Yin Xu: Step into the ancient Russian-speaking world

At the report meeting of the winning paper of the education department of the Chinese Embassy in Russia, Yin Xu made a report.

In a month, Yin Xu will defend his doctoral dissertation at Moscow University. The defense passed, and his journey of studying the ancient Russian language would take another stop.

As far as his major was concerned, during his doctoral studies in Russia, a domestic teacher communicated with Yin Xu and asked him, "What should I do after returning to China, who will learn this?"

Indeed, in the eyes of many teachers and classmates, the ancient Russian language major is "not very good for employment, and the practicality is not strong." But in Yin Xu's view, ancient Russian is his interest and worthy of his involvement. "It's true that employment is not easy, but you can't stop learning because it's not practical. Ancient Russian was an integral part of Russian language studies and needed someone to do it. ”

Enter a new world of scholarship

According to Yin Xu, there are currently fewer talents studying ancient Russian in China, and many scholars in this field are older. "At Peking University, where I studied for my undergraduate and master's degrees, Mr. Zuo Shaoxing is an expert in this field of research, and he is 89 years old." Yin Xu said, "Not only in China, but also in Russia, there are not many local students who choose ancient Russian as a special research object, because they will take into account the future employment situation." ”

But Yin Xu was very firm in his choice from the beginning of his interest in ancient Russian. He also remembered that when he was studying for a master's degree in the Russian Department of Peking University, by chance, he was arranged to enter the manuscript of Zuo Shaoxing's article into the computer. Teacher Zuo gave him a copy of the "Reading Book of Ancient Russian Texts" edited by himself, hoping that he would make some suggestions from the perspective of beginners. "Looking at it, I found it very interesting, and I also began to take an interest in the ancient Russian language."

After clarifying his research interests, Yin Xu began to prepare for the realization of future plans. He often browsed a forum for sharing literature and met a young teacher at Moscow University. It was this teacher who introduced Yin Xu to the doctoral supervisor. "My PhD supervisor is very experienced with foreign students, and I was the first student she brought from Chinese mainland." Yin Xu said.

After entering Moscow University, both the curriculum arrangement and the level of teachers brought a great impact to Yin Xu and opened a new door for his research in the field of ancient Russian. "General studies and special topics broadened my research horizons, and at the same time I learned a lot of knowledge in the field of ancient Russian language studies that I did not know before, and then followed the clues of these new knowledge to feel that I had entered a new academic world." Yin Xu still remembers the touch at the beginning of enrollment.

Evaluated by classmates as "tireless"

Yin Xu's ph.D. research topic is the history of grammatical thought, that is, the development of grammatical thought from the end of the 16th century to the beginning of the 17th century. "I have selected two of the more representative works for analysis, which can be seen as the predecessors of the Russian grammar dictionary. Through research, it analyzes its similarity and relevance with modern dictionaries. But dictionary comparison is only part of the study, and what is important is to analyze the ideas contained in ancient dictionaries. ”

Before starting the study, Yin Xu needed to enter one of the dictionaries into the computer to prepare for the subsequent statistical analysis. "My mentor has already entered one before, and the larger one needs to be entered by myself. There are so many symbols that you can only enter this most basic method by hand. "From November of the year of enrollment to October of the following year, Yin Xu devoted most of his energy to the input work, and the final result was a Nearly 500-page Word document." With familiarity with the material, it can be entered and analyzed at the same time. If you encounter some special phenomenon, it will be marked, which lays a solid foundation for essay writing. Yin Xu said.

Time-consuming and laborious entry work is boring and requires a long time to face the computer. "Once you start typing, even eating is casual, but it's nice to see the results progress." Yin Xu said, "Most of the language research I have come into contact with in Russia is based on examples for statistical analysis, and in the process of entry, I will find interesting phenomena, I will feel excited, and I have the motivation to continue to do it." ”

The surrounding students saw the input work done by Yin Xu, some admired, some could not understand, in their view, "there are not many students doing similar research, it is too boring, it is difficult to insist." Yin Xu's response was based on "interest." He remembers that in January of the second year of school, there were 10 days of enrollment work from waking up in the morning to before going to bed at night. "It may have something to do with my personality, sitting down and not bothering to move." My classmates had an evaluation of me – tireless, thinking that I was too obsessed with learning. ”

Fill in the gaps in the study of the history of grammatical ideas

After the entry was completed, Yin Xu began to enter the stage of thesis writing, and even the occasional dinner with classmates to relax was canceled. During that time, cooking became his main recreational activity. Falling asleep in the early hours of the morning and waking up at eight or nine in the morning, such a schedule was the norm during his thesis writing, and it hardly changed. Classmates joked with him: "The farthest place Yin Xu has been in Moscow is the airport. ”

In September last year, Yin Xu completed thesis writing. For him, writing in Russian is the most difficult part of essay writing, because it requires thinking in Russian and adapting to the wording, word order, and interstatement connections in Russian writing habits.

What makes Yin Xu even more memorable is that after the thesis was completed, the supervisor was admitted to the hospital for surgery for physical reasons. As soon as he was discharged from the hospital, he began to change his thesis, calling every day to tell him which paragraph needed to be changed. "It was revised word by word, and it took more than a month to change it. I was very touched by the teacher's responsible attitude towards the students, and I hope that in the future I will be as responsible for the students as the teacher. Yin Xu said.

In the process of writing the thesis, in May 2016, at an international academic conference, Yin Xu gave a report on the phased results of his graduation thesis, and the response was very good. "On this topic I studied, so far, there are only two articles in the research literature that can be seen." As Yin Xu's teacher commented on his graduation thesis, "Fills the gap in the study of the history of grammatical thought." Yin Xu said that among the expressions recognized by the academic community, the earliest version of the Russian grammar dictionary appeared in the 20th century. Through analytical research, he and his teacher came to the conclusion that the prototype of the Russian grammar dictionary had appeared as early as the end of the 16th century.

Someone once asked Yin Xu: "What contribution does the academic research you are engaged in to social development?" ”

Yin Xu replied: "From the perspective of the entire study of ancient Russian language, the study of any independent document is meaningful, complementary, and confirmed. (Reporter Zhao Xiaoxia)

People's Daily Overseas Edition ( 2019-08-15 Edition 08)