Criticism and bibliography. Reviews

A. A. MASLOV. THE HISTORY OF CHINESE CIVILIZATION. Metodicheskoe posobie [Methodological guide], Moscow: Unikum-press, 2000, 28 p. (1);

A. A. MASLOV. China: BELLS IN THE DUST. WANDERINGS OF THE MAGICIAN AND INTELLECTUAL, Moscow: Aleteya Publ., 2003, 376 p., ill. (The Hidden History of Civilizations) (2);

A. A. MASLOV. China: TAMING DRAGONS. SPIRITUAL SEARCHES AND SACRED ECSTASY, Moscow: Aleteya Publ., 2003, 480 p., ill. (The Hidden History of Civilizations) (3)

Recently, many books about China have appeared on the book market, which, obviously, according to the authors and publishers, should give the reader basic information about Chinese history and culture. It is a good thing, but some of these publications are striking not with the information presented in them, but with a large number of errors and absurdities. Anyone can admit inaccuracy, but in some publications, a peculiar attitude to facts seems to become part of the author's style. Here, for example, is a methodological guide (1) compiled by Professor, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Head of the Department of General History of RUDN University A. A. Maslov, and two books written by him (2, 3).

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What does the reader who opens these works see? Already in the first section of the "Methodological guide" "The formation of the civilization of ancient China", the following information is provided: "Early hominids in China. Synanthropus (Homo pekinesis), Zhoukoudian site, upper and lower caves. Lantian (correct: Lantian )¹ person. Neolithic period in China. Yangshao and Longshan cultures, painted ceramics " (1, p. 6). Since Lantian is a much earlier monument, it should be mentioned before talking about Zhoukoudian. Lantian and " Lantian man "are 800-600 thousand years away, while Zhoukoudian and" sinanthropus "or" Peking man " (Homo erectus pekinesis or Sinanthropus pekinesis) are only 500-200 thousand years away. Both of these sites belong to the early Acheulean (1 million-400 thousand years BC). It would be logical to mention here the finds of the earliest hominids - Nihewan (prov. Hebei, 2.55-2.43 million years BC) and Yuanmou (prov. Yunnan, 1.7 million years BC), which belong to Olduvai (ca. 2.4-1 million years BC). Further, the manual immediately refers to the Neolithic, no Paleolithic monument is mentioned. Finding the logic here is quite difficult.

Let's take another aspect of Chinese studies-dating the main stages of Chinese history over the last millennia, starting from antiquity. We remind our non-Chinese colleagues that in the XII-III centuries. B.C. there was a state of Zhou in China. Its history is divided into two periods: first comes Western Zhou (XII-XI centuries -771 BC), and then Eastern Zhou (770-221 BC). In one of his books, A. A. Maslov writes: "The first period of Zhou's existence, which began in 1050 BC. It was called Western Zhou. In 771 BC, the capital of Zhou, after numerous wars and rebellions, was moved east to Henan Province, which marked the beginning of the Eastern Zhou period "(3, p. 129). However, the following text also goes through the page: "The transfer of the capital in 771 BC to the west, to Henan, created a watershed between During the two great periods of Zhou's existence, yi gave rise to what became known as the Western or Late Zhou (770 - 221 B.C.) ... at the same time, it also became a period of chaos, which contrasted sharply with the relative calm on the Central Plain that prevailed during the Early or Eastern Zhou period " (3, p. 131). Thus, first it is said that Western Zhou was earlier than Eastern Zhou, and then that Eastern Zhou was earlier than Western Zhou. The mention of "Western Zhou", when it really refers to the East, can be found in the second book.: "In fact, this is what is behind the many debates of the Western Zhou period schools of thought. Western Zhou (770-255 BC) was a time of fierce struggle between dozens of kingdoms " (2, p. 20).

As you know, the Eastern Zhou era, in turn, is divided into two periods: "Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn)" (770-453 BC) and "Zhanguo (Struggling Kingdoms)" (453 - 221 BC). In A. A. Maslov's book "The Period of Spring and Autumn" is dated "700-500 BC" (3, p. 427), and we also read there about "the period of the Warring Kingdoms (475-331 BC)", "the Zhanguo period (the Warring Kingdoms, 475 - 331 AD). B.C.)" and even " the period of the Warring States (475-331 B.C.)" - all three times with an incorrect date (3, pp. 48, 70, 253).

