Chinese poetry. Classical Chinese poetry Chinese philosophical classics in poetic translations

It is well enough 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. Therefore, 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, on the contrary, for an adequate understanding of classical Chinese poetry, it is necessary to fully understand and identify its deep philosophical nature. Chinese poetry cannot be rid of the appearance of frivolous primitiveness until its wisdom is animated by the "holy" spirit of Chinese philosophy. The often-common tenderness of 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 direct.

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 reverse 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 problems and the categorical apparatus of traditional Chinese philosophy, often noted by researchers, since recruitment by it means of expression produced "vertically", i.e. due to the specific universal classification of concepts and the reduction of the elements of the obtained classes into a one-to-one correspondence. An early, but already quite developed example of such conceptual schematism is the 24th chapter of the Shujing, Hong Fan (The Majestic Pattern). Such a construction makes it possible to express the ideas embedded in the "foundation" through the structural elements of both the first "floor" and the "roof". Moreover, inside each "floor" there is a kind of binding material that guarantees the strict unambiguity of transitions from one level to another. In order to avoid unfoundedness, let us try to illustrate the stated thesis with concrete material, i.e., to catch the metaphysical meaning where it seems that one cannot count on its presence.

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

So, it is necessary to show at least four semantic levels of the hieroglyphic poetic text: the first is given directly in translation, the second is historical realities, the third is the “literary microworld”, the fourth is metaphysical speculations. 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, with the help of canonical philosophical treatises, one of the leading themes of Du Fu's poetic masterpieces is interpreted. It appears at the very beginning of both poems and can conditionally be called the theme of water. General analysis ends with an attempt to explain the metaphysical commonality of two poems that are paired from the point of view of the Chinese cultural tradition. As for the comments given by paragraphs, they are interspersed with information relating to the second, third and fourth plans.

The translations are from Three Hundred Poems [of the] 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 an incomplete form. Both poems, as far as we know, have not been translated into Russian before .

Song of the beauties 1

On the spring holiday of purification 2
Breathing renews the firmament 3 .
In Chang'an capital 4, near the waters
Beauties are a wonderful combination.

Thoughts are far away, majestic to become,
Cleanliness combined with beauty.
The whole appearance is full of lovely tenderness,
Marked by the highest bodily harmony.

Spring, which is waning,
Shines festively in the silks of dresses,
On them a unicorn burning with silver 6
With the firebird 7 golden-woven crowded.

What do they have on their heads?
woven with green petals,
Hanging gracefully over the temples,
They are clothed with kingfisher light fluff.

What does the eye find behind the back?
Pearls with an oppressive veil
Frozen dress train dressed,
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 top person —
Qin, Guo 10 - great principalities names.

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

Rhino bone sticks 11
Almost frozen, having done their work,
But with bells, knives multiply in vain
A blind abundance of fine dishes.

Lifting the bridle, the charioteer-eunuch 12 rushes,
Dust does not sway - so fast is the flight.
Palace cook in a continuous line
He sends eight priceless dishes with him.

Pipes and tamburas mournful reckoning
Disturbs pure spirits and devils.
A motley assembly of courtiers and guests
There is a gathering of dignitaries of high distinction.

But here is the confused trampling of the horse
Accompanying someone's delay!
At the pavilion the guest leaves the horse,
He hurries to take the patterned carpet.

Down covers the poplar
A simple duckweed with an avalanche 13 .
Agile magpies on the tail
Spreading joyful news 14 .

The power of the minister 15 is not to match -
A touch threatens to burn -
Beware of approaching him
Fear before his menacing gaze to appear.

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

All poems are based on rhyme. zhen- "true, genuine" (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 Gui-fei - Taizhen (Great Truth), given to her by order of the emperor ( Guifei- her personal title, meaning "Precious Sovereign Concubine"). This poetic device more than compensates for the absence of Yang Guifei's own name in the poem. The song is clearly divided into three semantic parts, successively transferring the description from the general appearance 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 Yang Guozhong (more on him below).

2 Literally: “on the third day of the third moon,” that is, on the feast celebrated on that date. In 752 it fell on the third decade 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" means 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 ​​​​the homomorphism of the macro- and microcosm, and also due to the etymological relationship: the hieroglyphs "tian" and "ren" (man) go back to a single etymon . "Air, breath" (qi) - in the 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, a metaphysical exposition is set at the very beginning, 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 the Shaanxi province.

5 Combination si ni(charming 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 annunciatory animal with the body of a deer and one horn.

7 In the original: kunzue(peacock).

8 Drawings of the aristocratic women's costume of the Tang era, see:.

9 "Pepper Palace" - the palace of the Empress, in the plastering of the walls of which pepper was used, which, according to the organizers, contributed to the preservation of heat and created aroma. For the present context, it is significant that the exciting spice (pepper) symbolized fertility.

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

11 The horn of the rhinoceros, like the antlers of the maral and deer, has an exciting effect, thereby once again emphasizing the immoderation of the festival.

