On September 27, 2013, the VIII Quarterly seminar of the Department of China of the Institute of Information Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences " China and the World. Traditions and Modernity", supervised by the RAS Scientific Council on Oriental Studies. The seminar was attended by 15 participants, including 13 employees of the Institute of Information Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and two graduate students. 5 reports were read.

E. F. Bayalieva (Institute of Internal Affairs of the Russian Academy of Sciences) made a report on the general characteristics of the most important monument of the Yuan law code "Zhi-zheng tiaoge" ("Articles on the rules [compiled during the reign under the motto] Zhi-zheng"). This text stands out from a number of other Yuan law collections primarily by its almost detective story of discovery. For many years it was considered lost, and only in 2002, in the village of Yandon near the city of Gyeongju (South Korea), when analyzing ancient documents in the house of the noble family Song, a well - preserved and fairly complete copy of the codex was discovered-the only one currently known. Now the books are in a special pavilion of the Academy of Korean Studies. In 2007, a small edition of the book containing the found codex was published in Korea, accompanied by articles by Korean and Chinese experts.1 Since the spring of 2013, the text of the monument has been available on many Chinese websites.

The Code is the latest of the Yuan collections of laws, compiled during the reign of the last ruler of the dynasty - Togon-Temur (1333-1370). Work on the codex lasted about seven years and was completed in 1345; in December, the emperor approved the name proposed by a number of high dignitaries. It was decided to make three copies: one was intended for reading by the emperor personally, the second was kept in the Central Secretariat of Zhong Shusheng , which actually performed the functions of the central government in Yuan China, and the third-in the House of Compiling Dynastic Histories of Guo - shi Yuan . Appropriate orders were issued for the production of prints of the new code for each province. A prominent official named Ouyang Xuan (1273-1357) was commissioned to write the preface to the codex. It is known that many high-ranking officials did not agree with the content of the new code, believing that its composition is dominated by edicts from previous yuan codes, and the new one is extremely small, so it is hardly possible to call it by the motto of Togon-Temur's rule. Although the objections were not accepted, the result was the removal of a number of old edicts from the code.

The structure of the book is classical and typical for works of this kind. The first part - the actual articles of laws (tiaoge ) - consisted of 34 juans, of which only 11 are preserved - from 23 to 34. Second part-Judicial Precendents (duanli )2, consisting of 30 juans, is completely preserved. The third part includes appendices (fulu ) with explanations to the text.

1 "Zhi-zheng tiaoge" jiaozhu ben ("Articles on the rules [compiled during the years of rule under the motto] Zhi-zheng": verified text with commentary) / Hango-xue junyang yanju-yuan (Academy of Korean Studies) (ed.). Seoul, 2007. 490 p.

2 In the traditional judicial practice of China, a mechanism for flexible adjustment of the system of laws was developed in ancient times: if local officials did not find a solution for a specific problem among the main articles, they could send a request to the capital, which was considered by experts who made recommendations on how to solve it. If the issue was sufficiently important, it could be included in the list of judicial precedents that should be taken into account when making court decisions. Thus, the imperfection of a particular article of the laws could be corrected taking into account the "signals from below".

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The language in which the codex is written is an interesting and very difficult to translate example of the Middle Chinese language of the Yuan era, when classical Wenyan was temporarily ousted from official life, and documents began to be compiled in a language close to colloquial, and with a considerable number of words and concepts borrowed from the Mongolian language.

E. F. Bayalieva has generally completed the translation of the 23rd juanof the main text (the first one that has been preserved), and has also done a lot of research work on the 9th juanof precedents, since both Juans are devoted to the same problem - the rules for the issue, circulation, exchange and destruction of paper money.

During the discussion of the report, the seminar participants expressed a number of thoughts on the future prospects of studying the monument: comparing it with the provisions of the Minsk Code 3 translated by N. P. Svistunova and modern law, the possibility of partial restoration of the lost part of the laws by analyzing precedents and appendices, etc.

