Perception of Andrei Bely's works in China

Chzhan Linlin Postgraduate student, Department of the History of Modern Russian Literature and Contemporary Literary Process, Faculty of Philology, Lomonosov Moscow State University 1 Leninskie Gory str., Moscow, 119192, Russia zllsaryy@gmail.com

Andrei Bely's work still attracts the attention of writers and literary critics around the world. The significance of Bely's legacy lies in the role it played for symbolist aesthetics: experiments in the field of language, the development of the theory of symbol, the application of his own theory in artistic practice, etc. ? all this makes Bely one of the main figures of Russian literature of the Silver Age. N. Berdyaev believed: "Andrey Bely is the most important Russian writer of the last literary era and the most original writer. He created a new form of artistic prose, a completely new rhythm" ^{[6, p.38]}. According to E. Zamyatin, Bely's novels "remained mainly the reading of the intellectual elite. It was a “writer for writers.”.. The language of his books is the language of White, just as the language of Ulysses is not English, but the language of Joyce" ^{[12, p.56]}. Bely's innovation in the field of novel poetics made a huge contribution to Russian literature at the beginning of the twentieth century. It is worth noting that already at this time Chinese researchers showed interest in Russian literature. The first group of writers (in 1920) who drew attention to the Russian literature of the Silver Age included Qu Qiubai (), Lu Xun (), Jiang Guangqi ()) and Shen Yanbing (). At that time, a large number of Russian literary works were translated into Chinese. A. Bely, A. Blok, V. Bryusov and O. Mandelstam and others began to enter the sphere of interests of Chinese researchers in the same period.

In general, the history of the study of Bely's creativity in China is divided into three stages: 1) from the 1920s to the 1930s; 2) from the 1930s to the beginning of the policy of reform and openness (1978); 3) after 1978 to the present.

One of the earliest statements about the style of Bely's works in China was The History of Russian Literature, written by Qu Qiubai during his stay in Russia in 1922. He believed that Bely's poetry was innovative among his contemporaries, but at the same time stressed that it was not enough just to change the form of poetry, "it is necessary to change the content of poetry and its orientation – focusing on workers" ^{[18, p.79]}. In 1924, Zheng Zhengduo () gave a short biographical note about Bely in the "Brief History of Russian Literature": "He was a famous poet, writer and critic, an important propagandist of modern symbolism" ^{[21, p.146]}. The scientist mentioned two important novels by Bely – "Petersburg" and "Silver Dove". It should be emphasized that Zheng Zhengduo, unlike, for example, Qu Qiubai, designated White's belonging to the literary direction – symbolism, without which an understanding of the specifics of the subject and style of his work would be incomplete. The changeable linguistic style embodied by Bely in poetry and the reflections on the relationship between man and the cosmos that he tried to convey through it reflect the literary features of the Silver Age. In 1927, Jiang Guangqi ()) praised Bely in his book "Russian Literature" and wrote that "all the poems written by Bely relate to current events... He is a poet beloved by Russian workers... probably because the language used in Bely's creations is understandable to the masses. The objects of his works are priests, farmers, soldiers, landowners and revolutionaries" ^{[17, pp.30-33]}. In Jiang Guangqi's opinion, the theme of Bely's poems meets the needs of workers and the public, and corresponds to the trends of the time. Comparing the opinions of Qu Qiubai and Jiang Guangqi, we see that both reviewers chose to discuss only that part of Bely's poetry that is dedicated to the revolution and the workers, almost without touching on other aspects of his work. These works can be considered as the first attempts to understand White in China, but they were written in old-style Chinese, which was little familiar to the average reader. In addition, all critics wrote the poet's name in different ways (Bai De Neuilly, Bai Neuilly, Pillay. Because of this, White's influence on Chinese literature was insignificant at this stage.

The 1930s –1970s in China were politically difficult (Cultural Revolution, Civil War, famine). It is obvious that Bely's work at that time did not correspond to the prevailing ideology. Therefore, references to White are found only in selected literary reviews ("Russian Literary Thought" ^[11], translated by Ren Jun () 1941).

It was only in the 1980s, driven by reforms, a policy of openness and multiculturalism, that Chinese scientists began to pay attention to Bely's artistic works and his theoretical works, fully reflecting the attitudes of the outstanding modernist writer. As of February 2024, the search engine on the Chinese electronic resources platform CNKI showed that there are 59 works dedicated to White, including the novels "Petersburg" (26 articles) and "Silver Dove" (5 articles).