12 In the original: huang men(yellow gate). This well-established designation of court eunuchs is due to the fact that 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 contain an allusion to the protege of the Yang family, Yang Guozhong, officially the elder cousin of Yang Guifei. Some sources report that he was her brother. This is a clear mistake. According to other sources, Gozhong illegally appropriated the surname Yang, being in fact the son of a certain Zhang Yizhi. A similar point of view was held by Lu Xun, considering him to be Yang Guifei's half-brother (see). Given name his was - Zhao, and Gozhong (Loyal to the State) - the personal title granted to him. The allegory with "poplar fluff" alludes, according to commentators, to Yang Guozhong's assignment of the surname Yang (Poplar) and his love affair with Mrs. Gogo 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 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 - Gozhong and Gogo. A similar symbol was the burial of Mrs. Gogo under a poplar. To demonstrate the non-randomness of this kind of symbolism, one can point out the similar role of the plum in the life of Yang Guifei's rival, the favorite of Mei (Plum). She had a fondness for the flowers of this tree and was buried near a plum tree.

14 Literally: “blue-green birds fly away, holding red handkerchiefs in their beaks” (qing niao fei qu xian hong jin). This line is very saturated with mythological imagery. In the Book of the [Dynasty] Later Han, in the Biography of Yang Zhen (tsz. 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 from death and came out a yellow bird (huang qiao - Passer rutilams?), which then returned to him in the guise of a boy in yellow clothes, who introduced himself as a messenger from Xi-wang-mu (the mythical Western mistress) , who “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 with Yang Bao, the hieroglyph "xian" paired with the hieroglyph "huan" formed the phraseological unit "xian-huan" (thank for mercy). Therefore, although the character "huan" does not accompany the character "xian" in the text of Du Fu's poem, 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 baby name Yang Guifei - Yuhuan (Jade Ring).

The story of Yang Bao ends with the following words of the “yellow-mouthed” schist: “Your descendants (sons and grandsons) will achieve [degrees] san shi what these rings correspond to. The Yang Bao clan, according to Hou Han shu, originated from Huayin County (Shaanxi Province), but the Yang Guifei clan also originated from there, so their relationship is quite likely. And from this it follows that the above prediction can also be considered as extending to Yang Guifei. Some other circumstances could lead the poet to the idea of ​​​​playing this situation. The term "san shi" (three things) in the quoted phrase is synonymous with the term "san gong" (three high dignitaries), and the names of all these three positions first included the hieroglyph "tai" (great), later - "yes" (big ), so they were also called "san tai" (three great ones). Thus, the presence of the sign "tai" in the name-title Taizhen, as it were, equated Yang Guifei with three guns, or san shi. The reason to consider it as the fourth "supernumerary" gun arose-lo also due to the fact that the messenger Si-wang-mu brought four rings, but correlated them with three shea, i.e., as if he left one ring unassigned to any of these three. Poetic imagination thus acquired a legitimate right, by means of literary reminiscence, to address this ring - a symbol of the highest social position - to the probable descendant of Yang Bao, who became at 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 white.

The name Taizhen connects Yang Guifei with another thread with Xi-wang-mu - the same name was also given to one of the daughters of the mythical Western mistress (cf.).

The source of the well-established metaphorical name of the messengers - "blue-green birds" (qing niao), Chinese philologists find in the following story from "Han Wu Gushi" ("Stories [related to] Han Wu[-di]"): -my day of the seventh moon (pay attention to the holiday date. — A.K.) blue-green birds suddenly appeared - flew in and sat down in front of the palace. Dong Fanshuo said: “This [means] that Si-wang-mu will arrive.” And soon [really] Si-wang-mu arrived. Three blue-green birds accompanied her on the side ”(quoted from). Three blue - green birds - a standard attribute of the Western mistress (see, for example, "Shan hai jing" - here they are translated as "green birds").

Modern Chinese commentators on Du Fu's poem identify blue-green birds with three-legged (we pay attention to the significance of the number "three" here) ravens - messengers of happiness (san zu wu), and the entire line is interpreted in the sense that to Yang Guozhong messengers are sent with joyful news. But the three-legged crows, the messengers of happiness, are the same as the red crows (chi wu), which, in particular, are mentioned in Lu shi chun qiu: “Before the time of Wen-wang came, Heaven revealed fire. Red crows, holding red letters (xian dan shu) in their beaks, sat on the altar [of the house] of Zhou. And here again we see how birds holding red objects in their beaks (xian) [writings (shu) are very close to handkerchiefs (jin)] express the idea of ​​the gospel.

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

In the light of all that has been said, and also taking into account the fact that in China even magpies are traditionally considered harbingers of happiness and good luck, the use of Russian messengers - forty - in translation 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 Office of Public Works. Subsequently, during the rebellion of An Lushan, who declared his overthrow as his goal, this temporary worker was executed along with Yang Guifei herself.

The Song of Du Fu very colorfully depicts all sorts of excesses that lucky favorites indulged in, but, according to the primordial belief of the Chinese, nothing that violates the measure can exist for a long time. Therefore, "the culprits of the rebellion of An Lushan, the rumor unanimously named three - Gozhong, Lady Guogo 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 accordingly reacted by condemning what had happened, in an inverted form of regret for the past.

