Chinese philosophical classics in poetic translations. On the philosophical and symbolic meaning of images of nature in Chinese poetry. Philosophical inspiration of poetry

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It is quite well known that the most natural way of self-expression for traditional Chinese philosophy was the literary form, and in this parameter it is comparable to, say, Russian philosophy. Consequently, for an adequate understanding of Chinese philosophical thought, an analysis of its poetic and metaphorical means of expression is necessary (for more details, see), but, conversely, for an adequate understanding of classical Chinese poetry, it is necessary to fully understand and identify its deep philosophical nature. Chinese poetry cannot be freed from the appearance of frivolous primitiveness until its wisdom is enlivened by the “holy” spirit of Chinese philosophy. The often encountered affection for the supposedly childish spontaneity and simplicity of this poetry is nothing more than a misunderstanding. Chinese poetry is the “finest juice” of Chinese culture, and it is already a priori clear that the quintessence of such a complex and refined culture cannot be simple and immediate.

As for Chinese philosophy, within the spiritual culture that gave birth to it, it has (to use a mathematical term) a larger area of ​​definition than any Western philosophy. The flip side of this circumstance is that philosophical ideas in China have a more extensive arsenal of means of expression. This statement does not contradict the narrowness of the problematics and categorical apparatus of traditional Chinese philosophy, often noted by researchers, since its recruitment of expressive means is carried out “vertically”, i.e. due to the specific universal classification of concepts and the reduction of elements of the resulting classes into a one-to-one correspondence. An early, but already quite developed example of such conceptual schematism is the 24th chapter of “Shujing” “Hong Fan” (“Majestic Sample”). Such a construction makes it possible to express the ideas contained in the “foundation” through the structural elements of both the first “floor” and the “roof”. Moreover, inside each “floor” there is a kind of connecting material that guarantees strict unambiguity of transitions from one level to another. In order to avoid unfoundedness, we will try to illustrate the stated thesis with concrete material, that is, to grasp the metaphysical meaning where one does not seem to count on its presence.

Let us turn to two poems by Du Fu that seem far from philosophy at first glance. Their choice is dictated precisely by earthly concreteness, and not by the empyrean abstractness of the content. The key to success in the ongoing search can be considered, firstly, that we will be talking about classical examples of the work of the luminary of Chinese poetry, from which we should expect maximum realization of the above-described potentials inherent in it, and secondly, that at least their non-uniqueness meaning is reliably established. Behind the immediate semantic plane of poetic description, another semantic plane is clearly recreated - a specific socio-political situation, defined by the sum of realities. Moreover, the art of borrowing and allusion, developed to the point of virtuosity in Chinese literature, drawing into the orbit of poems certain particles of the classical literary heritage of the past, creates in them a kind of individual literary microworld, which stands out on a special semantic plane. As the Daodejing teaches, “One begets Two, Two begets Three, and Three begets Ten Thousand Things” (§ 42). Consequently, there is reason to assume the existence of some other semantic plan.

So, it is necessary to show at least four semantic levels of the hieroglyphic poetic text: the first - given directly in translation, the second - historical realities, the third - the “literary microcosm”, the fourth - metaphysical speculation. Since in this case we are mainly interested in the latter, more or less special comments on the poetic translation are followed by their general analysis, in which one of the leading themes of Du Fu’s poetic masterpieces is interpreted with the help of canonical philosophical treatises. It appears at the very beginning of both poems and can conventionally be called the theme of water. The general analysis ends with an attempt to explain the metaphysical commonality of two poems, paired from the point of view of the Chinese cultural tradition. As for the comments given point by point, they intersperse information related to the second, third and fourth plans.

The translations are based on the edition of “Three Hundred Poems of the [Era] Tang with Detailed Explanations.” A special literary analysis of the first of the proposed poems was carried out by L. A. Nikolskaya in the article “On Du Fu’s poem “Beauties”. Our translation of this poem was also published there in incomplete form. Both poems, as far as we know, have not previously been translated into Russian .

Song of Beauties 1

On the spring holiday of purification 2
Breathing renews the firmament 3.
In Chang'an capital 4, near the waters
A wonderful collection of beauties.

Far away thoughts, become majestic,
Purity is combined with beauty.
The whole appearance is full of lovely tenderness 5,
Marked by the highest bodily harmony.

Spring, whose duration is decreasing,
In the silks of the outfits it glows festively,
They have a unicorn burning in silver 6
With the golden-woven firebird 7 is crowded.

What are their heads crowned with?
Green woven petals,
Hanging gracefully above the temples,
The kingfisher covers them with light down.

What does your gaze find behind your back?
Pearls in a pressing veil
They put on the frozen train of the dress,
As if cast on the body 8.

Inside, behind a canopy embroidered with clouds—
Relatives of the queen from the Pepper Palace 9,
Gifted from the highest person -
Qin, Guo 10 - great principalities by names.

Camels brown humps
From emerald vats grow,
And the fish shine with silver scales
In crystal bowls that are clearer than water.

Rhino bone sticks 11
Almost frozen, having completed their work,
But with bells the knives multiply in vain
Blind abundance of fine dishes.

Having raised his bridle, the eunuch driver 12 rushes,
The dust doesn't move - the flight is so fast.
The palace cook in a continuous line
With him he sends eight priceless dishes.

Pipes and tambours mournful lament
Disturbs pure spirits and devils.
A motley collection of courtiers and guests
There is a gathering of high-ranking dignitaries.

But here is the horse trampling in confusion
Accompanies someone's tardiness!
The guest leaves a horse at the pavilion,
The patterned carpet is in a hurry to occupy.

Down covers poplar
A simple duckweed by an avalanche 13.
Agile magpies on their tail
Spreading good news 14 .

The power of the minister 15 is not matched -
Touch threatens to burn -
Be careful not to get close to him,
Be afraid to appear before his menacing gaze.

1 “Song of the Beauties” (“Li Ren Xing”) was written in the spring of 752. Ideologically, it is associated with the extraordinary growth of power at the court of the Yang family, based on the affection of Emperor Li Longji (Xuanzong, 712-756) for his concubine - the famous beauty Yang Guifei. The vicissitudes of the events described are a favorite plot of Far Eastern literature. Of the works on this topic available in Russian translation, it is enough to indicate.