The report of M. E. Kuznetsova-Fetisova (Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences) was devoted to the latest achievements of Chinese archeology in the field of studying anthropogenesis in China. Archaeological research of East Asia, and especially China (including the territory of modern China and the Kyrgyz Republic on Taiwan), began in the 20th century and has achieved outstanding results over the past century. Since the land has been owned by the state for more than 60 years and it has been established by law that any construction work must be preceded by an archaeological survey, the study of the territory of China should be described as good. Currently, several dozen Homo sapiens sites (in Chinese terminology: xinren (neoanthropus) or zhizhen (homo sapiens)) dating back to the Late Paleolithic period are known in China, as well as several hundred sites of the stone industry of this period. Most often, finds are single bone fragments or individual teeth; skulls are extremely rare. This should be emphasized due to the fact that many of the discovered bone materials have as features of similarity with the structureBoth Homo sapiens and archaic traits, which in some cases further complicates characterization. A big problem for working with these materials is the lack of direct dating of bones.

With one exception (Tianyuan Man) East Asian skeletal remains are only indirectly dated, based on the accompanying fauna and / or radiometric dating of animal bones, coal, or calcites. Often, neoanthropic bone materials were discovered accidentally (Liujiang and Ziyang people), and the location of bone materials and stratigraphy can only be reconstructed retrospectively. All this often gives grounds for" fitting " data to pre-defined concepts. In the scientific community of the PRC, the desire to prove the antiquity of the "progenitors" of modern Chinese often dominates researchers; for example, for many decades there have been articles trying to declare sinanthropus (0.5-0.2 million years ago) and even more ancient people whose remains were found on the territory of China, "the ancestors of the nation". More than once, attempts have been made to declare the" proto-Mongoloid " nature of the Sinanthropus and even the Yuanmou man (1.7 million years ago). This was to prove that the ancestors of the Chinese lived in this area from the very beginning of sapientation, which, in turn, may have taken place in China almost independently. The concept of the formation of a modern human species on the territory of East Africa and its subsequent settlement around the world, accepted by world science, did not find mass support among Chinese scientists. Even at the present time, many authors on the pages of academic publications claim an independent process of evolution in China.

However, in China, a number of authors cooperate extensively with Western scientists and laboratories in various areas of anthropological research, the results of which do not contradict the basic concepts accepted in the world. Thanks to recent studies, in particular, a number of studies conducted jointly with Western colleagues on the DNA of bone remains, it was found that the appearance of Homo sapiens in East Asia dates back to about 40 thousand years ago, which is quite consistent with the global processes of neoanthropic settlement from Africa, but somewhat lengthens the history of Homo sapiens in the region - before the most ancient the convincingly dated remains dated back to 16-12 thousand years ago. Earlier versions

3 Laws of the Great Ming Dynasty with a consolidated commentary and appendix of resolutions (Da Ming Lui ji tss fu li). Part 1. Moscow, 1997; Part 2. Moscow, 2002; Part 3. Moscow, 2012.

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dating (100 thousand years), as a rule, is given in biased works and has errors in methodology (indirect dating, lack of information about the stratigraphic relationship of human bones and dating samples, etc.). From the point of view of craniology, the oldest neoanthropes in China have many archaic features, DNA analysis showed a certain (expected) kinship with autochthonous populations of East Asia and North America; the percentage of Neanderthal genes within the world average, the presence of Denisovian 4 genes has not yet been detected.

In general, this area of Chinese science seems to be de-ideologized. This allows us to hope that in the future the picture of anthropogenesis in East Asia will become clearer.

Sergey Dmitriev (Institute of Animal Husbandry of the Russian Academy of Sciences) made a presentation on the latest results of Chinese archaeologists in the field of studying the history of animal domestication in China, as well as new methods that are currently being mastered in China5. The expression "five types of cereals and six types of livestock" (meaning horse, cow, sheep, pig, dog and chicken) appears in Chinese sources quite early, in the pre-Imperial era - in Zuo Zhuayi and Zhou Li. However, there was almost no specific data on the time of domestication of a particular species.

For many years, no definitive answers to many questions could be obtained, since it is not easy to distinguish the bone remains of a domestic animal from a wild one, especially in the early stages of domestication, when domesticated individuals were almost indistinguishable from their wild counterparts. However, to date, Chinese scientists have developed an effective method for analyzing the found material.

