In November, the staff of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences celebrated the 70th anniversary of Alexey Anatolyevich Bokshchanin, a sinologist, a wonderful person, an excellent specialist, and the author of numerous works on medieval China.
A. A. Bokshchanin was born on November 7, 1935 in Moscow, in an intelligent family. His father was a well-known expert on the history of Rome, professor of Moscow State University A. G. Bokshchanin, his mother was an art critic and musicologist. Since childhood, he had a great home library at his disposal. In 1953, he entered the Eastern Department of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University. Even then, he showed an interest in the medieval period of Chinese history. Fellow students recall that while studying at the university, A. A. Bokshchanin methodically worked on the lecture material - probably, in the future, this quality often helped him in the critical analysis of medieval Chinese sources. A. A. Bokshchanin graduated from Moscow State University with a red diploma. Paying great attention to his studies, he took an active part in all the activities of student life and was surrounded by friends, preserving their friendship for many years.
In 1958, after graduating from Moscow State University, he became an employee of the Institute of Sinology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1965, he defended his dissertation on "China's foreign relations with the South Sea countries at the end of the XIV-XVI centuries", receiving the title of Candidate of Historical Sciences. In the 1960s and 1970s, A. A. Bokschanin's research focused on China's contacts with the countries of Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean basin, where he described in detail the history of the Chinese fleet under the command of the famous navigator Zheng He.
Later, A. A. Bokshchanin became interested in other aspects of the history of late medieval China, primarily its political and economic institutions. In 1985, he defen ...
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