Moscow: East Lit. Vol. 1, 1972 (2001); Vol.2, 1975 (2003); Vol. 3, 1984; Vol. 4, 1986; Vol. 5, 1987; Vol. 6, 1992; Vol. 7, 1996; Vol. 8, 2002; Vol. 9, 2010. (Monuments of Oriental writing. XXXII, 1 - 9).

In recent decades, many monuments of Oriental literature and science have been published in Russian translations. Russian specialists are intensively adding to the lists of foreign-language ancient and medieval sources. To the famous translators-sinologists, now classics, academicians V. M. Alekseev and N. I. Konrad, I will add such famous scientists as B. I. Pankratov, A. N. Rogachev, N. V. Kuner, Yu. K. Shchutsky, A. A. Shtukin, D. N. Voskresensky, V. S. Taskin, L. N. Menshikov, L. S. Perelomov, Sr. Kucher, A. S. Martynov and others. The following generations include V. V. Malyavin, A. I. Kobzev, A. E. Lukyanov, E. Y. Staburova, S. V. Dmitriev, A. B. Starostin, V. B. Vinogrodskaya, B. B. Vinogrodsky, V. M. Yakovlev, and M. V. Korolkov. The more scientific translations are distributed in our cultural environment, the more we can count on the accuracy and reliability of cross-cultural communication, mutual understanding and spiritual rapprochement of the great peoples of the planet.

The translation of Sima Qian's grandiose work opens up more than two thousand years of Chinese imperial history. On the one hand, it gives the Russian - speaking reader for the first time an almost complete picture of this unique source, previously known to him only in fragments, on the other hand, a text about unfamiliar ancient events, presented in accordance with the rules and logical constructions of a foreign ancient culture, appears to him in all its complexity. The knowledge of this culture is fragmented and chaotic for any reader who is not professionally engaged in Chinese studies. Therefore, I would like to start talking about this multi-volume work not with an analysis of the features and specifics of the translation, but with the original source itself.

A special place in the creative galaxy of sinologists undoubtedly belongs to Prof. Rudolf Vsevolodovich Vyatkin. Of the 130 chapters of Sima Qian's Historical Notes, he managed to translate more than 120 and provide them with a qualified commentary. During the lifetime of R. V. Vyatkin, six volumes of his translation were published (the first two volumes with the participation of V. S. Taskin, and the first-also with a preface by M. V. Kryukov), and then, as the work of his father - the court historiographer (taishigun) - Sima Tan was continued by his son Sima Qian,and A. R. Vyatkin, the son of R. V. Vyatkin, with the help of friends, colleagues and students, not only completed the work of his father, but also managed to republish the first two volumes with significant corrections and additions, which had long become a bibliographic rarity. Now we can be proud of the fact that the first complete translation of the work of the great Chinese historian into the European language was made by Russian Sinologists.

Sima Qian's work is often compared with the" History "of Herodotus and the "Comparative Biographies" of Plutarch, but this comparison significantly impoverishes the content, cognitive, structural and didactic aspects of this outstanding document of the era. The practical significance of Sima Qian's work goes far beyond the real influence of ancient historians. It was not the biographies of great people of the past, nor the ideas of a new organization of power, nor the state of cultural life of the country, nor the everyday life of the people that attracted the attention of the Chinese historian. His work was not specifically devoted to the historical, social, political, or economic results of a particular dynasty; it was carried out during the period of establishment and strengthening of new imperial orders, under the rule of a "strong emperor" capable of self-determination.-

to lead the political and administrative life of a country that, like its great predecessors - Qin Shi Huang and Liu Bang-was able not only to plan a great cause, but also to attract large cohorts of employees to it, purposefully and systematically carry it out until the last day of his life, bearing on his shoulders the heavy responsibility of the reigning monarch.

Thus, it is primarily a political treatise, a comprehensive "textbook for righteous (xiao - filial) rulers", equipped with a huge number of historical examples. The huge volume of the essay makes it difficult to discern the characteristics of ways to implement stratagem thinking (see: [von Sanger, 2004]). Perhaps the most transparent aspects of management policy, which are in many ways consonant with Sima Qian's own worldview, are shown in Chapter 129. He pointed out that people's lives are determined by their needs, needs, circumstances, conditions, emotions, lusts, ambition, as well as nature and its whims (the latter were reflected in astrological observations that caused unnecessary irritation to translators: we should not forget that we are talking about a theory, and even created in times far from mass culture). "beliefs in scientific atheism") (vol. 9, pp. 297, 299, 497, comment. 24 - 27). Taishigong, in the spirit of Taoist ideas, recommends that rulers give their subjects as much space as possible for independent personal initiatives (i.e., for their own personal development). 9, p. 295 [Sima Qian, vol. 10, 1975, p. 3253]). Further, against the background of the historical and economic map of China, he shows "five [categories] of people", sometimes so successful in their professions that they were equal to the nobility. I cannot but cite (in a note) the author's text, which is quite consonant with modern liberal political theories1.