The whole poem is based on rhyme zhen- “true, authentic” (perhaps a hint at the veracity of this “poetic information”). The hieroglyph “zhen” itself completes the 3rd verse, it is also included in the official name of Yang Kuei-fei - Taizhen (Great Truth), given to her by order of the emperor ( Guifei- her personal title, meaning “Precious Sovereign’s Spouse”). This poetic device more than compensates for the absence of the name Yang Guifei in the poem. The song is clearly divided into three semantic parts, successively transferring the description from the general view of the celebrating beauties of the capital to the feast of the imperial favorites, and then to the manifestations of the omnipotence of the temporary ruler Yang Guozhong (about him below).

2 Lit.: “on the third day of the third moon,” i.e. on the holiday celebrated on this date. In 752 it fell on the third ten days of March. Further, in the third stanza it is called the end of spring (mu chun). According to the Chinese calendar, the year began in spring, so the third month of the year was also the last month of spring.

3 Literally: “heavenly qi is renewed” (tian qi xin). The hieroglyph “tian” denotes not only the sky itself, but also nature in general, taken in the unity of its spatial and temporal characteristics. It can also denote the nature of an individual person (see, for example,), apparently due to the idea of ​​​​homorphism of the macro- and microcosm, as well as due to etymological kinship: the hieroglyphs “tian” and “ren” (man) go back to a single etymon . “Air, breath” (qi) - in a philosophical sense, this is a kind of material-spiritual pneuma that makes up the dynamic substance of the universe. Hence, tian qi not just air and not just weather, but the essential state of nature (the universe), including human nature. Thus, by indicating the renewal, or change, of this state at the very beginning, a metaphysical exposition is set, warning of possible deviations from the usual course of things and the normal behavior of people.

4 Chang'an, now Xi'an, one of the two capitals of Tang China, the main city of Shaanxi province.

5 Combination neither(lovely tenderness) can also be understood as “subtlety and fullness”, “graceful fullness”, apparently hinting at the fullness of Yang Guifei herself.

6 In the original: qilin- a mythical augury animal with the body of a deer and one horn.

7 In the original: kunque(peacock).

8 For drawings of an aristocratic female costume of the Tang era, see:.

9 “Pepper Palace” - the palace of the Empress, when plastering the walls of which pepper was used, according to the organizers, it helped preserve heat and created an aroma. For the present context, it is significant that the stimulating spice (pepper) symbolized fertility.

10 In 748, the emperor, as a sign of special favor, granted the three sisters of Yang Guifei the names of the principalities of Han, Guo and Qin as titles (see, however, here, in contradiction with what was said on p. 15, it is said that Lady Qingguo is “one of the aunts” , not Yang Guifei's older sister).

11 The horn of a rhinoceros, like the antlers of deer and wapiti, has a stimulating effect, thereby once again emphasizing the immoderation of the festival.

12 In the original: Huang Men(yellow gate). This established designation for court eunuchs is due to the fact that the color yellow symbolized everything imperial. It is also known that Yang Guifei was especially fond of the color yellow.

13 Poplar in Chinese - yang. These lines hint at the Yang family's protege, Yang Guozhong, officially Yang Guifei's elder cousin. Some sources report that he was her brother. This is a clear mistake. According to other sources, Guozhong illegally appropriated the surname Yang, being in fact the son of a certain Zhang Yizhi. Lu Xun held a similar point of view, considering him to be Yang Guifei's half-brother (see). His proper name was Zhao, and Guozhong (Loyal Subject of the State) was the personal title granted to him. The allegory with “Pople Down” alludes, according to commentators, to Yang Guozhong’s appropriation of the surname Yang (Poplar) and his love affair with Lady Guoguo mentioned in the poem. Therefore, it is difficult for us to agree with the opinion of L.A. Nikolskaya, who believes that Du Fu hints at the intimate intimacy of Yang Guozhong with Yang Guifei herself. Duckweed flowers were previously used in the wedding ceremony and, apparently, are also intended to symbolize intimacy - Guozhong and Guoguo. A similar symbol was the burial of Mrs. Gogo under a poplar. To demonstrate the non-accidentality of this kind of symbolism, we can point out the similar role of the plum in the life of Yang Guifei’s rival, Mei’s favorite (Plum). She had a passion for the flowers of this tree and was buried near a plum tree.

14 Ext.: “blue-green birds fly away holding red scarves in their beaks” (Qing Niao Fei Qu Xian Hong Jin). This line is very rich in mythological imagery. In the “Book of the Later Han [dynasty]” in the “Biography of Yang Zhen” (ts. 84), a commentary on the name of Yang Zhen’s father, Yang Bao (here the same surname Yang as Yang Guifei) reports the following about him. As a nine-year-old boy, he saved a yellow bird from death and came out (Huang Qiao - Passer rutilams?), which then returned to him in the guise of a boy in yellow clothes, introducing himself as a messenger from Xi-wan-mu (the mythical Western Lady) , “brought in his beak” (xian) four white rings (bai huan) and predicted prosperity for the descendants of Yang Bao. The connection of this story with Du Fu’s verse is indicated primarily by the use in both cases of the hieroglyph “xian” “to hold in the mouth (in the beak).” Thanks to the story of Yang Bao, the hieroglyph “xian” paired with the hieroglyph “huan” formed the phraseological unit “xian-huan” (to thank for mercy). Therefore, although in the text of Du Fu's poem the character "huan" does not accompany the character "xian", its semantic influence can be found there. This virtual presence, in all likelihood without much difficulty, should have been actualized in the minds of readers due to the fact that the hieroglyph “huan” was included in Yang Guifei’s childhood name - Yuhuan (Jade Ring).

