Russian Translations from the Manchu Language by the Members of the Orthodox Mission in Peking

The Manchu language as one of the official languages of the Qing dynasty in the 17th of the 20th centuries was a language of diplomatic communication between Russia and China. The main state and historical documents were written in Manchu, and they were important for the Russian court to understand administrative and political strategy of the neighboring state. The members of the Peking Orthodox mission and its students had a task to collect materials on the history and legislation of the Qing Empire, as well as on its cultural and intellectual life. The Russian translations from the Manchu language show that the members of the Mission were the first scholars who acquainted Russian reader with the life of the Manchu Empire and the Chinese everyday life. The main translations from Manchu were done in the 18th — first half of the 19th centuries. While staying in Beijing the researchers were mostly interested in the history of the ruling Qing dynasty, as well as in the histories of non-Chinese dynasties in China. This explains the choice of Manchu texts by P. Kamensky, G. Rozov, V, Gorsky. On their return to Russia, many members of the Mission were appointed as translators at the Collegium of Foreign Affairs and the Academy of Sciences, where they had to make sponsored translations. By the order of the Collegium, I. Rossokhin, A. Leontiev, A. Lipovtsov translated the main administrative texts of the Qing dynasty. Meanwhile, the translators actively participated in literary and intellectual life of Saint Petersburg, and strongly influenced on the Russian enlightenment movement. It should be underlined that the first translations were made from Manchu. Starting from the middle of the 19th century under the authority of archimandrite Iakinf Bichurin the Russian scholars switched mainly to the Chinese language sources, and the number of translations from Manchu was greatly limited.