[Review:] Arakawa Shintarō 荒川慎太郎. Seika bun Konggo kyō no kenkyū (西夏文金剛經の研究). — Kyōto: Shoukadoh, 2014, by K. Solonin // Written Monuments of the Orient. 1(3), 2016. P. 118–125.
Recent years have seen some important advances in Tangut studies. Despite
persisting difficulties, the Tangut texts, both those translated from Chinese or
Tibetan and original compositions, are now generally readable. At the same time,
much of the current research continues to concentrate on issues of historical linguistics and views the Tangut language through the prism of other languages.
Another aspect of Tangut studies is publication and translation of various texts,
predominantly of Buddhist nature. However, the linguistic and philological-cumhistorical approaches are rarely combined in one study. A recent publication by
Arakawa Shintarō is one happy exception to this rule. This book successfully
combines linguistic and philological approaches and concerns itself with issues of
synchronic description, rather than with historical reconstructions...