Crying at the head of the river 1

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

Palace at the head of the river
He put locks on thousands of gates.
So for whom are the emerald tides
Young reed and tender willow? 4 .

In the memories of the gleam of bygone times,
When over South Park grew
Glittering Rainbow Banners
And the darkness of things gave birth to diversity.

Empress and first person
Palace of the Radiant Sun 5
Sat with the sovereign in the carriage,
Serve him like a loyal guard.

Ladies of state, at the head of the cortege,
They carry a bow and arrows with them.
Their horses are snow-white 6
Golden bits gnaw.

Here, turning suddenly to the sky,
A bow aimed at a cloud of arrows -
Headlong flying, one arrow
Knocks down two wings.

But where are the eyes clear today? 7
And bright pearl teeth?
stained with blood - defamed -
The spirit wanders, having lost shelter! 8

Seeks to the east transparent Wei 9 current,
But Jiange has to enter into the depths.
Remaining here and the one whose purpose -
Leave, they won’t be able to give each other a message 10.

And the person in whom the feeling is alive,
Chest 12 will irrigate with sad tears.
Her abode - river flowers, water
There is no definitive limit.

The golden luminary withers,
Twilight descends and hu 13 ,
Chasing horses, rushing on horseback,
Filling the capital with a dusty whirlwind.

Falls south of the city
Keep your sad way.
And the northern limit from there
Contemplate with hope 14 .

1 “Lament at the head of the river” (“Ai jiang tou”) was written in 757, apparently during Du Fu’s time as a prisoner of the rebels, which can be judged by the “secrecy” (qian) of his journey to the Winding River.

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

3 Winding River - the name is not a river, but a lake located near Chang'an. "River bed" (jiang tou) thus actually means the end of the lake. The Winding River was often visited by Yang Guifei. By this lake the events described in the Song unfolded; even the Han emperor Liu Che (Wudi, 141 - 87) arranged a park dedicated to spring (I chun yuan) on its shore, and in the Tang era and, consequently, in the time of Yang Guifei, it was near its waters that festivities and feasts took place on the third day third moon. Therefore, the very title of this poem throws a bridge to the previous one. The mention of Liu Che as the organizer of the lake is necessary in order to show one more thread from a 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 The willow branch is a traditional symbol of longing in separation.

5 From the emperor's visit to the Palace of the Radiant Sun (Zhao yang dian, also translated as the Palace of Splendor and Splendor), Yang Guifei began to ascend, and then she occupied this palace, so by the "first person" it means herself.

6 The snow-whiteness of the suit is not accidental, but a constant epithet, which speaks of 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 "White Horse").

7 Clear eyes "-" bright pupils "(min mou) - an indicator of spiritual purity (more details below).

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

9 The Wei River (a tributary of the Huang He), which is distinguished by the clear purity of its waters, is opposed in the popular mind to the muddy Jing River, with which it connects, which is captured in the idiom "Jing-Wei". The poetic opposition of these two rivers appeared already in the Shijing (I, III, 10). Having such a figurative meaning, the name of the river. Wei once again reports the spiritual purity of Yang Guifei, buried by her waters.

10 Jiange (Castle of Swords - translated by B. A. Vasiliev) - a county in the province of Sichuan, where Li Longji went deep, hurrying to the west in order to hide from the rebels in Chengdu. Yang Guifei, on the other hand, was left dead off the coast of the eastward-rushing Wei.

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

12 The chest (s) is 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 chest owes its high status to the proximity to the heart, from the traditional Chinese point of view, the center of all human mental abilities.

13 Hu- the designation of the Uighurs and other peoples who lived north and west of China. Myself rebel general An Lushan was hu, and his army that occupied Chang'an consisted mainly of non-Chinese "barbarians".

14 Winding River Lake, located south of Chang'an, was on a hill that made the area easy to observe. The north attracted the attention of the poet by the fact that from there (from the province of Ningxia) 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" (chung san). There are many such double holidays 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 symbolic connection of the holidays with each other is also superimposed on the numerical symbolism of dates. In particular, 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 the three with the nine, and due to the symmetrical position in the cycle of time - in the annual cycle of months. Rituals performed in the fall are associated with the mountains, and spring rituals are associated with the waters. On the ninth moon, according to the ancient custom, it was necessary to climb the mountains and make prayers, and on the third moon, cleansing ablutions were supposed to protect from evil influences. Therefore, the Song begins the description with the beauties by the waters. The connection between mountains and waters in the Chinese worldview is more than close, brought together two hieroglyphs denoting them express the concept of landscape, thereby showing that mountains and waters are presented in the form of a kind of coordinate grid thrown over any a natural phenomenon. These coordinate axes operate not only in the field of attitude and perception of nature, but also in the field of worldview. Confucius said: “He who knows rejoices in the waters, the humane rejoices in the mountains. The one who knows is active and mobile (dun), the humane is calm. The one who knows rejoices, the humane lives long” (“Lun Yu”, VI, 23). Here is an example of the binding material mentioned above. If the superposition operation is carried out, it turns out that on the “water” holiday of the “double three” it is supposed to enjoy and rejoice, and the time of the “double nine” corresponds to a minor mood and sublime (literally and figuratively) reflections. The latter is fully confirmed by the invariable minor key that sounds 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 cheerful character 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 pops up at the very beginning of the poem, immediately directs him into the channel of his symbolic meanings. It stretches as a thread of allegory to the not directly named, but nevertheless the central character of the Song - Yang Guifei, for the legend says that it was after bathing in the palace reservoir (precisely in the spring!) that the emperor's love descended on her. The extraordinary role of ablutions in her fate is evidenced by the famous painting by Zhou Fang (?) “Yang Guifei after bathing”. It is also significant that a pond was named after her. Yang Guifei's career began by the water, and it ended by the water: she found her grave near the Wei River. It is no coincidence, it seems, that the emperor, doomed to death, saw off the favorite “to the northern exit to the postal road” and “to the north of the main road” she was buried, because in the Chinese universal system, water, as one of the five elements, corresponds to the country of the world - north. In Lament, written after the death of Yang Guifei, when the seriousness of the mission of water in her fate was revealed to the end, the theme of water sounds with even greater force.

