Geng Shimin

Uighur Studies in China

50^th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, Kazan 2007

Among the 56 nationalities of China, besides Han Chinese we have 55 minority nations. Within these 55 minority nations there are 9 minority nations speaking Turkic languages, i.e. Uighur, Kazakh, Qirghiz, Yughur, Salar, Uzbek, Tatar, Kök Munchaq and Heilongjiang Qirghiz. The last two are not yet acknowledged by our government, Kök Munchaq are included into Mongols living in Altai Prefecture of Xinjiang Uighur Autonous Region. According to my investigation carried on in 1955, they are in fact a part of Tuvinian people. The Heilongjiang Qirghiz (in Manchuria) are in fact a part of Khaqas people who were moved there by the Manchu-Qing dynasty in the 18^th century. In this paper I give some new informations on Uighur Studies in China.

The Uighurs, numbering 7,207,000¹, live mostly in the southern part of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. They are Muslims and most of them practice agriculture. The modern Uighur nationality is a conglomerate of the ancient Turkic populations of the region (such as the Uighurs, Qarluqs, Bashmils, etc.) with an admixture of other ancient population of the Tarim Basin such as the Tokharians, the Khotanese-Sakas, Soghdians and the Han Chinese.

Modern Uighur has three dialects, namely. 1. The Central Dialect, which is the largest and is spoken mainly by the Uighurs of the prefectures of Kashgar, Aksu, Kurla, Ili, Turfan and Qumul. 2. The Khotan Dialect. 3. The Lobnor Dialect, spoken east of the Taklamakan Desert, i.e. in the Lobnor and Charkilik counties.

Since ancient time there exsists a close connection between the Uighur ancestors (Gaoche, Huihe) and Chinese. So there were a lot of Uighur knowing Chinese very well and also many Chinese had a good command of Uighur. The famous “Vocabulary of Kocho (Turfan)” compiled in the 14^th century is a good example for this.

Scientific studies on Uighur language and philology only began after 1949, i.e. after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. In the following I will give a short report at this respect.

There are the following teaching and Research organizations on Uighur Studies:

Beijing

In my University—Central University for Nationalities, there is the Department of Turkic languages and cultures teaching Uighur, Khazakh and Qirghiz languages. We have 4–5 professors / associate professors and several lecturers, assistants. We have about 300 students every year, coming from Uighur, Kazakh and Qirghiz nations. This Department has the right to give the master and doctor degrees. In addition, in the Centre of Altaistic Studies, the Department of Ethnology, the Department of History of this University there are also staffs engaged in Uighur Studies.

Xinjiang

The University of Xinjiang, the Normal University of Xinjiang both have chairs for Uighur language and literature. Uighur Studies are also pursued in the Kashgar Pedagogical College (in Kashgar) and in the Ili Pedagogical College (in Ining/Kuldja).

Besides Beijing and Xinjiang, Uighur study is represented also in the West- Northern Nationality Institute in Lanzhou (the capital city of Gansu provice). Recently a new Centre for Nationality Studies (including Uighur Studies) was established in the Shaanxi Normal University (in Xi’an, the capital city of Shaanxi province).

Here I want to mention several learned societies connected with Uighur Studies in China: Society of Turkic Languages Research of China, Society of Studies on Uighur History and Culture, Society of Research on the Classical Uighur Literature and 12 Muqams, Society for Border Studies of China, Society for Studies on Minority Languages, Society for Studies on Ancient Nationality Languages and Scripts, Society for Studies on the Central Asian Culture, Society of Altaistic Studies (in Khokh-Khot, the capital of Inner Mongolia). The above-mentioned societies always publish non-periodic publications and convene professional symposiums.

