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Abstract
This article briefly introduces the history of Russian studies of Chinese traditional drama and storytelling literature, including research works and academic translations, as well as some details of the historical and cultural background of these studies. While not especially numerous, Russian studies had special characteristics that make them different from the corresponding contemporary research in other Western languages, so that one can even speak about the formation of a native Russian school of Chinese drama and storytelling studies in the mid-twentieth century. Russian works can be distinguished by methodology (such as those focusing on the interchange between literary and oral/pictorial traditions) and have used rare and unique materials preserved in Russian collections. Unfortunately, these studies remain largely unknown to Western scholars, so this article tries to make the major achievements of Russian scholars more accessible to English readers.
Acknowledgements
The authors express their gratitude to Professor Margaret Wan and Dr. Tatiana I. Vinogradova, and to the two anonymous reviewers for their meticulous reading of our work and numerous comments and corrections.
Notes on Contributors
Rostislav Berezkin obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and the candidate of sciences degree from Saint Petersburg State University in Russia. Currently he is a Senior Research Fellow at the National Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, Fudan University. His main fields of research are religious storytelling and popular religion in late imperial China. His publications in Russian include a book on the function of precious scrolls (baojuan) in Chinese culture, with the Baojuan of the Three Rebirths of Mulian as its main example. His English publications include Many Faces of Mulian: The Precious Scroll of Late Imperial China (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2017), and articles in T’oung Pao, Late Imperial China, Asia Major, Monumenta Serica, Journal of Chinese Religions, Hanxue Yanjiu, Religion and the Arts, Minsu quyi, Archiv Orientalni, Ming Studies, and CHINOPERL. He also has published a number of articles in Chinese and Russian.
Dmitrii Maiatskii obtained his candidate of sciences degree from Saint Petersburg State University in Russia. Currently he is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Asian and African Studies, Saint Petersburg State University. His main fields of research are history of traditional Chinese theater, Chinese codicology, and the history of Chinese rare book collections in the library of Saint Petersburg State University. His publications in Russian include a book on Chinese nanxi drama of the fourteenth century, with the play Pipa ji by Gao Zecheng as an example; an album of pictures painted by Zhou Peichun in the nineteenth century; and several other co-authored books. His English publications include articles in the International Journal of Sino-Western Studies and in conference proceedings. He also has published a number of articles in Chinese and Russian. Correspondence to: [email protected]
Notes
1 E.g. Li Fuqing 李福清 (Boris L. Riftin), Zhongguo gudian wenxue yanjiu zai Sulian: Xiaoshuo, xiqu 中國古典文學研究在蘇聯: 小說·戲曲 (Studies of Chinese Classical Literature in the USSR: Fiction and Drama; Beijing: Shumu wenxian, 1987); Li Mingbin 李明濱, Zhongguo wenxue Eluosi chuanbo shi 中國文學俄羅斯傳播史 (The History of Transmission of Chinese Literature in Russia; Beijing: Xueyuan chubanshe, 2010), pp. 184–90, 226–27; idem, Zhongguo wenhua zai Eluosi 中國文化在俄羅斯 (Chinese Culture in Russia; Beijing: Zhongguo guoji chuanbo, 2012), pp. 129–31; Rostislav Berezkin, “Zhongguo xiqu zai Eluosi chuanbo yu yingxiang” 中國戲曲在俄羅斯傳播與影響(1788–1990)(The Transmission and Influence of Chinese Drama in Russia, 1788–1990), Minsu quyi 民俗曲藝 (Journal of Chinese ritual, theatre and folklore) 191 (March 2016): 109–51. For an attempted overview in Russian, see, for instance, Kirina I. Golygina and Vladislav F. Sorokin, Izuchenie kitaiskoi literatury v Rossii (Russian Studies of Chinese Literature; Moscow: Vostochnaia literatura, 2004); see also related Chinese works: Chen Shixiong 陳世雄, “Eluosi xiju dashi yu Zhongguo xiqu” 俄羅斯戲劇大師與中國戲曲 (Great masters of Russian theater and Chinese drama), Eluosi wenyi 俄羅斯文藝 (Russian arts), 2003.1: 35–43; Gao Yuhai 高玉海, “Guan Hanqing ji qi zuopin zai Eluosi de fanyi yu yanjiu” 關漢卿及其作品在俄羅斯的翻譯和研究 (Translations and studies of Guan Hanqing’s works in Russia), Zhongguo gudai xiaoshuo xiju yanjiu 中國古代小說戲劇研究 (Research on Chinese traditional fiction and drama) 12 (2016): 199–204; and idem., “Tang Xianzu ji qi ‘Mudan ting’ zai Eluosi de fanyi yanjiu” 湯顯祖及其⟪牡丹亭⟫在俄羅斯的翻譯和研究 (Translations and studies of The peony pavilion by Tang Xianzu in Russia), Xiqu yishu 戲曲藝術 (Dramatic art) 2018.3: 12–16.
