Author Archives: Tina Schivatcheva

An Early Qing Persian-Chinese Dictionary for Diplomats

This text was written by Dr Sally K Church and uploaded by Tina Schivatcheva

The Bureau of Interpreters (Siyi guan 四夷館) was founded in 1407 by the Chinese government in Ming times to train diplomats in foreign languages. It was part of the Hanlin Academy and produced vocabularies for a number of languages, including Mongolian, Persian, Japanese, Siamese, and others.

Persian was the lingua franca for diplomatic relations in Central Asia. Attached here is an early Qing facsimile copy of a Persian vocabulary, entitled Huihui guan zazi 回回館雜字. It was published together with another edition of the same work, Huihui guan yiyu 回回館譯語, in Beijing tushuguan guji zhenben congkan 北京圖書館古籍珍本叢刊, jing bu 經部 (Beijing: Shumu wenxian, n.d.). The Huihui guan zazi is uploaded here with the permission of the Cambridge University Library.

For each word in the vocabulary, the Persian is given first, then the Chinese character for that word. This is followed by a set of smaller characters which are Chinese transliterations for the Persian word, indicating how the word should be pronounced in Persian by a Chinese-speaker. For example, for the word “bazaar” (market, shi 市 in Chinese), three small Chinese characters are provided, one for each syllable of the word. They are pronounced ba-za-er 把咱兒.

To access the early Qing Persian-Chinese dictionary, please click on the link below:

Huihuiguan_zazi_persian

Paper presented at an international conference at the University of Bonn by Dr. Sally Church

A paper was presented at an international conference at the University of Bonn, Germany, by Dr. Sally Church

Dr. Sally Church has just returned from Bonn, Germany, where she presented at the international conference “Tribute System and Rulership in Late Imperial China”, International Workshop of the SFB 1167 “Macht and Herrschaft – Pre-modern Configurations in a Transcultural Perspective”. The conference took place at the University of Bonn on the 6-7th of July 2018.

Her paper was on the topic: “Chen Cheng and Ming-Timurid Tribute Exchanges, 1413-1420”. It primarily concerned Chen’s “Rhymeprose on the Lion” (Shizi fu 獅子賦), about the tribute gift of a lion given by the Timurid ruler Shahrukh to the Chinese Yongle emperor. The long descriptive poem describes how the king of beasts was chosen to be a tribute item for the Chinese emperor, was captured, caged and transported 4,000 miles from Herat to Beijing and presented to the Emperor Yongle in 1415. In addition to a long rhymeprose, Chen also wrote a shorter poem about the lion, translated here:

The Lion

I’ve heard this animal lives in prides,
I now see its wondrous form, truly extraordinary.
Bright and shiny, its two pupils like jade-green autumn pools,
Its body pale golden yellow all one colour.
Impressive charisma, more powerful than rhinoceros or elephant,
Its teeth and claws frighten off the tigers and wolves.
Since ancient times we’ve seen such animals only in pictures,
Who would have thought I’d be presenting one to our emperor?

Author: Chen Cheng 陳誠 Translation: Dr. Sally Church

Please follow this link in order to find more information about the conference:

https://www.sfb1167.uni-bonn.de/aktuelles/termine/workshop-tribute-system

Dr. Sally Church will deliver a seminar at the University of Oxford, Center for Islamic Studies

As part of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies’ Silk Road Series, Dr. Sally Church will deliver a seminar on the topic ‘Ming-Timurid Relations and the Role of the Chinese Diplomat Chen Cheng’ in Oxford.

Chen Cheng travelled on three diplomatic missions to Herat, during the reign of Emperor Yongle (1403-1424) in the Ming period (1368-1644). He left behind a Diary of his first outward journey in 1414, and a Treatise on eighteen of the places he visited along the way, both of which were presented to the Emperor in 1415. The expeditions are documented in the Chinese historical records, thus enabling us to cross-check the events. His Treatise was the only first-hand account available of the cities in Central Asia, and were thus so highly valued by Ming and Qing historians that excerpts were copied into these sources. In addition to these prose descriptions, he also left behind some descriptions in poetry, which have only recently received scholarly attention in the West. This paper surveys my efforts to map his journey, translate his diary, resolve some problems in the chronology of his missions, and understand both the man himself and his encounter with Central Asia and the Silk Road in the early 15th century.

The seminar will be held at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, Marston Road, on Tuesday, 22nd of May at 17.00 pm.

All are welcome!

Talk by Dr. Sally Church: ‘Silk Road Diplomacy with the Timurids in the Early 15th century: The Career of Chen Cheng (1365-1457)’

Join us for a talk by Dr. Sally Church, Wolfson College, University of Cambridge on the subject of ‘Silk Road Diplomacy with the Timurids in the Early 15th century: The Career of Chen Cheng (1365-1457)’. The talk will take place on the 11th of May, at 11am in Room S2, Alison Richards Building, University of Cambridge.

The talk is jointly organized by Cambridge Central Asia Forum in collaboration with the Centre of
Development Studies.

Everyone is welcome!