Probably, among all peoples, water was associated with a 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,. For totemic 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 representations, but also ratified by philosophical thought. In the systematics of correspondences of Hong Fan, the natural-physical property of water to flow down is fixed as a metaphysical attribute (chow 1, see). And in Lun Yue, the direction of downward movement is already an attribute of low people (XIV, 23), in the subsequent reasoning, they are reduced to the same category with women (XVII, 25). The numerical symbol of water is six, and it is the six in the I Ching system that serves as the standard designation for the feminine yin. As an element in opposition to fire or soil (that), water forms the opposition "female-male". The expression, literally meaning "water color" (shui se), has the meaning - "female physique, female appearance." In addition, the "double three" is in some way identical to the six. The connection between water and the feminine, obviously, is based on common property passivity, the ability to perceive a different form. Water is an ideal symbol of passivity, since it perceives any images with its surface mirror, and fills any forms with its substance. In this sense, it is significant that in the "Hong Fang" the statement of "the majestic model" hong fan is associated with the ordering of "majestic waters" (hong shui): the sample finds in the water the best recipient of exemplary.

The image of water in Chinese philosophy was also a traditional symbol of human nature. The beginning of this tradition was laid by the controversy between Mencius and Gaozi, in which both sides recognized human nature (hsing) like water, and its essential quality - goodness or unkindness - like the desire of water to flow in one direction or another. The indifference of water to whether it flows east or west, Gao Tzu considered analogous to the indifference of human nature to good and evil. The inevitable desire of water to flow down Mencius considered analogous to the inevitable inclination to good 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 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 "nature" extends to the nature of water. In this sense, the identity of the characteristics of the feminine and water in the Daodejing is quite natural in this sense: “The female usually defeats the male due to [her] calmness, [because] thanks to [her] calmness, she tends down” (§ 61); “In the Celestial Empire there is nothing more pliable and weak than water, but among those who overcome 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, is represented by the “mother of the Celestial Empire” (§ 25, § 52), “the mother of the darkness of things” (§ 1).

Both poems perfectly demonstrate the triumph of the weak female nature: in the Song - physical and real, in "Lament" - metaphysical and ideal, that is, the triumph of an unforgettable image.

Attention should also be paid to the connection of knowledge with joy and enjoyment, which is the opposite of 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. 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" - "know" contains the idea of ​​social application in the form of the meaning "manage", "know". Using the above aphorism of Confucius as a key, we can conclude that the lines of Du Fu depict such “knowers” ​​who, fundamentally different from the humane, adherents of the mountains, are engaged in active social action, having fun and enjoying themselves. This means that the picture of historical reality created by the poet fits exactly into the "frame" of metaphysical speculations behind the symbols he used.

In the aspect of historical and cultural parallels, the etymological connection of the Russian verb "to know" with the Indo-European root ĝ en“to be born (sya)”, now manifested in the euphemistic turnover “to know a woman” (since the vocabulary generated by the root ĝ en, originally denoted relations only between people, and not between a person and a thing. Cf .: "Lun Yu", XII, 22: "knowledge is the 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 an understanding of the connection between knowledge and love, although this connection was interpreted very differently. Doesn't leave unattended this question and modern Western philosophy; for example, in the arguments of A. Camus about Don Juan, love seems to be a kind of knowledge: “To love and possess, conquer and exhaust; here is his (Don Juan. - A.K.) way of knowing. (There is a sense in this word, beloved in Scripture, where "knowledge" is called the act of love) ".

The final Song (as if unexpected) motive of formidable danger actually brings its emotional and metaphysical “melody” to its logical end, again returning us to the idea and image of water, because, according to the Yijing, 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).

Lament, 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 Radiant Sun, it is indicated by the same passwords as in the Song. Again, everything begins with spring and waters, ending with a glance towards the "side of the water", that is, to the north. Moreover, as noted above, the motive of water 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 it, and in the "Lament", respectively, 143 - 19.