In the third century BC, China was united by the state of Qin and there was a short period (221-206 BC) when China was first ruled by Qin Shi Huang (d. BC), and then the throne passed to his infant heir. From the book by A. A. Maslov, we learn that " The first unified Qin Empire emerged only in the II century BC "(2, p. 20), as well as about "the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang (II century BC)" (2, p. 142) and about the fact that "Meng Tan-military commander and official under the Qin Shi Huang Emperor (II c . tradition attributes the invention of the brush to him" (2, p. 249, ill. 97).

From 206 BC to 9 AD, China had a unified Western Han Empire founded by Liu Bang, from 9 to 23 AD was ruled by Wang Mang, and from 25 to 220 AD was the period of the Eastern Han State founded by Liu Xiu (Guang Wu-di). In peer-reviewed works, one can find not only an incorrect dating of this period ("starting from the Han era (II century BC - II century AD)" (2, p. 180), but also the following judgment: "in 25 AD, Liu Bang (Guang Wu-di) comes to power, who considered himself the successor of the direct line of Han rulers. The capital is moved a little further to the east" (3, p. 140). As already mentioned, Liu Xiu (after his death he was called Guang Wu-di) came to power in 25 AD, and Liu Bang (posthumous name - Gao-tsu) came to power more than two hundred years earlier in the III century BC.e. and then founded Western Han. In the "Methodological guide"

¹ Here and further in the text of the review, the authors highlight in bold the correct spelling of proper names, dates, and facts.

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first, it is reported about the creation of the Western Han by Liu Bang, but through the sentence follows: "The expansion of China's borders and campaigns during the reign of Wu-di (141 - 187)" (1, p. 9). Actually, the emperor Wu-di in the Western Han period ruled from 141 to 87 BC. By the way, in one of the books A. A. Maslov dates his reign (if not his life) as "141-187 BC" (3, p. 288).

The manual also contains the following paragraph: "The usurpation of the throne by Wang Mang (9-25) and his reforms" (1, p. 9). Since Wang Mang was killed in 23, he could not have usurped the throne before 25. Then we read about the period after the fall of the Eastern Han in the third century AD: "The period of political chaos (190-317 BC) "(1, p. 10). We will not discuss here whether more than a hundred years of Chinese history can be called a period of"political chaos." We will only draw the reader's attention to the "BC" in the given date.

Then in the manual there is the following thesis: "Temporary Unification of China during the Western Qing Period (265-316)" (correct: Western Jin).

Where it is said about the Chinese Middle Ages, in the books of A. A. Maslov there are " the Tang era (VI-VII centuries) "(3, p. 158) (correct: VII-X centuries), "the Sui-Tang periods (V-XII centuries)" (2, p. 177) (correct: the beginning of the Sui period-VI century, the end of the Tang period-X century), and "the aspirations of aesthetes and intellectuals of the Tang-Song period (VI-XIII centuries)" (3, p. 277) (correctly: VII-XIII centuries), the arrival of the Mongols in China and the creation of the Yuan state there dates back to the XII century. (2, p. 216) (correctly: XIII century) ² .

It is interesting that in the book you can also find the correct dates of the mentioned historical periods, but how can a non-specialist reader understand which ones to believe? There are even errors in the reference materials placed at the end of the books. The Map of China of the Neolithic and Shang-Yin Periods available in one of the books (2, p. 335) depicts Tang China; in the chronological tables, the "Spring and Autumn Period", as already mentioned, is dated to "700-500 BC" (3, p. 427), and the "Spring and Autumn Period" (3, p. 427). The Jurchen state of Jin, which perished in the 13th century, is called "Qing" four times (1, p. 13, 24; 2, p. 428; 3, p. 337), i.e. the same as the empire created by the Manchus in the 17th century.

It is noteworthy that at the beginning of the program A. A. Maslov lists the "points" that the student "should know and understand". The first of the " moments "are called" the main dates and events of Chinese history " (1, p. 5). I would like to note that the teacher should also know them.

By the way, where the author talks about the Qing period (real), the reader will also find a lot of amazing things. Here are some excerpts from the "Methodical Manual". The title of the section is interesting: "China on the threshold of modern times and the Qin Empire "(correct: Qing; the state of Qin existed in the third century BC). Next, we are talking about the early period of Qing history: "Strengthening of centralizing tendencies, creation of the supreme state authority Zhongqichu (1729)" (1, p.16). Correctly, this authority in the Russian transcription is called Junjiichu (Military Council)³ .