Historically, the administration of the kingdom of Qin was distinguished by an aspiration to the future, a vision of the possibilities of raising the state, society, people, and economy. This is confirmed by the ancient treatise " Shang-junshu "("The Book of the ruler of the Shang region"), and the political writings of Han Fei, and practical studies of the administrative sphere of activity undertaken by Li Si. However, the data presented, especially those summarized by Sima Qian, can be evaluated in two ways. Recognizing the positive nature of many transformations and the very fact of unification of the country, the historian focuses on the personality of the ruler, finding many negative qualities in it. Significant extracts from the writings of Jia Yi confirm and emphasize the negative traits in the character of all Qin rulers. Their negative assessments are further reinforced by quotations from Ban Gu's work made by later commentators. Thus, the collective efforts of many Han scholars have created a negative characterization of the representatives of the Qin dynasty, "objective" reasons for their loss of the "mandate of Heaven".

Thanks to the introduction to the text of Chapter 7, devoted to the struggle for power, the rule and death of Wang Xiang Yu (only the title of "Lu gong" was posthumously "recognized" (vol. 2, 2003, p. 154), Sima Qian seems to have achieved a particularly effective and catchy reversal of the "plot", emphasizing his outstanding character a literary gift that allowed him to completely avoid discussing the problem of the transition of supreme power from Qin to Han. The Han Empire continued the creative, in fact, "tradition" (again, the events of 202 BC. e. the time of accepting the imperial title is not at all flashy, they look like an ordinary natural event). It is stated only that the ruler is worthy of the title, and the courtiers need to have the light of imperial power fall on them to assert their authority. Thus, the tradition of centralized imperial rule is gradually being established (vol. 2, 2003, pp. 186-187).

Wu-di (140-87 BC), an emperor whose contemporary and victim was the great historian Sima Qian, was as zealous as his founding predecessors, engaged in a comprehensive " construction of the monarchy." Hence the boiling of creative thought during this period, another rise in philosophical and scientific creativity. And this direction of political, administrative, and unifying aspirations was supported, strengthened, and even synthesized by the work of Sima Qian. No wonder the cruel ruler-practitioner saved the life of his brilliant historiographer, gave him the opportunity to finish a grandiose work, allowed him to "hide" the original in the Imperial Library, but the place of placing a copy of it remained unclear.

¹ The above-mentioned mores "have long been common among the people, and.. [people]... to change... impossible. And so the best [ruler] does not seek to change anything; the one that is worse-lures [the people] with benefits, even worse - is inclined to teach them, even worse-forces them to order, and the worst-enters into a struggle [with the people] " (vol. 9, p. 295).

I think that Yu. L. Krol [Krol, 1970, p.3 - 4] got too carried away at one time, doubting Sim Tan's participation in the very process of writing "Shi ji". He was in office during the entire first half of Wu-di's reign (Kryukov, 1972, pp. 16-23). And the fact that Sima Qian first organized the materials of future history in 104 BC does not mean that among these materials there were not at least rough texts of the predecessor and their cursory sketches.

The French philosopher and historian of European philosophy L. Levy-Bruhl, reading the translations from the" Notes " of Sima Qian, made by E. Chavannes, was struck by the originality of Chinese thinking. It was the study of Sima Qian's work that led the scientist to develop the problems of primitive consciousness.

This, of course, does not exhaust the advantages and special qualities of this work. It marks the beginning of Chinese imperial historiography. However, this is rather only its formal value; it also establishes the content specifics of the history of Chinese statehood. It has been preserved, creatively expanded, and turned into a lasting tradition in the subsequent twenty-four "dynastic histories". But only Sima Qian begins the story ab ovo and brings it to 110 BC. e. I will note the main thing.

* Sima Qian systematically presents the initial stages of Chinese history, including in the narrative fabric the main historical, historical-cultural, political provisions and facts from previous canonical and indisputable works (jing). All subsequent "Histories" written after Han contain data relating to the period of the reign of the next dynasty that ended (Qian Hanshu Ban Gu was no exception in this regard).

* The historian discusses the spatial and geographical sphere of Chinese statehood.

