this society noticeably weakened and could no longer maintain its influence on Akhvakh. The attraction of memorable records allowed us to specify the dates of the Ibrahim-Haji pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, as well as the route through which he traveled to these cities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-180
Author(s):  
T. Zh. Yeginbayeva ◽  

Global processes in the musical culture of Kazakhstan are the result of the numerous events that have taken place in the country over the past 20 years. The independence of the state has become a key factor that has had a decisive impact on the economic, socio-political and cultural development of the country. We have entered a new life, which has a rich cultural heritage and was carefully preserved by our ancestors. One of the proofs is the history of Kazakh kobyz art from ancient times to the present day. Modern kobyz art is closely connected with ancient history and has a rich natural tendency for new development, based on centuries of experience. Therefore, kobyz music of the XXth–XXIst centuries absorbed the traditions of European genres and styles, and is widely used in mass music, in various directions of ethnorock, art-rock, folk and others. Two lines of development of music for kobyz and music on kobyz existed in ancient times and nowadays. From here comes the divergence of creative direction among modern composers and in ensemble performance.


Author(s):  
Lidiya V. Stezhenskaya ◽  
◽  

Autochthonous traditional Chinese thought in its most developed form could be found in the philosophy of Neo-Confucianism, which continues to be a sig­nificant factor in the modern national consciousness of the Chinese people. At the same time, the pre-emptive attention of Western Sinology and Russian Chinese studies to early Confucianism does not fully take into account the Neo-Confucian interpretation of the ancient Chinese classics. Russian and Western translations of the so-called Sixteen-Word Heart Admonition (Shi liu zi xin chuan), a passage from Chapter III “Da Yu mo” (Councel of Yu the Great) of the ancient Chinese classic The Book of Historical Documents (Shujing) by A. Gaubil, N.Ya. Bichurin, D.P. Sivillov, W.H. Medhurst, J. Legge, S. Couvreur, and W.G. Old demonstrate the gradual assimilation of its Neo-Confucian inter­pretation by Western and Russian translators. Archimandrite Daniil (Dmitry P. Sivillov), in his unpublished Russian translation of Shujing of the early 1840s, adopted this interpretation earlier and understood it better than the others. It is assumed that rejection of the Manchu language mediation and peruse of the con­temporary Neo-Confucian commentaries played the key role in his success. The importance of Neo-Confucian hermeneutics research for the studies of tradi­tional Chinese philosophy, including ancient Chinese classics, is emphasized. The text of the previously unpublished Shujing Chapter III Da Yu mo Russian transla­tion by archimandrite Daniil is attached.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rouben Karapetyan

The textbook covers the main events and developments in the recent history of the Arab world. The key issues of the past and present of the major Arab countries are examined. The general patterns, main stages and peculiarities of the historical development of these countries are presented. The work is designed for students of the faculties of “Oriental Studies”, “History” and “International Relations”, as well as wide range of readers interested in the history of the Arab world.


1992 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-146
Author(s):  
Artemis Leontis

Reflection on the history of the novel usually begins with consideration of the social, political, and economic transformations within society that favored the “rise” of a new type of narrative. This remains true even with the numerous and important studies appearing during the past ten years, which relate the novel to an everbroadening spectrum of ideological issues—gender, class, race, and, most recently, nationalism. Yet a history of the genre might reflect not just on the novel’s national, but also its transnational, trajectory, its spread across the globe, away from its original points of emergence. Such a history would take into account the expansion of western markets—the growing exportation of goods and ideas, as well as of social, political, and cultural forms from the West—that promoted the novel’s importation by nonwestern societies. Furthermore, it could lead one to examine the very interesting inverse relationship between two kinds of migration, both of which are tied to the First World’s uneven “development” of the Third. In a world system that draws out natural resources in exchange for technologically mediated goods, the emigration of laborers and intellectuals from peripheral societies to the centers of power of the West and the immigration of a western literary genre into these same societies must be viewed as related phenomena.


1897 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 485-549
Author(s):  
M. Gaster

More marvellous and more remarkable than the real conquests of Alexander are the stories circulated about him, and the legends which have clustered round his name and his exploits. The history of Alexander has, from a very early period, been embellished with legends and tales. They spread from nation to nation during the whole of the ancient times, and all through the Middle Ages. Many scholars have followed up the course of this dissemination of the fabulous history of Alexander. It would, therefore, be idle repetition of work admirably done by men like Zacher, Wesselofsky, Budge, and others, should I attempt it here. All interested in the legend of Alexander are familiar with those works, where also the fullest bibliographical information is to be found. I am concerned here with what may have appeared to some of these students as the bye-paths of the legend, and which, to my mind, has not received that attention which is due to it, from more than one point of view. Hitherto the histories of Alexander were divided into two categories; the first were those writings which pretended to give a true historical description of his life and adventures, to the exclusion of fabulous matter; the other included all those fabulous histories in which the true elements were smothered under a great mass of legendary matter, the chief representative of this class being the work ascribed to a certain Callisthenes. The study of the legend centred in the study of the vicissitudes to which this work of (Pseudo-) Callisthenes had been exposed, in the course of its dissemination from the East, probably from its native country, Egypt, to the countries of the West.