2 For more details, see Berezkin, “Zhongguo xiqu zai Eluosi chuanbo yu yingxiang,” pp. 111–16.
3 Barbara W. Maggs, Russia and “le Rêve Chinois”: China in Eighteenth-century Russian Literature (Oxford: The Voltaire Foundation at the Taylor Institution, 1984), pp. 93–94.
4 Vasilii Nechaev, trans., Kitaiskii Sirota (Orphan of China; Saint Petersburg: Tipografiia Gos. Voennoi kollegii, 1788). On the influence of this subject on the Russian stage of that period, see, for instance, Maggs, Russia and “le Rêve Chinois,” pp. 93–94; and Olga L. Fishman, Kitai v Evrope: mif i real’nost’ (China in Europe: myth and reality; Saint Petersburg: Peterburgskoe vostokovedenie, 2003), pp. 388–89.
5 See Li Fuqing, Zhongguo gudian wenxue yanjiu zai Sulian, pp. 61–62.
6 Zahar F. Leontievskii, trans., Puteshestvennik (A traveler; Saint Petersburg: Foreign trade department, 1835). For the Manchu translation, see Han-Man Xixiang ji 漢滿西廂記 (Chinese and Manchu Western chamber; Beijing: Qichangzhai, 1710).
7 Kao Tong-kia, Istoriia Liutni (Story of the Lute; Saint Petersburg: Mordvinov Publishing House, 1847).
8 The French translation he used is M. Bazin’s Le Pi-paki ou l'histoire de Luth, drama chinois de Kaotongkia (Paris: Imprimerie royale, 1841).
9 See Li Fuqing, Zhongguo gudian wenxue yanjiu zai Sulian, pp. 61–62; Berezkin, “Zhongguo xiqu zai Eluosi chuanbo yu yingxiang,” pp. 119–21.
10 See Svetlana A. Serova, Teatral’naia kul’tura Serebrianogo veka v Rossii i hudozhestvennye tradicii Vostoka (Kitai, Iaponiia, Indiia) (Theater Culture of the Silver Age in Russia and Artistic Traditions of the Orient [China, India, Japan]; Moscow: IV RAN, 1999), pp. 127–77.
11 See Christoph Harbsmeier, “Vasilii Mikhailovich Alekseev and Russian Sinology,” T'oung Pao 97 (2011): 344–70.
12 Vasily M. Alekseev, V starom Kitae (In old China; 2nd revised edition; Moscow: Vostochnaia Literature, 2012), pp. 69–70, 86–97, and 159–60.
13 Vasily M. Alekseev, Kitaiskaia narodnaia kartina (Chinese Popular Pictures; Moscow: Nauka, 1966).
14 Vasily M. Alekseev, “Aktery-geroi na stranitsah kitaiskoi istorii” (Actor-heroes in Chinese history), in Trudy po kitaiskoi literature (Works on Chinese Literature, vol. 1; Moscow: Vostochnaia Literature, 2002), pp. 495–505.