The following passage deserves a detailed comment: "The beginning of the importation of opium to China by the West Indian (correctly: East India, or, if the author wants to translate this well-established name in Russian literature, "East Indian" ) campaign (correctly: company ) (correctly: from the XVIII century; by 1796, the East India Company had already been established in the country). ceases direct opium trade with China and begins operating through individual merchants associated with it). Growing opium imports creating an economic deficit (1820-1825) ⁴ . Lin Zixu's (correct: Lin Zexu) measures against opium imports, a series of opium wars (from 1839) , and the defeat of China by Britain ⁵ . The Treaty of Nanking of 1842, which opened up a number of cities for the import of opium (it would be more correct to say: for foreign trade) "(1, p. 16).

² The reader can check the dates given here using the chronological tables placed in the first volume of the "Big Russian-Chinese Dictionary" [BKRS, 1981, pp. 63-64, 143-149].

³ Such incidents usually occur when the corresponding name or term is taken from English-language literature and transliterated without taking into account its actual spelling in Chinese (in the Wade-Giles transcription, this name is written as Chun-chi ch'u).

⁴ It is not clear whether this means a budget deficit or a foreign trade deficit, obviously the latter. The dates were chosen unreasonably. The famous work of the American sinologist I. Xu says about this period: "Between 1781 and 1790, the influx of silver to China amounted to 16.4 million taels, and between 1800 and 1810 -26 million taels. This favorable balance for China was maintained until the mid-1820s, when it came to a state of equilibrium. After 1826, the balance began to shift in the other direction: between 1831 and 1833, about 10 million taels left China" [Hsu, 1995, p. 168].

⁵ So in the text. It is not clear, however, what" series " of wars took place before the defeat of China in 1842.

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The program also talks about the culture of the Qing period (1, p. 17): "Porcelain and faience. Issue of encyclopedias under the Yongzheng Emperor. Dictionaries of rhymes ("Peiwen Yunfu"), hieroglyphs ("Kangxi Jiatian") (correct: "Kangxi zidian"). Critical literature, "Juilin waishi" (correct: "Zhu lin wai shi", by Wu Jing-tzu) ("Unofficial History of the Confucians") (1745 - 49)"⁶ .

There are several references to the Qing period in A. A. Maslov's books. So, in one place (2, p. 129) it is said: "For example, on the birthday of the Qianlong Emperor (1700), his ministers presented him with 60 similar rui with gold filigree." I would like to note that in 1700 it was impossible to bring anything to the Qianlong Emperor, since he was born only in 1711. From another section of the same book (2, p. 155) , we learn the following: "The leader of the Taiping Rebellion (1868), Hong Xiuquan, declared himself one of the sons of God after severe psychological stress, having failed in state exams." It is difficult to say what was meant: whether Hong Xiuquan (as he was actually called), according to A. A. Maslov, declared himself one of the sons of God in 1868, or the author believes that then the Taiping revolted under his leadership. It is difficult, first of all, because Hong Xiuquan died in 1864 and in 1868 he had absolutely no opportunity to do anything. The reviewed texts also include, for example, "the famous leader of the 14th-century rebels, Sun Jian, the hero of the famous novel "River Backwaters "" (3, p.371). Note that this character did not act in the XIV century, but in the XI century, and his name was Song Jiang. In order to establish this, it is enough to open the afterword by A. Rogachev to the translation of "River Backwaters", published in the 1950s, which begins with the words: "In the Songshi, a dynastic history of the Song era (960-1279), it says:" In the third year of the reign of Xuanhe (1122) Song Jiang invaded the Huaiyang region and captured a number of other regions" " [Rogachev, 1959, p. 622].

The most memorable mistake seems to be in the personal name of Confucius (the famous Chinese philosopher was called Kung Qiu), who was twice called by the author by his last name and first name, and both times incorrectly-Kung Qu. By the way, the chapter where this is written is called " Dialogues with Confucius "(2, p. 100, 107); presumably, A. A. Maslov's dialogues with Confucius. The "Methodological Guide" (1, p. 7) also mentions the most famous Confucian text: "Confucianism: Confucius and his treatise "Lun Yu" ("Conversations and Judgments")". "Lunyu" is not a treatise of Confucius, but a collection of his sayings, texts of conversations with students, conversations of students among themselves, short stories about the events that happened to Confucius, and about him. This text was compiled by the disciples of Confucius.

