BIČURIN, Iakinf (Hyacinth, originally Nikita Jakovlevič). Akulevo, Tsivil’skij district, Kazan Province 29.8.1777* — St.Petersburg 11.5.1853. Russian (Čuvaš) Monk, Orthodox Priest, Sinologist and Central Asian Scholar. Son of Jakov, a deacon, and Akelina Stepanovna. From 1786 studied theology and languages at Kazan Ecclesiastical Academy, graduated 1799, then lecturer there. Ordained as monk in 1802, soon Archimandrite heading the Voznesenskij Monastery near Irkutsk. He did not like monastivć discipline and kept a lover, in 1806 released of his position. Then briefly Rector of Tobolsk Theological Seminary. Head of the Ninth Spiritual Mission of the Russian Orthodox Church in Peking in 1807-1821. At the end he was accused for neglect of his missionary duties, also of undisciplined behaviour and sexual relationships, deprived his rank of archimandrite and in 1823 incarcerated in Valamo (Valaam) Monastery (then in South-East Finland). Released in 1825, he worked as an interpreter at Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in St.Petersburg and engaged himself in active literary work. In 1828 he was elected corresponding member of Imperial Academy. In 1835-37 he was in Kjahta founding there the first Russian school of Chinese language. He was the first to write scholarly accounts of China and Central Asia in Russian.
*According to Walravens & Stache-Weiske 2015, 178f. nt. 537 he was born 1770, but other sources agree in 1777.
Publications: Zapiski o Mongolij. 1-2. 339 p. St.P. 1828, German transl. B. 1832; Istorija pervyh četyreh hanov iz doma Čingisova. 16+440 p. St.P. 1829; Opisanie Čžungarii i vostočnago Turkestana v drevnem i nynešnem sostojanii. 1-2. 46+270 p. St.P. 1829; Istoričeskoe obozrenie ojratov ili kalmykov s XV stoletija do nastojaščego vremeni. 255 p. St.P. 1834.
– Opisanie Tibeta v nynešnem ego sostojanii. S kart’ju dorogi iz Čen-du do Hlassy. Perevod s Kitaiskago. St.P. 1828; French transl. “Description du Tubet, traduite du chinois en russe par le Père Hyacinthe, … notes par Klaproth”, JA 2e s., 4, 1829, 81-158, 241-324.
– Statističeskoe opisanie Kitajskoj Imperii. 1-2. St.P. 1834; Opisanie Pekina, s priločeniem plana sej stolicy, snjatago v 1817 godu. 130 p. St.P. 1829; Han’-vyn’ ci-myn’. Kitajskaja grammatika. 241 p. St.P. 1835; Kitaj, ego žiteli, nravy, obyčai, procveščeie. 442 p. St.P. 1840; Kitaj v graždanskom i nravstvennom sostojanii. 1-4. St.P. 1848.
– Sobranie svedenij o narodah, obitavših v srednej Azii v drevnija vremena. 1-3. St.P. 1851.
– Further works and articles, translations from Chinese.
– Avtobiografičeskaja zapiska. Ed. P. Savelev. St.P. 1856.
Sources: *Russkij biogr. slovar’ 8 (s.v. Iakinf); Bolščaja sov. ènciklop.; *P. V. Denisov, Nikita Jakovič Bičurin: Očerk žizni i načnoj dejtel’nosti. Čeboksary 1977; Alexander Kim, “The Life and Works of N. Ia. Bichurin, a Pioneer of Russian Sinology”, AOHu 66, 2013, 163-178 with bibliography and further Russian sources; *N.S. Moller, “IB v dalekih vospominanijah ego vnučki”, Russkaja Starina 1888:8, 271-300 & 9, 525-560; *H. Walravens, Iakinf Bičurin, russischer Mönch und Sinologe. Eine Biobibliographie. B. 1988; Wikipedia (briefly, with portrait, but the very long Russian version has many details, further references and several pictures).
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