Pyotr Ivanovich Kafarov (, pre-

reform Reform refers to the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The modern usage of the word emerged in the late 18th century and is believed to have originated from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement, which ...

), also known by his monastic name Palladius (Pre-reform Russian: Палла́дій; Modern Russian: Палла́дий; 29 September 1817,

Chistopol Chistopol (; ; , ''Çistay'') is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Tatarstan, Russia, located on the left bank of the Kuybyshev Reservoir, on the Kama River. As of the Russian Census (2010), 2010 Census, its population was&nbs ...

– 18 December 1878,

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

), was an early Russian

sinologist Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilizatio ...

Biography

Kafarov was born into the family of an Orthodox

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

. He studied in

Kazan Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as cle ...

and Saint-Petersbourg Academy, from which he was sent to the

Russian Orthodox The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

Mission in China. Like his teacher

Hyacinth (Bichurin) Nikita Yakovlevich Bichurin (; – ), better known under his archimandrite monastic name Hyacinth, sometimes known as Joacinth or Iakinf, was one of the founding fathers of Russian Sinology. He translated many works from Chinese into Russian, w ...

, Palladius was a Russian Orthodox monk. During his stay in China, he discovered and published many invaluable manuscripts, including ''

The Secret History of the Mongols The ''Secret History of the Mongols'' is the oldest surviving literary work in the Mongolic languages. Written for the Borjigin, Mongol royal family some time after the death of Genghis Khan in 1227, it recounts his life and conquests, and parti ...

''. During his scholarly career, Kafarov's works focused on Chinese linguistics, history, geography, and religion. Kafarov notably translated many Buddhist scriptures from Chinese, Mongolian, and Tibetan. Kafarov also studied the history of Christianity in imperial China and helped pioneer the study of Chinese Islam. For more than three decades,

Archimandrite The title archimandrite (; ), used in Eastern Christianity, originally referred to a superior abbot ('' hegumenos'', , present participle of the verb meaning "to lead") whom a bishop appointed to supervise several "ordinary" abbots and monaste ...

Palladius headed the Russian Orthodox mission in China''"Путешественник - Архимандрит Палладий Кафаров", Russian "СМ номер один" Magazine, September 2005, in Russian'' and engaged in ethnographic and linguistic research there. Kafarov designed a

Cyrillization Cyrillization or Cyrillisation is the process of rendering words of a language that normally uses a writing system other than Cyrillic script into (a version of) the Cyrillic alphabet. Although such a process has often been carried out in an ad ...

system for the

Chinese language Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39& ...

, known as the

Palladius system The cyrillization of Chinese is the transcription of Chinese characters into the Cyrillic alphabet. The Palladius system is the official Russian standard for transcribing Chinese into Russian, with variants existing for Ukrainian, Belarusia ...

. This system has remained the basis for official transcription of Chinese personal and geographical names in Russia ever since. The ''Chinese-Russian Dictionary'' composed by

Palladius remains a well-known work even today.

Works

* 《漢俄合璧韻編》掌院修士巴第遺篇，1888年，北京同文舘 (''Chinese-Russian Dictionary'' by Archimandrite Palladius, 1888, Tungwen Guan
Volume 1
https://books.google.com/books/about/漢俄合璧韻編.html?id=yRo-PwAACAAJ
Volume 2
https://books.google.com/books?id=GYpPAAAAYAAJ
1896 edition

References

1817 births 1878 deaths People from Chistopolsky Uyezd Lexicographers from the Russian Empire Sinologists from the Russian Empire Chinese Orthodox Church Eastern Orthodox missionaries Russian Orthodox monks Archimandrites Monks from the Russian Empire Expatriates from the Russian Empire in China Missionary linguists 19th-century lexicographers Russian scientists Saint Petersburg Theological Academy alumni {{Russia-linguist-stub

Biography

Works

See also

References