The story of Yang Bao ends with the following words from the “yellow-mouthed” slate: “Your descendants (sons and grandsons) will reach [degrees] san shi, what these rings correspond to.” The Yang Bao clan, according to the Hou Han Shu, came from Huayin County (Shaanxi Province), but the Yang Guifei clan also came from there, so their relationship is quite likely. And it follows that the above prediction can also be considered as extending to Yang Guifei. Some other circumstances could have given the poet the idea to play up this situation. The term “san shi” (three affairs) in the quoted phrase is synonymous with the term “san gong” (three highest dignitaries), and the names of all these three positions first included the hieroglyph “tai” (great), later - “da” (great ), therefore they were also called “san tai” (three great ones). Thus, the presence of the “tai” sign in the name-title Taizhen seemed to equate Yang Guifei to the three gunas, or san shi. The basis for considering it as the fourth “supernumerary” gong also arose due to the fact that the messenger Si-wan-mu brought four rings, but correlated them with three shi, i.e., as if he left one ring not intended for any of these three. The poetic imagination thereby received the legal right, using the technique of literary reminiscence, to address this ring - a symbol of the highest social status - to the probable descendant of Yang Bao, who became the helm of state power. Moreover, the “white ring” (bai huan) perfectly matches the name Yuhuan (Jade Ring), since jade (yu) in China has always been associated with the color white.

The name Taichen is another thread that connects Yang Guifei with Xi-wan-mu - this was also the name of one of the daughters of the mythical Western Lady (cf.).

Chinese philologists find the source of the established metaphorical name for messengers - “blue-green birds” (qing niao) in the following story from “Han Wu Gushi” (“Stories [associated with] Han Wu[-di]”): “Into the -my day of the seventh moon (pay attention to the holiday date. - A.K.) suddenly blue-green birds appeared - they flew in and sat down in front of the palace. Dong Fanshuo said: “This [means] that Si-wan-mu will arrive.” And soon Si-wan-mu arrived. She was accompanied by three blue-green birds at her side” (quoted from). Three blue -green birds are a standard attribute of the Western Lady (see, for example, “Shan Hai Jing” - here they are translated as “green birds”).

Modern Chinese commentators of Du Fu's poem identify blue-green birds with three-legged (note the significance of the number "three" here) crows - messengers of happiness (san zu wu), and interpret the entire line in the sense that to Yang Guozhong Messengers are sent with good news. But three-legged crows - the messengers of happiness - are the same as the red crows (chi wu), about which, in particular, it is said in “Lu shi chun qiu”: “Before the time of Wen-wan came, Heaven showed fire. Red crows, holding red letters (xian dan shu) in their beaks, sat on the altar of Zhou [house]. And here again we see how birds holding red objects in their beaks (xian) [writing (shu) is very close to scarves (jin)] express the idea of ​​evangelism.

The fact that “blue-green birds” are associated in China primarily with good news is evidenced by the translation into Chinese of “The Blue Bird” by Maeterlinck using the term “qing niao”.

In light of all that has been said, and also taking into account the fact that in China magpies are traditionally considered harbingers of happiness and good luck, the use of Russian messengers in translation - magpies - seems justified to us.

15 The formidable and all-powerful minister is Yang Guozhong. Shortly before the Song was written, in 752, he became a “right” minister, and in 753 he also acquired the position of head of the Department of Public Works. Subsequently, during the rebellion of An Lushan, which declared its goal to overthrow him, this temporary worker was executed along with Yang Guifei herself.

The Song of Du Fu very colorfully depicts all sorts of excesses to which successful favorites indulged, but, according to the primordial belief of the Chinese, nothing that violates the measure can not exist for long. Therefore, “rumor unanimously named three as the culprits of the An Lushan rebellion - Guozhong, Mrs. Guoguo and Yang Guifei”, which is why Du Fu’s lines are fraught with condemnation. However, the cruelty of the violent death of the favorites was also a violation of the measure, but in the other direction, to which the poet reacted accordingly by condemning what happened, in an inverted form of regret about the past.

Crying at the river's head 1

Old Villager from Small Hill 2,
We oppress with groans, we torment with sobs,
On a spring day, lurking, he wanders there -
There are 3 bends to the Winding River.

The palace stands at the head of the River,
I put locks on thousands of gates.
So who are emerald tides for?
Young reed and tender willow? 4 .

In the memories of the shine of bygone times,
When it grew over South Park
Sparkling Rainbow Banners
And the darkness of things gave birth to a variety of colors.

Lady and first person
Palace of the Blazing Sun 5
I sat with the sovereign in the carriage,
Serving him like a devoted guard.

State ladies, at the head of the motorcade,
They bring a bow and arrows with them.
Their horses are snow-white 6
The golden bit is chomping at the bit.

Suddenly turning to the sky,
The shooter aimed his bow at the cloud -
Flying headlong, one arrow
Knocks two wings to the ground.

But where are the eyes clear today? 7
And bright are the pearls of the teeth?
Stained with blood - defiled -
The spirit wanders, having lost its home! 8

The transparent Wei 9 current rushes to the east,
But you have to enter into the depths of Jiange.
The one who remains here and the one whose purpose is
If they leave, they won’t be able to give each other news 10.

And a person in whom feeling 11 is alive,
Breast 12 will be watered with a sad tear.
Her abodes are river flowers, water
The final limit is not known.

The golden luminary is dying,
Dusk falls and xy 13 ,
Chasing horses, they rush by on horseback,
Filling the capital with a dust whirlwind.

Located south of the city
Continue your sad path.
And the northern limit from there
Contemplate with hope 14 .

1 “Crying at the River’s Head” (“Ai Jiang Tou”) was written in 757, apparently while Du Fu was still in captivity among the rebels, as can be judged by the “secrecy” (qian) of his journey to the Winding River.

2 The Old Villager from the Small Hill is the pseudonym of Du Fu, taken by him due to the fact that his family lived near the Small Hill (Shaoling), located in Chang'an County.

3 Winding River is not the name of a river, but of a lake located near Chang'an. “River head” (jiang tou) thus actually means the end of the lake. Winding River was often visited by Yang Guifei. The events described in the Song unfolded near this lake; Even the Han emperor Liu Che (Wu-di, 141 - 87) built a park dedicated to spring on its shore (I Chun Yuan), and in the Tang era and, therefore, during the time of Yang Guifei, festivities and feasts took place on the third day right next to its waters third moon. Therefore, the very title of this poem builds a bridge to the previous one. The mention of Liu Che as the organizer of the lake is necessary in order to show another thread from the tangle of symbolic connections - usually in works dedicated to Yang Guifei, a parallel is drawn between Emperor Li Longji and her, on the one hand, and Emperor Liu Che and his wife Li - with another.

