Bachelor 2024/2025

History of Chinese Language

Type: Compulsory course (Chinese Language, Literature and Culture)

Area of studies: Asian and African Studies

Delivered by: Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies

Where: Faculty of Humanities

When: 4 year, 1, 2, 4 module

Mode of studies: offline

Open to: students of one campus

Instructors: George Starostin

Language: English

ECTS credits: 3

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The main goal of the course is to develop active skills in the analysis and translation of prose and poetic texts of the Late Ancient and Early Middle Chinese, including the ability to conduct a comparative analysis of various monuments in order to more accurately determine their chronological and stylistic characteristics, as well as to obtain a complete picture of the evolution of language norms and trends over the course of the corresponding period. The first part of the course (“Classic period”) is an introductory one and is designed to acquaint the student with the linguistic structures of the Chinese language of the 5th-1st centuries. BC e. (periods of Zhangguo and Western Han). The second part (“The Period of Late Antiquity”) is designed to acquaint the student with the linguistic structures of the Chinese language of the 2nd-6th centuries. n. e. (from the Late Han period to the Six Dynasties era). The third part (“Middle Chinese period”) is devoted to the peculiarities of the language of the monuments of the 6th-10th centuries. (the last stage of the Six Dynasties period, the Sui and Tang dynasties), extremely diverse in their linguistic characteristics. The final part of the course (“New Chinese Period”) covers the period from the 11th to the 18th centuries. n. e., starting with the monuments of the Song dynasty and ending with the language of texts written during the reign of the Manchu Qing dynasty.