15 Boris A. Vasiliev, “Kitaiskii teatr” (Chinese theater), in Vostochnyi teatr, sbornik statei (Oriental Theater: Collection of Articles), ed. A. M. Mervart (Leningrad: Academia, 1929), pp. 196–267. The play dramatizes an episode that appears in chapter 95 of Sanguo yanyi 三國演義 (Romance of the Three Kingdoms).
16 See Chen Shixiong, “Eluosi xiju dashi yu Zhongguo xiqu;” Ye Kejia 葉可嘉 (E. A. Zavidovskaia), “Sulian Hanxuejia Wang Xili, wenxuejia Telijiyakefu lun Zhongguo xiqu yu Mei Lanfang” 蘇聯漢學家王希禮、文學家特列季亞科夫論中國戲曲與梅蘭芳 (Soviet sinologist B. A. Vasiliev and writer Tretiakov on Chinese drama and Mei Lanfang), Xiqu yanjiu 戲曲研究 (Drama studies) 91 (2014): 64–80.
17 Examples of publications that came out of large projects housed in research institutions are Istoriia Vsemirnoi Literatury (History of world literature; Moscow: Nauka, 1983-1994), in 8 vols.; and, more recently, M. L. Titarenko, ed., Duhovnaia kul’tura Kitaia: entsiklopediia (Spiritual Culture of China: Encyclopedia), vol. 3 (Moscow: Vost. Lit., 2006).
18 Lev N. Menshikov, Reforma kitaiskoy klassicheskoi dramy (The Reform of Chinese Traditional Theater; Moscow: Vostochnaia literatura, 1959).
19 Nikolai T. Fedorenko, Guan’ Han’-tsin—velikii dramaturg Kitaia (Guan Hanqing—A Great Chinese Playwright; Moscow: Znanie, 1958). A special interest in Yuan zaju and in Guan Hanqing appeared after 1958, when the World Peace Council (an international organization established in 1950) proclaimed him to be an outstanding person of world culture.
20 Vladislav F. Sorokin, Kitaiskaia klassicheskaia drama 13–14 vv.: genesis, obrazy, structura, siuzhety (Chinese Classical Drama of the 13–14th Centuries: Origins, Characters, Structure, Storylines; Moscow: Nauka, 1979).
21 Irina V. Gaida, Kitaiskii traditsionnyi teatr sitsiui (Chinese Traditional Theater xiqu; Moscow: Nauka, 1971); Svetlana A. Serova, Pekinskaia muzikal’naia drama (Seredina 19–40-ye gg. 20 v.) (Musical Drama of Peking: mid 19th c.-1940s; Moscow: Nauka, 1979).
22 See, e.g. Irina V. Gaida, “O narodnyh istokah kitaiskogo teatra” (About the Folk Origins of Chinese Theater), in Problemy vostokovedenia (Problems of Oriental Studies), 1959.1: 105–12; Lev N. Menshikov, “K voprosu ob avtore ‘Zapadnogo fligelia’” (On the question of authorship of The western chamber), Problemy Vostokovedeniia, 1961.1: 149–51; Evgenii A. Serebriakov, “O piese yuanskogo dramaturga Ma Zhiiuania ‘Osen’ v han’skom dvortse’” (About the Yuan drama Autumn in the Han palace by Ma Zhiyuan), in Filologia stran Vostoka (Philology of Oriental countries; Leningrad, 1963), pp. 110–25.
23 L. N. Guseva, “Geroi dramy Kun Shanzhenia ‘Veer s tcvetami persika’” (1699) (A Character of The Peach Blossom Fan by Kong Shangren [1699]), Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta (Moscow University Journal) 14.2 (1972): 52–57; L. D. Pozdneeva, V. S. Manuhin, and L. N. Guseva, “Dramaturgiia: Hun Shen i Kun Shan-zhen” (Drama: Hong Sheng and Kong Shangren), in Literatura Vostoka v Novoe vremia (Oriental Literature of Modern Times; Moscow: Izdatelstvo Moscovskogo Universiteta, 1975), pp. 430–48; Tatiana A. Malinovskaia, “Dramy Zhu Iudunia (1379–1439)” (Plays by Zhu Youdun [1379–1439]), Vostokovedenie (Oriental studies) 5 (1977): 145–157; idem, “Razvitie siuzheta dramy ‘Zapadnyi fligel’ v kitaiskoi dramaturgii 15–17 vv.” (The Development of The western chamber plot in Chinese drama of the 15th–17th centuries), in XIII Teoreticheskie problemy izuchenia literatur Dalnego Vostoka (The 13th Issue of Theoretical problems of Studies of the Literature of Far East), vol. 2 (Moscow: Institute of Oriental Studies, 1988), pp. 193–200.