(Our calculation was based on a purely formal criterion, so that the "fish" and "weeping" involved in moisture, as well as the "north" symbolically associated with water, were not taken into account.)

In Lament, instead of the “distant thoughts” of predatory beauties, whose characteristic “shu tse 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, there are "light eyes". And about the pupils in Mencius it is said: “From what is inherent in a person, there is nothing better than a pupil. The pupil cannot hide his evil. If it is righteous in the soul (chest), then his pupil is clear, if it is unrighteous in the soul, then his pupil is cloudy ”(IV A, 15). It turns out that this seemingly external, outward sign contains a high positive assessment of the intellectual and moral state of the spirit.

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

In terms of emotional mood, "Lament" is diametrically opposed to the Song: in the first - in minor, in the second - in 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, eager for entertainment, and her retinue, and “Lament” sounds like a sad elegy about a lost beauty surrounded by a halo of tragic love. Paradoxical in appearance, the contrast is a brilliant embodiment of the most important Chinese worldview principle - the principle of universal polarized duality. The world dyad is made up of the polar forces of 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 counterargumentary, 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" concludes with an optimistic exclamation of hope. Such a powerful ideological modulator as the concept of universal interpenetrating polarization not only determines the interdependence of the poems in question, but also acts as one of the factors in the high aesthetic merit of this pair.

Cited Literature
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Philosophical inspiration of poetry

This long crisis, which could have been fatal for the country, enriched China. It made it possible to identify and study both the consequences of the intellectual decline and the causes of the disorder of the senses, which were characteristic of China from about the beginning of our era, which very much worried the minds. constant anxiety philosophers was caused by various reasons: now regrets about the oblivion of ancient simplicity, now the scourging of governments incapable of renewal, now the search for peace in the general contempt for politics. So, Zhongchang Tong (born in 180), an adviser to Cao Cao, in his work “On a Satisfied Soul” wrote bluntly: “Let me have quite good land at home, a spacious house, behind it is a mountain, in front of it is a river, canals, a pond from all sides, so that bamboo grows around the dwelling, so that a garden and a current on it are arranged in front of the dwelling, and a fruit garden behind. For me, a boat and a cart will completely replace walking or fording, a servant, a courier will completely free my whole body from work. In order to feed my parents, I have everything dear, everything tasty that only I can put together in one hand. My wife and children have never known labors so depressing for the body. Good friends gather to me, sit, and then I give them both wine and food - everything to please them in their souls. When the holiday, on a good day and a good hour, I roast a pig and a ram and also serve it on the table, bringing it to my friends with a bow. I go and do not go with my field, garden. I walk, amuse myself in my forests and valleys. I bathe in clear water, I run after the coolness of the wind. Already swimming carps. I take high-flying geese on my bowstring. I am looking for cool breaths, as of old, on the steps of the altar at the temple, and singing songs I go home, and I sit in a high hall. I rest my soul in my family. I dream of a dark empty beginning based on the book of the philosopher Lao. I breathe deeply, absorbing harmony, the best in the world. I seek in my soul the likeness of the phantom of a higher man. Together with people who are shrewdly intelligent, I discuss questions about the Tao, the supreme Way of man, or I interpret texts with them. I am below on earth, I am above in heaven, I live among these great two. I weave in my mind, I gather both people and creatures of the earth into one. I will play this classical melody on the lute: “Young wind, fragrant wind…” It will emit enchanting sounds in a distinctly beautiful range of notes. And here I am in my dreams walking over the entire inhabited world, throwing random glances at the sky and the earth around. I am not subject to the complaints of the people with whom I live. I save for a long time to myself the term of life and destiny. During such a life, I can fly up to the heavens and the Heavenly River and go beyond all the boundaries of the worlds we see. Why should I strive to enter and exit through the doors of kings and sovereigns?

Literature, which constantly reproduced the forms and images of classical authors, seemed to have ceased to develop. The existing prose was either philosophical or moral, and it was constantly mixed with the speeches of state officials. Renaissance, which began in the II-III century. n. e., was not caused by literature, but by conversations, they were called "free and unconstrained conversations" ( qingtan). Meetings accompanied by such conversations became especially popular at the end of the Han Dynasty and played a role similar to our literary salons of the 18th century.

Their initiator was Guo Tai (128-169), around whom a circle of his friends gathered. They took pleasure in arguing against existing philosophical foundations and important people empire. This testified to nihilism, which from the beginning of the 2nd century. n. e. reigned in the intellectual sphere, such sentiments only exacerbated the already difficult situation in the state. When the rebellious “yellow bands” on their swords brought the destruction that the increasingly numerous “interlocutors” had already despaired of waiting for, this gave rise to a fundamental problem of the nature and existence of a person who accidentally found himself threatened, in addition to political changes. Armed uprisings, which were accompanied by countless examples of banditry, at the same time gave rise to the deepest despair. This desperation and the doctrines of Taoism, which questioned everything except the value of the individual, began to have a serious impact on society.

The religious void, which had nothing to fill but immorality, and the dismay of people who saw the collapse of their world, led to the fact that the hearts of the Chinese were opened to two feelings that had only touched them only slightly before - lyricism and religious zeal.

