“The bear watches the dragon : Russia's perceptions of China and the evolution of Russian-Chinese relations since the eighteenth century” (Publication, 2003)
Year
2003
Text
Lukin, Alexander. The bear watches the dragon : Russia's perceptions of China and the evolution of Russian-Chinese relations since the eighteenth century. (Armonk, N.Y. : M.E. Sharpe, 2003). (LukA1)
Type
Publication
Contributors (1)
Lukin, Alexander
(1961-) : Associate Professor Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, School of International Affairs, National Research University Higher School of Economics
[Erlaubnis des Autors 27.1.2016]
[Erlaubnis des Autors 27.1.2016]
Subjects
History : China - Russia
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Literature : Occident : Russia : General
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References / Sources
Chronology Entries (11)
| # | Year | Text | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1862 |
Tolstoy, Leo. Progress i opredelenie obrazovaniia. [Progress and the definition of education]. In : Yasnaya Polyana journal ; Dec. 1862). "We know China with its 200 million people refuted our entire theory of progress, and we do not doubt for a moment that progress is the general law of all humanity, and that we, who believe in progress, are right, and those who do not believe in it are to blame, and we are going to instill the idea of progress in the Chinese with cannon and rifles." |
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| 2 | 1876-1881 |
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Dnevnik pisatelia [ID D37885]. "It is a necessity for Russia to be not only in Europe but also in Asia, because a Russian is not only a European but also an Asian. Moreover, more our hopes may lie in Asia than in Europe. Moreover, in our future destiny Asia is possibly our main outcome. With the turn to Asia, with our new look at it, something similar to what happened to Europe after the discovery of America can happen to us. Because Asia is truly our undiscovered America of that time. With the rush to Asia we'll experience a revival of high spirits and strength. As soon as we become more independent, we'll immediately find out what to do, while during the two centuries with Europe we broke ourselves of any business and became chatterers and sluggards. In Europe we were dependents and slaves, but to Asia we'll come as masters. In Europe we were Tartars, but in Asia we are also Europeans. Our mission, our civilizing mission in Asia will win over our spirit and carry us along, if only we could get started." Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. Geok Tepé. (1881). "What is the need of the future seizure of Asia? What is our business there? This is necessary because Russia is not only in Europe, but also in Asia; because the Russian is not only a European, but also an Asiatic. Not only that: In our coming destiny, perhaps it is precisely Asia that represents our way out. In Europe we were hangers-on and slaves, whereas to Asia we shall go as masters. In Europe we were Asiatics, whereas in Asia we, too, are Europeans. Our civilizing mission in Asia will bribe our spirit and drive us thither. It is only necessary that the movement should start. Build two railroads: Begin with the one to Siberia, and then to Central Asia, and at once you will see the consequences." |
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| 3 | 1880 |
Martens, Fedor Fedorovich. Le conflit entre la Russie et la Chine [ID D37386]. "Christian nations should dismiss the thought that brute force alone can convince the Chinese nation of the superiority of European culture and always remember that Chinese vicilization is 40 centuries old, and, while it differs considerably from the culture of Christian nations, it nevertheless has the right to be respected, at least in China. Civilized nations should never lose sight of the fact that they are uninvited guests in the Middle Kingdom, that they forced their way through the barriers behind which the Chinese wanted to preserve the sanctity of their traditions, the authority of their government, the purity of their customs, and the inviolability of their national ideals." |
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| 4 | 1883-1910 |
Leo Tolstoy general Tolstoy's books about China (Yasnaya Polyana) : Abel-Rémusat, Jean-Pierre. Mélanges asiatiques [ID D1979]. [Auszüge]. Abel-Rémusat, Jean-Pierre. Mélanges posthumes d'histoire orientales [ID D5231]. [Auszüge]. Abel-Rémusat, Jean-Pierre. Mémoire sur la vie et les opinions de Lao-tseu [ID D11899]. Abel-Rémusat, Jean-Pierre. Nouveaux mélanges asiatiques [ID D1984]. [Auszüge]. Balfour, Frederic Henry. Taoist texts : ethical, political, and speculative [ID D5888]. Beal, Samuel. A catena of buddhist scriptures from the Chinese [ID D8375]. Beal, Samuel. The romantic legend os Sâkya Buddha [ID D8366]. Carus, Paul. Lao-tze. Tao-teh-king [ID D5896]. Chalmers, John. The origin of the Chinese [ID D7404]. Chalmers, John. The speculations on metaphysics, polity, and morality, of "the old philosopher", Lau-tsze [ID D4588]. Faber, Ernst. A systematical digest of the doctrines of Confucius, according to the Analects, Great learning, and Doctrine of the mean ; with an introduction on the authorities upon Confucius and Confucianism. (Hong Kong : China Mail Office, 1875). Georgievskij, Sergej Michajlovic. Principy zizny Kitaja [ID D35697]. Gu, Hongming. Et nunc, reges, intelligite! : the moral causes of the Russo-Japanese war. (Shanghai : Shanghai Mercury, 1906). Gu, Hongming. The great learning of higher education. Gu, Hongming. Papers from a viceroy's