4 A willow branch is a traditional symbol of longing for separation.

5 With the emperor’s visit to the Palace of the Blazing Sun (Zhao yang dian, also translated as the Palace of Splendor and Splendor), the rise of Yang Guifei began, and then she occupied this palace, so by “first person” she meant herself.

6 The snow-whiteness of the suit is not accidental, but a constant epithet, indicating the high value of the horse. At the same time, it apparently carries a hint of a mourning outcome, since white is the color of mourning (compare with the similar mourning symbolism of Du Fu’s poem “The White Horse”).

7 The eyes are clear” - “bright pupils” (min mou) - an indicator of spiritual purity (more details below).

8 This refers to the murder of Yang Guifei, whose highest spirit (hun) is doomed to wander.

9 The Wei River (a tributary of the Yellow River), distinguished by the transparent purity of its waters, in the popular consciousness is contrasted with the muddy Jing River, with which it connects, which is captured in the idiom “Jing-Wei”. The poetic contrast between these two rivers appeared already in Shijing (I, III, 10). The name of the river, which has such a figurative meaning. Wei once again reports the spiritual purity of Yang Guifei, buried by her waters.

10 Jiange (Castle of Swords - translated by B. A. Vasiliev) is a district in Sichuan province, where Li Longji went deep, rushing to the west to hide from the rebels in Chengdu. Yang Guifei remained dead off the coast of Wei, which was heading east.

11 This line (in the original - ren sheng yu qing) can be understood as “people and everyone who has feelings,” that is, all living beings; supports this interpretation and a similar combination of homogeneous members in a parallel line: jiang shui jiang hua“river waters and river flowers.”

12 Breast(s) are not just a part of the body, but a material symbol of the soul, which is reflected in the hieroglyph And, which consists of the signs “meat” and “thought”. The breast owes its high status to its proximity to the heart, from a traditional Chinese point of view, the center of all human mental abilities.

13 Hu- designation of the Uyghurs and other peoples who lived to the north and west of China. The rebel general An Lushan himself was xy, and the army that occupied Chang'an was largely composed of non-Chinese "barbarians".

14 Winding River Lake, located south of Chang'an, was located on a hill that made the area convenient for observation. The north attracted the poet's attention because from there (from Ningxia province) he expected the arrival of the liberation troops of the new emperor - Li Heng (Suzong, 756-762).

General analysis

Let's start with the first verse of the Song. Another designation for the holiday of the third day of the third moon is “double three” (chun san). There are many such double holiday dates in China, for example: the fifth day of the fifth moon, the seventh day of the seventh moon, the ninth day of the ninth moon. The numerical symbolism of dates is also superimposed on the symbolic connection of the holidays with each other. In particular, the dual dates themselves form dyads. The third day of the third moon is associated with the ninth day of the ninth moon both through the numerological unity of three with nine, and due to the symmetrical position in the cycle of time - in the annual cycle of months. Rituals performed in autumn are associated with mountains, and spring ones with waters. On the ninth moon, according to ancient custom, it was necessary to climb the mountains and perform prayers, and on the third moon, cleansing ablutions were performed in order to protect against evil influences. That’s why the Song begins its description with the beauties near the waters. The connection between mountains and waters in the Chinese worldview is more than close; the two hieroglyphs that designate them, brought together, express the concept of landscape, thereby showing that mountains and waters are represented in the form of a kind of coordinate grid thrown over any natural phenomenon. These coordinate axes operate not only in the field of worldview and perception of nature, but also in the field of worldview. Confucius owns the aphorism: “The knowledgeable one rejoices in the waters, the humane one rejoices in the mountains. The one who knows is actively active (dun), the humane is calm. He who knows rejoices, he who is humane lives long” (“Lun Yu”, VI, 23). Here is a sample of the binding material mentioned above. If we carry out the operation of superposition, it turns out that on the “water” holiday of the “double three” one is supposed to enjoy and rejoice, and the time of the “double nine” corresponds to a minor mood and sublime (literally and figuratively) thoughts. The latter is fully confirmed by the constant minor key sounding in the poems dedicated by Chinese poets to the ninth day of the ninth moon (see, for example,). This means that the major intonations of the Song of Du Fu are prescribed by the “statute” of the holiday itself to which it is dedicated. The joyful nature of the “water” holiday on the third moon, associated with love, was already noted in such classical monuments as “Shujing” (I, VII, 21) and “Lun Yu” (XI, 26).

The image of water, which emerges at the very beginning of the poem, immediately directs it towards its symbolic meanings. He reaches out with a thread of allegory to the unnamed, but nevertheless central character of the Song - Yang Guifei, for legend says that it was after swimming in the palace pond (in the spring!) that the emperor's love descended on her. The extraordinary role of ablutions in her life is evidenced by the famous painting by Zhou Fan (?) “Yang Guifei after bathing.” It is also significant that a pond was named in her honor. Yang Guifei's career began near the water, and it ended near the water: she found her grave near the Wei River. It is no coincidence, I think, that the emperor escorted the favorite doomed to death “to the northern exit to the post road” and buried her “north of the main road”, for in the Chinese universal systematics water, as one of the five elements, corresponds to the country of light - north. In “Lamentation,” written after the death of Yang Guifei, when the full seriousness of the mission of water in her destiny was fully revealed, the theme of water sounds with even greater force.

Probably, among all peoples, water was associated with the sensual-bodily feminine principle (see, for example, Porfiry). The mermaid element of water in traditional Chinese poetry turned into a metaphor for carnal beauty, imbued with voluptuousness (see, for example, about totemistic and early animistic ideas associated with the cult of mountains and rivers, see). For us in this case, it is important that this coordination was not only present in mythological ideas, but was also ratified by philosophical thought. In the Hong Fan taxonomy of correspondences, the natural-physical property of water to flow downwards is fixed as a metaphysical attribute (Chou 1, see). And in “Lun Yu” the downward direction of movement already appears as an attribute of low people (XIV, 23), in subsequent reasoning they are reduced to the same category as women (XVII, 25). The numerical symbol of water is six, and it is six in the I Ching system that serves as the standard designation for the feminine principle of yin. As an element in opposition to fire or soil (that), water forms the “female-male” opposition. The expression, which literally means “watery color” (shui se), has the meaning of “female physique, female appearance.” In addition, the “double three” is in some way identical to the six. The connection between water and the feminine principle is obviously based on the general property of passivity, the ability to perceive another form. Water is an ideal symbol of passivity, since it perceives any images with the mirror of its surface, and fills any forms with its substance. In this sense, it is significant that in Hong Fan the statement of a “majestic example” Hong Fan is associated with the ordering of “majestic waters” (Hong Shui): the model finds in water the best recipient of exemplaryness.