24 First printed: Lev N. Menshikov, trans. and intro., Zapadnyi fligel’ (Western chamber; Leningrad: Goslitizdat, 1960); reprinted in idem, trans., ed. and intro., Kitaiskaia klassicheskaia drama (Chinese Classical Drama; Saint Petersburg: Severo-Zapad Press, 2003), pp. 117–375. The second book also contains translations of two other Yuan dramas: Scholar Zhang Boiling the Sea (Zhang sheng zhu hai 張生煮海) by Li Haogu 李好古 (?-1300) and Qiannü's Soul Goes Wandering (Qian nü li hun 倩女离魂) by Zheng Guangzu 鄭光祖 (1260-1320), both completed by Menshikov in the 1960s.
25 See Berezkin, “Zhongguo xiqu zai Eluosi chuanbo yu yingxiang,” pp. 135–141.
26 Viktor V. Petrov, ed., Yuan’skaia drama (Yuan Drama; Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1966).
27 Klassicheskaia drama Vostoka (Classical Drama of the Orient; Moscow: Hudozhestvennaia literatura, 1976), pp. 347–448. See also a recent reprint of the old Russian translations of The Western Chamber and Injustice to Dou E: Vladislav F. Sorokin, et al., Iuan’skaia drama (Yuan dynasty drama; Moscow: Shans, 2019).
28 Klassicheskaia drama Vostoka, pp. 449–523. Unfortunately, Menshikov was not able to finish his translation of The Peony Pavilion.
29 Klassicheskaia drama Vostoka, pp. 524–536.
30 Viola S. Adzhimamudova and Nikolai A. Speshnev, eds., Sovremennaia kitaiskaia drama (Modern Chinese Drama; Moscow: Raduga, 1990), pp. 3–94.
31 Boris L. Riftin, “Teoriia kitaiskoi dramy (12-nachalo 17 v.)” (The Theory of Chinese drama [12th–17th c.]), in Problemy literatury i estetiki v stranah Vostoka (Problems of Literature and Aesthetics in the Countries of Orient; Moscow, 1964), pp. 131–60. This was a review of a 10-volume set of traditional Chinese writings on drama: Zhongguo gudian xiqu lunzhu jicheng 中國古典戲曲論著集成 (Collection of Writings on Chinese Classical Drama; Beijing: Zhongguo xiju, 1959–60).
32 Svetlana A. Serova, Zerkalo prosvetlennogo duha. Huan Fan’-cho i estetika kitaiskogo klassicheskogo teatra (Mirror of an Enlightened Mind: Huang Fanchuo’s aesthetics of Chinese classical theatre; Moscow: Nauka, 1979).
33 Svetlana A. Serova, Kitaiskii teatr – esteticheskii obraz mira (Chinese theater: an aesthetic view of the world; Moscow: Vostochnaia literature, 2005).
34 Svetlana A. Serova, Kitaiskii teatr i kitaiskoe traditsionnoe obshestvo (Chinese Theater and Traditional Chinese Society; Moscow: Nauka, 1990); and Tatiana A. Malinovskaia, Ocherki po istorii kitaiskoi klassicheskoi dramy v zhanre tszatsziui, 14–17 vv. (Outline of the History of Chinese Classical Drama zaju, 14th–17th centuries; Saint Petersburg: Saint Petersburg State University, 1996).
