Max Shvedov | Tomsk State University (original) (raw)

Papers by Max Shvedov

Рассматривается современное состояние китайской чайной культуры в контексте новой парадигмы культ... more Рассматривается современное состояние китайской чайной культуры в контексте новой парадигмы культурного строительства в КНР времен проведения политики реформ и открытости. Ставится вопрос о месте традиций в обществе, которое находится в процессе модернизации. Пробуждение интереса к чайной культуре в 80-е годы 20 века сопровождалось обращением к некоторым традиционным ценностям китайского общества и их переосмыслением в новых условиях. Чайная культура рассматривалась как выражение этих традиционных ценностей, которые были не понятны жителям нового Китая и требовали интерпретации. Однако здесь неизбежно встает вопрос, как соотносится интерпретация с тем, что она интерпретирует.

Ключевые слова: чайная культура, КНР, современность, Дао, ностальгия

The article reflects the modern state of Chinese tea culture and the place of traditional in it. The transformation and social change in China after the end of cultural revolution allowed a new concept of cultural policy to emerge: traditional culture no longer was considered to be the obstacle on the way of transformation, but was claimed to be the basis of the modernisation and building new China. The search for new identity then brought Chinese people to the sphere of traditional, which was strange and even exotic for them. The traditional culture itself was to be translated into the language of the new social discourse. In this case the social function of traditional culture dominated the value the the culture as it is. Since the beginning of the period of policy of reform and opening in early 1980s tea merchants and scholars recognized the thick traditional background in Chinese tea culture which was promoted actively with the support on the official level. The way to achieve the social utopia was seen in the traditional Chinese tea culture. During the early period of development of the Chinese tea culture in Early Middle Ages it was developing under the influence of the school of Metaphysics, famous for practicing “pure conversations” (qing tan). Later during Middle Ages poets, scholars, and Buddhist priesthood had the certain impact on it. So from the early beginning Chinese tea culture developed the deep connection to the traditional Chinese thought and art. That is why the phantasm of Tao as nostalgia for something larger, transcendent, has never left the Chinese tea culture and within modern society with its thirty years of revolution struggle and drastic social change this nostalgia was may be even stronger then ever before. The refined aestheticism of tea ceremony lets the tea lover feel as a part of the ancient tradition, to share common cultural heritage, which in this case manifests in the certain physical movements. But in fact it was and still is the way to pose as a lover of culture, due to the implicit connection between refined taste of tea and the Chinese history. The search for traditional in Chinese tea culture which as it was said was mostly interpretation of traditional codes into the understandable symbols has led to the actual invention of the new “traditional” tea culture. The modern development of the tea culture reflects the quest for new national identity and therefore it is important to bring this topic to the surface of the scientific discourse.

В настоящей статье рассматриваются некоторые характерные черты трансформации духовной культуры ки... more В настоящей статье рассматриваются некоторые характерные черты трансформации духовной культуры китайского общества в период раннего средневековья – династий Вэй и Цзинь. В статье рассматривается изменение отношения в частности к вину, как признаку системного духовного кризиса китайского общества, который сопровождался не только пессимизмом и апатией, но и активным духовным писком, повлиявшим на дальнейшее развитие культуры Китая в целом. Данная статья является частью диссертационного исследования, но ограниченный объем, к сожалению, не позволяет в полной мере отразить динамику и внутреннюю логику процессов, проходивших в китайском обществе в указанный период времени.

Ключевые слова: династии Вэй и Цзинь; «ветер и поток»; вино; порошок пяти минералов; «знаменитости».

The period after the collapse of the Han dynasty, long internecine war and following division of the country into pieces with the short periods of reunion was one of the pivotal points in the long history of China. That was the period of deep changes in all the spheres of Ancient Chinese society. Although orthodox Chinese historiography showed this period as the period of chaos, destruction and decline, even superficial overview of the early medieval (3-6 A.D.) shows that in spite of or may be die to the political disasters of the time it was the golden age of culture. The whole culture of the time was passing through a deep rebirth.