The image of water in Chinese philosophy was also a traditional symbol of human nature. This tradition began with the controversy between Mencius and Gaozi, in which both sides recognized human nature (xing) as like water, and its essential quality - kindness or unkindness - as similar to the desire of water to flow in one direction or another. Gao Tzu considered the indifference of water to whether it flows east or west to be analogous to the indifference of human nature to good and evil. Mencius considered the inevitable tendency of water to flow downward to be analogous to the inevitable inclination towards goodness inherent in human nature (Mengzi, VI A, 2). It is important to keep in mind that the hieroglyph “sin” denotes not only the nature of a person in general, but also more specifically his gender (sexus), therefore the analogy between syn(nature) and Shui(water) naturally contains a feminine characteristic; on the other hand, the hieroglyph “sin” in its most general meaning of “nature” extends to the nature of water. In this sense, the identity of the characteristics of the feminine principle and water in the Daodejing is completely natural: “The female usually, thanks to [her] calmness, defeats the male, [for] thanks to [her] calmness she strives downward” (§ 61); “In the Celestial Empire there is nothing more pliable and weak than water, but among the things that overcome the hard and strong there is nothing that could defeat it” (§ 78). The femininity of water in this treatise is also expressed by the fact that it is likened to Tao(§ 8), which, in turn, appears to be the “mother of the Celestial Empire” (§ 25, § 52), “the mother of the darkness of things” (§ 1).

Both poems demonstrate the triumph of weak female nature in the best possible way: in the Song - physical and real, in “Crying” - metaphysical and ideal, i.e. the triumph of an unforgettable image.

You should also pay attention to the connection between knowledge and joy and pleasure, which is opposite to the biblical idea: knowledge is sorrow.

The fact is that in China, socially significant (effective) knowledge was traditionally considered true knowledge, and it was supposed to bring success to its owner in life. Refined metaphysical knowledge, lying outside the framework of the social context, say, Taoist speculation, could be highly valued, however, passing through a different category: self-understanding as wise ignorance, it was accepted by society as an individual lifestyle. The very semantics of the sign “zhi” - “to know” contains the idea of ​​​​social application in the form of the meaning “to manage”, “to know”. Using the above aphorism of Confucius as a key, we can conclude that Du Fu’s lines depict such “knowledgeable ones” who, fundamentally different from the humane, adherents of the mountains, are engaged in active social action, have fun and enjoy. This means that the picture of historical reality created by the poet fits exactly into the “frame” of metaphysical speculation behind the symbols he used.

In terms of historical and cultural parallels, the etymological connection of the Russian verb “to know” with the Indo-European root ĝ en“to give birth”, now manifested in the euphemistic phrase “to know a woman” (since the vocabulary generated by the root ĝ en, originally denoted relationships only between people, and not between a person and a thing. Compare: “Lun Yu”, XII, 22: “knowledge is knowledge of people”), is worthy of being used to explain why the knower loves water. By the way, in European philosophical thought there was also from time immemorial an understanding of the connection between knowledge and love, although this connection was interpreted very differently. Modern Western philosophy does not ignore this issue either; for example, in A. Camus’s thoughts about Don Juan, love appears to be a kind of knowledge: “To love and possess, to conquer and exhaust; here is his (Don Juan. - A.K.) way of knowing. (There is a meaning in this word, beloved in Scripture, where the act of love is called “knowing”).”

The final (seemingly unexpected) motif of menacing danger in the Song actually brings its emotional and metaphysical “melody” to its logical conclusion, again returning us to the idea and image of water, because, according to the I Ching, the property “danger” corresponds to the image of “water”, the unity of which is sealed by a single sign - the trigram “Kan” and its doubling, the hexagram of the same name No. 29 (see).

“The Lament,” just like the Song, does not name Yang Guifei, although all his pathos is directed at her. In addition to the realities directly related to Yang Guifei, such as the Winding River or the Palace of the Shining Sun, the same passwords as in the Song indicate it. Again, everything begins with spring and waters, ending with turning the gaze towards the “side of the water,” i.e., to the north. Moreover, as noted above, the water motif becomes even stronger. This is not difficult to confirm statistically. In the Song, for 181 hieroglyphs of the text (together with the title), there are 8 hieroglyphs that include the sign “water” or are actually one, and in the “Lamentation” there are, respectively, 19 for 143.

(Our calculation was based on a purely formal criterion, so the “fish” and “crying” associated with moisture, as well as the symbolically associated “north” with water, were not taken into account.)

In “Crying”, instead of the “distant thoughts” of predatory beauties, whose characteristics “shu qie zhen” can be interpreted not only as a “combination of beauty and purity”, but also as clarity and clarity of intentions, combined with a sober realistic aspiration, appear "bright pupils" And about the pupils in Mencius it is said: “Of what is inherent in a person, there is nothing better than the pupil. The pupil cannot hide his evil. If there is righteousness in the soul (chest), then his pupil is clear; if there is unrighteousness in his soul, then his pupil is cloudy” (IV A, 15). It turns out that this seemingly external sign contains a high positive assessment of the intellectual and moral state of mind.

We find very important the observation of L.A. Nikolskaya, who notes that in the Song descriptions of beauties are given that relate only to the body, but not to the face, while in “The Lament,” on the contrary, there is an idea of ​​the face. Indeed, in “The Cry,” against the background of the absence of any bodily descriptions, “pupils and teeth” create the image of a face. Consequently, we have before us, as it were, two halves of a Chinese credential tag, the addition of which allows us to obtain a holistic image of the personality of Yang Guifei, a personality understood as a single spiritual-physical organism (shen), in which the face and body are also united (more about personality-body-shen cm. ).