35 Svetlana A. Serova, Religioznyi ritual i kitaiskii teatr (Religious Ritual and Chinese Theater; Moscow: Vostochnaia Literature, 2012).
36 Hu Tiancheng 胡天成, ed., Minjian jili yu yishi xiju 民間祭禮與儀式戲劇 (Folk Sacrifice and Ritual Drama; Guiyang: Guizhou minzu, 1999).
37 Ekaterina A. Zavidovskaia, Hramovye ob’edineniia i religioznaia zhizn’ krest’ian sovremennogo Kitaia (Temple Associations and Religious life of Peasants in Modern China; Saint Petersburg: Saint Petersburg State University, 2009), pp. 70–78; see also her “Social and Cultural Role of Rural Drama Performance,” in Proceedings of the Conference “Far Eastern Philosophy and Modern Society,” vol. 2 (Moscow: Institute of Far Eastern Studies, 2008). pp. 130–138.
38 E.g., Elena V. Shahmatova, Iskaniia evropeiskoi rezhissury i traditsii Vostoka (In search of European stage direction and Oriental traditions; Moscow: URSS, 2013 [1st edition, 1997]); V. F. Sorokin, “Iz istorii rossiisko-kitaiskih teatral’nyh sviazei (pervaia polovina XX v.)” (From the history of Russo-Chinese theater exchange [first half of the 20th century]), in Vostokovedenie i mirovaia kultura (Oriental Studies and World Culture; Moscow: Vostochnaia literatura, 1998), pp. 345–52; and Serova, Teatral’naia kul’tura Serebrianogo veka v Rossii.
39 Li Fuqing 李福清, Wang Shucun 王樹村, and Liu Yushan 劉玉山, eds., Sulian cang Zhongguo minjian nianhua zhenpin ji 蘇聯藏中國民間年畫珍品集 (Rare Chinese Popular Prints in Soviet Collections; Beijing: Renmin meishu, 1990; Russian version: Leningrad: Avrora Publishers, 1991) and Li Fuqing 李福清, ed., Zhongguo muban nianhua jicheng: Eluosi cangpin juan 中國木版年畫集成: 俄羅斯藏品卷 (Collection of Chinese Woodblock Prints: Volume on Russian collections; Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2009).
40 Tatiana I. Vinogradova, Mir kak predstavlenie: kitaiskaia literaturnaia illiustraciia (World as imagery: Chinese literary illustration; Saint Petersburg: Al’faret, 2012).
41 Dmitrii I. Maiatskii, Gao Tszechen i ego p’esa ‘Pipa tszi’ (Gao Zecheng and his play Pipa ji; Saint Petersburg: Saint Petersburg State University, 2015), pp. 153–450. The translator consulted English translations while using the methodology of translation worked out by the scholars of older generation, such as Menshikov.
42 This overview is focused on the studies of Han-nationality literature and does not include Russian research on the folk (oral) literature of the ethnic minorities of China.
43 Rostislav Berezkin, “Academician Boris L. Riftin (1932–2012): the Extraordinary Life of a Brilliant Scholar,” CHINOPERL Papers 31 (2012): 260–72.
44 Boris L. Riftin, Skazanie o Velikoi stene i problema zhanra v kitaiskom fol’klore (Legends about the Great Wall and the Problem of Genre in Chinese folklore; Мoscow: GRVL, 1961); idem, Istoricheskaia epopeia i folklornaia tradiciia v Kitae (Ustnye i knizhnye versii ‘Troetsarstviia’) (Historical epic and the folklore tradition in China: Oral and written versions of the ‘Three Kingdoms;’ Мoscow: Nauka, 1970).
45 Nikolai A. Speshnev, Kitaiskaia prostonarodnaia literatura: pesenno-povestvovatel’nye zhanry (Chinese Popular Literature: Prosimetric Genres; Moscow: Nauka, 1986); see also idem, “Pesenno-povestvovatel’naia literatura” (Prosimetric literature), in Dukhovnaia kul’tura Kitaia (Spiritual Culture of China), vol. 5 (Language and Literature; Moscow: Vostochnaia literatura, 2006), pp. 110–19.