Of course, the greatest success for an archaeologist is to find traces of buildings intended for breeding domestic animals, but such finds are rare and can not always be unambiguously interpreted. With a high degree of probability, the number of domestic animals includes animals whose remains are found in human graves. The co-burial of animals indicates that people felt a special connection with them, they occupied an important place in their lives. Wild animals (with the exception of totems) were rarely so important to ancient people.6
Much can be said about the analysis of bone remains directly. For example, wild animals almost never suffer from dental diseases, unlike domestic animals; in domestic horses and draft bulls, teeth are often deformed due to the impact of bits, which, of course, does not happen with wild animals. In the case of animals that were primarily raised for meat, an important indicator may be approximately the same age of individuals found in the parking lot, because if wild boars were eaten at the age at which they were obtained, then domestic pigs were slaughtered at about the same age when they gained sufficient weight. Recently, DNA analysis has shown that genetic connections between, for example, domestic pigs in one region are stronger than between them and their wild counterparts or between them and domestic pigs in other regions.

New findings, as well as old materials analyzed using new methods, allowed us to build a fairly convincing chronology of the history of domestication in China.

4 The so-called Denisovsky man, discovered in the Altai by Russian archaeologists in 2008. In 2010, DNA analysis of bone remains revealed that the discovered man belonged to a previously unknown species of ancient people who inhabited the planet simultaneously with Cro-Magnons (directly Homo sapiens) and Neanderthals. Some modern populations (mainly in Melanesia) have been found to have genes in common with Dsnisovans, which suggests that, like Neanderthals, they interbred with Cro-Magnons and contributed to the genome of modern humans.

5 The report was based primarily on an article by Yuan Jing, a researcher at the Center for Scientific Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: Yuan Jing. Zhongguo gulai jia-yang dong'u dy dong'u kaoguxuz yan'ju (Studying domestic animals of Ancient China with the help of animal archeology) / / Di si ji yan'ju (Quarterly Scientific Notes) (Quarterly sciences), Vol. 30, No. 2, 2010, March, pp. 298-306.

6 The absolute leaders in the role of such "afterlife companions" in China are pigs. Dogs are relatively common in graves only in the eastern part of China, and sheep "appear" in graves only in the late Neolithic. It is not easy to interpret these data unambiguously, but it is obvious that they can tell a lot about the economy and beliefs of people who inhabited different parts of China, and also once again emphasize how different these tribes were in various aspects.

7 All the distinctive features associated with teeth are extremely important - after all, it is teeth that are preserved better than other bones and are found by archaeologists especially often.

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Currently, the most ancient Neolithic sites, dating back to about the 10th millennium BC, are found in Jiangxi (Xiangrendong site) and Hunan (Yuchangyan site). The degree of their development is quite high - for example, they have already made ceramic vessels, but there seem to be no traces of animal domestication there yet. Thus, the Neolithic period in China probably occurred somewhat earlier than the first animals were domesticated, and was primarily associated with agricultural labor. This is quite understandable - the role of animal husbandry has never been particularly large in China, which is most often explained by a lack of land.

The first, apparently, was a domesticated dog. The most ancient dog is currently considered to be found in northern Israel (Haionim Terrace) - it lived about 11 thousand years ago. The oldest dog-related find in China, apparently, should be considered found at the site of Nanyatou (about 10 thousand years ago) in the county of Xiushui prov. Hebei tooth, slightly smaller than the wolf tooth (79.40 mm instead of 90 mm). However, the ownership of this tooth to the dog cannot yet be proven with absolute certainty. However, some later finds associated with the Jiahu site (9 thousand years ago, Ouyang County, prov. Henan), more convincing-in the graves and not far from them, the remains of 11 dog individuals were found. The teeth of these individuals are even smaller - an average of 72.68 mm, which, if we take into account the data of the Nanyatou site, probably allows us to trace the line of gradual physical changes of the domesticated wolf and its transformation into a dog. So, DNA analysis showed that in China, the dog first appeared south of the Yangtze ca. 16,300 years ago.

