Кучера С.

Summary

This volume is a kind of a report summarizing author’s academic activities in the field of Chinese Studies throughout a long period covering more than fifty years. Due to the fact that the book comprises publications written in various periods of time and falling within different disciplines, it allows to capture a wide range of author’s academic interests. The latter do not confine themselves to the three main sections of the volume: «History», «Culture», and «Law», but also include «Archaeology» (e.g., article entitled «On the Late Stone Age Revolution in China»), Fine Arts («On the History of Dancing in China»), Literature («Continuity in the Chinese Cultural Tradition Under Yüan Dynasty»), and the other.

The volume, therefore, is a vivid demonstration of a huge diversity of author’s interests based on his knowledge of ancient and modern Chinese as well as ancient and medieval sources. All the chapters of the volume are based on analysis of a wide range of sources and research works written in many languages. It is worth mentioning here that this volume comprises just a small part of academic papers published by S. Kuchera (there are over 350 of them altogether, including four individual monographs and four co-authored monographs).

Historical section consists of eight articles touching upon various aspects of Chinese history and archaeology, starting appr. from the 10th thousand years B.C. (Neolithic Revolution) and up to 13th century A.C. (the conquest of Tibet). Some of these articles are devoted to historical turning-points, such as a turn to a producing economy, beginnings of metallurgy and written language; and Mongol conquests; the other chapters throw light on not so great, but still important aspects of life in ancient China. Analysis of the Neolithic Revolution, the second greatest turning-point in the history of mankind (after the rise of Homo Sapiens), is crucially important not only for China, but also for human civilization as a whole. The world academic mainstream, as it seems, shares the idea that Neolithic turn took place in the Near East, and then has spread all over the world. Chinese materials may prompt us to a correction of this opinion.

Discovery of metals and methods of metal-working is a crucial point in development of human civilization; that is why throwing light on where and when it happened in China is of no less importance (article «The Origin of Metallurgy in Ancient China» is devoted to these issues). Fortune-telling was a crucial state-sanctioned ceremony in ancient China (especially in the epoch of Shang-Yin, 18/17^th — 12/11th centuries B.C.). It is hardly possible to build up a reliable interpretation of Chinese history of that period without taking this fact into account (article «The Problem of Origin of Shang-Yin Oracle-Bones» is a contribution to our better understanding of this ceremony. China is a huge country different parts of which were not simultaneously embraced by the core of Chinese civilization rooted in the Hénán province. Unevenness of this development is shown in the fourth article of the historical section.

Bronze manufacture were an indispensable component not only of ceremonial life in ancient Chinese society, but also of the everydayness, serving as tableware and cooking battery. In addition, they used to contain not very long, but frequently very interesting inscriptions (on their inner or outer surfaces), which might serve as invaluable and reliable source of information (these issues are touched upon in the corresponding chapter).

Academic works devoted to women’s status in the ancient Oriental societies, happened to be somewhat one-sided, underestimating the role of women. In the chapter «Women at the Court of Chou» the author seeks to highlight the other side of the medal, that is, high educational status of women, their active social stance and powers in the hands of ancient Chinese nǚrén. Problems of slavery in the ancient China were among the central for the Soviet scholarship before the WWII and during 1950s and 1960s. However, interest towards this issues has faded away during the last decades, but, in the author’s mind, it might be relevant to remind the academic community about them, because some of them are under-explored, not to mention the fact that ideological orientations have changed. The last part of historical section is devoted to a medieval period in Chinese history. This epoch is of a crucial importance not only for China itself: the rise of the Mongol Empire was one of the key events in the world history and, most of all, in the history of Eurasia (with Russia as a part of the latter).

Richness and originality of Chinese culture and the impact it has made on many countries and peoples, can hardly be challenged. Six articles of the volume touch upon cultural issues. The two of them are devoted to a small, but significant Confucian treatise Xiao Jing, which has rarely attracted scholarly attention. The author (for the first time) has translated into Russian the eight chapters of this work which will make available to the readers moral and philosophical principles proclaimed by the treatise. Moreover, the first article in this row («Xiao in the Bronze Insciptions») is a kind of a supplement to the chapter about bronze inscriptions mentioned above.

Two other articles («Problems of Nutrition and Cult in Zhou China» and «Wine in Culture of Ancient China ») are also interrelated. In these papers analysis of many aspects of spiritual life of ancient Chinese people is based on that of material aspects of eating and alcohol consumption. Qi-pan wu — dance on seven plates, was widespread in China in the first half of the first thousand years B.C. — the fact that was reflected in painting of that period (regrettably, photos and drawings cannot be reproduced in this book because of a bad quality) and in poetry, many examples of which may be found in the volume. It is worth noting that this dance served for entertainment not only for the elites, and, probably, not primarily for the elites, but also for the ordinary people.

A concluding huge article «Problems of Continuity…» presents a panoramic picture of Chinese culture «behavior» under the Mongol rule, depicting its transformation and its influence on the conquerors.

Finally, the third section devoted to legal issues is the most short one. In the first two articles the author investigates two specific traits of the ancient Chinese law, to put it more precisely, of a penitentiary system. These are, 1) collective character of responsibility and penalty (not only a criminal himself but also many people from his surrounding were subject to repression: relatives, neighbors, etc.); 2) tradition of resorting, in the very ancient times, to a kind of symbolic penalties (instead of corporal punishment, one who commits a breach of the peace, was obliged to wear a special type of clothes distinguishing this person from the other people and, through this, separating him from the traditional collective). Many other legal problems accompanying life in ancient China are analyzed in the last article of the third section.

At the end of the volume the readers will find a list of publications of S. Kuchera containing the main part of his research works.