Of course, people at all times conveyed through poetry and music the joys and sorrows of their short lives. The “Canon of Songs” (“Shi Jing”), destroyed, like all classical works, during the general burning of books undertaken on the orders of Qin Shi Huang, was preserved in the memory of people thanks to the rhythm of its lines, consisting of four or five syllables. It was reprinted during the Han Dynasty in numerous compilations, of which only the one compiled by Mao Zhang has come down to us. Also very popular were the elegies of Qiu Yuan (343–277? BC), who was born in the kingdom of Chu. He opposed the horrors of slander until his death. Legend has it that Qiu Yuan was unjustly expelled and, desperate to regain the favor of the ruler, on the fiftieth day of the fiftieth moon, he threw himself into the river near Dongting Lake. Each year, the dragon ship competitions remind of the moral anguish of the one who was considered the greatest poet of antiquity.

However, the Han people understood that these ancient poems lost their meaning simultaneously with the fall of ancient power. The hearts of the people of this period became callous, they were subjects of a delightful but very strict empire. Emperor Wu's court bored him, and official poetry, the withered flower of past centuries, generally drove him to despair. About 120 BC. e. he founded the Chamber of Music (Yue ugh). Its task was to collect folk songs and melodies from different regions of the country, which the emperor hoped to add to a strictly fixed repertoire of court music, closely associated with ancient government cults. The scholars of this chamber then developed the rhythm for these rural songs. Approximately in the 1st century. BC e. they succeeded in introducing the rules of the short quinary rhythm ( yuan), which were preserved not only for music, but also for poetry.

Nevertheless, conservatives strongly condemned the emergence of new melodies in music and new rhythms in poetry, which would differ from the melodies associated with ancient rituals. As a result, they achieved victory, and in 7 BC. e. Yue fu has been abolished.

Unfortunately, very few examples of this highly refined poetry of the Han period have come down to us, although it is deeply rooted in the hearts of the common people. Nevertheless, the true treasure of Han poetry has survived: these are the "Nineteen Ancient Poems", permeated with melancholy, which narrate the suffering of parting and death, special moments human life when no more screaming is heard. These are the first works, harbingers of the coming collapse, the touching voice of the people, doomed and disappointed, because they no longer believe even in the elixirs of Taoist alchemy:

I drove the chariot

from the East Upper Gate,

I see a lot away

from the suburbs to the north of the graves.

And above them the aspens rustle, rustle their leaves.

Pines and cypresses

surround a wide path.

Under the ground of the body

in the old days of dead people,

that hid, hid

in an endless night

And they rested in the darkness where the yellow ones beat the keys,

where in a thousand years no one has risen from sleep.

Like a stream, like a stream

yin and yang are always moving

time allotted to us

like morning dew.

human age

flashes like a brief arrival:

longevity flesh

not like stone or metal.

ten thousand years

carried out one another.

Neither sage nor saint

could not transcend that age.

As for those who "ate"

in a row trying to stand with the immortals,

they most likely

brought potions of death.

Isn't it better for us

enjoy fine wine,

for your clothes

spare no silks!

Cao and the Jian'an Poets

This poetic direction, in which the lyrical scope of the elegies of the Chu kingdom, represented by the poetry of Qiu Yuan, combined with the philosophical rigor of intellectual circles that revived ancient samples of folk poems, allowed Chinese poetry to escape the suffocating framework of ritual and stereotyped official literature. In the split empire, in China, shocked by changes, it was it that retained a sufficiently flexible prosody, which allowed the emerging inspiration of the poets of that time to splash out, easily describing the best of their ideas in their works.

These ideas came from two completely different sources: reflections on politics and metaphysical lyricism, which was usually based on despair. The development of the first trend is associated with the names of the magnificent ruler of Northern China Cao Cao and his sons - poets who competed with each other. The development of this direction led to the formation of a "engaged" literary style, the main theme of which was virtuous and noble indignation ( kankai) at the sight of the calamities of life. This feeling, rather moderately manifested in the poetry of Cao Cao, who trusted own strength and the effectiveness of his actions, his sons become much more gloomy.

As a result, their poetry inspired the creation of a circle, which later became known as the "Seven Poets of the Jian'an Era" (196-220). Literature has turned into a sophisticated game of eloquence, into a science of reasoning, skillfully using which convenient occasion could change the course of events. The literary method was to present the touching theme of love, separation and death through political allegories. Here is how, for example, Cao Zhi (192-232), the third son of Cao Cao and, without a doubt, the greatest poet of his time, wrote:

Wind of sadness

In a lonely tower

Lots of wind

Oh, how much wind!

Beilin Forest

Already in the rays of dawn

I'm sad

About a distant soul.

Between us

Rivers and lakes,

Our boats

See you soon.

Wild goose

Soul devoted to the south,

He screams long

Flying away.

I will send news

To the south of China

With all my heart

Rushing towards a friend.

flapping wings

Sensitively catches the ear.

The bird has disappeared

The heart groans deafly.

