Рукописи и ксилографы на восточных языках в научной библиотеке им. М. Горького СПбГУ

Ŷ 173 Ŷ SUMMARY Ŷ for practical purposes and a considerable number of specialists in the Manchu language were trained in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The St. Petersburg University Library possesses a comprehensive set of volu- minous printed books on legislation, descriptions of the Eight Banners, the gene- alogies of the Manchu and Mongol nobles, and descriptions of military campaigns against the Jungars. A great number of Manchu books on history are translations from Chinese of such works as the Tong jian gang mu , the Liao shi (History of the Liao State), the Jin shi (History of the Jin State), the Yuan shi (History of the Yuan Dynasty) and others. Their printed editions are all found in the library. The St. Petersburg University Library possesses one original imperial decree written in the Manchu and the Mongol lan- guages (written in the Oirad todo üsüg ). It is dated 1762 and was given to Abulai Khan of the Khazakhs in connection with the pastures in Ili and Tarbagatai. There are also many copies of documents concerning the Russian–Qing relations of different kinds collected and bound as manuscript books. Among them there are letters of the Russian governors of Eastern Siberia to Qing officials and letters of the Qing border officials. Many documents relate to Chinese trade in the town of Ki- akhta. A unique collection of materials relating to the Heilongjiang province entitled Sahaliyan ula wesimbuhe baita-i dangse contains information dated from 1680 to 1812. It contains many interesting facts about this Northern part of the Qing Empire including information about contacts and relations with Russia. Translations of the Chinese classics as well of Chinese novels into Manchu are abundant in the University collection. Many of them were printed as bilingual Man- chu-Chinese editions. Also abundant are different kinds of dictionaries which include the Manchu section — fromManchu-Chinese to multilingual dictionaries of Buddhist terms as well as Manchu-French dictionaries compiled by the Jesuits. Editions of Buddhist texts in Manchu are widely represented in the St. Petersburg University Library. This collection of Mongolian books is the best in Russia and one of the world’s best in terms of completeness and selection, since it contains the accumulated efforts of the most outstanding Russian scholars of the nineteenth century. Within the col- lection are books written by different Mongolian peoples whose residences stretched from the lower reaches of the River Volga in European Russia, to Eastern Siberia and Inner Mongolia. When in 1828 the Russian government decided to introduce the teaching of the Mongolian language in the Imperial Kazan University, it despatched two young scholars J. Kowalewski and A. V. Popov. They stayed for four years in Eastern Si- beria so as to learn the language and to collect Mongolian books. One of them, J. Kowalewski, also managed to visit Beijing, then almost entirely closed to foreign- ers. A large number of books which were brought to the city of Kazan in 1833 became the basis of the present Mongolian collection. The Kowalewski Collection mostly consists of Buddhist printed books which he purchased in Beijing. The Popov Col- lection is mostly comprised of manuscripts made by the Buriats and the Kalmucks.