Critics of the official Confucian ideology that began during the Han dynasty led to considerable ideological emancipation of a person. Although Confucianism was still the official ideology of bureaucracy, this spiritual turbulence has shown some significant impact on the moral and ethic foundations of the society. Endless wars and riots that took place after the Han dynasty had collapsed put the most educated aristocrats in front of the important choice: either to join the fight for power or to be moved to the periphery of the political life. And the fight was not a competition in skills and knowledge, there were cruel behind-the-scene activities, bloody battles, betrayal and guile. Those who had found themselves pushed out from the “stage” faced the reality of impossibility to self realization, to apply skills and knowledge gained in decades of study. The growing pessimism and apathy took some of the most talented people of the time to the Taoist heritage. They admired Chuang-tsu’s ability to “free and boundless wandering” (xiao yao) and “sitting in oblivion” (zuo wang) and using wine were trying to reach these ideals. They disdained hypocrisy of the public morality and Li (Ritual propriety). They were called the Ming Shi (famous people) and there life was the expression of the new ‘style”, which later was called “Wind and Flow” (Feng Liu).

Those who were Feng Liu were looking for unobstructed with social boundaries self-expression, and sometimes it took shape of craziness which others called Fang Dan (willfulness and indulgement) as later Liu Yiqing, the author of “Essays and Criticism” (Shi Shuo Xin Yu) named the twenty third chapter, where he shows examples of such a behaviour of the early period ming shi like the scholars, writers and musicians of an intellectual group of The Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove (Zhu Lin Qi Xian).

The system crisis which took place in early medieval China forced deep transformation of Ancient Chinese society and according to some researchers, due to the changes this transformation brought we can now see the difference between the Ancient Chinese people and modern Chinese as between Ancient Romans and modern Italians alike.

В настоящей статье приводится анализ некоторых аспектов ритуала чаепития на основе материала, изл... more В настоящей статье приводится анализ некоторых аспектов ритуала чаепития на основе материала, изложенного в первом исследовании, специально посвященном чаю - «Чайном каноне» Лу Юя, который был составлен во времена династии Тан в Китае, с переводом отдельных фрагментов текста. Автор предпринял попытку анализа содержания этих аспектов в контексте антропологических исследований, когда элементы ритуала рассматриваются не изолированно, но в контексте этно-культурного процесса. Так же предпринимается попытка привлечь внимание исследователей к проблематике китайской чайной культуры.

Ключевые слова: Чайный канон, ритуал чаепития, Лу Юй, средневековый Китай

The importance of studying ritual has been proven by past generations of scientists, therefore it requires no further reasoning. We are lucky to rely upon rich and well established methodology of studying and huge collection of field research data. Nevertheless, rituals still erect numerous problems in front of those who intend to interpret the ritual and it's symbolism. One of these problems is verification of the results of interpretation. This problem becomes especially essential when we approach Chinese tea ritual. There are so many orthodox and individual ways of explaining the meaning and purpose of the whole ritual and its different parts in particular that it may seem that there is actually no meaning at all. However, putting the tea ritual into the temporal and ideological context helps us to observe the ritual from outside as a holistic act.

In this article we will be talking about tea ritual as it appears in the Tea Classics of Lu Yu, a poet of Tan dynasty, who composed his text in the second part of 8th century. The book consists of ten chapters describing origins of tea and tea drinking customs; tools that are used to produce and prepare tea; methods of picking leaves, it's production, brewing and drinking. Tea Classics had a major influence upon the development of Chinese tea culture and remain of high value amongst tea lovers and researchers.

Methods and techniques of tea preparation were changing along with the development of tea and related industries. Another important feature of Chinese tea culture is that during it's history no unified tea ritual was developed. Tea ritual took different shapes and was filled with different meaning depending of social strata and philosophical views of these who performed it. Though Lu Yu mentions different methods of tea preparation popular amongst regular people, he emphasizes his disapproval towards these methods. At the same time he mentions that the method he describes is appropriate among aristocrats.

As well as other ancient books on tea Tea Classics does not provide any interpretation of the meaning of different aspects of tea ritual, neither does the author use the word ritual itself. Instead Lu Yu gives some recommendations for those who already know how to make tea and perform a tea ritual.

