The concept of «politics» in Russian and Chinese culture

Van Jiehan postgraduate student, Department of Area Studies, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University 119991, Russia, Moscow, Leninskie Gory str., 1, p. 13 van.tszehan@yandex.ru

The development of Russian–Chinese relations depends on many factors, among which cultural ones are of particular importance. Both similarities and differences are noted in the cultures of Russia and China. In both cultures, collective values prevail over individual values and emphasis is placed on the centralization of power. However, compared to the culture of Russia, Chinese culture is more secularized and therefore more practical. In addition, Chinese culture is more stable and conservative, it pays more attention to internal processes in the state than to foreign policy. Throughout the history of Russian-Chinese relations, various cultural factors have had a strong influence on their development. The topic of comparing concepts in Russian and Chinese has been touched upon by many researchers: In particular, the topic of comparing concepts in Russian and Chinese is devoted to a series of studies by Golovanivskaya M. K. and Efimenko N. A. They described a number of key basic abstract concepts, such as "Truth" ^[9], "Conscience" ^[7], "Mind" ^[10], "Fate" ^[8] and "Joy" ^[6]. In addition to them, the researchers touched upon concepts of a more everyday nature. For example, the previously mentioned Golovanivskaya N. A. and Efimenko N. A. also touched on the concept of male beauty ^[5]. Yao Ch . He studied the concept of "Politeness" ^[21], Xin L. Studied the concept of "Lonely person" ^[16], Li M. studied the concept of "image" and "image" ^[13], the associative field of the stimulus word "Competition" was studied by Yu M. ^[21], etc.

The concepts of the sociopolitical context were also touched upon earlier, such as the study of Mingzhu Yu, which analyzed the concept of individualism ^[15]. However, at the moment the concept of politics is not sufficiently touched upon in the scientific field.

The concept of politics is multifaceted, it covers various aspects related to governance, power, decision-making and public relations. However, its specific connotations and interpretations may vary in different cultures and societies.

 The term "politics" in Russian and Chinese cultures contains different meanings. The Russian word was borrowed from antiquity. It has preserved such main meanings of the ancient Greek word as the philosophy of the state, the management of public relations and the rules of human behavior. However, due to the uniqueness of the national mentality, politics in Russia is understood in its own way.

The Chinese expression "", in turn, refers only to the management of state affairs by the rulers.  In the 20th century, communist ideology had a strong influence on the understanding of politics in both cultures, in Marxism-Leninism, the term "politics" and " " are closely related to the class struggle.

In modern Russian and Chinese cultures, the words "politics" and "" in ordinary contexts are understood as activities related to the state structure. Nevertheless, both concepts, in fact, have different cultural connotations.

1. The concept of "politics" in Russian

In the Russian language, the word "politics" appeared in the time of Peter the Great, being borrowed from the French language (politique) ^{[19, p. 304]}. This word, in turn, represents a modification of the ancient Greek word ("politics"), which "concerns state affairs" ^{[20, p. 780]}, that is, the word "politics" from the very beginning referred to the affairs of the city-state, the management of society and decision-making related to the management and organization of public life.

It should be noted that due to the specificity of the public organization in ancient policies, politics is understood differently. Aristotle described the political life of a person as a way of life of "free people" ^{[2, p. 40]} who are not engaged in physical labor (according to Aristotle, this is the work of slaves who are the property of citizens, that is, free people), but have the ability and opportunity for self-improvement through reflection and free expression of their own opinions in public activities. More precisely, in ancient culture, the term "politics" differed from the concepts of "property", "physical labor", did not even have to do with power, since power, in fact, means restrictions in life, and the word "politics", in turn, means vita activa — active life, which exceeds the level of "vital need and the circumstances created by it" ^{[1, p. 20]}. This is a real human life, free, striving only for truth and "imperishable beauty" ^{[1, p. 21]}. Thus, if we define the key words for the ancient concept of "politics", then, in addition to "state" and "state affairs", it is also necessary to add "freedom". 

In addition, since the goal of political life is the beautiful and just, ethics is also included in the list of the main topics of politics. According to Aristotle, only citizens, that is, "free people" perceive the concepts of "good and evil, justice and injustice, etc." ^{[2, p. 30]}, which, in other words, are objects of the category of morality. This is the political nature of man, it is what distinguishes man from the lower animals. On the other hand, the ultimate goal of politics is to build a happy society, which should be achieved through the education of virtues in a person. In this regard, man as a "political living being" ^{[1, p. 32]} is actually an animal possessing virtues and capable of self-improvement.