The "surge" of research on Bely's work is due to several reasons. Firstly, after the implementation of the policy of reform and openness (1978), researchers began to introduce the study of foreign literature on a large scale into their field of activity. Numerous conferences on Russian literature organized by Chinese writers have contributed to cultural exchange and rapprochement. Literary Zhou Qichao () in the book "the Study of Russian literature of the Silver age" () and Zhang Jie () in the book "history of the Russian and Soviet literary critics of the twentieth century" ("20") confirmed the contribution of the creative ideas of White in the literature of the Silver age. Zhou Qichao believes that "the novels "Petersburg" and "Kitty Letaev"... they mark the highest achievement of the symbolist in artistic research" ^{[20, p. 167]}. Zhang Jie analyzed the symbols of time and space in St. Petersburg and concluded that "the novel illustrates the conflict between Western idealism, positivism and Eastern mysticism" ^{[19, p. 39]}. Other literary critics, such as Liu Wenfei, Ren Guangxuan, He Xuemei, and Li Yuzhen, briefly covered the biography of Bely's creative path. Secondly, in the 1990s, a large number of translations of novels, poems and literary reviews of Bely's work (especially translations and publication of the novels "Petersburg" and "Silver Dove") allowed readers to immerse themselves more deeply into the creative legacy of the Russian symbolist writer.

The texts of the writer, translated by Chinese scientists, can be divided into three groups: poetry, the theory of symbolism, novels. In the 1990s, Wang Jianzhao translated ten poems by Bely: "The Image of Eternity", "The Sun", "Night", "Ace" ("In an angry dream, in oppressively sad bliss..."), Ace ("Again - golden hair..."), "Karma", "In the field", "Serenade", "At night in the cemetery", "The Body of the Elements" ^{[15, pp. 265-283]}. In 2018, Guo Jingyuan () translated a collection of poems "Gold in Azure: selected poems by A. Bely" ("") ^[1]. She selected mainly poems from four early collections, among which were the poems "Gold in Azure", "Ashes", "Urn" and "Star".

Bely's works on the theory of symbolism were translated somewhat later than his poetry. In 1989, Liang Kun translated "Art Forms" and "Symbolism". In 1998, Li Zao () translated "Symbolism as a Worldview", Zhang Jingyun () translated "Symbolism". The last two articles were included in the book "Soviet Literary Schools before and after the October Revolution" edited by Zhai Houlong ().

As for the translations of Bely's novels, they appeared much later in China. For the first time, Chinese scientists noticed the literary significance of "Petersburg" through the publication of two articles: Qian Shanxing () "A masterpiece of Russian literature that went unnoticed for many years – about the novel "Petersburg" and the author" and Zhang Xiaojun ()), who translated "About himself as a writer" ^[2] by Bely. These articles prompted Chinese scientists to form a preliminary idea of "Petersburg". In 1996, "Petersburg" was first published in Guangzhou Publishing House ^[3] translated by Jin Ge () and Yang Guang (). This translation became the starting point for the active study of the novel in China. In 1998, the publishing house "Beijing Writers" published the full version of "Petersburg" (Jin Ge and Yang Guang), which was more detailed than the 1996 version of "Petersburg". In the same year, The Silver Dove ^[4], translated by Liu Wenfei, Li Zhengwen, and Wu Xiaodu, was published by the Yunnan People's Publishing House. So, at the moment, two important novels by Bely have been translated in China. This marked the beginning of an in-depth study of "Petersburg" and "Silver Dove" in Chinese academic circles.

Currently, few works on the "Silver Dove" have been published in China. In the article "Mythopoetics in Bely's novel "The Silver Dove", Guan Haiying analyzes symbolic and mythical images in the text. Li Yanhua ^[14] and Gou Shichun ^[7] in their master's theses examined in detail the specific author's symbolism and spatial organization of the writer's prose. However, compared to the multidimensional study of St. Petersburg, the Silver Dove has not yet been sufficiently studied.

"Petersburg" is the focus of attention of many Chinese literary critics. Researcher Lin Jinghua in the article "Petersburg: a text that goes beyond humanistic values" argues that the narrative of the novel can be defined by three themes: "Bely's memories of childhood, strange features of the father and double family conflicts between parents, father and son" ^{[13, p.99]}. This conflict is being played out as a symbol of the 1905 revolution. And yet, in the 1990s, due to the lack of sufficient historical and biographical material, and as a result, relevant methodology, literary research on White was still characterized by superficiality.

