Studies of China in Grigory Potanin’s personal library

Grigory Potanin dedicated significant effort to the study of China, particulary during his expedition through Nothern China in 1884-1886, which resulted in his report “The Tangut-Tibetan Outskirts of China and Central Mongolia”, published in 1893. The two-volume report meticulously documented the region’s daily life, geography and folklore, including selected legends and traditional Chinese tales. Potanin’s personal book collection, stored in the TSU Research Library, shows how Potanin’s own thoughts about Chinese culture resonated with the works of other scholars. A striking example of such interaction is Potanin’s reflections of Sergey M. Georgievsky’s Principles of Life in China: there are marginalia including pencil marks (vertical lines, exclamation marks, symbols “NB”, “X”, “V”, curly brackets, words and phrases) as well as underlined segments within paragraphs. Particular attention is paid to Potanin’s detailed notes on Confucianism, through which Potanin conveyed his own perspective of the most significant features of Chinese life and culture, entering into a dialogue with Georgievsky. He aligns with Georgievsky’s argument that China, as a paramount and unique example of Eastern culture comparable to the cultures of West European civilization, deserves scholarly attention. Since Potanin’s personal library also contained books about the material culture of China (travel diaries, descriptions of expeditions, maps, Russian-Chinese dictionaries), the image of China based on these materials develops as dual: the tangible image of China is complemented by intangible evidence - descriptions of traditions, beliefs, legends. It is their interaction that brings about a complex idea of Chinese civilization. This approach can be found in Potanin’s own works in ethnography. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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