In terms of emotional mood, “Crying” is diametrically opposed to the Song: in the first it is minor, in the second it is major. And in terms of semantic orientation, the poems contradict each other: The Song looks like a sophisticated satire on a beauty who has seized power and wants to have fun and her retinue, and “The Lament” sounds like a sad elegy about a lost beauty, surrounded by an aura of tragic love. The apparently paradoxical contrast is a brilliant embodiment of the most important Chinese worldview principle - the principle of universal polarized duality. The worldwide dyad is made up of polar forces yin and yang, modeling in the image and likeness of their connection the most diverse structures in ontological, epistemological, and aesthetic terms. Relationship yin And yang not just contrarian, it is dynamic, and the seed of its antagonist is embedded in each of the opposite principles. Therefore, in the Song the spring holiday of the “double three” is joyful, and in the “Lament” spring evokes sadness, which is why the major Song “suddenly” ends with an alarming note, and the minor “Lament” “unexpectedly” ends with an optimistic cry of hope. Such a powerful ideological modulator as the concept of universal interpenetrating polarization not only determines the interdependence of the poems under consideration, but also acts as one of the factors of the high aesthetic dignity of this pair.

Literature Cited
1.Anthology of Chinese poetry. T. 2. M., 1957.
2.Wo Ju-i. A song about endless melancholy. - East. Sat. 1. M.-L., 1935.
3. Zenchiku. Yang Kuei-fei.—East. Sat. 1. M.-L., 1935.
4.Ancient Chinese philosophy. T. 1. M., 1972; t. 2. M., 1973.
5. Catalog of mountains and seas (Shan Hai Jing). M., 1977.
6.Kobzev A.I. On the role of philological analysis in historical and philosophical research. - NAA. 1978, no. 5.
7. Kobzev A.I. On the understanding of personality in Chinese and European cultures. - NAA. 1979, no. 5.
8.Li Qingzhao. Verses made of faceted jasper. M., 1974.
9. Lu Yu. Poems. M., 1960.
10.Le Shi. Yang Guifei. — Jade Guanyin. M., 1972.
11. Nikolskaya L.A. About Du Fu's poem "Beauties". — Bulletin of Moscow University. Series "Oriental Studies". 1979, no. 1.
12. Porfiry. About the cave of nymphs. — Questions of classical philology. Vol. VI. M., 1976.
13. Serkina A.A. Experience in deciphering ancient Chinese writing. M., 1973.
14. Sychev L. P., Sychev V. P. Chinese costume. M., 1975.
15. Tao Yuan-ming. Poems. M., 1972.
16. Trubachev V.N. The most ancient Slavic terms of kinship. — “Issues of linguistics.” 1957, no. 2.
17. Cao Ye. The Tale of Mei’s Favorite. - Tang short stories. M., 1960.
18.Chen Hong. A tale of endless melancholy. - Tang short stories. M., 1960.
19.Shijing. M., 1957.
20. Shchutsky Yu.K. Chinese classic "Book of Changes". M., 1960.
21. Yuan K e. Myths of ancient China. M., 1965.
22.Yuefu. From ancient Chinese songs. M.-L., 1959.
23. Daodejing (Canon of Path and Grace).— “Laozi jin yi” (“Laozi” (“Daodejing”) with translation into modern [language]). Beijing, 1956.
24. Lun Yu and Zhu (“Judgments and Conversations” with translation and commentary). Beijing, 1958.
25.Lu-shi chun qiu (Spring and Autumn of Mr. Lu).— Zhu zi ji cheng (Corpus of philosophical classics). T. 6. Beijing, 1956.
26. Mencius and Zhu (“Philosopher Meng” with translation and commentary). T. 1, 2. Beijing, 1960.
27. Tang shi san bai shou xiang si (Three hundred poems [of the Tang era] with detailed explanations). Beijing, 1957.
28.Hou Han shu (Book about the [dynasty] Later Han).—Er shi wu shi (“Twenty-five [dynasty] chronicles”). T. 1. Shanghai, 1934.
29. Tsy hai ([Dictionary] Sea of ​​words). Shanghai, 1948.
30.Zhuangzi ji jie (“Philosopher Zhuang” with a collection of interpretations).—Zhu zi ji cheng (Corpus of Philosophical Classics). T. 3. Beijing, 1956.
31.Camus A. Le mythe de Sisyphe. R., 1967.

Art. publ.: The problem of man in traditional Chinese teachings. M.: Nauka, 1983. pp. 140-152.

Discover the amazing and unique world of ancient Chinese poetry! Tender sadness from separation from loved ones, admiration for the surrounding nature, and philosophical reflections on life became the main theme of the poets’ poems. They were for the most part in the service of the Chinese emperors - poets needed patrons at any time. We can admire the lightness of the lines and the beauty of the images, of course, thanks to the hardworking translators from Chinese, and it is their considerable merit that these poems are so beautiful. Perhaps in Chinese the melody is somewhat different, as is the sound, but not all of us speak the original language.

Chinese civilization is the only civilization on our planet that has developed continuously (all other ancient civilizations have long ceased to exist), and thanks to this it has created and preserved a rich cultural heritage. Writing has existed in China since ancient times, and the invention of paper made it possible to preserve “literary pearls” to this day in an unchanged form, in contrast to those cultures where poetry was transmitted orally, most often in the form of songs, and underwent significant changes over time. Notice how brightly the lines give rise to pictures - you read and see right away! It’s as if a poet were painting a picture with words... Flowers and plants are very common - chrysanthemums, lotuses, pine trees. They are also a favorite of Chinese artists. What seems especially striking to me is that most of the surviving poems were written by men! Not all women can feel the beauty of the world around them so subtly, and this is worthy of admiration.

One of the greatest and most famous poets outside of China is Li Bo. His poems are as charming as watercolor paintings. The elegant style makes them works of art.

Looking at a waterfall in the Lushan Mountains

Behind the gray haze in the distance

The sunset is burning

I look at the mountain ranges,

To the waterfall.

He flies from cloudy heights

Through the mountain forest -

And it seems: the Milky Way

Fell from heaven.

Egret

I see a white heron

On a quiet autumn river;

Like frost, it flew off

And floats there, in the distance.

My soul is sad,

The heart is in deep anguish,

I stand alone

On a sandy empty island.

flowing water

In flowing water

autumn moon.

On the southern lake

Peace and quiet.

And the lotus wants me

Say something sad

So that my sadness too

The soul was full.

Lilac wisteria.

Flowers wrap around in a purple haze

The trunk of a tree that reaches the sky

They are especially good in the spring -

And the tree decorated the whole forest.