At the beginning of the XXI century, a real research boom in the field of belovedenie began. "Interpretation of Symbols: the theory of symbolic Art by A. Bely" ^[10] Du Wenjuan ()) is the first scientific monograph on White in China. The researcher not only studied the influence of philosophy and aesthetics on the writer's work, but also considered musicality, rhythm, experimentation, narrative strategy in it and the connection of Bely's work with Steiner's anthroposophy. In 2012, Guan Haiying published a monograph "The Construction of the Ark of the Soul – about the "Petersburg of Bely" ^[9]. The literary critic considered the tradition and innovation of the artistic concept of "Petersburg" in the context of Russian literature, and also designated "The Silver Dove" as the first step towards the novel "Petersburg". Guan Haiying focused on analyzing the world of consciousness of the novel and the symbolism created by Bely in St. Petersburg, relying on semiotics and narratology to decipher the "riddles" of the text. In 2021, Guan Haiying published a "Study of Bely's Novels" ^[8], which analyzed "Gold in Azure", "Symphony", "Silver Dove", "Petersburg" and "Kotik Letaev", paying special attention to the poetics of poetry and prose of the Russian symbolist. At the same time, many other studies on the novel "Petersburg" appear, gathering into the following problematic nodes.

1) Research on the problems of narrative strategy. Bely is known for his innovative approach to the linguistic texture of prose. The specifics of his thinking, the multilevel narrative matrix of his works, and his interest in the complex structure of the human psyche have become one of the main areas of research. Guan Haiying in his works "Journey to the soul in the sphere of consciousness", "Playing the song of Destruction – sound system"St. Petersburg"" conducted a systematic study of St. Petersburg. Her works "The non–personalized Narrator in a personalized narrative" – about the image of the narrator in "Petersburg" and "About the multiple narrative structure of St. Petersburg" - focus on the novel from the point of view of the problem of individual consciousness, sound recording and, more broadly, sound as a substance, as well as the specifics of the narrative. The researcher also clarifies that the narrative structure of "Petersburg" as a whole has a dynamic and open character. Deng Lin () in his work "On the poetic characteristics of St. Petersburg" discusses the artistic charm of the work, analyzing the intertextuality, symbolism and duality of the novel. In the article "The study of the fragmentary narrative of St. Petersburg", Qiang Anqi correlates the aesthetic value of the novel with the virtuoso narrative technique of the author.

2) Another series of studies combines works devoted to the analysis of mythopoetics in Bely's novels. These are primarily the works of Wu Qian () "The New Myth of Russian Symbolism"; Zheng Zhilian () "The Apocalyptic Spirit of Andrei Bely and "Petersburg"; Wu Qian; Jia Yan () "Petersburg" chaos and order and the theme of urban mythology". The authors carefully analyzed the influence of the works of A.S. Pushkin, N.V. Gogol and F.M. Dostoevsky on the works of A. Bely, who develops the traditions of the St. Petersburg text of Russian literature and builds his myth of the end of the world on its basis. Gan Simiao and Gao Yuqiu in the article "The Tradition of N. Gogol in A. Bely's Petersburg" consider Bely's use of the Gogol tradition and its development from the point of view of irony, color scheme and the symbol of the "troika".

3) Works focused on considering the perspectives of symbolic poetics. In her master's thesis "The Symbolic Image of St. Petersburg" ^[6] Wang Yan showed that the visible world (characters, space, colors) and the invisible world (structure and atmosphere) in the novel constitute the symbolic image of St. Petersburg. In addition, the level of spatial organization of the text (primarily perspective) is also considered, as, for example, in the work "Superposition" and "Collapse" of realistic and unrealistic space" by Sun Na (), which shows a view of "Petersburg" from the point of view of cosmic theory. The researcher calls Nevsky Street and the Moika River the "first space", the spiritual sphere of people's consciousness the "second space". Hou Qiaokai ^[16] in analyzing the chronotope of "Petersburg" paid attention to the author's narrative strategy and revealed the influence of the physical and spiritual space of the city on the mood of the characters.

Even a brief digression into the history of belology in China makes it possible to make sure that the proposed approaches, for all their persuasiveness, still need to be expanded and deepened. So, for example, in one or another article, the issues of the content and subject of "Petersburg" may be covered in detail, but personal preferences and various approaches and research methods, the lack of an integrated approach to the consideration of the novel inevitably lead to its one-sided interpretation, indicate that belovedenie turned out to be divided into several separate aspects. Moreover, it is impossible not to note some "distortions" in the overall picture of the writer's work created by researchers: some works have received close attention from literary critics, while others have remained in the shadows, which makes it difficult to understand the evolution of Bely's views, the peculiarities of his idiosyncrasy as a whole – and, as a result, the originality of the poetics of individual works. The specificity of Bely's creative ideas is an attempt to combine art and methods of exact science. Focusing on the laws of music and painting, Bely's mathematical thinking still requires additional attention in Chinese literary studies. But this does not deny that Chinese researchers have done a lot of hard work and will not stop there.