DUKHOVNAYA KUL'TURA KITAY: ENTSIKLOPEDIYA V 5 TOMAKH [SPIRITUAL CULTURE OF CHINA: AN ENCYCLOPEDIA IN 5 VOLUMES], vol. 1-4. Chief editor: M. L. Titarenko, Deputy Chief editor: A. I. Kobzev, A. E. Lukyanov. Moscow: Vostochny litra, 2006-2009. 728 p.; 870 p.; 856 p.; 936 p.

"Unfortunately, the information explosion was not accompanied by a corresponding increase in knowledge. Continents interact, but do not necessarily understand each other, "Henry A. Kissinger wrote in the preface to the late twentieth-century memoir of Singapore's Minister-elder Lee Kuan Yew, "Singapore's History: From the 'Third' World to the 'First' World."

Today, a decade later, the information situation in the world has only worsened further. The rate of information production significantly outstrips its processing, which dramatically reduces the efficiency of its assimilation. Just as an electronic calculator atrophies a person's ability to count independently, the modern Internet deprives people of such traditional tools of "knowledge increment" as purposeful search for information using reference literature, meaningful copying (taking notes) and even elementary conscientious reading. Any student can easily download from the Web, instantly copy and "protect", even without reading, an abstract, term paper or diploma in any subject "studied" by them. Paradoxically, the Internet not only enlightens and unites, but also disorientates and divides people all over the world, as it literally drowns them in streams of random, unverified and unsystematic information, and also restricts their access to proven "non-virtual" knowledge and knowledge through live communication for centuries. The old wise truth is becoming more relevant than ever: real knowledge requires not only mechanical filling, but also reasonable structuring, without which its effective application is impossible.

The authors, compilers and editors of the multi-volume encyclopedia "Spiritual Culture of China", which appeared for the first time in Russia, undertook such a difficult, but more than timely mission of saving and increasing the accumulated knowledge of Chinese studies by compiling, structuring and generalizing it. After the publication of the first volume of "Philosophy "(Moscow, 2006) with enviable regularity (one volume per year) and a constant increase in volume are published: the second volume - " Mythology. Religion" (Moscow, 2007), the third - " Literature. Language and writing" (Moscow, 2008), the fourth - " Historical Thought. Political and Legal Culture" (Moscow, 2009). The fifth volume is planned to be published - "Science, technical and military thought, health care and education" and the sixth, dedicated to art.

According to the laws of the genre, the subject of the encyclopedia is almost comprehensive. The first volume is devoted to the history of Chinese philosophy from ancient times to the present day. It presents the main teachings, schools, trends and trends of philosophical thought, written monuments and personalities of Chinese philosophers, thinkers, and spiritual leaders. The article shows the influence of traditional philosophy on life, spiritual culture and politics in modern China.

The second volume presents the philosophical and theological thought and religious and mythological consciousness of the Chinese. It contains a detailed presentation of domestic and international knowledge about Chinese mythology, folk beliefs and state cults, divination and astrology, the history and features of Chinese religions (Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism), foreign (Christianity, Islam, Manichaeism, Zoroastrianism) and syncretic religions (Yiguandao, etc.). In fact, the chapters of the volume cover all the main aspects and stages of the development of the religious and mythological component of Chinese culture. It is gratifying that the authors paid due attention to covering the more than two-century-old activities of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Beijing, which-

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raya not only made a huge contribution to the study of Chinese culture, but also became a unique part of the spiritual culture of China.

The third volume introduces readers to one of the oldest and richest literatures in the world. Along with literary classics, for the first time in Russian sinology, modern Chinese literature is widely represented. At the same time, the authors of the volume do not limit themselves to presenting generally recognized" orthodox " classics, but also pay worthy attention to dissident writers, such as Nobel laureate Gao Hsing-jian (p. 269), as well as the literature of Taiwan that is almost unknown to Russians (p. 173-175).1. Of particular interest is the chapter on Chinese literature in Russia (pp. 176-202), which was well written by K. I. Golygina and V. F. Sorokin. The second part of this volume is devoted to the language and writing system that, along with other components of Chinese civilization, distinguish it from other great civilizations of the ancient and modern world. For Chinese language learners, the reference section contains comparative tables of various transcriptions, Chinese alphabetic systems, and traditional keys given in full and simplified versions (pp. 777-787).