Returning to the question of the name of the ancient Chinese philosopher, I would like to note that there are many problems with transcription in peer-reviewed texts in general. In one passage (3, p. 370), the author refers to those whom the author calls "children for divination" or " children for questions to spirits "(ji tung), " who, as he writes, were sometimes referred to "simply as" children " (dongzi)", and in some cases ""sacred children "(shendong)" . It is unlikely that they were called so, since the words mentioned here are correctly read as ji tong , tongzi and shenipong . The motto of the first Ming emperor's reign was not" Hun-u " (3, p.288), but Hun-u. Sometimes it's not easy to understand exactly what the author is talking about. So, in one of the sections of the book " China: bells in the dust "(2, p. 310) refers to the trade in things " allegedly related to the periods of the Qianlong and Xingzhen reigns (1723-1735)." What was meant in the second case: the motto of the emperor's reign (Yongzheng) or his personal name (Yinzhen )?

The presence of hieroglyphs in the text, which the author could pay attention to when proofreading, also does not guarantee anything. So, in the book " China: the taming of dragons "the"lonely soul" (gua hun) is mentioned " (3, p. 335). And on the next page there is a caption under the illustration: "Abandoned" or "lost" souls (guajuan). Next to them is the bodhisattva who protects these souls (guahun pusa). Dore )" (3, p. 336). In fact, the characters shown in the drawing are read as guhun .

The most unlucky character is sheng (usually translated as "wise" or "holy"). It was misread three times in three different places, and twice in the captions under the illustrations on which it is depicted. The Christian " Holy Scripture "in Chinese is not" Shen ching "(3, p.25), but"Shen ching". And here is the caption to il. 36 (2, p. 117) of the book " China: bells in the dust": "The first teacher Confucius, who reached the state of a sage-shang". At the same time, on the image itself-

⁶ The date is incorrect; in the preface to the Russian edition of Zhu lin wai shi, in the second paragraph, the translator of the novel D. N. Voskresensky writes:: "In the fifties of the XVIII century, already at the end of his life, Wu Ching-tzu finished his first and only prose work - the satirical novel" Unofficial History of Confucians " [Voskresensky, 1999, p.5].

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walkie talkie reader sees the inscription: "Zhi sheng hsien shi Kung-tzu" (zhi sheng is often translated as "the all-wise one"). In the book " China: the caption under Figure 106 (3, p. 264) says that "Tiangxiang xiangmu" is depicted here, but the figure itself shows a hieroglyphic inscription under the image of the deity: "Tianxian shengmu". The most interesting error of this kind is the incorrect transcription of the first-person singular pronoun "I" as o (2, p.129) (correct: vo).

The translation of the names of a number of texts and the dates associated with them are also puzzling. The famous encyclopedia of the Sung period "Taiping Yulan" is not only mistakenly called a treatise, but also the translation of its name is made with an error. In one place (3, p.474) A. A. Maslov calls this work "A Treatise on the Great Peace", which is completely unacceptable, in another (3, p. 433) - "A highly approved canon on the Great Peace", which is a little closer to the truth, but still incorrect. It seems that the author confuses this encyclopedia with an equally well-known, but completely different text-the work "Tai Ping Ching", which appeared about a thousand years before" Taiping Yulan "and which, with a certain stretch, can still be translated as"A Treatise on the Great Peace". The concept of tai-ping used in the title "Taiping yulan" does not refer to the object of research ("treatise of fr... "), and on the chronological framework, since it denotes the motto of the reign of the North Sung Emperor Taizong (Taiping Shingo, 976-980) - it was during this period that the main work on the preparation of this huge encyclopedia was carried out [Flug, 1959, p.150]. Accordingly, its name should be translated as "Imperial Review [of the years of] Tai-ping".

