Teaching oriental languages in Irkutsk: history, traditions, names

Irkutsk is rightly considered as one of the Oriental centers of Russia. The city located on the eastern borders of the Russian state had the necessary conditions for learning languages of the neighboring countries — China and Mongolia. The first schools of Oriental languages were opened in Irkutsk, one of them was Russian-Mongolian school (1725), which played an important role in training Christian missionaries for the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Beijing. Having passed a good school of life and received the opportunity to learn Chinese and Manchu languages in depth, the missionaries became the first teachers of these languages, created the first textbooks and scientific works. Among them were I. Rassokhin, I. Bichurin, E. Sychevsky, D. Sivilov (Archimandrite Daniel). The article presents materials on learning the Chinese and Manchu languages in Russia and contribution of orientalists to the development of Russian-Chinese relations.