yamen. A Chinese plea for the cause of good government and true civilization in China. (Shanghai : Shanghai Mercury, 1901). Gu, Hongming. The universal order, or conduct of life [ID D10718]. Harlez, C[harles Joseph] de. Textes taoïstes [ID D5886]. Hearn, Lafcadio. Gleanings in Buddha-fields : studies of hand and soul in the Far East. (Boston : Houghton, Mifflin, 1897). Heysinger, Isaac W. Lao, Tsze. The light of China : the Tao Teh King of Lao Tsze [ID D36183]. Julien, Stanislas. Les Avadânas [ID D5235]. Julien, Stanislas. Lao-tseu. Tao-te-king : le livre de la voie et de la vertu [ID D2060]. Karyagin, K.M. Konfutsi, yevo zhizn I filosofskaya deyatelnost. (S. Peterburg 1897). Konishi, D.P. Konfutsi. (Moscow 1896). Konishi, D.P. Laosi. Tao-teking. (Moscow 1895). Konishi, D.P. Velikaya nauka Konfutsiya. In : Voprosy filosofii I psikhologii (1893). Legge, James. The Chinese classics. Vol. 1 : The life and teachings of Confucius. Vol. 2 : The life and works of Mencius. Vol. 3 : The She king. (1867-1876). [Original = ID D2212]. Liang, Qichao. Likhunchzhan, ili politicheskaya istoriya Kitaya za posledniya. (1905). Meadows, Thomas Taylor. The Chinese and their rebellions, viewed in connection with their national philosophy, ethics, legislation and administration, to which is added an essay on civilisation and its present state in the East and West [ID D4620]. Müller, F. Max. The religions of China [ID D36161]. Müller, F. Max. Sacred books of the East [ID D8367]. Pauthier, G[uillaume] ; Bazin, [Antoine]. Chine moderne, ou Description historique, geographique et littéraire de ce vaste empire, d'après des documents chinois [ID D5286]. Pauthier, Guillaume. Les livres sacrés de l'Orient [ID D2040]. Pauthier, Guillaume. Lao-tseu. Le Tao-te-king, ou, Le livre révéré de la raison suprëme et de la vertu [ID D5892]. Plaenckner, Reinhold von. Lao-tse. Tao-te-king : der Weg zur Tugend [ID D4608]. Rosny, Léon de. Le taoïsme [ID D36182]. Schott, Wilhelm. Khung-Fu-Dsü. Werke des chinsischen Weisen Khung-Fu-Dsü und seiner Schüler [ID D1373]. [Lun yu]. Simon, G. Eugène. La cité chinoise [ID D2437]. Strauss, Victor von. Lao-tse. Tao te king [ID D4587]. Vasil'ev, Vasilii Pavlovic. Religii vostoka : konfucianstvo, buddizm i daosizm [ID D35619]. The world's Chinese students' journal. Shanghai, no 4 (1906). General Derk Bodde : Leo Tolstoy's knowledge and appreciation of Chinese civilization, and specially of Chinese philosophy and religion, was deep and sincere. The interest in China came as a direct result of Tolstoy's religious 'crisis', which, beginning in the second half of the 1870s, caused him to turn away from a fruitful literary career and devote his remaining years to a search for the religious meaning of life and death. This search led him to China and her sages. Tolsty – in addidtion to Christianity itself – at first confined himself to the study of Buddhism and Islam. Only in 1882 did his intellectual horizons expand to include the Far East. What was it that made Tolstoy feel so akin to the Chinese people : In part, it was the warm and repeatedly expressed sympathy which he felt toward all peoples who were victims of Western imperialism. But more specifically it seems to have been the qualities of pacifism, frugality, industriousness, and simplicity of living for which he lauds them, quite justly, in his Chinese wisdom. The fact that China was a great agrarian country, made up in large part of hardworking peasants. The simple and close-to-earth life of these peasants was, in Tolstoy's eyes, far superior to the corruptions, artificialities and class struggles which he saw in the industrialized countries of Western Europe, with their great factories and crowded urban communities. In this agrarian mode of life, he recognized a factor of basic importance which not only linked China with Russia, but also brought these two nations into spiritual kinship with the other great agrarian countries of Asia, especially India. In China itself, Tolstoy found the highest spiritual expression of this 'genuine' way of life in the Confucian writings and the book of Lao Tzu. In Taoism, as in Confucianism, Tolstoy was not satisfied merely to seek for self-perfection on the human plane. He looked further for a clue to that higher spiritual force which he believed with his whole being underlies all human activity and gives it its meaning and justification. In the case of Taoism, he did not need to seek far, for the essence of Lao Tzu's philosophy is that underlying the universe, as we see it, there is an absolute first cause or principle, called the 'Tao' or Way, from which all being is evolved, and to the eternal laws of which man must conform if he is to gain enlightenment and true happiness. Alexander Lukin : For Tolstoy, Achina was an important example of a nonindustrial, nonviolent, nonprogressive and close-to-nature way of life. He had always admired Chinese thought, was involved in several translations of Chinese classics, and even once wanted to study Chinese. Tolstoy especially admired the concept of ‘nonaction’ (wuwei, which he translated as nedelanie) as stated by Laozi, and he used it to attack the European fascination with the advances in science and technology and the intensification of labor. He found ideas in both Laozi and many other Chinese popular sayings that were close to his own ideals : life in manual labor and unity with nature. |
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| 5 | 1888 |
