EACS-2016. Book of Abstracts

Chinese Manuscripts, Books, Artifacts Abroad 21st Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies 94 Stezhenskaya Lydia (Institute for Far Eastern Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences) The Early 20th Century Illustrated Shujing in Moscow Key words: Shujing, Shangshu, Confucian classic, book illustration, Qing dynasty The paper deals with the 1905 lithographic illustrated edition of Shujing tushuo (The Book of Historical Docu- ments with Illustrations and Explanations), kept inMoscow. This edition of one of the ancient Confucian Classics is rather special, since it was designed as a comic book implementing principles of “explanation through the pictures” (xiang jie): anecdotal lithographs occupy its major part. The canonicalAncient Chinese text is available in the book but is hardly intelligible for an unprepared reader. The comments actually explain the linear engrav- ing drawings following and representing separate stretches of the canonical text. Illustrations were supposed to introduce ‘factual/solid content’ (shi), while explanations to illustrations were supposed to introduce ‘fictitious/ empty content’ (xu). Being the last official Qing edition of Shujing, it was destined to become a popular version of the Confucian classic “comprehensible to women and children”. It was to be used as a textbook (keben) in all public provincial schools. It is noteworthy that illustrations contain some motifs that do not belong to the canoni- cal text of Shujing, but were borrowed from Chinese mythology and popular literature. In 1905 when Shujing tushuo saw the light of day the civil service examination system, based upon Confucian orthodoxy, was abolished in China. In this case, we deal with a new interpretation of the canonical Confucian text in quite a peculiar form addressed to a much broader readership. This presentation is to demonstrate inconsistency of the conventional thesis of rigidity of the official Confucianismorthodoxy inQing Empire. Inquiry into imagery and textual contents of this edition and their interaction could throw light on the ideological, political and social causes and motives behind the new Qing version of classical Shujing. That could provide grounds for judging on transition from the traditional to modern consciousness in China at the beginning of the 20th century. Tai Chung Pui (The University of Hong Kong) Tangut Fragments with Tibetan Transcription: A Survey on Their Origins, History and Typology Key words: Tangut script, Tangut language, Tangut characters, Tibetan transcription, Tangut frag- ment, N. A. Nevsky Up to the present, 31 Tangut fragments or chips have been discovered to have Tibetan transcription next to the Tangut characters. Among them 19 fragments and 5 chips are now preserved in the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg. Besides there are 2 small fragments which were originally preserved in the same institute but have lost, leaving their images in the photos which are now kept in fond 69 of the Archive of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, which stores materials and papers related to N. A. Nevsky. Currently the fragments and chips in the Russian Collection are listed under the following inventories: 1. Inv. 8299: 1 fragment. 2. Inv. 8362: 9 fragments, including 2 lost. 3. Inv. 8363: 11 fragments and 5 chips. The British Library at London preserved other 5 Tangut fragments with Tibetan transcription. These 5 fragments are currently inventoried as Or. 12380/1842, Or. 12380/3495, Or. 12380/3909, Or. 12380/3910, and Or. 12380/3911.The Tibetan transcription provides straight forward information on the pronunciation of Tangut characters, and hence plays a key role in the phonological reconstruction of Tangut, which is one of the four classical Sino-Tibetan languages (cf. Gong 2007: 447). Despite of the academic value carried by these fragments, their details were not well-informed in previous studies. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive catalogue of all known Tangut fragments and chips with Tibetan transcription, based on both first hand investigation and literature review of previous studies. This paper will first review the discovery, reproduction, publication and collation of these fragments. Then it will describe each frag- ment in detail. The possible origin of fragment texts and the typology of fragments will also be discussed. Reference: Gong Hwang-cherng. The position of Tangut in the comparative study of Sino-Tibetan languages. Language and Linguistics 8.2:440–447.