The foliage hides the birds singing in a flock,

And a fragrant light breeze

The beauty will suddenly stop,

At least for a moment, for a short period of time.

Li Bo (701 - 762) In the Penglai Mountains

Another name among the great poets - Du Fu (712 - 770)

At the sight of snow

Snow from the north

Breaks into Changsha,

Flies by the will of the wind

Above the houses.

flies

Autumn leaves rustle,

And with the rain

It gets in the way in the fog.

Empty wallet -

And they won’t give you a loan

Pour some wine

In my silver teapot.

Where is the man

What's a simple treat?

I'm waiting.

Perhaps he will appear by chance.

Moonlight night

Tonight

The moon is shining in Fuzhou.

There in the sad bedroom

My wife admires her.

For small children

I was overcome with sadness -

They are in Chang'an

And they can’t think yet.

Light as a cloud

At night, wife's hairstyle,

And hands like jasper

Frozen in the moonlight.

When to go to the window

We'll arrive at midnight

And in the moonlight

Will our tears dry up?

Du Fu "The Old Man's Farewell"

Du Fu "Alone"

Meng Haoran

Spending the night on the Jiande River

Sent the boat

To an island covered in fog.

It's already evening, -

The guest is saddened by the foreignness...

The expanses are endless -

And the sky fell towards the trees.

And the waters are clear -

And the month approached the people.

Spring morning

me in the spring

It was not the morning that awakened:

I'm from everywhere

I hear the cries of birds.

All night long

The rain and wind were noisy.

Fallen flowers

how much - look!

Xie Lingyun

Sunset of the year

I'm overcome with sadness and can't sleep.

Yes, and sleep will not relieve sorrowful thoughts!

Moonlight illuminates the snow cover.

The north wind blows, and is wild and gloomy.

Life goes somewhere without hesitating even a day...

And I feel: old age has touched me...

Gao Qi (1336 – 1374)

I listen to the sound of rain, think about the flowers in my native garden.

Capital city, spring rain,

I sadly say goodbye to spring.

The pilgrim's pillow is cold,

I listen to the rain at night.

Rain, don't rush to my native garden

And don't knock off the petals.

Please save it until I return,

Flowers on at least one branch.

Night at the end of spring

Sobered up. I’m writing goodbye poems -

Spring is already leaving.

Light rain, withered petals,

There is still one branch in bloom.

Distant distances do not attract the eye.

Subtle herbal aroma.

The traveler is sad this spring

Just like a year ago.

In the garden, flowers bloomed on one branch of a pear tree.

Spring lingered for a long time,

Didn't come.

This morning

I saw a flowering branch.

My heart trembled

Suddenly, not at the beginning of flowering,

And at the end,

And this is the last branch.

Tao Yuan-ming (4th-5th centuries).

Human life in the world

Does not have deep roots.

She will fly away as if

Light shadow over the road

And it will scatter everywhere,

Following the wind, whirling, it will rush away.

So do I, who live here,

Not dressed in a body forever...

Sank to the ground -

And we are already brothers among ourselves:

Is it so important that there are

Bone from bone, flesh from flesh?

Joy Found

Let him make us have fun.

With the wine that is available,

Let's treat our neighbors!

Time to flourish in life

Never comes again

And on the same day

It is difficult to rise at dawn twice.

Without wasting a moment.

Let us inspire ourselves with zeal,

For years and moons

They won't wait for a person!

Li Jingzhao, China 12th century poetess

Chrysanthemum

Your foliage is fringed from jasper -

Hangs above the ground layer by layer,

Tens of thousands of your petals,

Like chased gold they burn...

Oh, chrysanthemum, autumn flower,

Your proud spirit, your unusual appearance

On the excellence of valiant men

He tells me.

Let the meihua be buried in flowers,

And yet her outfit is too simple.

Let lilacs be strewn with flowers -

And it’s not easy for her to argue with you...

You don't feel sorry for me at all!

You pour out the aroma so generously,

Giving birth to sad thoughts about that.

Who is far away?

Wang Wei

Stream at Mr. Luan's house

Whistles and whips

Wind in autumn rain.

Splashes and splashes

There is a current between the stones.

I'm breaking it down

Jumping, the waves turn into drops...

flies off again

Scared heron.

Gu Kaizhi

Four Seasons

Spring water

The lakes are full

Quirky in summer

Silence in the mountains.

The radiance flows

Autumn moon,

Fresh alone

In winter - pine.

Lu Zhao-lin

Lotuses on a pond with bends

Above the winding shores

A wonderful smell swirls and floats

Outline of lotuses in circles.

The entire pond is covered with overgrown.

I was still afraid that the wind would blow

Autumn leaves too early...

Only you, my friend, wouldn’t even notice

How they, having fallen, will spin strangely.

TAO QIAN

Bloom colors

It is difficult for us to save for a long time.

No one can delay the days of withering.

What once

Like the spring lotus blossomed,

Today it became an autumn seed box...

Frost is cruel

Will cover the grass in the fields.

It will wilt, dry up,

But she won’t all die!

Sun and moon

Once again he makes his circle,

We're not leaving

And there is no return for us to the living.

Heart with love

Calls to times gone by.

Remember this -

And everything will break inside!

BAO ZHAO

Darkened skies

Covered in a continuous veil,

And flowed in streams

Endless torrential rain.

In the clouds at evening sunset

And there is no glimpse

In drizzling streams

In the morning the dawn drowns.

On forest paths

Even the beast will not leave a trace,

And the frozen bird

Will not leave the nest unless necessary.

Clouds of fog rise

Over the mountain river

Rolling clouds

They sit down on the steep bank.

In bad weather shelter

The homeless man has no sparrow

Lonely chickens

We scattered around an empty house.

From sheer bad weather

The river overflowed under the bridge,

I thought about my friend:

How dear it is far away!

I'm getting old in vain

Quench my bitterness with wine

Even the ringing lute

It will not console you in your sadness about him.

Lu Yu (1125-1210) IN HEAVY RAIN ON THE LAKE

Hao-zhan (689-740) SLEEPING AT THE NIGHT ON THE JIANDE RIVER

Compilation and introductory article: L. Eidlin.