During the past 20 years, Uighur Studies in China can be briefly summarized as follows:

1. As a part of a series of books entitled “Outlines of Minority Languages in China”, volumes dealing with Uighur and the other Turkic languages have been published.
2. As a part of a series of books entitled “Outlines of Minority Histories in China”, volumes dealing with Uighur and the other Turkic poples have been published.
3. As a part of a series of books entitled “Gazeteers of Minority Autonomous Regions, Prefectures, Counties”, volumes dealing with the Uighur and other Turkic peoples have been published.
4. Some famous classical works written in Turkic language have been translated into modern Uighur and Chinese languages, for example: “Maitrisimit” , “Diwan Lughat-at-Turk”, “Qutaghu Bilig”, “Atabatul Haqayiq”, “Legend of Oghuz Qaghan”, “Tarih-i Musiqiyun”, “Tarih-i Hamidiya”, etc.
5. Many middle-sized or large-sized bilingual dictionaries were compiled and published. Many textbooks, grammars and other teaching materials concerning Uighur language have been prepared and published.
6. A great quantity of the Uighur folklore materials had been collected and published.
7. Some important Buddhist and Manichaean Uighur manuscripts were discovered, studied and published. For example, the author of these lines has published the following Old Uighur texts in Chinese, English and German²:
   1. Das Zusammentreffen mit Maitreya (Meeting with Maitreya — the Future Buddha) (Maitrisimit, Hami version) in 2 volumes (co-author), 1989, Wiesbaden.
   2. Eine Buddhistische Apokalyse (A Buddhist Book of Revelation) (co-author), 1998, Opladen.
   3. Daśakarmapathāvadānamālā (Garland of Stories Between Teacher and Pu­pil) (co-author), TDA, 3, 1993, 10, 2000.
   4. A study of one newly discovered folio of the Uighur “Abhidharmakośabhāṣya”, CAJ, vol.33, 1989.
   5. On the Lanzhou version of the Uigur Commentary to the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya, in Festschrift for P. Zieme, Istanbul, 2002.
   6. On Uighur Manichaen³ manuscripts: a) Notes on ancient Uighur official decree issued to a Manichaean monastery, CAJ, 35, 1991. b) Zerstörung manichäischer Kloster in Turfan (co-author), in ZAS, 18, 1985. c) Manis Wettkampf mit dem Prinzen (co-author), ZDMG, 137, 1987. d) Eine Geschichte der drei Prinzen (coauthor), ZDMG, 139, 1989.
   7. Several important inscriptions written in Old Uighur discovered in Gansu province and in Xinjiang were studied and published by the author of these lines.
8. Several important Nestorian (a sect of Chrestianism in Asia) inscriptions written in Syriac and Uighur scripts were discovered in the inland of China and published by me as well as by other Chinese scholars.
9. The author of these lines also published several books and papers on modern Kazakh, Yughur, Tuvinian languages and on the Uighur folklore texts in Acta Orien- talia Hungarica, Materialia Turcica, Türk Dili Araştırmaları.
10. In addition, this author also published some monographs on Uighur and Turkish histories: a) The Uighur Kingdom of Kocho, in History of Civilization of Central Asia, vol. 4 by UNESCO, Paris, 1998. b) On the Fusion of Nationalities in the Tarim Basin and the Formation of the Modern Uighur Nationality, in: Central Asia Survey, vol. 3, 1984. c) Die alttürkischen Steppenreiche (552–745), in: History of the Turkic Peoples in the Pre-Islamic Period, Berlin, 2000.

Abbreviations

CAJ: Central Asiatic Journal
TDA: Türk Dilleri Araştırmaları
ZAS: Zentralasiatische Studien
ZDMG: Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft

[1] According to the fourth population census carried on in 1990.

[2] Here I only list the most important works. Altogether I published 14 books and more than 100 papers on the history, culture as well as old and modern languages of Turkic peoples of China. See the bibliography in Geng Shimin: Collection of the Papers on Language-Literature and History of Xinjiang (in Chinese), 2001, Beijing. About the works on Uighur Buddhist studies see my recent monograph published in “Türkler”, cilt 3, pp. 786–800, 2002, Yeni Türkiye, Ankara. The English original of this monograph was published in a series of books “The Turks” (vol. 3, pp. 896–910) by the same publisher in 2002.

[3] Manichaeism was founded by Mani in 3^rd century. From the VIII to XI centuries this religion had been accepted as official religion in the Uighur Khanate of Mongolia and continued in the Uighur Kingdom of Qocho (Turfan).