The attempt of analyzing some particular elements of Tan dynasty tea ritual that was made in this article is to show researchers the depth of symbolism of tea ritual to draw the attention to this topic. One can see that the methods of preparation and serving tea to guests are strongly ideologically engaged and culturally and temporally determined.

В настоящей статье приводится первый перевод на русский язык и исследование «Оды чая» поэта эпохи... more В настоящей статье приводится первый перевод на русский язык и исследование «Оды чая» поэта эпохи династии Западная Цзинь — Ду Юя, наиболее раннего из известных на сегодняшний день текста, специально посвященного чаю. В статье предпринимается попытка интерпретации содержания оды с учетом реалий современного автору китайского общества. Ода занимает крайне важное место в истории чайной культуры Китая и представляет большой интерес для исследователей не только чайной культуры но и специалистов более широкого профиля.

Ключевые слова: династия Западная Цзинь; чайная культура; «Ода чаю»

The period of Western dynasty Jin in China is considered to be a turbulent period which traditionally has an uncertain reputation. On the one hand, orthodox Confucian historiography shows this period as a period of unceasing degradation of public morality of the nation, but on the other hand, historical sources show this period as a time of deep transformation of Chinese society which was followed by a great cultural growth. This was the time when Chinese tea culture emerged and started to develop.

The "Ode to Tea" or "Chuan fu" of Western Jin poet Du Yu (?-311) is not only the first known literary work devoted particularly to tea, but also a historical source of great importance. Du Yu in his Ode with grace and exclusive literary style tells us about the environment where tea is growing, about how and when farmers pick the leaves, what water and utensils to use, how to enjoy tea and the effect tea has on the one drinking it.

The interpretation of the Ode shows us how deep tea culture was rooted in Chinese culture even at the time of Western Jin. It was not just temporally specific, it evolved out of the spirit of time and place. And if we put this tea culture into the context and cultural background it was developing in we shall find it very clearly that even at that time tea culture was already an essential part of Chinese culture.

The Ode to start with the description of the Ling Mountains, where in the rich and moisturised by the rains soil tea trees grow on the western side of the mountain. Ling Mountains are considered to be holy mountains for both Taoist and Buddhist traditions. Ling Mountains in Taoist literature are Lianlai Mountains in Jiangsu province. Buddhist call Ling Mountains Lingjiu Mountains in Sichuan province. We do not have any clue which mountains exactly Du Yu is talking about, so we cannot link it with any of this religious connotations.

Then the author tells us that early Autumn farmers are very busy looking for the trees and picking leaves. The fact that farmers pick early autumn leaves is very interesting: in different literary sources we meet the division into spring and autumn tea, the first one to be called Tu and the second Ming or Chuan. This line says that at the time of Du Yu this division was already known. Extending this assumption, the correct translation of name of the Ode must be "Ode to autumn tea" or "Ode to the latter picked tea".

Then Du Yu says that to make tea one is to scoop the water form the clean current of river Min Mountains. Min Mountains is a mountain range on the border territory of modern provinces of Sichuan and Gansu. The attention to the clear waters is symptomatic itself: non of later tea related literary works underestimate the importance of proper water to make tea on.

Then the author tells us that choosing tea ware one must choose the ceramic pot from the East and use a gourd to serve the tea the way Duke Liu did. This passage is to show the reader that the spirit of tea is of simplicity. This passage is especially important if consider the time the Ode was composed. It was a time when rich families were competing in who was more wealthy, who could spend more money on food for one day. Tea was a symbol of opposition to this, as a symbol of simplicity and moral uprightness.

Next two rows tell us how beautiful the tea that was just made, with thick foam on the top. This sentiment is essential for the tea lovers of all times and is to be found in any later tea related literary work.

And in the end Du Yu describes the effect tea has on the body and mind of the one who is drinking it. This is but another very important sentiment that is connected to the belief that the tea is a kind of medicine.

Though the "Ode to Tea" was the first work on tea, it contains all the major sentiments that are to be praised by the later tea lovers.