The same questions also appear when talking about the Taoist Canon. In the beginning, it is reported that "the processes of 'textualization' of mystical knowledge led to the appearance in the fifth century of the first catalog of Taoist texts-a direct 'descendant' of the famous Taoist canon 'Tao Tsang' ('The Treasury of Tao') " (3, p. 63). a single and very extensive compendium of the Tao Tsang - the Treasure House of the Tao or the Guardian of the Tao - was published only in 1607, in the late period of the Ming Dynasty " (3, p. 76). Moreover, by indicating the year 1607, the author clearly demonstrates his ignorance of the compendium about which he writes. Its full name is "Zheng-tong Dao tsang", which literally means "Treasure House of the Tao [years] of Zheng-tong". It was during the Cheng-tong era, which dates from 1436 to 1449, i.e., the early Ming period, that this huge book collection was printed, which included 5,305 juanets of texts. In 1607, a relatively small supplement of 180 (or 181) juans was compiled to it, called the "Supplement to the Taoist Canon [years] of Wan-li" (Wan-li xu Tao tsang). At the same time, the Taoist Canon of the Zheng-tong era was reprinted together with the addition of the Wan-li era (Kobzev, Morozova, and Torchinov, 1986, pp. 165-166).

The author seems to have very little familiarity with the texts he refers to or talks about. For example, he believes that the "Chu ci" ("Chu Stanzas") were collected in the IV century BC by Qu Yuan (3, p. 259). However, this collection could not have been composed by Qu Yuan in the fourth century BC, as it includes a number of texts created after Qu Yuan's death by the successors of his tradition. In fact, the Chu Chi codex was compiled only in the first century BC by Liu Xiang (77-76 BC). Another thing is that the works belonging to Qu Yuan or identified with his name occupy an honorable place in it [Serebryakov, 1969, pp. 172-173].

The author mentions the text "Canon of the Artless Girl", but apparently does not know its Chinese name, and therefore incorrectly gives its transcription - "Sunyu Jing" (3, p.412) (correctly: "Su nu jing"). In standard transcription of Chinese names, the "hard sign" is used to indicate the boundary between syllables. In the entry of A. A. Maslov, this boundary is indicated incorrectly, and therefore the transcription proposed by him can rather be translated as "Canon of Sun jade".

The author incorrectly translates the title of the famous Han-era philosophical text Huainan Tzu. In one place, he calls this work "The Sage Huainan" (3, p.202, 204, 475), probably believing that it was composed by a certain mystic named Huainan. In another place of his work, having probably already read some part of this treatise (or the preface to it), the author points out that this text has a group of authors, but settles them in the mountains (3, p. 436, 437). In fact, the title of this treatise translates as "Philosophers from Huainan", where Huainan is "the general name of the lands located to the south of the Huai River, in the II century BC - an appanage principality". This essay "was the result of discussions that were conducted at the court and at the active-

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with the participation of Huainan Wang, Prince Liu An... his "guests" - members of the creative community "[Pomerantseva, 2004, p. 5].

One of the oldest Chinese dictionaries, Erya, A. A. Maslov for some reason calls part of the " Book of Poetry "(3, p. 282), by which, apparently, he means "Shi Jing" ("Book of Songs"). This is incorrect, "Erya" was never part of "Shi Jing". "Erya" is an explanatory dictionary, which was intended for reading texts that were considered ancient in the III century BC (the time when the main part of the "Erya"was compiled) [Yakhontov, 1980, p. 95]. Even more went to the dictionary "Showen jiezi", repeatedly mentioned in the book "China: taming dragons". First, the author translates the name of this dictionary as "Interpretation of words" (3, p. 432, 440). This is a shortened translation that more or less corresponds to its short Chinese name "Sho Wen". In its full form, the name "Showen jiezi" means " Explanation of simple characters and dissection (i.e., decomposition into parts with subsequent explanation) of complex characters." Secondly, in one place A. A. Maslov considers this dictionary to be the fruit of collective labor ("The compilers of the dictionary" Showen jiezi " believed that..."(3, p. 264), and in another - calls the author Xu Shenyu (3, p.432, 440). Neither the first one nor the second one is incorrect: this dictionary has one author, but its name is not the same.Xu Shen [Yakhontov, 1980, pp. 96-97].