Under the melancholy mask of a lonely spouse hides a poet, a man of action, tormented by political disgrace, which he was subjected to by his own father, who envied his talent. This elegy is actually a request for mercy.

Representatives of the Cao family gathered together to feast, compose poetry and talk, playing with concepts and never losing hope of reorganizing the empire, getting rid of the philosophers of the past and discovering new talents. Their activity, especially intense from 212 to 217, in last years The nominal rule of the Han Dynasty was abruptly interrupted by a wave of epidemics that devastated the ranks of their supporters.

At this time, when the rejection of social conformity and the search for new norms favored the development of self-expression of the individual, poetry became a haven for supporters of this view of life. It conveyed the reaction of powerful individuals against the depersonalization and standardization brought about both in practice and in theory by various ideologies of power. These same harsh and turbulent years contributed to the flourishing of lyric poetry, which is aloof from sharp political discussions. Her constant themes were reminiscent of the melancholy from the fast pace of life, the bitterness of disappointment, the hardships of fate and the inevitable tragedy of death. The only thing that could alleviate these sorrows was the enthusiasm of enjoying the current moment, similar to the European carpe diem

The black whirlwind carries away wonderful days.

In fright, we see how time passes irrevocably.

Happiness is instantaneous and unlikely to come back.

Life is good in luxurious purple palaces

But still, fragments of it lie in mountain tombs.

Are there immortals in our circle?

You know fate - why be upset?

This was how the "Epicurean", albeit pessimistic, philosophical basis of the time was conveyed. It is expressed most clearly in Le Tzu, a work of the 3rd century, the sources of which are traced back to Le Yu-kou (450-375 BC) by an unreliable tradition: “Life is given to us so rarely, and it is so easy to die in it! Is it possible to forget that our life is a rare gift, and death comes so easily in it? To try to surprise people by strict observance of the rules of decency and duty, suppressing one's natural inclinations for the sake of good fame, in our opinion, is even worse than death. We want to fully enjoy the life given to us and live it to the fullest.

The Seven Wise Men of the Bamboo Grove

Principles of renunciation of the world and inclination to hermitage, gradually elevated to the rank of official philosophy, were put into practice by the famous circle, which was called "Seven Wise Men of the Bamboo Grove", the bamboo grove is a small forest located north of Luoyang. The seven comrades used to gather there, living for their own pleasure and flaunting their contempt for social norms and generally accepted ideas. They did not expect anything from the world, they found everything they needed for life themselves and showed a tendency to laziness, only partly ostentatious. According to legend, the head of this circle was Ji Kang (223-262), who wandered through the mountains, busy collecting medicinal herbs. He was talking to his friend Wang Lei, a hermit who was 238 years old.

The truth was at the same time more brighter and sadder. Ji Kang was a secular person in every sense of the word: the younger brother of one of the officials of Sima Yan, who, having overthrown the Cao clan, seized power in the country of Wei, Ji Kang was the husband of a princess from the imperial family. If Ji Kang's income protected him from material need, then his connections with high society were more important in his decision to withdraw from the world, since he refused to play the role that his rank prescribed for him: “It is difficult to wake up the common people. He will never stop chasing after material things. But the perfect man looks further, he returns to nature. All people are One. The universe is my refuge. I share it with Others, what should I regret? Life is a floating log: it appears for a moment and suddenly disappears. The cares and affairs of the world are disordered and confused. Let's forget about them. Even in the swamps, a hungry pheasant does not dream of parks. How can I serve by wearying my body and saddening my heart? The body is highly valued, but the empty name is despised.

There is neither glory nor dishonor. The most important thing is to follow your will and free your heart without remorse.”

As Ji Kang moved on the difficult paths of mystical thinking, he found himself more and more at the center of a public scandal. His behavior was a challenge to the lifestyle and tastes of the bureaucratic environment. In 262, his family's predicament gave the Confucians an excuse to sentence Ji Kang to death. Enemies wrote an accusatory speech against him, the cruelty of which is evidenced by the fact that it was directed not so much against a specific person as against his philosophy. Moreover, the main target was not even the philosophy itself, but the asocial way of life, which led to following its canons: “[Ji Kang] refuses to serve the rulers and masters. He despises his era, he does not appreciate the world. It is of no use to other people. Useless for our time, it corrupts our morals. Once... Confucius sentenced Shaozheng Mao to death, because his people, who were proud of their talents, brought confusion into society, causing anxiety to the people. If Ji Kang is not punished today, then there will be no other way to purify the state Dao.”

Ji Kang, who accepted death with calmness and pity for the blind world that abandoned him, very soon became a legend: “Ji Kang was convicted and imprisoned. When the time of execution approached, his brothers and family came to say goodbye to him. Ji Kang didn't even change his face. He asked his brother, "Have you brought me a zither?" His brother replied, "Yes, I brought it." Ji Kang took it, tuned it and played the melody "Great World". When he finished, he said with a sigh, "The great world is dying with me."