When the word "politics" appeared in Russian, most of the above meanings remained, but the meaning of "freedom" disappeared.

Let us turn to the interpretations of the term "politics" in the dictionaries of the Petrine era.

Firstly, it meant "parts of the philosophy of the civil order, the rights and duties of members of society" ^{[17, p. 170]}. The source of this interpretation, without any doubt, can be found in the culture of Antiquity.

Secondly, under Peter I, the Russian word "politics" implied "the general direction, the nature of the government's activities in the field of domestic life of the country and international relations" ^{[17, p. 171]}. Previously, the expression "the business of the state and the zemstvo" was used to denote the processes of public administration ^{[11, p. 209]}, etc. As a result of borrowing the word "politics", traditional expressions immediately left the historical scene. It is worth noting that together with European words, a new trend penetrated into various aspects of the life of the Russian people. If before the reform of Peter I in Russia, state affairs were understood as the "common good", which, of course, contains lofty goals and a hint of the unlimited power of the tsar, then with the establishment of the Governing Senate, the formation of the Synod and changes in the system of local government in Russia, not only the influence of the Orthodox Church in earthly life, but also holiness weakened and the elevation of the sovereign and his power in the eyes of the common people. The neutral word "politics" has replaced the sacred expression "zemstvo business".

Thirdly, the word "politics" referred to the behavior of a person in public life, this meaning also follows from the ancient word.

Fourth, the term "politics" in Peter's time was used even when describing the ability to behave, meaning "politeness" and "courtesy" ^{[17, p. 171]}.

Despite the fact that ethics has long been an important topic deeply rooted in Orthodox Russian culture, there was no close connection between the two concepts — personal virtue and state affairs. Russian Russian culture, along with the word "politics", introduced new concepts, which, in turn, brought Russian culture closer to Western European culture. This trend continued to develop throughout the imperial period of Russia.

Thus, when the word "politics" as a lexical borrowing first appeared in the Russian language, it repeated the meaning of the ancient word. The use of the borrowed word "politics" to a certain extent marked the transformation of the ideology of the Russian state.

So, in pre-revolutionary Russia, the term "politics", which passed into the Russian language at the end of the XVII - beginning of the XVIII century, was used mainly as a Europeanized synonym for the word "state".

To a large extent, the understanding of the term "politics" changed with the coming to power of the Bolsheviks and the transition of the state to the rails of socialism. Politics has acquired an ideological color and has significantly expanded its practical significance.

Lenin repeated Marx's thought in the Communist Manifesto and clearly declared that the struggle of workers against capitalists "necessarily becomes a political struggle as it becomes a class struggle" ^{[12, p. 188]}. Since then, in the Russian language, the word "politics" has the meaning of class struggle.  For example, in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, politics was understood as "a sphere of activity related to relations between classes, nations and other social groups, the core of which is the problem of the conquest, retention and use of state power" ^{[3, pp. 638-639]}. The essence of politics was manifested in class interests: absolutely all political interests were class-based. Whereas in bourgeois capitalist states political processes were aimed at further enslaving the working class and ensuring the unlimited power of capital, in the Soviet state political interests corresponded to the interests of workers and peasants.

Moreover, in the Soviet encyclopedia, politics was defined from the point of view of a materialistic understanding of history, not just an equality sign was put between political and class relations, but also categorically stated about the determinism of the economy in relation to politics ^{[14, p. 639]}.

Along with this, in the Soviet era, the word "politics" received a negative "everyday" connotation. Ushakov's dictionary gives a figurative meaning of the word "politics": this is "cunning and tricks in dealing with people" ^{[18, p. 522]}.

Thus, the term "politics" during the construction of socialism was exclusively ideological, class-based, and political processes were viewed purely through the prism of Marxist-Leninist teachings. In addition, the word "politics" was given a negative connotation in everyday speech.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the construction of a legal democratic state began in Russia. With the development of multiparty and ideological diversity, the concept of "politics" has become more multidimensional and "multidimensional", since political activity has penetrated into almost all spheres of public life, even going beyond state affairs. For example, in the "Big Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian language", the word "politics" is defined not only as the activities of authorities, but also as events in public life and even "a person's way of acting aimed at achieving something, determining the attitude to someone, to something" ^{[4, p. 902]}.