The fourth volume reflected such components of the spiritual culture of China as historical thought, political and legal culture. The compilers of the volume have collected a wealth of material that shows how the mechanism of organizing the interaction of power and people worked throughout the history of Chinese civilization from antiquity to the present day. It is noteworthy that the authors have successfully moved away from the template "dynastic" approach to organizing and presenting the material. In their theoretical articles and historical essays, they were able to offer an original comprehensive version of the presentation of historical thought and political and legal culture in China. The inclusion of extensive material on the Kuomintang Party ("The Kuomintang: History and Modernity", pp. 254-288), including data on the political life of Taiwan in the period from 1949 to 2008, is no longer new to post - Soviet historiography in Russia,but it is also groundbreaking for the encyclopedia to include extensive material on the Kuomintang Party ("The Kuomintang: History and Modernity", pp. 254-288). The authors are very competent in presenting the main realities of the history and political life in the Republic of China on Taiwan, including the cost of party property of the Kuomintang and some other factual inaccuracies.2 However, the proposed material is clearly not linked to the period of the existence of the Republic of China (1912-1949) indicated in the chronological table (p.870). After all, the latter still exists today, and until 1971 even represented China in the UN Security Council. Finally, in the table "Political Parties of Taiwan", it was not necessary to "perpetuate" the names of current party chairmen, since their post is elective and, in particular, since July 2009, the chairman of the Kuomintang is no longer Wu Bo-hsiung, but the current President of the Republic of China, Ma Ying-ju.

As for the structure of the encyclopedia, all its volumes consist of general, dictionary and reference sections. At the same time, each of the sections is closely cross-referenced with the other two and at the same time has an independent value. There are also cross-references between the corresponding dictionary entries in different volumes. A great advantage of all volumes is the voluminous "General Section", the inclusion of which raises the publication to a high theoretical level, which is not typical for most traditional encyclopedic publications with their, as a rule, short" technical "prefaces and a wide range of dictionary entries, but weakly or not at all" soldered " by the general theory.

The involvement of leading Russian Sinologists in writing "General Sections" has become a guarantee of theoretical depth, breadth of coverage, solid quality and a brilliant style of presentation of the presented material. The authors of the" General Sections " do not focus on static fixation or description of the information collected in the encyclopedia, but rather lay a dynamic foundation, a kind of springboard for further constructive (cognitive) information synthesis. In the course of their presentation, they point out a whole range of new or previously poorly understood problems and theories, in fact outlining long-term research prospects for future generations of Sinologists. From the point of view of the method of presenting the material, a collective presentation of various topics looks successful and justified, which allows you to balance (although not always) the potential one-sidedness of individual authors ' views.

1 On page 173, the" father of Taiwanese literature " Lai He is erroneously called Lei He.

2 By June 2009, the Kuomintang had not 1 million, but only 503,184 party members. The party's assets were estimated not at 6 billion, but at less than 1 billion am. dollars, or 22 billion. new Taiwan dollars (p. 285). The vice-Chairman of the Kuomintang and Vice-President of the Republic of China is called Vincent Xiao (Wan-chang), not "Vincent Sue (Su Wan-zhang)" (p.287). Ma Ying-ju is not the 12th President of Taiwan, but the 12th President of the Republic of China (p. 288).

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Articles in the "Dictionary Section" of all published volumes of the encyclopedia are also performed at a high professional level, although cross-checking reveals some factual inaccuracies. Thus, the Nurhaci article (vol. 4, p. 584) erroneously states that the heir to the throne is Huangtaiji (Abahai) he was the fourth son of Nurhaci, and in the article "Huangtaiji" (p. 680) - that he was the eighth son, and this is correct.

It seems logical that in different thematic blocks and volumes there are similar or similarly titled articles in which the same phenomena are described in different aspects, in accordance with the title theme, taking into account the complexity of these phenomena and the polysemantic nature of the Chinese language. Unfortunately, the compilers of individual volumes do not always consistently adhere to this stated principle.3
It would be appropriate for the topic of religion to repeat or make a stand-alone reference to the article "Karma" (E) (vol. 1, pp. 260, 279), etc. It is striking that the second volume does not contain some important dictionary entries, such as the article on His Holiness the Dalai Lama XIV (Ngagwang Lovzang Tengjing Gyamtso). Although the" General Section " of the second volume contains a special chapter on Tibetan Buddhism (Lamaism) (p. 296-301), the Dalai Lama Institute is only covered in two paragraphs (p. 301), and Dalai Lama XIV is mentioned only in two general sentences (p. 296,301), without a name and other personal information. Meanwhile, the figure of the spiritual leader of Tibeto-Mongolian Buddhists, a Nobel laureate in 1989, who has tens of millions of adherents and admirers in Tibet, China and around the world, certainly deserves a separate article.

Examples of unbalanced presentation (non-presentation) of dictionary entries of various significance are also found in the fourth volume. Since there is room in this volume for an ordinary former Minister of Education of Taiwan, Du Cheng-sheng (pp. 491-492), it would be nice to introduce much more famous historical figures of China, such as Sun Mei-ling, Feng Yu-hsiang, Zhang Zuo-lin, Zhang Hsu-liang, etc. However, such omissions of individual articles are easily explained by the very fact of the initial compilation of the dictionary corpus and, we can hope, will be filled in in further reprints of the encyclopedia or its continuation.