Interlinear translations: G. Monzeler, B. Pankratov, E. Serebryakov, V. Sukhorukov, A. Karapetyants, Tan Ao-shuang, I. Smirnova.

Notes: I. Smirnov, V. Riftin.

Chinese poetry is famous throughout the world. This collection covers the centuries of her heyday, the centuries of her greatest artistic achievements, the centuries of closeness and attention to human life.

What is important and most attractive to us about Chinese classical poetry? Unusuality, national tartness, everything that it reflected from customs, from worldview, from nature and what distinguishes it from all other poetry of the East and West? If it were only so, then it would not arouse anything but curiosity in a non-native reader. But we see how translations of her beautiful examples attract hearts. And this means that the main thing in Chinese poetry is still its universal human beginning, contained in it and until translation, hidden from the untrained eye behind a mysteriously bewitching ornamental wall of hieroglyphs.

Is it really necessary to know so much in order to feel the beauty and naturalness of the lines of a building or a vase, to delve into the meaning of a painted picture, if they were created even by the genius of a people far from us? Here there are no obvious barriers between the viewer and the object of his admiration; here, too, a stranger can sometimes be no less a connoisseur than the artist’s compatriot. The poetry of another people, in order to communicate with itself, requires the translation of words and the transmission of thoughts, which is always not easy and which is not always accessible. Thanks to translation, the literatures of countries and peoples in their entirety rightfully become the literature of the whole world, that is, the literature of universal humanity.

Thanks to the translation, we also learned Chinese poetry. And we realized that her national identity is only a frame for our common thoughts and feelings. And, having understood this, without the slightest prejudice, but rather in anticipation of new joys, we bow to what the translator of Chinese poets was able to convey to us.

And now we are reading the poems of Cao Zhi, placing him at the entrance to that rather unstable space that is called the Middle Ages and begins in the 3rd century: in the first decades it was created by an outstanding poet. The next peak of Chinese poetry after Cao Chih, perhaps the highest, is Tao Yuan-ming. He shocks us with the unexpected simplicity of the word, which expressed a strong thought, with the certainty and pure uncompromisingness of this thought, always aimed at the search for truth.

So we are approaching the threshold of the Tang state, with an abundance of poets, whose intelligence and art, it seems, cannot be surpassed, but they are followed by the Song poets, with their new view of the world, and then the Yuan and Ming, although repeating a lot, but endowing the history of Chinese literature with fresh, original individuals. We end the collection with them, without moving beyond the first half of the 17th century, that is, into the limits marked by the period of the Qing state, although the Middle Ages, as we approximately understand them, are still dragging on and in the 18th century have not yet allowed themselves to be replaced in the meantime , which is already called new. But we must stop somewhere in this stream of centuries-old poetry, which has not yet been forgotten.

Isn’t it really strange that almost two thousand years from Cao Chih and a journey of one thousand six hundred years from Tao Yuan-ming (not to mention the relatively “close” distance from Li Po, Du Fu, Su Shi, Lu Yu), not Is it strange that this distance did not erase the worries experienced by the poets, did not prevent them from being combined with the anxieties of our present day? The patina of antiquity that lay on the bright surface of all these poems did not obscure the living life beating in them. The poems did not lose their fascination and did not remain primarily a literary monument, as happened with a number of classic works of world literature.

Poets of old China before the reader. They do not require detailed recommendations and speak about themselves in their poems. We will talk about the time and circumstances of their creativity, as well as about its main features, conditioned by time and circumstances. We think that our guiding movement alone is enough for poetry itself to sound with full force and tell about those for whom it was created.

The poems are written in hieroglyphic characters. This is their first feature, which could not be noted, it is so obvious. But hieroglyphic writing also makes the translation different, giving it greater freedom in choosing the concepts and words behind the hieroglyph. We would be mistaken if we assume, as is sometimes done, that a Chinese poem is a picturesque spectacle and is itself in some way a picture. Such an assumption, if not a complete untruth, is, in any case, a huge exaggeration, especially for the modern Chinese reader, who sees in the hieroglyph the expression of a concept, and nothing more, and forgets about the origin of the sign. But the concept contained in the hieroglyph is “many-faced” and verbose, and thus a Chinese poem, of course, is more subject to the reader’s imagination than a poem written in phonetic alphabet. The translator is also a reader, and he selects one of the number of reader interpretations available to him and offers it to his reader.

Our collection, covering the 3rd–17th centuries, includes two main genres of Chinese classical poetry - shi and tsi. Shi - poems with a four-word (most often in Dotan poetry), a five-word and a seven-word line, with a two-line stanza, with a caesura in four-word and five-word verses after the second character, and in seven-word verses after the fourth character. Shi is the original and predominant form, which existed, like tsi, until very recently. Tsy appeared later, in Tang times, around the 8th century, and their themes were initially limited to the narrow-minded experiences of the poet. They reached full maturity in the Sung state, and Su Shi in the 11th century proved with his creativity that all areas of poetry are accessible to poetry. Tsy, unlike shi, consist of unequal lines and were composed to certain melodies - first music, and then poetry. The names of the melodies remained later, when the poems lost their musical accompaniment, now unknown to us and determined only by the manner of placement of unequal lines.

Fifteen centuries of Chinese poetry must pass before the mental gaze (as they used to say in the old days) of the reader of our collection. Poet after poet bears witness to the development of thought and literature in Chinese society. First in the small expanses of the “Three Kingdoms”, “South and North”, and then in powerful feudal states, ruled by one dynasty for several hundred years.

And each of the times gave birth to its own poetry, which it needed and was tightly connected with the previous one. Poetry carried with it and preserved tradition. Reading Chinese poets in their order, it is not very difficult to notice their teaching, educational side. Poetry and worldview were in the inseparability that was dictated by the inseparability of science and art. The functions and tasks of poetry were so serious, so necessary for the internal state structure itself, that the least place could be given to the poetry of leisure, the poetry of lazy contemplation or, conversely, ardent passion. We will explain this further.

In the Confucian concept of the universe, man is equal to heaven and earth, living between them and making up with them the triad of heaven - earth - man. Throughout the entire history of Chinese poetry there is attention to man, sympathy, and subsequently service to him. The idea of ​​moral life was dominant in Chinese literature. (Isn’t this also one of the reasons for the preservation of Chinese antiquity?).