The second was a domesticated pig. For the first time, a wild pig is believed to have been domesticated in Southeastern Anatolia ca. 9 thousand years ago. In China, the earliest traces of a pig were found at the previously mentioned Jiahu site in Henan (about 9,000 years ago). Judging by the age of the individuals and the condition of their teeth, they are probably already domestic pigs. Interestingly, the pigs whose tracks were found in Kuahuqiao (ca. 8200 years ago, Sushan County, prov. Zhejiang), slightly larger than the northern ones. This is consistent with the fact that the wild pigs of southern China are somewhat larger than the northern ones. These considerations and ancient dating suggest that China may have been one of the independent centers of pig domestication.

Sheep and goats are thought to have been domesticated in Southwestern Iran, in the Zagros Mountains region, about 10,000 years ago. In China, the sheep and goat appeared, apparently, in the second half of the 4th millennium BC, primarily in the northwest - in Gansu and Qinghai. The earliest accurately dated sheep find is associated with the Shizhaocun site of the Majiayao culture (Gansu, Tianypui), dating back to the 4th-5th millennium BC. At several nearby sites, many bone remains were also found, some of them apparently with traces of divination. 8 The oldest goat found (3,700 years ago) belongs to the Erlitou culture (Yanshi County, Henan), which many researchers refer to the first legendary dynasty of Chinese history - Xia. DNA analysis of the sheep showed that Chinese sheep are obviously related to Central Asian and European lines and show relatively weak affinity with Mongolian and Tibetan varieties. Apparently, sheep and goats came to China from Central Asia in an already domesticated form.

Scientists do not agree on the place where the cow was first domesticated - some believe that it happened 10 thousand years ago in North-East Africa, some - that 7500 years ago in India. Anyway, in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, the cow appeared about 4500-4000 years ago. The most ancient finds (4 thousand years ago) were made at the site of Shantaisi (Zhecheng County, prov. Henan) in the Longshan culture area. Around this time, the cow quickly spread throughout its range and became an extremely popular animal.

The horse is thought to have been domesticated about 5,000 years ago in the steppes stretching from Eastern Europe to Mongolia. There are many horse finds in the early sites of Northern China, but all of them were probably wild animals obtained by hunting. The earliest discovery (XVIII century BC), which can be associated with a domestic horse, was made during the study of the Dahezhuan site (Yongqing County, prov. Gansu) Qijia culture-horse bones found in burial ground. Several other sites of the Qijia culture have also found quite a lot of horse remains. Apparently, it was from this region that played the role of an intermediary between the agricultural cultures of the Yellow River Valley - the "cradle of Chinese civilization" -

8 Later, this practice was adopted in the Yellow River Valley - it is on divination bones that the oldest extant ancient Chinese texts appear.

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both the steppe and domestic horses came to the ancient Chinese. The oldest find in the Yellow River Valley dates back to the 13th century BC. e. the so-called chemaken, pits in which horses are buried, harnessed to chariots. Such finds were made in the last capital of the Shang Dynasty - Yinxue, as well as in the area of Xi'an prov. Shaanxi, where the original lands of the Zhou People were located, who destroyed the Shang Dynasty and took its place. Apparently, the domestic horse for more than a thousand years was not needed by the ancient Chinese: maintenance was expensive, suitable pastures were not enough, and the function of draft and arable cattle was performed by bulls. But when a state was formed in the Yellow River Valley, the rulers of which needed a spectacular ride and could afford it, the horse was quickly adapted and spread very widely, but only among the highest aristocracy. The horse has retained this highly prestigious role in China for a long time.

The chicken was the last to be domesticated. There is no answer about the place and time of its domestication, since the process of domestication for a very long time did not have any effect on the appearance of these birds. In China, traces of the presence of chickens are often found, for example, they are found at the Cishan parking lot (Uan County, prov. Hebei) (8 thousand years ago) and the Beishouling site (Bao'an City, prov. Shaanxi) (7 thousand years ago), but the degree of domestication of these chickens is completely unclear. In the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age, clay and bronze figures depicting chickens appeared, which cannot be considered an unambiguous argument in favor of the fact that sculptors ' models were already domesticated. The oldest chicken bones were found in a grave at the Dadianzi site (Chifeng, Inner Mongolia) (3,600 years ago), along with the bones of a dog and a pig. Many finds of the same type (in burials) were made during the excavations of the Shang capital in Yinxue (XIV-XI centuries BC). By this time, apparently, the chicken was already domesticated.

Thus, the process of domestication of six domestic animals did not end at all in such ancient times as one might think, based on written sources.

