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

Ŷ РУКОПИСИ И КСИЛОГРАФЫ НА ВОСТОЧНЫХ ЯЗЫКАХ Ŷ 174 Ŷ During his stay in Beijing in 1841–1850 the future Russian academician, V. P. Vas- siliev, acquired a great collection of Chinese, Manchu, Tibetan and Mongolian books for Kazan University. The books in Mongolian which he managed to get are ex- tremely rare and often unique. His aim was to find the books which his teacher and predecessor J. Kowalewski was unable to get in Beijing. For this reason the woodblock prints and manuscripts collected by V. Vassiliev are almost all unique. He even pur- chased a big portion of the private library of Mongolian books which belonged to Prince Yunli (1697–1738), the seventeenth son of the Kanxi emperor (reigned 1662– 1722). Prince Yunli was especially interested in esoteric teachings and practices of Tibetan Buddhism. However, among his books there are precious copies of old Mon- golian books dating back to the Yuan dynasty. In 1855 the Oriental Department together with its library was moved from Kazan to St. Petersburg, then the capital of Russia, where it is located to this day. Mon- golian books continued to arrive at St. Petersburg University up to the end of the nineteenth century. Many books which were produced by the Mongolian peoples who live in Russia — the Kalmucks and, especially, the Buriats — were acquired. In addition, three collections of Kalmuck manuscripts were brought to St. Petersburg University by K. F. Golstunsky. A great quantity of Mongolian books was also collected by A. M. Pozdneev between 1876–78 while on expedition in Mongolia. His collection is not limited to Buddhist books but also contains translations of Chinese novels, official documents and collections of fairy tales. He also acquired a large number of woodblock books printed in the Buddhist monasteries of Eastern Siberia. A. M. Pozdneev’s most outstanding acquisition was the complete set of the Buddhist Canon in Mongolian numbering 113 volumes. This manuscript dates back to the time of Ligdan Khan (r. 1604–34), the last in the dynasty of great Mongolian rulers. Tibetan books mostly arrived in Russia from the neighbouring areas of Mongo- lia and the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Beijing. Since these areas were domi- nated by the Gelugpa School, its literature constitutes the bulk of the collection. Thus the word “Tibetan” should be used not in the geographical but in the religious and cultural sense. Tibetan Buddhism and its literature has not been something foreign to Russia. From the nineteenth to the early twentieth century in the monasteries (datsans) of Eastern Siberia thousands of works by different authors were printed in Tibetan. The first Tibetan books were collected by J. Kowalewski, principally in Eastern Siberia. They are mostly collections of popular Buddhist texts recited during religious ceremonies. Though these texts are well known they are extremely rare samples of the early stage of woodblock printing at Siberian datsans. The bulk of the Tibetan books in the St. Petersburg University Library were col- lected by V. P. Vassiliev during his stay in Beijing. He ordered manuscript copies of Tibetan historical works, such as sDeb ther sngon po , Hor chos ’byung , the History by Bu-ston and others. Through Tibetan merchants and lamas he managed to purchase a number of books printed in Tibet. The oldest Tibetan printed book at the Univer-