Рассматривается современное состояние китайской чайной культуры в контексте новой парадигмы культ... more Рассматривается современное состояние китайской чайной культуры в контексте новой парадигмы культурного строительства в КНР времен проведения политики реформ и открытости. Ставится вопрос о месте традиций в обществе, которое находится в процессе модернизации. Пробуждение интереса к чайной культуре в 80-е годы 20 века сопровождалось обращением к некоторым традиционным ценностям китайского общества и их переосмыслением в новых условиях. Чайная культура рассматривалась как выражение этих традиционных ценностей, которые были не понятны жителям нового Китая и требовали интерпретации. Однако здесь неизбежно встает вопрос, как соотносится интерпретация с тем, что она интерпретирует.

Ключевые слова: чайная культура, КНР, современность, Дао, ностальгия

The article reflects the modern state of Chinese tea culture and the place of traditional in it. The transformation and social change in China after the end of cultural revolution allowed a new concept of cultural policy to emerge: traditional culture no longer was considered to be the obstacle on the way of transformation, but was claimed to be the basis of the modernisation and building new China. The search for new identity then brought Chinese people to the sphere of traditional, which was strange and even exotic for them. The traditional culture itself was to be translated into the language of the new social discourse. In this case the social function of traditional culture dominated the value the the culture as it is. Since the beginning of the period of policy of reform and opening in early 1980s tea merchants and scholars recognized the thick traditional background in Chinese tea culture which was promoted actively with the support on the official level. The way to achieve the social utopia was seen in the traditional Chinese tea culture. During the early period of development of the Chinese tea culture in Early Middle Ages it was developing under the influence of the school of Metaphysics, famous for practicing “pure conversations” (qing tan). Later during Middle Ages poets, scholars, and Buddhist priesthood had the certain impact on it. So from the early beginning Chinese tea culture developed the deep connection to the traditional Chinese thought and art. That is why the phantasm of Tao as nostalgia for something larger, transcendent, has never left the Chinese tea culture and within modern society with its thirty years of revolution struggle and drastic social change this nostalgia was may be even stronger then ever before. The refined aestheticism of tea ceremony lets the tea lover feel as a part of the ancient tradition, to share common cultural heritage, which in this case manifests in the certain physical movements. But in fact it was and still is the way to pose as a lover of culture, due to the implicit connection between refined taste of tea and the Chinese history. The search for traditional in Chinese tea culture which as it was said was mostly interpretation of traditional codes into the understandable symbols has led to the actual invention of the new “traditional” tea culture. The modern development of the tea culture reflects the quest for new national identity and therefore it is important to bring this topic to the surface of the scientific discourse.

В настоящей статье рассматриваются некоторые характерные черты трансформации духовной культуры ки... more В настоящей статье рассматриваются некоторые характерные черты трансформации духовной культуры китайского общества в период раннего средневековья – династий Вэй и Цзинь. В статье рассматривается изменение отношения в частности к вину, как признаку системного духовного кризиса китайского общества, который сопровождался не только пессимизмом и апатией, но и активным духовным писком, повлиявшим на дальнейшее развитие культуры Китая в целом. Данная статья является частью диссертационного исследования, но ограниченный объем, к сожалению, не позволяет в полной мере отразить динамику и внутреннюю логику процессов, проходивших в китайском обществе в указанный период времени.

Ключевые слова: династии Вэй и Цзинь; «ветер и поток»; вино; порошок пяти минералов; «знаменитости».

The period after the collapse of the Han dynasty, long internecine war and following division of the country into pieces with the short periods of reunion was one of the pivotal points in the long history of China. That was the period of deep changes in all the spheres of Ancient Chinese society. Although orthodox Chinese historiography showed this period as the period of chaos, destruction and decline, even superficial overview of the early medieval (3-6 A.D.) shows that in spite of or may be die to the political disasters of the time it was the golden age of culture. The whole culture of the time was passing through a deep rebirth.

