Irina Fedorovna Popova


Irina Fedorovna Popova is a Russian sinologist and historian. Since April 2003 she has been the Director of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences at Saint Petersburg, Russia. She is also Head of the Department of Manuscripts and Documents of the IOM RAS, and Full Professor at St Petersburg State University.
Popova has been a visiting scholar with the Center for Chinese Studies in Taipei, University of Pennsylvania, Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, and Peking University.

Education

Popova graduated in 1983 from the St Petersburg State University, and completed her Ph.D. in 1989 at the Russian Academy of Sciences. She holds a Doctor of Sciences degree in history from the Russian Academy of Sciences. The subject of her Ph.D. thesis is "Rules for Emperors" by Tang Taizong as a source on the Chinese Political Thought of the 7th century, and the subject of her Doctoral thesis is The Theory of the State Rulership in the Early Tang China.
Honorary Professor of several universities in China: Lanzhou, Ningxia, Shandong, Peoples’ University of China, Shaanxi Normal University, Honorary Doctor of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of China. Member of the Council on Science and Education under the President of the Russian Federation.

Research

Basing primarily on the documents of the Tang dynasty, Popova has contributed to the study of imperial rulership in medieval China and the study of the influence of the political practice and imperial ideology in pre-modern China. She has introduced into the academic use the original documents from Dunhuang and Turfan, Chinese epigraphic texts, visual sources on the history of Qing dynasty, archival material on the history of Russian expeditions in Central Asia and history of the Oriental studies.
Popova is an author of more than 200 academic works , including 9 monographs ; editor of 19 collected works; Editor-in-chief of academic journals: “Pis'mennye pamiatniki Vostoka”, “Strany i narody Vostoka”, “Written Monuments of the Orien” ; Deputy Chair of the Editorial Board of the academic series “Pamiatniki pismennosti Vostoka”. Member of the editorial boards of Russian and foreign academic periodicals, including “Turfan Studies”, “Study of the Documents in the Chinese Minorities Scripts”, “Studia Orientalia Slovaca”, etc.

Awards

1. Попова И. Ф. . Политическая практика и идеология раннетанского Китая . Moscow, Vostochnaya Literatura Publishers, 1999, 279 pp.; Review: V. S. Myasnikov. In: Problemy Dal’nego Vostoka, 2001, No. 1, pp. 179-182.
2. Popova I. F. The Administrative and Legal Regulations of the Tang Emperors for the Frontier Territories. In: Central Asian Law: An Historical Overview. A Festschrift for The Ninetieth Birthday of Herbert Franke. Ed. by W. Johnson, I. F. Popova. Society for Asian Legal History, The Hall Center for the Humanities, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Ks., 2004, рр. 41-54. 3. Цинский Пекин. Картины народной жизни . Introduction, translation from Chinese, commentaries by I. F. Popova. St. Petersburg, Slavia Publishers, 2009, 248 pp.; Reviews: T. A. Pang. In: Pis'mennye pamiatniki Vostoka, 1, 2010, pp. 277-279; Walravens, Hartmut. In: Monumenta Serica. No. 59, рр. 586-588.
4. Dunhuang Studies: Prospects and Problems for the Coming Second Century of Research / 敦煌學:第二個百年的研究視角與問題 / Дуньхуановедение: перспективы и проблемы второго столетия исследований. Ed. by I. Popova and Liu Yi. St. Petersburg, Slavia Publishers, 2012, 367 pp.; Review: 榮新江 Rong Xinjiang. 俄羅斯的敦煌學 --- 評《敦煌學：第二個百年的研究視角與問題》及其他 . No. XIII, pp. 563-578.
5. Тангуты в Центральной Азии . Ed. by I. F. Popova. Moscow, Vostochnaya Literatura Publishers, 2012, 501 pp.
6. История Китая с древнейших времен до начала XXI века in 10 volumes. Ed. by S. L. Tikhvinskyi: vol. III: Троецарствие, Цзинь, Южные и Северные династии, Суй, Тан . Ed. by I. F. Popova, M. E. Kravtsova. Moscow, Nauka - Vostochnaya Literatura Publishers, 2014, 991 pp.,.
7. История Китая с древнейших времен до начала XXI века in 10 volumes. Ed. by S. L. Tikhvinsky: vol. IV. Период Пяти династий, империя Сун, государства Ляо, Цзинь, Си Ся . Ed. by I. F. Popova. Moscow, Nauka –Vostochnaya Literatura Publishers, 2016, 942 pp.:.
8. Словари кяхтинского пиджина . Translation from Chinese, publication, transcription, research and annexes by I. F. Popova and Takata Tokio. Moscow: Nauka - Vostochnaya Literatura Publishers, 2017. 603 pp. + facsimile. :.
9. Попова И. Ф. . Жемчужины китайских коллекций Института восточных рукописей РАН/ Pearls from the Chinese Collections of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, RAS. St. Petersburg: Kvarta Publishers, 2018:.
10. Азиатcкий Музей – Институт восточных рукописей РАН. Путеводитель [Asiatic Museum – Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, RAS. Collections and Personalia. Moscow: Nauka – Vostochnaya Literatura Publishers, 2018.