* He evaluates the idea of the internal ethno-cultural unity of the empire, far ahead of the realities of his time: after all, there is still a long and difficult path to sustainable unity in the post - Han period (220-589), repeated disintegrations of the country, and the separation of peripheral regions.

* In five extensive sections - Ben ji ("Basic Records"), Biao ("Chronological Tables"), Shu ("Treatises"), Shi jia ("Hereditary Houses"), Le Chuang ("Biographies") - Sima Qian consistently summarizes all the main significant features of political, ethno-cultural, and economic life. specific features of the country, revealing the actual modernity of that distant time. He was able to present the organizational system of the monarchical system in conjunction with the practice of political and economic management and describe the historical path taken by the country in the process of building a monarchy.

* He cites the track records of the current and past court elite, showing the real role of the bureaucracy in establishing imperial norms, rules, and mores. Based on his data, the real history of the imperial court life during almost the entire second century BC can be investigated.

* Sima Qian identifies governance mechanisms, driving forces, and relationships, without which all the operation of laws and the exercise of law enforcement remain utopian fictions.

* Using practical examples, the historian shows how new features of the self-consciousness of the ancient Chinese are formed, how innovations turn into traditions (for definitions and terminology, see [Kozhin, 1982, pp. 59-76]). He even manages to determine the speed of such transformations, as, for example, in the case of the military reform of Zhaoyu Wulin-wang (vol. 6, p. 61-69), when creating an empire (in particular, chapter 87 "The Life of Li Si" - vol. 8, p. 48-51), in the struggle for loyalty to political foundations (vol. 7, ch. 84 "Biography of Qu Yuan and Jia Yi", pp. 281-294).

* Sima Qian explains, finally, and this was especially surprising to the first Europeans who began to "Christianize" China, that the country can establish different levels of responsibility for certain actions of groups of the population: the commoner is responsible to the family and lower levels of government; the administrator-bureaucrat is responsible to his environment and the elite, and ultimately - before the emperor (however, the development of such a strict spiritual and moral hierarchy begins already "Shu Jing"). And only the emperor, and in his person the entire kindred group that forms the ruling dynasty, is directly in front of Heaven (I distinguish between the concepts of "responsibility" and" retribution", for the latter, see [Krol, 1970, pp. 101-111]). But all classes and strata are ultimately united by their subordination to the general imperial legislation, the foundations of which are firmly merged with the state.

traditional spiritual and political culture, imperial religious cyclical rituals, with cults of numerous deities of the national pantheon, "responsible" for the diverse aspects of human existence, behavior, and the culture of business activities.

* A man who has suffered grievously from the cruelty of the ruler, who feels his innocence, but accepts his misfortune, Sima Qian shows the highest example of civic valor, despite all the suffering and torment, completing his gigantic work. He still believes in humanity, cares about its future, making it easier for future generations to struggle with adversity and realize their place in a troubled, difficult world with historical examples [Chinese classical Prose..., 1959, pp. 79-97].

Time, the Great Censor of spiritual culture and collective knowledge, has not completely preserved Sima Qian's work for subsequent generations, but what remains is so vivid, topical, and heartfelt (this is especially evident in the conclusions to the chapters, where the author could show his emotional and moral-ethical assessment of events, people, and situations). which gives the reader a sense of closeness between that ancient era and the present day. Scientists of future times will still have to make serious discoveries that will clarify the reasons for the numerous changes made to the taishigong texts by Sima Chu Shao-sun and other commentators, including "ritual censors" who followed, in particular, the tabooing of certain sets of signs included in glorified or forbidden names (the meaning of such changes should not be ignored). So far, it is not possible to understand by whom and on whose instructions the text changes were made. Maybe we just didn't find or didn't finish reading some source. This is not surprising: after all, there are so many of them, modern specialists have not even been able to describe the diverse Chinese dictionaries and have very superficially described the rules for using them (at one time, V. P. Vasiliev described the systems of key signs more consistently, albeit briefly, in his lectures (cf.: (Spiritual Culture of China..., 2008, p. 690 - 691, 644, etc.]).

In general, it was of no small importance for Europeans to familiarize themselves with Chinese classical literature, especially with works on Chinese history, that in addition to the members of the Russian ecclesiastical mission, most foreigners arriving in China had some specific practical goals in learning about the country. At the same time, the first Western missionaries who found themselves in China during the Ming Dynasty (M. Ricci, N. Trigo), as it turns out, were very lucky: they immediately encountered the national Han bureaucracy. At their disposal were texts that were generally known as the sources and subjects of exam essays. Naturally, the Jesuits added to them familiarization with popular religious ideas, state imperial legislation, imperial edicts of that time, written instructions for the people, and ordinary documents of any era of the Chinese past [Regni chinensis..., 1639].