Przheval'skii, Nikolaj Mikhailovic. Ot Kjachty na istoki zeltoj reki [ID D2479]. "Where centuries of isolation were unceremoniously violated by the Europeans, could hardly yield to innovation alien to it in spirit and basis. It is true that China currently introduces European improvements in military technology and the military system in general, but these changes concern only one side of the life of the state, moreover, caused by an urgent necessity of self-defense. To transplant here other branches of European culture and civilization would need such a comprehensive rift that the obsolete Chinese people will hardly be able to survive. Progress everywhere forges its way with difficulty but, in China, it most probably will not be able to force its way. People's lives here have been formed over 40 centuries too soundly and exceptionally. The well-groomed sprouts of European civilization will not take root on such a hardened ground. The intolerable oppression of the Chinese rule on the one hand, and constant rumors of an humane attitude toward non-Russians in our Asian regions – this is what created a good reputation for Russians in the depths of the Asian deserts… One can be sure that China's policy toward us will not change, at least firmly, without a practical show of our force." |
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| 6 | 1900 |
Ukhtomsky, Esper. K sobytiiam v Kitaie [ID D37383]. Alexander Lukin : His fundamental idea was that imperial Russia belonged more to the East than to the West. He believed that Asian countries, including China, had unique cultures at least equal to that of the West and that Asia was a natural Russian ally in Russia’s opposition to the West. He thought that China, awakened by Western violence and material progress, would overcome the West with Western weapons, would leave the West behind, and would run it. He believed that the Confucian principle of deep respect for scholarship, and the custom of working on acquiring wisdom regardless of age, was a partial guarantee that, in time, a most enlightened nation could emerge in East Asia. He sharply criticized Western military actions and the brutality in China, especially during the Boxer rebellion. |
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| 7 | 1900 |
Vasil'ev, Vasilij Pavlovic. Kitaiskii progress [37384]. "It is vital to know Chinese literature to see the extent to which the Chinese have developed general human issues and have delved into the meaning of each letter of those books that interest them. Humanity, truth, order, the development of intellectual strength, and honesty : these are the most important issues of Chinese theories. China has everything necessary to achieve the highest level of intellectual, industrial, as well as political progress." Alexander Lukin : Vasil'ev not only disagreed that traditional Chinese beliefs were detrimental to progress, he thought that they could actually stimulate it. He believed that Confucianism, which he thought to be the basis of life in the Chinese nation, stimulated the study of the material world and that the Chinese people had enough wisdom, fantasy, and energetic persistence to master the European positivism and to further develop it. |
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| 8 | 1907 |
Tolstoy, Leo. Pismo k kitaitsu ; Kitaiskaya mudrost : mysli kitaiskikh myslitelei [ID D36257]. Tolstoy urged the Chinese to put an end to the despostism of the Manchurian emperor and recommended that they should continue living "a peaceful, arduous, and bucolic life, following in behavior the fundamental principles of their three religions : Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism". |
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| 9 | 1913 |
Kuropatkin, A[lexei] N[ikolayevich]. Russko-Kitaiskii vopros [ID D37388]. "A yellow peril threatens Russia…Without waiting for China to develop an offensive capability against Russia, the right and duty of Russia is likewise obvious to occupy straightaway those Asian positions, which would enable her not only to save for unborn generations their birthright in Asia acquired two hundred years ago, but also to guarantee success in the likely war between the yellow race and the white race when that struggle arises." |
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| 10 | 1914 |
Merezhkovsky, Dmitry Sergeyevich. Polnoe sobranie sochinenii. (Moskva : Tip. I.D. Sytina, 1914). Er schreibt : "The Chinese are perfect yellow-faced positivists ; the Europeans are still imperfect white-faced Chinese. Here is the main 'yellow peril' – not outside, but inside ; not in China's coming to Europe, but in Europe's coing to China. Our faces are still white, but under the white skin there already flows not that previously thick, scarlet, Aryan blood, but a more and more 'yellow' blood similar to the Mongolian inchor. The shape of our eyes is straight but the look is beginning to squint, to narrow. And the straight white light of the European day is turning into an oblique 'yellow' light of the setting sun of China or the rising sun of Japan." |
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| 11 | 1924-1926 |
Mayakovsky, Vladimir. Gedichte. Hands off China ! (1924). Moscow's China. (1926). I know that when the October repetitions come to China And classes clash agains one another The narrow-eyed people Will give it to them hot. Ne iubileyte. (1926). Let the Chinese language be tricky and great Everyone knows anyway that Canton Is fighting the very fight than in October was fought By our Ivan and Anton from Ryazan. |
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Cited by (1)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2000- | Asien-Orient-Institut Universität Zürich | Organisation / AOI |
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