Chinese realities in Shevchenko’s works: semantics and sources

Abstract

Despite the lack of a coherent image of China in Shevchenko’s works (the subject of this study), this article systematically examines specific details, references, and comparisons related to this Far Eastern country. Thus, the aim of this study is to trace the origins of these references and analyze their semantic meaning. The author relies on an interdisciplinary methodology: source analysis, reconstruction of the text in combination with intertextual interpretation, supplemented by historical-literary and hermeneutic approaches.

The scientific novelty lies in proving that the poet had some knowledge of China and its people. An interpretation of all Chinese realities in the works of the great poet is proposed, and possible sources of his knowledge of the Celestial Empire and its culture are identified. A review of Shevchenko’s proven scope of reading has made it possible to identify quite accurately the publications that the poet definitely read or was highly likely to have read. The main findings of the study are that new works have been introduced into Shevchenko studies for the first time, including Nikita Bichurin’s paper “The Public and Private Life of the Chinese” published from the May 1840 issue of the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski as well as unsigned publications: “The Chinese Army and Its Firearms” from the second issue of the magazine Library for Reading from 1840, “Letter from Mr. Meyer from China” from the April issue of the same magazine, “Letters from China” from the January 1847 issue of the magazine Sovremennik, an extensive review by Mirza Muhammad Ali Kazem-Bek on “The Works of Members of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Beijing” (Sovremennik, 1853, No. 4).

The proven scope of literature was a direct source of Shevchenko’s knowledge about China, its culture, in particular architecture, population, armaments, etc. The published papers that were definitely read by Shevchenko provide additional opportunities for interpreting references to Chinese realities in his work, shed light on the ways in which knowledge about China spread in Ukrainian literature at the early stage of reception, and significantly change our current understanding of the poet’s knowledge of China, as well as the artistic meaning of the relevant references in the writer’s creative legacy.