Acta Orientalia 45. (1991)
1. szám - Critica - A. G. Maljavkin. Tanskie chroniki o gosudarstvach Central'noj Azii (I. Ecsedy)
CBITICA 17! opinent of the world, isolating the Empire from the other parts of the world until the real modern age, when this became impossible. To be sincere, no other author is really interested in historical-theoretical problems. The editor endeavours to explain that every author depicts aspects of the age from various point of view. Michael Friedrich Surveys “tradition and intuition”, and the ideas of the school, i.e. the famous pupils of Chu Hsi, the father of Neo- Confucianism in the 12th century, the age most frequently dealt with in this volume, in the large introductory study concerning the literacy of ancient or even mythic times. Conrad Schirokauer examines Chu Hsi’s relations and commentary ideas concerning history and historiography. In the paper of Erling von Mende, we become aquainted with the life and thought of numerous officials and private scholars of the Ch’ing-yiian era (1195 — 1200/1201) based on the examples of the members of the Kao-family in Mingchou, the southern part of genuine Chinese culture in the Sung-period. Monica Übelhör analyzes the everyday life of the provincial officials, according to the reference books, and diaries, etc., of the Sung-times. A plan of the neighbourhood of Hangchou follows the description of officials’ travel and local residence by Achim Mittag. In the next study, planning is dealt with in Chinese thought and tradition by Michael Lackner: the world t’u “pictures”, “paint/ing”, etc., is shown in Chinese tradition, the Heavenly origin being responsible for the model role of the ancient building, i.e. for the picture of the plan. Klaas Ruitenbeek describes different aspects of architecture and its practice in Sung-period China. A physician’s life and diseases, the forms of treatment and medical knowledge of the Sung-period are covered in the study of Paul U. Unschuld. Women and the female role in the Sung-period thought is dealt with by Gudula Linek. Finally, historiography and its Buddhist aspects are illustrated by Tsuneki Nishiwaki, based on the example of the autobiography of monk Hui-hung of Cli’an Buddhism (1071 — 1128). The title page picture represents the emotional or intellectual structure of man as seen in the reference-book of that age. The authors of the 10 studies that follow are not completely silent about the foreigners who attacked or visited China in this period: they briefly describe the role of foreign influence, but primarily highlighting the autochthonous culture, especially the literature or rather Uteracy of China. This volume will obviously be needed by everybody dealing with Sung-period China. It concludes with an index, which also includes the Chinese characters concerned. Ildikô Ecsedy Maljavkin, A. G., Tanskie chroniki о gosudarstvach Central’noj Azii. Teksty i issledovanija. Otvetstvennyj redaktor doktor istoriceskich nauk Jxj. M. Butin. “Nauka”, Sibirskoe otdelenie, Novosibirsk 1989. 432 p. This paramount monograph, with the modest title “T’ang-time chronicles about the empires of Central Asia. Texts and research”, by A. G. Maljavkin, the wellknown eminent Soviet scholar of the steppe empires and Central Asian history, presents us with Chinese dynastic chronicles, especially their geographical material concerning 7th — 8th century Central Asia. The official Chinese sources with their parallel passages from other historical works, collections and encyclopedias are interpreted in Russian with abundant commentaries concerning the geographical background of the T’ang Chinese Empire (618 — 907), revealing the character of the political relations of the Chinese empire’s Acta Orient. Hung. XLV, 10'Jl