By the time the Manchus came to power, the mission corps had a large body of knowledge about the Chinese language, culture, and religion (Gallagher, 1953). This is evidenced by the works of A. Kircher, J. Webb and other European scientists who managed to get acquainted with Chinese characters and spiritual culture without even visiting the country. However, the degree of understanding of the role of history in the daily life of the people is unlikely to have been particularly high for these early missionaries, especially since they had to satisfy the practical interests of Chinese and Manchu specialists in the field of Western technical, and especially military, knowledge.

And soon the need to get acquainted with the new state language and new bureaucrats-Mandarin administrators - joined the priority everyday tasks. All this made it very problematic to thoroughly master such historical classics as the works of Sima Qian in the XVII-XVIII centuries, during the period of domination of mainly French Sinology in Europe. Of course, it all started with the study of Confucius, the" heretical schools " of Tao and Fo (Buddhism), and Leibniz's mathematical fantasies about the binary number system in China. Only such a practical politician as A. R. Turgot (1727-1781) managed to get closer to a real understanding of the operation of the Chinese state administration system demagogically rejected by S.-L. de Montesquieu (1689-1755) by interviewing a few Chinese people who visited France [Kozhin, 2011(1), pp. 260-262]. (A more detailed review of the Western historiography of the XVII-XX centuries concerning the spiritual life of China is presented in the article by S. R. Kucera, which precedes the publication of the first section of "Zhou Li" [The Establishment of the Zhou Dynasty..., 2010, pp. 15-24]).

Sima Qian occupies a special place in Russian historiography due to the fact that the development of Central and Central Asia very early awakens practical interest in his work, which contains the oldest extensive descriptions of these territories, their population, and the expansion of China in Western Asia.-

padny krai, a variety of ethnic groups. The work of N. Ya. Bichurin (fr. Iakinfa) on the " Collection of information..."(1846-1848) had a direct practical significance. There was room for translations of Chapters 110 on the Xiongnu and 123 on Davan (Ferghana). Since the publication of translations of these chapters in 1851-1853 in the "Collection of Information...", they have become one of the most popular Chinese texts on the history of Asia for more than a century. According to them, the Russian administration and Russian researchers of Asia try to get an idea of the peoples who inhabited the "marginal lands of Siberia" in the south and east.

The collection of information and publication of large volumes of geographical, historical, political, and" country studies "(ethnographic, linguistic, and religious studies) literature on these "outlying lands" contribute not only to the expansion of the communication space of the Russian Empire, but also to the formation of its Central Asian borders, the involvement of the Turkic, Iranian, Altaic, and Mongolian peoples of Asia in the sphere of Russian politics, economy, social life. These sections of Sima Qian's work always remain in the field of close attention of translators and researchers.

However, every translator of ancient texts is a serious, often original researcher. When working with ancient texts, neither machine translation nor simultaneous translation can be used. It is necessary to analyze each sign from the point of view of its history, origin, relevance in this text. We should not forget that texts of the pre-Qin era could be repeatedly recoded when switching from one writing material to another (clay, bamboo strips, silk, paper, wood, metal), when changing the writing tool (brush, chisel, "awl", knife), when standardizing spelling. Translation has always become interpretation.

The formation of a deeper scientific interest in Sima Qian's work in Russia begins under the influence of studies of his texts by E. Chavannes, who worked on the French translation of the "Notes" and their careful commentary. V. M. Alekseev, struck by personal contact with the French researcher by his immense erudition, the ability to reproduce the historical situation of the Early Han Dynasty (206 - ~90 At the turn of the 20th century, in his lectures and classes with students, he increasingly turned to Sima Qian's texts, replacing them with those generalized characteristics concerning various stages of the Chinese past that Du Ald, De Guin, and de Maya [Chinese Philosophy..., 1994, pp. 122-123, 210] in their reports on Chinese and Central Asian history borrowed most often from the historical summary compendium of Tzu Zhi tong jian gang mu (XII century) and even from its abbreviated Manchu version.