It is obvious that in modern Russian the word "politics" has already entered the lexicon of almost all citizens, even those not connected with state affairs. This correlates with the fact that political activity includes not only the activities of various state bodies for the implementation of public management functions, but also the activities of political parties, public organizations, civil society, professional political scientists, journalists, PR agencies and many more people or bodies that somehow determine the political picture of the country.

2. The concept of "politics" in Chinese

In modern Chinese, the word "politics" is translated as . The hieroglyph ? can be found in the jiaguwen scripts ^{[30, p. 250]}, which belong to the XIV–XI centuries BC. The hieroglyph ? appeared a little later, around the V–III centuries BC ^{[30, p. 971]}.

The very first hieroglyph ? consists of three parts. In the upper left corner there is a grapheme "?", symbolizing a fortified city. Then this key was simplified to a horizontal line. The lower left part of the hieroglyph is indicated by the grapheme "?", referring to the legs of a person, and its meaning expands, that is, "to go in a certain direction". The right part of the word "?" is its key. In the beginning there was "?", which means "to hold a weapon in your hands". With the development of Chinese writing, this grapheme turned into "?". Thus, the word ? means regulating people's behavior with the help of force in order to guide them on the right path ^{[24, p. 2006]}.

For example, on the Plate Guo Chi (a whale. , 816 BC) was written by "the Emperor awarded Guo JI great axe for the conquest of the barbarians, " ^{[37, p. 5480]}, where the character ? is referring to the military-a punitive expedition. In addition, there is a sentence on the Maogong tripod (Chinese: 8 828-782 BC): "The sovereign rewarded you with these tools for annual sacrifices and for conquests, " ^{[36, p. 433]}. In this context, it also implies a punitive approach. 

Nevertheless, in ancient Chinese, ? referred not only to military force, but also to administrative relations. In the inscription on the Yu tripod (Kit. , 878-828 BC), one can find the sentence " " ^{[36, p. 405]}. In this context, ? means the management of a certain region of the state. And on the Maogong tripod, the word ? is used many times in the meaning of "state affairs" and "management affairs": "to be responsible for big and small political issues,", "to publish a decree and issue a decree,", "one should not be lazy to manage the state,"^{[36, p. 433]}.

Since then, ? in ancient Chinese has the following main meanings.

First, to conquer a country, city or land by military force. For example, in the sentence "the army of the kingdom of Wu went on a campaign to the kingdom of Chu, ? ?" ^{[27, p. 387]}, the word ? means a military campaign. In the sentence "local vassal princes wage war among themselves, not worshipping the emperor of the Zhou dynasty," ^{[23, p. 399]} the hieroglyph ? also refers to the military coloring.

Secondly, ? means the correct behavior of a person. According to Confucius, ? means to do the right thing. If the sovereign does the right thing, then his officials and the people will certainly behave correctly ^{[29, p. 129]}. Then this meaning expanded to "fix" and "manage". For example, the philosopher Xun-tzu said: "wise monarchs should establish reasonable taxes and manage the affairs of the people," ^{[34, p. 124]}, where ? is understood as governance.

Thirdly, in some contexts, the hieroglyph ? has the meaning of "politics" in the sense of "government". You can find an example in "Lun Yu": "Tzu-gong asked about politics. Confucius replied: "The state should have enough food, enough weapons and the people should be confident", ",,?,?" ^{[29, p. 126]}. It is worth noting that expressions like "ask about politics" (kit. ? ) appear many times in "Lun Yu" and the works of other ancient Chinese philosophers, and the word ? in most of these sentences refers to politics and political issues.

As for the hieroglyph ?, at the very beginning it was the name of a river in the city of Qiucheng ^{[33, p. 227]} (the current city of Zhaoyuan, Shandong Province). As the Chinese language developed, the hieroglyph ? acquired the meaning of "curb the flood waters" and "straighten the river". For example, in the sentence "tamed the flood in the Huai and Yi Rivers, " ^{[31, p. 93]}, the word in the title of this article means flood control.

Then ? became an independent verb with the following meanings:

1) edit; manage; keep in order. For example, in the sentence "after Zhang Heng took office, he began to rule harshly and correct laws and regulations," ^{[26, p. 1939]} the hieroglyph was used in the meaning of "to rule" and "to govern". And in the sentence "father and son are engaged in capital management, ?" ^{[31, p. 3264]} ? refers to management. Thus, in the Chinese language, the word ? in the meaning of "manage" is used not only in the political sphere;

2) treat, cure; for example, in the sentence "when a person gets sick, if he is not treated, the situation will worsen," ^{[28, p. 447]}, where means treatment;

3) punish, punish. In the sentence "If the task is not completed, then, Your Majesty, I ask you to punish me," ^{[25, p. 920]} the hieroglyph has the meaning "to determine the measure of punishment".