Yuan Jing's article generally makes a good impression, despite the presence of some "birthmarks" characteristic of Chinese science (the Xia Dynasty is considered as indisputably historical; the modern territory of China is actually analyzed not as a set of regions in which historical development took place in parallel and often independently of each other, but as a single region). conducts scientific analysis and is not afraid to talk about external influences, which until recently was taboo for Chinese scientists. Of course, it should be noted how high the technical level of Chinese archaeology is now.

In the discussion that followed the report, M. E. Kuznetsova-Fetisova noted that chicken bones account for approximately 80% of all bone remains found in Yinxue. Thus, at this time, despite the relatively recent domestication, the chicken has already become the most popular domestic animal among the Shans.

A. I. Kobzev (Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences) reported on his recent trip to China, where he visited the 20th Beijing International Book Fair, the Institute of Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia (formerly the Institute of the Soviet Union) and the Institute of Philosophy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, as well as the Heilongjiang Heilongjiang Heilongjiang Heilongjiang Heilongjiang Heilongjiang Heilongjiang Heilongjiang Heilongjiang Heilongjiang Heilongjiang Heilongjiang Heilongjiang Heilongjiang Heilongjiang Heilongjiang Heilongjiang Heilongjiang Heilongjiang Heilongjiang The University Book Fair is getting bigger every year and may have already surpassed the Frankfurt Fair. However, Russia, unfortunately, is represented more and more modestly from year to year. This year, at least, the Vostochnaya Literatura publishing house participated in the fair, but this undoubtedly positive shift in demonstrating the achievements of Russian Sinology could not reverse the general trend towards a reduction in Russian representation at the fair.

At the Institute of Philosophy, only 13 employees (out of 130-140), including one person, are engaged in foreign philosophy. Previously, Chinese scientists relied on the methodology of their Soviet colleagues-philosophers, and everyone knew Russian, but now the situation has completely changed. At the Institute for the Study of Russia, of course, most of the employees know Russian and often visit us. The Institute publishes two journals: one devoted to economic issues, and another on general problems.

9 This is especially true for the cultures of southern China-prov. Hubei (Shijihe site , clay figurines) and Sichuan (Sanxingdui site, bronze figurines).

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Heilongjiang University now considers itself the main center for studying the Russian language in China. Russian is taught in schools less and less every year, but there are few places where you can get a higher education related to the Russian language, so the number of people who want to enroll in the Center for the Study of Russian Language and Literature increases every year. In general, students are given first of all practical tasks of mastering the language, Russian culture and literature are taught in a small volume (it is interesting that the study of Russian literature and the history of the Russian language begins with "Poor Lisa" by N. M. Karamzin). However, there is also a Research Institute at the university, whose employees, for example, translated "Words about Igor's Regiment" into Chinese, and in 2010 the sixth translation of "The Master and Margarita"was published.

Interestingly, the speaker noted that in Harbin, where the process of active de-Russification was going on throughout the second half of the XX century, everything related to Russia is now extremely popular again - Russian restaurants work, Russian musical groups perform, "sausage" and "kvass"are sold on the streets. This revival of interest in Russia is primarily due to commercial interests.

Vladimir Golovachev (Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences) made a brief report on the First International Conference " Modern Russia and China. Dialogue of Civilizations", which was held on September 21-22, 2013 in Harbin. It was organized by the Russian Institute of Heilongjiang University and the Chinese Association for the Study of Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia . Among the participants were Russian students from China, Russian scientists from the Far East, and many young people who were paid for the trip by Confucius Institutes. Chinese colleagues have noted that the prestige of the Russian language in secondary schools is now declining in China, but it is growing at the university level, especially since entrance exams for Russian departments of universities are easier than for other faculties. Now there are about 15 thousand people in China. The competition between different scientific and educational centers, primarily for state funding, is very high. Each center publishes its own journals and conducts research projects. In China, a lot of Russian literature is translated, for example, the third translation of "War and Peace" has already been published. Our Chinese colleagues are interested in what is happening in Russia and Russian science, and they are extremely interested in cooperation with Russian scientists.

The seminar was lively and dynamic. Despite the different topics of the reports, all of them were met with interest.

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