A. A. Maslov constantly makes mistakes when pointing to libraries-series. In particular, he repeatedly refers to the library-series "Sybu zongkan" (3, p. 430, 433, 435, 438- 440). However, there is no book collection with this name in China, but there is "Xibu Congkan". In addition, the author translates the title of this book series as "Works compiled in four corners" or, on the same page, as "Collected Works in Four Corners" (3, p. 439). Both of these translations are wrong. Chinese culture knows two completely different and disparate classification systems, whose names sound similar in Russian. The first of them is the classification of "four corners" (si hao), it serves to classify hieroglyphs. The system got its name because the hieroglyph is encoded with four single digits, where each digit conditionally records the elementary feature that is located in one of the four corners of the hieroglyph [BKRS, 1983, p. 185]. The "four corners" classification is used in some modern Chinese dictionaries and reference books for indexing hieroglyphic material. Another system is the classification of books into "four sections" (si bu ), used in traditional Chinese bibliography and based on the thematic distribution of all works in four storage divisions: Confucian classics (Ching), history (shi), philosophers (tzu ) and collections (ji). It originated in the fourth century, was finally formed by the sixth century, and was used up to and including the twentieth century (Menshikov, 1988, pp. 167-173). It is this system that is indicated by the term si bu, which is present in the name of this library-series, and therefore "Sibu Cuncan" should be translated as "Collected works in four sections".

Another library, the series, which the author calls "Zong shu qi cheng" (3, p.433) and "Zong shu ji cheng" (3, p. 439), was also unlucky. Both the first and second versions of the name transcription contain errors (correct: "Tsung shu ji cheng"). The library series "Si bu bei yao", which the author writes down correctly, but translates as "Collection of the most important works in four corners" (3, p. 264), was in a slightly better position, apparently confusing the system of classification of hieroglyphs in four corners with the bibliographic classification in four sections (correct translation: "Collection of the most important works in four corners"). the most important works in four sections ").

Finally, in the list of literature at the end of the methodological guide, we read: "Stulova E. P. Kitay Gorod. XI-XIII vv. Moscow: Nauka, 1979" (1, p. 27). E. S. Stulova did not write this book, its author was E. P. Stuzhina. Similarly, E. M. Yanshina did not write the book "Formation and Development of Ancient Chinese Philology" (3, p.434), her work is called "Formation and Development of Ancient Chinese Mythology" (Moscow, 1984).

This list, as they say, can be easily continued by us. I would also like to note that in this review we focused mainly on subjects related to the history of ancient China and modern China, with religious studies and partly with source studies. Surely, experts on other periods of Chinese history and other areas of Chinese culture will also find a lot of interesting things in these publications. Here are just two examples:: "After the death of Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, who enjoyed great popularity among the people and was considered a defender of ordinary people, in September 1976, thousands of people came to this monument, considering it as a symbolic grave of Zhou. In fact, it was a demonstration against Mao Zedong himself, one of its slogans was "We don't need a new Qin Shi Huang."

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This was a clear reference to Mao Zedong, who associated himself with the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang (II century BC) " (3, p. 381). In fact, the demonstration in memory of Zhou Enlai, who died in January 1976, took place in April 1976. In September of this year, official mourning events were held in Tien Anmen Square in connection with the death of Mao Zedong (d. September 9), where, of course, there were no attacks against the authorities. Well, as has been said many times before, Qin Shi Huang died in the XI century BC and could not live in the II century BC. I would also like to point out that the famous Chinese dissident's name is Fang Lizhi, not Fan Lizhi, and the Chinese historian whose works were widely published in Russian in the 1950s is not Guo Mozhe (1, pp. 20-21), but Guo Mozho.

Such an attitude to facts directly affects the presentation of the material and devalues all the efforts of the author (including those that he spent on reading modern foreign sinological literature). Let's give a very simple example when this approach leads to comic consequences. Speaking about one of the Chinese aphorisms ("three in the morning, four in the evening"), A. A. Maslov explains its origin as follows:: "The answer to this riddle is found in one of the parables set forth in Chuang Tzu. Sun Wukong, the" monkey king, " once suggested that his fellow monkeys give him three chestnuts every morning and four in the evening. The monkeys didn't agree. Sun Wukong then changed the suggestion to give four chestnuts in the morning and three chestnuts in the evening. This time the monkeys were satisfied" (2, p. 208). If the reader is surprised by the presence of Sun Wukong in such an early text and opens Chuang Tzu (for example, translated by V. V. Malyavin), he will read the following in the second chapter: "Trying to understand the One and not knowing that everything is one is called 'three in the morning'. What is "three in the morning"? Once upon a time there was a man who kept monkeys in a house, and this man once said to his monkeys: "In the morning I will give you three measures of acorns, and in the evening-four." The monkeys were angry. Then he said: "Well, I'll give you four measures in the morning and three in the evening." And all the monkeys were happy" (Chuang Tzu, 1995, p. 68). So in "Chuang Tzu" - not Sun Wukong, but "a certain person", and he does not demand from monkeys, but gives, and not chestnuts, but measures of acorns.