Critics of the official Confucian ideology that began during the Han dynasty led to considerable ideological emancipation of a person. Although Confucianism was still the official ideology of bureaucracy, this spiritual turbulence has shown some significant impact on the moral and ethic foundations of the society. Endless wars and riots that took place after the Han dynasty had collapsed put the most educated aristocrats in front of the important choice: either to join the fight for power or to be moved to the periphery of the political life. And the fight was not a competition in skills and knowledge, there were cruel behind-the-scene activities, bloody battles, betrayal and guile. Those who had found themselves pushed out from the “stage” faced the reality of impossibility to self realization, to apply skills and knowledge gained in decades of study. The growing pessimism and apathy took some of the most talented people of the time to the Taoist heritage. They admired Chuang-tsu’s ability to “free and boundless wandering” (xiao yao) and “sitting in oblivion” (zuo wang) and using wine were trying to reach these ideals. They disdained hypocrisy of the public morality and Li (Ritual propriety). They were called the Ming Shi (famous people) and there life was the expression of the new ‘style”, which later was called “Wind and Flow” (Feng Liu).

Those who were Feng Liu were looking for unobstructed with social boundaries self-expression, and sometimes it took shape of craziness which others called Fang Dan (willfulness and indulgement) as later Liu Yiqing, the author of “Essays and Criticism” (Shi Shuo Xin Yu) named the twenty third chapter, where he shows examples of such a behaviour of the early period ming shi like the scholars, writers and musicians of an intellectual group of The Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove (Zhu Lin Qi Xian).

The system crisis which took place in early medieval China forced deep transformation of Ancient Chinese society and according to some researchers, due to the changes this transformation brought we can now see the difference between the Ancient Chinese people and modern Chinese as between Ancient Romans and modern Italians alike.

В настоящей статье приводится анализ некоторых аспектов ритуала чаепития на основе материала, изл... more В настоящей статье приводится анализ некоторых аспектов ритуала чаепития на основе материала, изложенного в первом исследовании, специально посвященном чаю - «Чайном каноне» Лу Юя, который был составлен во времена династии Тан в Китае, с переводом отдельных фрагментов текста. Автор предпринял попытку анализа содержания этих аспектов в контексте антропологических исследований, когда элементы ритуала рассматриваются не изолированно, но в контексте этно-культурного процесса. Так же предпринимается попытка привлечь внимание исследователей к проблематике китайской чайной культуры.

Ключевые слова: Чайный канон, ритуал чаепития, Лу Юй, средневековый Китай

The importance of studying ritual has been proven by past generations of scientists, therefore it requires no further reasoning. We are lucky to rely upon rich and well established methodology of studying and huge collection of field research data. Nevertheless, rituals still erect numerous problems in front of those who intend to interpret the ritual and it's symbolism. One of these problems is verification of the results of interpretation. This problem becomes especially essential when we approach Chinese tea ritual. There are so many orthodox and individual ways of explaining the meaning and purpose of the whole ritual and its different parts in particular that it may seem that there is actually no meaning at all. However, putting the tea ritual into the temporal and ideological context helps us to observe the ritual from outside as a holistic act.

In this article we will be talking about tea ritual as it appears in the Tea Classics of Lu Yu, a poet of Tan dynasty, who composed his text in the second part of 8th century. The book consists of ten chapters describing origins of tea and tea drinking customs; tools that are used to produce and prepare tea; methods of picking leaves, it's production, brewing and drinking. Tea Classics had a major influence upon the development of Chinese tea culture and remain of high value amongst tea lovers and researchers.

Methods and techniques of tea preparation were changing along with the development of tea and related industries. Another important feature of Chinese tea culture is that during it's history no unified tea ritual was developed. Tea ritual took different shapes and was filled with different meaning depending of social strata and philosophical views of these who performed it. Though Lu Yu mentions different methods of tea preparation popular amongst regular people, he emphasizes his disapproval towards these methods. At the same time he mentions that the method he describes is appropriate among aristocrats.

As well as other ancient books on tea Tea Classics does not provide any interpretation of the meaning of different aspects of tea ritual, neither does the author use the word ritual itself. Instead Lu Yu gives some recommendations for those who already know how to make tea and perform a tea ritual.