46 For a general catalogue of the Saint Petersburg collection, see Lev N. Men'shikov et al., eds., Opisanie kitaiskih rukopisei Dun’huanskogo fonda Institutov Narodov Azii (Description of Chinese manuscripts of the Dunhuang collection of the Institute of Peoples of the Orient), 2 vols. (Moscow: Nauka, 1963–67).
47 Lev N. Men'shikov, ed. and intro., Kitaiskie rukopisi iz Dunhuana: pamiatniki buddiiskoi literatury suven’siue (Chinese manuscripts from Dunhuang: Texts of Popular Buddhist Literature, suwenxue; Moscow: Nauka, 1963).
48 Lev N. Men'shikov, ed. and trans., Bian’ven’ o Veimotsze. Bian’ven’ “Desiat’ blagikh znamenii” (Neizvestnye rukopisi bian’ven’ iz dun’khuanskogo fonda Instituta narodov Azii) (Bianwen on Vimalakīrti. Bianwen on Ten auspicious signs. Unknown manuscripts of bianwen from the Dunhuang collection of the Institute of the Asian Peoples; Moscow: Nauka, 1963); idem, ed. and trans., Bian’ven’ o vozdaianii za milosti (Bianwen on Repaying of mercies. A manuscript from the Dunhuang collection of the Institute of the Asian Peoples; Moscow: Nauka, 1972); idem, ed. and trans., Bian’ven’ po Lotosovoi sutre (Bianwen on The lotus sūtra; Moscow: Nauka, 1984).
49 For another classification, see Victor H. Mair, T'ang Transformation Texts: A Study of the Buddhist Contribution to the Rise of Vernacular Fiction and Drama in China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989), pp. 29–30.
50 Liudmila K. Pavlovskaia, ed. and trans., Zanovo sostavlennoe Pinhua po istorii Piati dinastii (Newly compiled pinghua on The history of the Five Dynasties; Moscow: Nauka, 1984).
51 Liudmila K. Pavlovskaia, ed. and trans., Shihua o tom, kak Tripitaka Velikoi Tan dobyl sviaschennye knigi (Story with verse about Monk Tripiṭaka of the Great Tang Fetching Sūtras; Moscow: Nauka, 1987).
52 For detailed description of this collection, see Elvira S. Stulova, “Annotirovannoe opisanie sochinenii zhanra baotsziuan’ v sobranii LO IV AN SSSR” (Annotated description of texts of the baojuan genre in the collection of LO IV AN SSSR), in Pis’mennye pamyatniki Vostoka: 1976–1977 (Written monuments of the Orient: 1976–1977; Moscow: Nauka, 1984), pp. 271–312.
53 Elvira S. Stulova, ed., trans. and intro., Baotsziuan’ o Pu-mine (Puming baojuan; Moscow: Nauka, 1979).
54 Ekaterina B. Porshneva, Religioznye ucheniia pozdnesrednevekovogo Kitaia: problemy ideologii (Religious Movements of Late Imperial China: Problems of Ideology; Moscow: Nauka, 1991); K.M. Tertitskii, Kitaiskie sinkreticheskie religii v XX veke (Chinese Syncretic Religions in the 20th Century; Moscow: “Vostochnaia literatura” RAN, 2000).
55 Rostislav V. Berezkin, Dragocennye svitki (Baotsiuan’) v duhovnoi kul’ture Kitaia: na primere Baotsiuan’ o Treh Voplosheniyah Muliania (Precious scrolls [baojuan] functioning in the culture of China, with the Baojuan of three rebirths of Mulian as an example; Saint Petersburg: Saint Petersburg Center for Oriental Studies, 2012).
56 See Wilt L. Idema, “Ming and Qing Literature,” in Haihui Zhang et al., eds., A Scholarly Review of Chinese Studies in North America (Ann Arbor: Association for Asian Studies, 2013), p. 330.
57 Ibid., p. 335.