Considering the above, the word ? in ancient Chinese has three main meanings: to conquer, to correct, and to govern the state. With the development of language and literature, the first meaning of ? disappeared, the second and third merged, as a result, ? gradually turned into a term referring to public administration.

The hieroglyph ? in traditional Chinese literature was traditionally used as a verb, the semantic core of which is the meaning "to govern". This value persists to this day. There are many examples in modern Chinese: in the words (to govern the country), (to govern the party), the hieroglyph ? means governance.

Sometimes the hieroglyphs ? and ? appear together, in such contexts ? is used as a verb meaning "to manage". A ? is the object of the verb referring to "affairs", both political and other. For example, in the expression "To find a method to instill morality in the people, to [correctly] manage political affairs," ^{[35, p. 485]}, ? should be translated as the verb "manage", and ? is a noun that means "political business". And in the expression "Everyone who chooses good dogs and walks dogs is subordinate to the kennel. He manages all sorts of affairs about dogs, "" ^{[39, p. 777]}" also uses as a verb, however, " here has nothing to do with political affairs.

It should be noted that in ancient Chinese literature, both hieroglyphs, ? and ?, were independent words, although in some contexts they appear together and are exactly the same in form with the modern Chinese word "", but they are not a separate word, but a phrase with the meaning "to manage affairs". Moreover, the common people did not participate in the administration, they were only the object of the actions of the rulers. Thus, both hieroglyphs have the meanings "rule", "manage" and "control from top to bottom".

"" as a separate word in the Chinese language appeared in the first half of the XIX century. Confucian scholar Wei Yuan in the work "Geographical Description of Overseas States" (Chinese: ) for the first time used the word "", which he borrowed from the Japanese language and is a Japanese translation of the Greek word "" when describing the political system in ancient Greece.

Since then, a separate hieroglyph ? in the meaning of "management of state affairs" has not been used in Chinese literature, the word "" has replaced it.

From the middle of the XIX to the middle of the XX century, the Chinese state experienced a time of troubles. The confusing situation has had a strong impact on the lives and minds of the Chinese. In China, the dispute over the political line of the state continued. There were different understandings of politics: feudal absolutism, military dictatorship, direct democracy and representative democracy. 

With the formation of the PRC, the concept of politics became associated with Marxist-Leninist ideology, with class struggle. According to Mao Zedong, "politics – regardless of whether it is revolutionary or counter–revolutionary - is always a struggle between classes, and not the actions of a handful of individuals" ^{[14, p. 106]}. In the first edition of the Dictionary Xinhua policy is defined as "the exercise of ruling power in the state socio-economically dominant class; it is a concentrated expression of Economics, " ^{[32, p. 363]}. Thus, by the middle of the XX century, the concept of in China mainly referred to state affairs and had nothing to do with individual behavior.

Currently, the Chinese word "" means the activities of classes, parties, social groups and individuals in state affairs and in international relations ^{[38, p. 631]}.

Comparing the Chinese word with the Russian word "politics" and the Greek "", we can say that the term "" has a narrower meaning, referring only to the management of the state.

Conclusion

The term "politics" varies depending on the historical and cultural characteristics of the development of society.

The Russian word "politics" is borrowed from the French language. On the one hand, in the era of Europeanization in the XVIII century, the meaning of the first word "politics" was borrowed from antiquity.  It referred to the philosophy of the state system, to the management of the state, to human behavior and to his virtues.  Nevertheless, due to its own cultural genesis and absolute monarchy, the word "politics" did not include the meanings of "freedom" and "human self-improvement".  

Comparing the Chinese term with Greek and Russian, the concept of "" has a narrower meaning.

Firstly, in ancient China, both hieroglyphs ? and ? were independent words: the first meant state affairs, the second was used as the verb "to govern".

Secondly, in ancient Chinese literature, both the separate word "? (state affairs)" and the phrase " (to manage the affairs of the state)" still meant the behavior of the ruling class, the common people were always only the object of action. 

Thirdly, the term in Chinese ideology is rarely associated with the actions and qualities of an individual. In traditional literature, it referred to the affairs of the rulers. After the formation of the PRC, the word acquired a meaning associated with the class struggle. In the current Chinese language, still refers to the actions of governments, parties and states.