However, in addition to fulfilling the requirements of the established order, “fate”, “rock” became the dominant concepts in society: the inevitability of physical death, which will always take you with it in one way or another, the inability to refuse its conditions, the need for everyone to come to terms with their lot (fen), to accept it is the basis of the teachings of the Confucians. The eternal dreams of the Taoists about escaping death, prolonging life, joy and harmony with nature were gradually disappearing. The vanity of these desperate searches for happiness was sadly written in his poems by Ruan Ji, the most famous, along with Ji Kang, from the “Sages of the Bamboo Grove”.

Under the canopy of beautiful trees, the path is visible.

Peach and plum blossoms spread out.

But now the autumn winds are flying on wings -

comes the fall foliage time.

Flowers withered, fertile days faded,

the house is overgrown with bindweed and thorny branches.

I curse my drive

to the foot of the western mountains

and so defenseless

that I am unworthy of having a house and a family.

Frost will freeze the leaves on the ground at night.

Everything is said, it's over, the year has flown by -

did not notice...

Yet the repression of the state was not able to change the natural course of things. The more ferocious the battles were, the more uncertainty about the future grew, the more pure hearts felt the need for enthusiasm and sincerity. This is an exceptional moment, the birth of true lyrical Chinese poetry, which balanced between the depth of feeling and the beauty of form, an impeccable sound, combined with real feeling and aesthetic perfection of content:

Time will never return

wilted plants will not bloom:

marsilia blooms in spring,

gardenia blooms in the winter.

And it's a pity that so many days have passed

and even today there is little joy.

So sad.

I hear the chirping of a cricket.

The wine is fine, the feast is cheerful.

My song is short

in anticipation of the silent darkness -

this was said not at all by a strict anchorite, but by a man of brilliant and restless life. We are talking about Lu Ji (261-303), the son of an official from the kingdom of Wu, who was a famous commander. He paid with his head for the debacle for which he was wrongly accused. Lu Ji was an example of traditional Chinese universality, when a person wielded a sword as well as a brush. The hopes of the country were pinned on him, and at the same time he contributed to the development of new forms and content of Chinese poetry.

Tao Yuanming

Chinese poetry owed the best fruits of its heyday to the South of the empire, it is worth remembering at least the works of Qiu Yuan (343–277? BC). The features of nature and the turbulent manifestations of life create a special charm in the south that cannot be found in the rational North. This is why Tao Qian, also known as Tao Yuanming or Tao Yuanliang (365-427), had a profound influence on the following eras.

An incorrigible lover of simple life and countryside, a singer of chrysanthemums and melancholy, Tao Yuanming was from Jiangxi province. He spent his childhood in a village located at the foot of Mount Lu, the beauty of which inspired many artists. Once his family occupied the highest positions at the court, but one of his ancestors preferred a quiet life in their rural possessions to the greatness and disasters of power. Tao Qian himself held a government post in his younger years in order to increase his small income, but rather quickly left it, despite a large family - children, nephews, whom he had to support. His house became a meeting place for the most interesting society of the time, as Tao Qian's friends, a high official turned simple landowner, included representatives of various occupations: influential officials, Buddhist priests, adherents of Taoism, and even villagers.

Thus, his works reflect the main trends of the time. Tao Yuanming updated Chinese poetry with simple, unadorned words he borrowed from everyday vocabulary. He died unknown, but a hundred years later his works were included in Wenxuan, the official anthology of the empire's best poets, as new generations admired him as a person, who in poetic form described the course of life in its entirety.

The heat of the wine often helped him when he was alone with his shadow. Only in drunkenness, and in the East it was the last refuge of sincerity, did he find the necessary courage to look at the non-existence towards which his whole life seemed to be rolling.

By night the pale sun

in the tops of the western sinks.

White month to change

rises above the eastern mountain.

Far, far away for all thousands of miles of radiance.

wide-wide

illumination of heavenly voids ...

The wind appears

flies into the rooms of the house,

and a pillow with a mat

he is cold in the midnight hour.

Because the air is different

I can smell the change of seasons.

Because I don't sleep

I knew the endlessness of the night.

I want to speak -

no one to answer me.

Raised a glass of wine

and I call the orphan shadow ...

Days - and the moon behind them -

leaving people, they leave.

So your aspirations

I have not been able to put it into practice.

Just thought about it -

and the pain seized me

And before dawn

peace will not return to me!

On spring wine

foam ants walk.

When am I now

Will I taste it again?

And trays of food

full in front of me.

And relatives and friends

crying over me.

I want to speak,

but there is no sound in my mouth.

I want to see,

but there is no light in my eyes.

If in former days

I slept in spacious peace,

then today I will fall asleep

I'm in a grassy corner...

So I am alone in the morning

left the house in which he lived,

home, return to

the time will never come!

So with simple but skillful words, he conveyed the lessons of folk wisdom. Deeply imbued with Confucianism, it glorified the sages of ancient times. He retained the principles of his kind and always respectfully treated the ruling house - the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420). From Taoism, he borrowed primarily his spontaneity, as well as the art of accepting things as they are. In his poetic pursuits, Tao Yuanming found both his justification and his end. He never led an ecstatic search for agreement with the universe. He also never had any curiosity about Buddhism, which began its slow advance into China along the Silk Road during the Han Dynasty.