But the example is somewhat more complex. According to A. A. Maslov, the famous painter and calligrapher Mi Fei (Mi Fu) "was honored to present the emperor with a portrait of his son. The portrait was highly regarded, and this was one of the reasons for Mi Fei's appointment as one of the secretaries of the Office of Rituals." After the artist's death, an "epitaph... painted by Mi Yuzhen , the imperial son whose portrait Mi Fei so brilliantly executed "(2, pp. 235-236). Undoubtedly, some readers will be interested in the strange fact that the emperor's son does not bear the surname Zhao, like all the emperors of the then ruling dynasty, but Mi, like Mi Fu. I want to say right away that there are no complicated relations between the Mi Fu family and the emperor's family here. Everything is easier. Here is what you can learn about this story from the book by E. V. Zavadskaya "Wise Inspiration. Mi Fu (1052-1107)": Mi Fu often broke the rules set for officials, " and to atone for his guilt, tried to propitiate the emperor with gifts. One day, he brought a gift of a landscape painted by his son Mi Yuzhen... This time, the culprit was forgiven... Mi Fu was appointed assistant secretary in the Chamber of Rituals "(Zavadskaya, 1983, p. 20). Thus, it wasn't actually Mi Fu who drew the emperor's son, but Mi Fu's son who drew the painting given to the emperor. The son's name was Mi Fu Mi Yuzhen (not Mi Yuzhen). Mi Yuzhen himself is a fairly well-known artist, he and his father are often referred to as "the two Mi".

It is also possible that the unsophisticated reader who has picked up this book may think that if the author knows so deeply the esoteric tradition and understands the very essence of Chinese mystical teachings, then perhaps he can be forgiven for a certain disregard for the fundamental-but so mundane! - facts of Chinese history and culture. Unfortunately, we are forced to disappoint such a reader - the factual errors that the author makes in explaining the Chinese mystical tradition are no less than when describing the history of China or its culture. Only the limited scope of the review prevents us from analyzing the relevant errors in the works under review in more detail.

In general, it seems to us that readers who want to learn about the history and culture of China from peer-reviewed books may find themselves in a very difficult position: some of the information in them is correct, some contain errors, and some lines are simply generated by the creative thought of the author.

page 202

list of literature

Large Chinese-Russian Dictionary (BKRS ). Vol. 1. Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1983.

Resurrection D. N. Wu Jingzi and his novel "Unofficial History of Confucians" //Wu Jingzi. Unofficial History of Confucians, Moscow, 1999.

Zavadskaya E. V. Wise inspiration . Mi Fu (1052-1107). Moscow, 1983.

Kobzev A. I., Morozova N. V., Torchinov E. A. Moskovskaya "Treasury of the Tao" / / Peoples of Asia and Africa . 1986. N 6.

Serebryakov E. A. O Qu Yuan i chu strofakh [About Qu Yuan and Chu stanzas]. Collection of articles, Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1969.

Menshikov L. N. Rukisnaya kniga v Kitae v 1 thousand AD [Handwritten book in China in 1 thousand AD]. Essays. Book 2. Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1988.

Pomerantseva L. E. Filosofy iz Huainani (Vveditel'naya stat'ya) [Philosophers from Huainan (Introductory article)].

Rogachev A. Afterword / / Shi Nai-an . River backwaters . Roman in 2 volumes / Transl. with kit. A. Rogachev. Vol. 2. 2nd ed. Moscow, 1959.

Flug K. K. Istoriya kitayskoy pechatnoy knigi sunskoy epokhi (Kh-KHSH vv.) [History of the Chinese printed book of the Sung Era (X-XSH centuries)]. Moscow: Izd. AN SSSR, 1959.

Chuang Tzu. Le-tzu / Translated from Chinese, introductory articles and notes by V. V. Malyavin, Moscow: Mysl', 1995.

Yakhontov SE. History of linguistics in China: Istoriya lingvisticheskikh ucheniy: Drevnyj mir [History of linguistic Studies: The Ancient World].

Hsu I. C. Y. The Rise of Modern China . Fifth Edition. N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1995.

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