2017.3

This article examines the main features of business Chinese in comparison with colloquial Chinese. The emergence of modern business Chinese is linked to the economic reforms begun in 1978. Stylistic features of business Chinese are analysed at the lexical and syntactic levels. A study of the Peking University CCL online corpus allows the stylistic markedness of business Chinese vocabulary to be assessed quantitatively. After classifying the genres of business writing by subject matter, the author identifies expressions characteristic of each genre that convey the intentions of the sender. Knowing these expressions supports effective use of business Chinese in negotiations and correspondence. Business Chinese combines contrasting tendencies: colloquial elements, rational and emotional approaches, traditions and innovations.

The article examines how to distinguish basic and augmented elements of the Arabic word. The phenomenon of az-ziyāda (addition of a segment) is studied through the thirteenth-century Arab grammarian Ibn Ya‘īš’s treatise “Šarḥ al-Mufaṣṣal”. The identification of augmented ḥurūf is illustrated by hamza. The main criteria are derivation, evidence from words of the same pattern, and the frequency with which a ḥarf is basic or augmented in a given position. The article also examines the hierarchy of nouns according to their ability to change morphological structure: triradical nouns rank highest, followed by quadriradical and quinqueradical nouns. Special attention is paid to initial hamza. Three types of structural defectiveness in nonverbal nouns with an initial prothetic hamza are identified: elision of the third radical; assimilation of the vowel of the second radical to that of the third; and an atypical pattern whose use is restricted to a particular context.

The article examines the existence, development and influence of the ancient plot of the Ramayana and its main characters, Rama and Sita, on modern Hindi literature. Numerous publications confirm the importance of this subject for contemporary India. The ancient plot is modernized and connected with the current situation in India and the world. The images of Rama and Sita also allow writers to create new genres: a modern mahakavya in Hindi rather than Sanskrit, a satirical or detective story, a feminist novel, a utopian novel or a postmodern novel with elements of comics. The article focuses on two Hindi works: Premchand’s “Ram Charcha” (Discussing Rama), a Ramayana in simple prose for children and a broad audience, and Kusum Ansal’s “Ek aur Panchavati” (One More Panchavati), a novel in the “mahila lekhan” (women’s writing) movement.

The Muslim community in India is among the country’s most socially and economically disadvantaged religious communities. Literacy rates are low, especially among women. The educational situation is particularly difficult in North India, including Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state. Many Muslim women there cannot attend schools located far from Muslim neighbourhoods. Tensions between religious communities contribute to fear and distrust and discourage girls from going to school. Although several programmes to improve Muslim women’s access to and quality of education were launched in the 2000s, they have yet to produce substantial results.

The article surveys Japanese, Western and Russian research on the life and writing of Gensai Murai (1863–1927), a Japanese writer and journalist who authored the culinary novel “Kuido:raku” (The Pleasure of Eating, 1903). Despite his extensive literary legacy and the early success of the novel, Murai is rarely counted among the best-known writers and educators of the Meiji era (1868–1912). A detailed biography published in 2004 renewed interest in his work. Western studies usually mention Murai and his novel only in discussions of everyday life in Meiji Japan. The article reviews the main studies and examines why he has received little attention in Russian historiography.

Matteo Ripa (1682–1746) was an Italian missionary priest whose stay in China allowed him to witness the death of Emperor Kangxi and the Chinese rites controversy, a conflict within the Catholic Church over the meaning of traditional Chinese rituals. The conflict had severe consequences for its participants, including the Jesuit order. On returning to Italy, Ripa founded a college in Naples, the first European institution to study and teach subjects concerning the East at an academic level; it later became the Oriental University. He also wrote the memoir “Giornale”. A century after his death, Jesuit editors substantially revised the text, distorting the author’s meaning. Their widely distributed version created a lasting misconception about Ripa’s life and character. Publication of the original text now makes it possible to recover his story.

The article examines the role of Mughal gardens in Indian history from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. It considers their functions during the reigns of the Great and Late Mughals and their value as indicators of the growth and decline of the Mughal Empire. Establishing gardens was especially important to the first Mughal emperors as a way of marking territory. By the seventeenth century, this way of asserting authority was no longer needed, and the wives and daughters of emperors began to tend the gardens of the capital. The widespread decay of gardens in the eighteenth century reflected the disintegration of the empire. Two Delhi complexes are examined: Humayun’s tomb, the first Mughal dynastic building in South Asia and a model for Indian Muslim architecture, and Safdarjung’s tomb, often described as the last glimmer of Mughal architectural style in Delhi.