Marking the opening of the Winter Olympic Games. The Presidential Library spotlighting Chinese History

The XXIV Winter Olympic Games will start in Beijing on February 4, 2022. The official mascot of the Games is a giant panda named Bing Dundun. In Chinese "bin" means ice, purity and strength, and "dundun" means healthy, strong and cheerful. The giant panda is the national symbol of China.

What else do we know about this country, one of the most amazing and mysterious in the world? The Presidential Library dedicated a special collection Russia-China: The History of Relations to China, an ancient state with a history of more than 5 millennia, and its relations with Russia. The collection combines digital copies of various documents - book publications, archival, visual, cartographic and video materials.

Travels in China are described, for example, in the books Central Asia, Northern China and Nan Shan: a travel report... (1900–1901) by mining engineer Vladimir Obruchev, a three-volume edition of the traveler and geographer Grigory Grumm-Grzhimailo Description of a trip to Western China - Along the Eastern Tien Shan (1896–1907), etc. The Works of the Members of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Beijing (1852–1866) published such scientific works on the history of China as The Beginning and First Affairs of the Manchurian House, translations of the most important ancient and medieval Chinese treatises.

The title China, Its Inhabitants, Mores, Customs, Enlightenment fully reflects the content of the book written by the famous Sinologist Archimandrite Iakinf (Nikita Bichurin) in 1840. Many things seem unusual to a European: “In China, everything is the same as we have, and everything is not the same as ours”.

First of all, the author notes that the Chinese language is distinguished by “amazing strangeness” from all ancient and modern languages ​​- it has neither word formation from roots, nor changes in words by endings, and Chinese writing is ideographic, in which there are no letters to represent sounds, their replace symbols.

Much attention is paid to Chinese enlightenment and education. At that time, the "circle of education" in China consisted of four kinds of scientific institutions - schools, Astronomical and Pedagogical Institutes and the Order of Scientists, corresponding to the academies of sciences in Europe. In schools, pupils studied literature, which combines history, poetry, religion, jurisprudence and political economy, as well as music and rituals. The rest of the sciences were taught at will: “Everything that is not needed in the service of the fatherland, the Chinese consider useless...”

The schools did not have a system of textbooks, the basis of education was five sacred books, one of which is the "Book of Changes", which contains "the concept of God and nature, set forth not in words, but in the parallel outline of three solid and three broken lines, presented in 64 different kinds".

The public and private life of the Chinese in the century before last is also depicted in the book with many details.

The Chinese government, taking care of the people's well-being, tried to introduce unity in everything. The forms of meeting, receiving and seeing off the guest for all estates were prescribed by the government and included in the number of legal regulations. In fact, they are uniform and only slightly change depending on the rank of the guest and the host. Also, from the very foundation of the empire, the government determined the cut of clothes and the colors of fabrics depending on the class of the official.

According to the book, in the 19th century there was only one newspaper in China, which was published in Beijing under the name "Jin-bao" - "Capital Bulletin". This newspaper bore little resemblance to European political newspapers both in content and appearance. It included various cases submitted for approval to the sovereign or brought to his attention. This newspaper also contained information that in Europe would be considered a state secret, for example, negotiations with foreign envoys.

Morals in China, according to the author, were also formed somewhat differently than those of other peoples. While maintaining unity in civil life, special attention is paid to the education of youth. To the greatest extent, the boys were instilled with "unlimited reverence for parents, obedience to government regulations, observance of all the duties of a human citizen".

Today, like centuries ago, the main holiday for all of China is the New Year. The year begins with the February new moon. The people celebrate the holiday from midnight on the first day. In all houses, lit red candles, incense and sacrificial things are placed on the table; when 12 o'clock in the night passes, all households perform worship, standing facing the open doors - they make a sacrifice to the spirits of heaven and earth, then, turning to the table with sacrificial things, they worship the household spirits and ancestors of their kind.

In Europe, the first minute of the New Year is usually met with shots of champagne, and in China - with a roar of rockets strung on a string, which, exploding in succession, produce a strong crack, but do not take off. This thunder stops at dawn...

This year, Chinese New Year falls on February 1. And in three days the sports festival starts in Beijing...