Briefwechsel J.F. Rock - J. Schubert 1935 - 1961

Joseph Franz Rock (1884-1962), born in Vienna, later with his residence in Hawaii, is well-known as botanist, geographer, philologue and linguist; from 1922 until 1949 he lived in China, where he was engaged in the language and culture of the Na-khi living in Yunnan, between Han-Chinese and Tibetans. Accordingly he became acquainted with the tibetologue and mongolist Johannes Schubert (1896-1976), librarian at the University of Leipzig and later professor and ordinarius at the Eastern Asian Institute of the same university. Longer than a quarter of a century they had a pretty extensive correspondence. Almost all the letters of Rock to Schubert were found in the property left by Schubert, and besides a lot of copies of Schubert’s letters to Rock. Rock’s letters give a vivid picture of his many-years’ stay among the Nakhi-people, of his sientific research work and - after his flight from China in 1949 - of his restless life, his travels in Asia, America and Europe. From Schubert’s letters on the other hand we learn a lot about his studies, but at the same time about the often adverse conditions for his tibetological researchwork, which he - as a librarian at Leipzig University - essentially was able to do only in his leisure time and - later, in the former GDR - in circumstances, which not always were beneficial to scientific research. - The edition is completed by a comprehensive bibliography and an index of personal names quoted in the letters.