The attempt of analyzing some particular elements of Tan dynasty tea ritual that was made in this article is to show researchers the depth of symbolism of tea ritual to draw the attention to this topic. One can see that the methods of preparation and serving tea to guests are strongly ideologically engaged and culturally and temporally determined.

В настоящей статье приводится первый перевод на русский язык и исследование «Оды чая» поэта эпохи... more В настоящей статье приводится первый перевод на русский язык и исследование «Оды чая» поэта эпохи династии Западная Цзинь — Ду Юя, наиболее раннего из известных на сегодняшний день текста, специально посвященного чаю. В статье предпринимается попытка интерпретации содержания оды с учетом реалий современного автору китайского общества. Ода занимает крайне важное место в истории чайной культуры Китая и представляет большой интерес для исследователей не только чайной культуры но и специалистов более широкого профиля.

Ключевые слова: династия Западная Цзинь; чайная культура; «Ода чаю»

The period of Western dynasty Jin in China is considered to be a turbulent period which traditionally has an uncertain reputation. On the one hand, orthodox Confucian historiography shows this period as a period of unceasing degradation of public morality of the nation, but on the other hand, historical sources show this period as a time of deep transformation of Chinese society which was followed by a great cultural growth. This was the time when Chinese tea culture emerged and started to develop.

The "Ode to Tea" or "Chuan fu" of Western Jin poet Du Yu (?-311) is not only the first known literary work devoted particularly to tea, but also a historical source of great importance. Du Yu in his Ode with grace and exclusive literary style tells us about the environment where tea is growing, about how and when farmers pick the leaves, what water and utensils to use, how to enjoy tea and the effect tea has on the one drinking it.

The interpretation of the Ode shows us how deep tea culture was rooted in Chinese culture even at the time of Western Jin. It was not just temporally specific, it evolved out of the spirit of time and place. And if we put this tea culture into the context and cultural background it was developing in we shall find it very clearly that even at that time tea culture was already an essential part of Chinese culture.

The Ode to start with the description of the Ling Mountains, where in the rich and moisturised by the rains soil tea trees grow on the western side of the mountain. Ling Mountains are considered to be holy mountains for both Taoist and Buddhist traditions. Ling Mountains in Taoist literature are Lianlai Mountains in Jiangsu province. Buddhist call Ling Mountains Lingjiu Mountains in Sichuan province. We do not have any clue which mountains exactly Du Yu is talking about, so we cannot link it with any of this religious connotations.

Then the author tells us that early Autumn farmers are very busy looking for the trees and picking leaves. The fact that farmers pick early autumn leaves is very interesting: in different literary sources we meet the division into spring and autumn tea, the first one to be called Tu and the second Ming or Chuan. This line says that at the time of Du Yu this division was already known. Extending this assumption, the correct translation of name of the Ode must be "Ode to autumn tea" or "Ode to the latter picked tea".

Then Du Yu says that to make tea one is to scoop the water form the clean current of river Min Mountains. Min Mountains is a mountain range on the border territory of modern provinces of Sichuan and Gansu. The attention to the clear waters is symptomatic itself: non of later tea related literary works underestimate the importance of proper water to make tea on.

Then the author tells us that choosing tea ware one must choose the ceramic pot from the East and use a gourd to serve the tea the way Duke Liu did. This passage is to show the reader that the spirit of tea is of simplicity. This passage is especially important if consider the time the Ode was composed. It was a time when rich families were competing in who was more wealthy, who could spend more money on food for one day. Tea was a symbol of opposition to this, as a symbol of simplicity and moral uprightness.

Next two rows tell us how beautiful the tea that was just made, with thick foam on the top. This sentiment is essential for the tea lovers of all times and is to be found in any later tea related literary work.

And in the end Du Yu describes the effect tea has on the body and mind of the one who is drinking it. This is but another very important sentiment that is connected to the belief that the tea is a kind of medicine.

Though the "Ode to Tea" was the first work on tea, it contains all the major sentiments that are to be praised by the later tea lovers.