Slovene ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 263-299
Author(s):  
Andrei A. Kostin

The article offers some corrections to Vassily Adodurov’s Anfangs-Gründe der Russischen Sprache (1731), as edited by S. S. Volkov and K. A. Filippov in 2014. There is one thing to note regarding the quality of this edition. On page 7, the editors list the typographical errors they corrected when working with the original text. The list they present has four items and contains a total of six errors , which are actually misreadings by the editors themselves as well as typos they appear to have introduced during the production of the book (including that they cite pages 49 and 51 of the 48-page original). The work, produced by a team of ten, consists of different sections: four prefatory essays; a facsimile reprint of the 1731 original; a rendition into modern typeset with a Russian translation; two indexes; and three supplements. These multiple parts are poorly coordinated and, overall, can be evaluated as ranging from being somewhat acceptable to being defective. The editors knowingly and without any explicit polemics ignore the original conception of the history of Petersburg Academy’s Russian grammar in the 1720s and 1730s that was offered by Helmut Keipert (2002) and has been accepted by most scholars. Whereas Keipert’s fundamental work presents multiple Russian grammars created in St. Petersburg in this period as the product of collective work, conducted mostly by and for German speakers, the editors of the volume under review tend to see the Anfangs-Gründe as an individual work, an “original grammar produced by V. E. Adodurov.” Any extensive comparison of the Anfangs-Gründe with other early Petersburg grammars would demonstrate the dependence of this short essay on the more profound work of its predecessors. The present edition has almost no commentary; of the five commentaries included in the volume, two are erratic, one is obvious, one shows that the editors are new to the typographical term custos, and only one—dealing with Lomonosov’s use of examples from the Anfangs-Gründe for his Russian Grammar (1755)—makes any sense. The German text in modern typeset is extremely poorly prepared: in the first 23 (of 46) pages there are 34 significant typos and omissions that take the place of the 5 typos corrected from the original. This only underscores the observation that the 18th-century German Gothic typeface is obscure for the editors. The two indexes are partly unusable; not only are both full of omissions (the index of Russian examples omits almost 10% of the forms in the original, including more than half of the words starting with the letter Z as well as most of the examples for superlative and even the verb form bytʹ), but furthermore, the ‘Index of Grammar Terms’ is not what it says it is. The correct title would be ‘Index of Latin Grammar Terms,’ for it does not include German terms, with the result that there are no listings for terms relating to phonetics, normative style, etc. The text of the 1738‒1740 grammar of the St. Petersburg Academy Gymnasium in the final supplement, although carefully retyped from B. A. Uspensky’s book (1975), omits all of its commentaries—both explanatory and textological—which leads to presenting without comment letter sequences such as rereniiakhʺ, imennno, navodishishʹ, etc. The article also discusses principles for the study and publication of the entire body of works that present the St. Petersburg grammatical tradition of the period from the 1730s to the 1750s. Appendices to this article include publication of Adodurov’s note on er and erʹ (1737) and the major corrections to the text of Russian grammar (1738–1740) from the St. Petersburg Academy Gymnasium as published by Uspensky in 1975.


Author(s):  
Breno Moura

In 1772, Joseph Priestley published The History and Present State of Discoveries Relating to Vision, Light and Colours, also known as The History of Optics. The book intended to present all the achievements in the matter of light and colors, from the Ancient times to the 18th century. This paper presents a study of the content of The History of Optics, in order to analyze how it sold Newtonian optics in the historiography of light. It will comprise discussions on Priestley’s views on History, his involvement with optical studies, his perceptions on Newtonian optics and the Biographical Chart included in the book. This analysis can add new elements for the current Historiography on Priestley, clarifying other aspects that demonstrate his commitment to a Newtonian view of the History of Optics, as well as an example of the prestige that Newton’s Natural Philosophy had throughout the 18th century. 


Author(s):  
Ivan Romaniuk ◽  

The article reviews the textbook in three parts, in which well-known authors using primarily source documents, the work of domestic and foreign researchers have revealed agrarian relations in Ukraine from ancient times to the present. Particular attention is paid to issues of change in agriculture, socio-economic life of the village, the environment of the peasantry, the daily life of the Ukrainian countryside. Knowledge of the experience of the past agrarian system can become a reliable basis for a conscious choice of optimal ways of further progress of Ukraine as a democratic and prosperous state.


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