It is somewhat more difficult to explain and accept some features of the" Reference Section " of published volumes. For example, in the third volume, the breakdown of the bibliographic section into two parts looks very unusual. The addition to the main Bibliography I (pp. 748-760) of the list of sources and references to the articles of M. E. Kravtsova (Bibliography II, pp. 761-776) seems to contrast this author, for unclear reasons, with other co - authors of the volume. As a result, this leads to unjustified duplication of dozens of titles of works (even tripling, taking into account the list of references in dictionary entries), waste of a scarce text field, and noticeable inconvenience for readers of the encyclopedia using the bibliography. At the same time, the Selected Literature in Russian contains no references to the works of some major Russian Sinologists in the volumes already published. For example, there are no references to the works of S. R. Kucera, although these works are cited in the " General Section "(vol. 2, p. 89) and separate dictionary entries.

A great achievement of the authors of the encyclopedia, which deserves special mention, is the return to the traditional Russian transcription, as the most adequate transcription of the Chinese language in Cyrillic. However, it is necessary to note a certain inconvenience of the system of arrangement of dictionary entries adopted in the publication, which formally follows the Russian alphabet, and not the division of Chinese words into syllables (hieroglyphs). According to the latter principle, the article "Lu Dong-bin "(p. 513-515) should be placed somewhere before "Lu-tsung" (p. 518), and not between "Lu-chia Chi-tsung" (p. 513) and "Lu Lun" (p. 515), i.e. the order in which all Lus must stand in front of Lus is broken. The index of names on page 819 shows the reason for this phenomenon - computer sorting. The computer, which is not able to recognize the role of intervals and hyphens as syllable separators in the Russian transcription, transmits Chinese surnames and first names in a common list, the same as all other 4. This procedure is not very convenient for specialists who are used to working with traditional dictionaries and hieroglyphs, but, however, it also makes sense.

3 In the introduction to the second volume, the editorial board warns the reader that articles on the" three whales " of Chinese thought (the three teachings of San Chiao) - Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism-are available in both the first and second volumes (vol. 2, p. 13), but there is no separate dictionary entry on San Chiao in the second volume, there is no offline reference to this article in vol. 1 (pp. 383-384). The only indication of the existence of this article in the first volume is in the text of the dictionary entry " Luo Qing "(vol. 2, p. 503).

4 For examples of" solid " computer sorting in name pointers, see volume 3: pp. 798-799-Li-Ling-Lin-Li; pp. 800-801-Lu-Lu-Lu, Ma-Mao-Ma; p. 802 Su-Sun-Sun-Su, etc.

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its advantages are complete formalization and rejection of Chinese "exotics" (the expression of Academician V. M. Alekseev).

Together, the bibliography, lists of abbreviations, diagrams and tables, maps, indexes of names and terms offered in the "Reference Section", along with adequate hieroglyphic support (the authors quite rightly use the traditional "full" spelling of hieroglyphs), make the entire encyclopedia not just a useful book for the widest range of readers, but also convenient, in a certain sense an indispensable working tool for every professional sinologist and Orientalist.

An extremely advantageous feature of the publication is that all volumes contain hundreds of magnificent (color and black-and-white) illustrations and photographs that reproduce images of ancient and modern books, rare photographs, famous paintings and have independent scientific and cultural-historical value. As a suggestion in case of reprinting volumes, it is necessary to note the expediency of captions to illustrations, especially in those dictionary entries that contain a number of photographs of various individuals (for example, "Trotskyism in China", vol. 4, pp. 645-649). The article "Jiang Jing-guo "(vol. 4, pp. 715-717), along with portraits of the hero himself, contains an interesting photograph of his younger brother Jiang Wei-guo, depicted in the uniform of an officer of the German Wehrmacht, where he trained in the armored forces in the 1930s (p.716). But this photo may be mistaken for an image of Jiang Jing-guo.

In addition, I would like to draw attention to the value of the section "Explanations to Illustrations", which is present in the second volume (p.800), but, unfortunately, is missing in the next two volumes. For example, if you are familiar with the portrait gallery of Chinese emperors in the fourth volume (color tab between pages 128-129), it would be useful and interesting for readers to learn general information about these portraits: that the portrait "Emperor Qianlong on the Hunt" was painted in the XVIII century by the court artist, the Italian Jesuit missionary Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), and the portrait of Empress Cixi (1835 - 1908) belongs to the brush of the American artist Karl and is one of four oil portraits painted from life in 1903-1904.

In general, despite all the technical problems associated with the innumerable difficulties of the first edition, the boldly conceived and successfully implemented grandiose encyclopedia project has already become the most important, unique milestone in world Sinology of the late XX-early XXI centuries. As a good salary, which does not hide, but emphasizes the spirit of the ancient icon that it protects, this encyclopedia preserves and reveals in a new light the knowledge and ideas about the treasures of China's thousands of years of spiritual culture that have been diligently accumulated by the entire world of Chinese studies.

5 The contents of the volume on page 12 erroneously refer to page 799.

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