The Study on the Qing Manuscript Copies of the “History of the Russian State” Kept in Russia

Abstract

The manuscripts of History of Russian Country, one case and nine volumes, were published in Beijing in the eighth year of Daoguang (1828). They can be rated as the worlds first Russian history in Chinese. There manuscripts are currently in three long-established libraries of St. Petersburg of Russia and there are no collections at home or abroad except for St. Petersburg. History of Russian Country was the Chinese version of the first three volumes of History of the Russian State (a 12-volume national history published in St. Petersburg between the years of 18161826) by the first Russian national historian N.M. Karamzin. It was compiled and translated by Z.F. Leontjevsky during his stay in Beijing (1820-1830), a student of the tenth Russian Orthodox Mission in Beijing. The Chinese version includes the original author Karamzins dedication to the Russian Emperor Alexander I, the foreword, the first volume, the second volume and the third volume (Chapter 7 untranslated). This article compares Leontjevskys Chinese version with Karamzins original Russian version, revealing its values of literature, of Sino-Russian cultural exchanges, and of Russian historiography in Chinese.