Written
Monuments
of the Orient
Volume 6, No. 2(12) 2020

ISSN 2410-0145

Issued twice a year

The entire issue as a *.PDF file

CONTENTS

Ekaterina Zavidovskaia, Polina Rud. Popular Religion in Early Republican China Based on Vasilii Alekseev’s Materials from to the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography RAS (fund No. 2054) — 3
One of the founding fathers of Russian sinology Vasiliy Mikhailovich Alekseev (1881–1951) had acquired an impressive collection during his ethnographic expedition to the southern regions of China (May 4 — August 19, 1912), which was organized by the Russian Committee for Middle and East Asia Exploration and initiated by the Committee`s head, founder academician Vasilii Vasilievich Radlov (1837–1918). Alekseev’s expedition stated from Vladivostok and passed through Harbin, Shanghai, Ningbo, Putuoshan, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Shantou, Guangzhou and ended up in Hong Kong. Alekseev has collected about 1083 artifacts making up “a collection exclusively on popular Buddhist and Daoist religion, items of household usage, daily life and cult, as well as revolutionary leaflets and posters of 1912”, now this collection is kept at the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences (MAE, RAS) with registration No. 2054. During his earlier studies in China in 1906–1909 Alekseev acquired large collections of ethnographic materials and folk art (mainly popular woodblock prints nianhua 年畫) from the northern regions of China, which had later for the most part entered collections of the State Hermitage and the State Museum of the History of Religion (GMIR) in St. Petersburg. For his expedition of 1912 Alekseev had lined out a plan based on his observations of northern religious practices, e.g. he was particularly interested in the worship of City God chenghuang, child giving goddesses niangniang and God of Wealth caishen, but he quickly realized how different was the southern religious terrain and focused on local specifics.
This paper discusses a large portion of printed ritual texts used for religious purposes in Fujian and Guangdong provinces and dated by the early 20th c. Our survey of several dozens of printed materials from fund No. 2054 reveals prevalence of documents used by ritual specialists — Daoists for funerary rituals and ancestor worship, funeral various types of talismans occupy a central place. Apparently, the form and content of these texts have been preserved in the local religious practice up to present days.
Key words: Vasilii M. Alekseev (1881–1951), MAE, RAS, Daoist ritual documents, talisman, salvation ritual, image

Artiom Mesheznikov, Safarali Shomakhmadov. The Updated Data on Sanskrit Manuscripts of the Serindia Collection (IOM, RAS): Perspectives of the Study — 22
This article presents the preliminary results of the study on the Sanskrit manuscripts of the Serindia Collection of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, RAS. Basing on the previous researches, as well as on the results of the efforts of the ‘Sanskrit Group’ within Serindica Laboratory, the authors outline the structure and repertoire of the Sanskrit part of the Serindia Collection, supplementing it with the description of paleographic and codicological aspects of the Sanskrit manuscripts.
Key words: paleography, Brāhmī, Sanskrit manuscripts, Tarim oases, Serindia manuscripts Collection

Olga Lundysheva, Anna Turanskaya. Old Uyghur Fragments in the Serindia Collection: Provenance, Acquisition and Processing — 43
The earliest fi ndings of the Old Uyghur manuscripts and block prints were brought to Europe by the Russian expeditions. A number of the Old Uyghur fragments were found by Dmitrii Klementz in the course of the Turfan expedition in 1889–1890. These fragments, along with the manuscripts in other languages and scripts, were subsequently acquired by the Russian offi cials Nikolai Petrovskii and Nikolai Krotkov and the expeditions headed by Sergei Oldenburg (1909–1910; 1914–1915) and Sergei Malov (1909–1911; 1913–1914). They formed the Serindia (formerly known as Central Asian) Collection kept nowadays at the IOM, RAS. The major part of the Serindia Collection consists of the Old Uyghur fragments. Obtained by the expeditions to Eastern Turkestan, according to the customary tradition they were transferred to the Asiatic Museum. This paper presents the results of our recent study of the provenance, aquisition and processing history of the Old Uyghur manuscripts and block prints. Keywords: Serindia Collection, Old Uyghur manuscripts, block prints, Asiatic Museum, manuscript collection, IOM, RAS

Saya Hamanaka, Alla Sizova. Imperial Postscript to the Tangut, Chinese and Tibetan Editions of the Dhāraṇī-sūtras in the Collection of the IOM, RAS — 65
Three parallel editions of dhāraṇī-sūtras in Tangut, Chinese and Tibetan languages were published in the Tangut state in 1149. The Tibetan edition is of particular importance, because until recently specimens of printing in Tibetan, that could belong to an earlier date, were not extant. All the editions are equal in terms of their contents and contain the postscript written by the Emperor Renzong. The main goal of this article is to introduce the previously unpublished Tibetan text of the postscript in correspondence with the Tangut and Chinese versions. Besides, the article provides information about the study, preservation state, and codicology of all the three editions.
Key words: Tibetan block prints, Tangut block prints, Chinese block prints, Khara-Khoto, Xi Xia, Emperor Renzong

Alexey Lushchenko. Japanese Didactic Gunsho Commentaries in the Edo Period: A Study of a 17th c. Commentary on the Heike Monogatari — 93
The Heike monogatari hyōban hidenshō is an anonymous 17th c. commentary on the medieval Heike monogatari. As a military studies text (gunsho) written for Edo-period warriors, the commentary differs substantially from the Heike monogatari in content and purpose. It consists of didactic essays that critically evaluate passages from the Heike monogatari and also includes fi ctional stories that expand and reinterpret the content of the Heike monogatari. The commentary’s content focuses on topics of governance, strategy, and ethics. In the 17th c., such gunsho commentaries functioned as educational texts with advice and admonition addressed to daimyo lords and warriors in general. As a didactic military studies text, the Heike monogatari hyōban hidenshō reveals a new facet of reception of the Heike monogatari in the Edo period.
Key words: Japan, Edo period, gunsho, didactic commentaries, gunki monogatari, Heike monogatari hyōban hidenshō, intellectual history, education

Kristina Korosteleva. SI 4904: Сonservation as a Base for New Discoveries — 114
Book fragments in the Old Uyghur language, which constitute the major part of the Serindia Collection, currently undergo conservation and preservation procedures. The recent results of the conservation carried out in 2019 showed, that modern methods not only give new material life to ancient texts, but also contribute to the academic research. This article focuses on conservation procedures of the particular fragment SI 4904 from the Serindia Collection, as well as on subsequently made discoveries.
Key words: Serindia collection, conservation and preservation, Old Uyghur Buddhist books, Kokhanovsky collection