Ural Federal University Hosts The Exhibition- “China and Japan: A View from Russia”
The exhibition “China and Japan: A View from Russia” in the Rare Books Department of the UrFU Scientific Library is open until the end of the academic year. Books from different periods included in the exhibition cover the history of relations with these countries. More information about the exhibition can be found in the latest issue of the Ural Federal newspaper (No. 1, 23 January).
For example, one of the exhibits is “Description of Japan” (St. Petersburg, 1734), the first book about Japan published in Russian. It is an abridged translation of three French works from the 17th century, one of the authors of which was the gem merchant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who made several journeys to India and collected materials about Japan.
The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, a special period in the relations between Russia and Japan, is represented by the official point of view, such as the “History of the Russo-Japanese War” (Moscow, 1907-1909). It is also represented by private memoirs, including notes by direct participants in the events: “Memoirs of General Kuropatkin,” who commanded Russian ground forces in the battles of Liaoyang, Mukden, and others, and “The Notebook of a Staff Officer” by Ian Hamilton, a British military attaché to the Japanese headquarters.
Direct contacts with China began as early as the 17th century. The exhibition includes editions of Russian translations of Chinese political and philosophical treatises made at the time of Catherine the Great by one of the first Russian specialists in Chinese and Manchurian, Alexei Leontyevich Leontiev. The works of the founder of Russian Chinese studies, the monk Hyacinth (Nikita Yakovlevich Bichurin), whose life could well become the subject of an adventure novel, are also exhibited here.
As with Japan, the idea of China was based on European sources. In particular, the French Mémoires concernant l’histoire, les sciences, les arts, les moeurs, les usages, &c. des Chinois (Paris, 1776-1791) and its abridged translation into Russian – “Notes, Proper to the History, Sciences, Arts, Manners, Customs, and the Rest of the Chinese” (Moscow, 1787).
The exhibition is open to the public during the working hours of the Rare Books Department: weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Guided tours can be arranged by phone +7 (343) 389-94-48 or e-mail [email protected]. The number of participants of the tour – no more than 10 people.