R. V. Vyatkin himself managed to give a serious review of the multi-faceted creative research of Sima Qian's work [Vyatkin, 1993, pp. 202-214]^.2 He showed how the development and interpretation of this majestic ancient monument took place in numerous and diverse scientific schools of the East and West. The work, separated from our time by more than two thousand years, naturally needed to be translated into modern language. And this very difficult task is far from being solved unambiguously in various traditions of publications and reprints of ancient literary and scientific texts and monuments. There are usually three main paths presented in such publications. This is either an adapted and abridged translation, or a semantic translation presented in a modern, commonly used and generally understood language, or performed in an artificially archaized language. No matter how ridiculous the latter technique is in its extreme expressions, but it can be popular with someone.

Fortunately for the readers, the Russian translator of the "complete" Sima Qian and his followers chose the standard Russian scientific translation from Chinese, perhaps only, as often happens, somewhat abusing the use of square brackets, which serve mainly to comply with Russian literary forms of speech.³ This remark is not meant as a reproach to translators. Rather, it should be considered a creative search for the accuracy of translation, an effort to comply as fully as possible with the Russian literary form. In this regard, it is very important (and fascinating) to trace the development of the translation technique of this source from simple old-fashioned phrases about. Bichurin, 1950-1951; Kozhin, 2011, pp. 248-265], to the simplified translations of V. A. Panasyuk, to the exquisite rhythmic prose of V. M. Alekseev and others.,

² This essay should have been reprinted in the ninth volume. It should be the starting point for the historiography of this research area.

³ I am deeply grateful to A. R. Vyatkin for the opportunity to use the volume of the publication that was translated.

Finally, to the scientifically based translations of the senior and junior Vyatkins, A. M. Karapetyants, one of the most rigorous and responsible modern sinologists, and their junior colleagues and students, often provided with explanatory commentary.

I am sure that the work on studying "Shi Chi" in Russia will not be interrupted just because the first complete edition of the consolidated text has been completed. I think, on the contrary, that now, following in the fresh footsteps of the work that has already been done, it is worth returning to the development of all that mass of questions that were only partially reflected in the translation. Any research work interrupted in the course of its execution requires further repetition at a new level of knowledge and methodology. Just one translation of the table of contents of the entire Set of Shi Ji (the end of Chapter 130, translated by S. V. Dmitriev [Vyatkin A. R., 2010, p. 23]) set a new task for Russian Sinology, which has been at the head of Western "Simatsyanevedenie" (R. V. Vyatkin's term) since the second half of the XX century. If there are any discrepancies between the descriptions of the chapters in this" Table of Contents " and the current content of the chapters themselves, start working on the history of the political life of the Han Empire in the first century BC.This is, in fact, a study of the period that led to the temporary break of the dynasty during the reign of Wang Mang (9-23 AD).

I must say that the very historical situation associated with the revival of the dynasty seems far from ordinary. It seemed that the prerequisites for such a dynastic Renaissance existed in the era of the Three Kingdoms, but there events began to develop according to a completely different scenario. In general, the period between the time of writing "Shi ji" and "Qian Hanipu" is a rare time in the ancient history of the East, when historical sources, supplemented by historical, philosophical and political treatises, discussions, literally introduce researchers to the living everyday and political life of a huge country. What is the use of the fact that several quite reliable data on demographic and economic qualifications have come down to us from this time (Bielenstein, 1947; Kryukov, Perelomov, Sofronov, Cheboksary, 1983, p. 41-45), if we are not sufficiently inquisitive to use the entire spectrum of old (but close to authentic It is necessary to create a full-fledged modern history of one of the most important key periods of the country's historical past. This is also the case with the problem of the formation of early Chinese statehood, as well as the transition of the Qin and Han states to the category of empires [Kozhin, 2011, pp. 65-74]. It is in connection with this problem that I have taken the liberty of quoting a rather lengthy fragment of the translation from Sima Qian ⁴.

Unfortunately, the large volume of the monument greatly complicates the source study of it, and it is not by chance that the publications of the text, and even more so in translations, only partially contain information about the use of previous sources by both Taishigunsyma, even such significant ones as "Shu Jing", "Zhou Li", "Lun yu", " Chun qiu", "Zuo Zhuan", "Lu shi chun qiu", "Zhanguo tse", "Guo yu", "Yan te lun", etc.In this edition, there are cases of "depersonalization"of such a primary source as "Zuo Zhuan". The Chinese quotation often turns out to be a hidden quotation for a European, since a classically educated resident of the Middle Empire, who was ready to pass the "qualification" exams, did not need a direct reference to the quoted text: he had to know by heart the classical texts, i.e. those that were included in the curriculum necessary for passing the exams. Therefore, the character zhuan was quite sufficient to accurately indicate the source, whereas the translator of ch. 126 (vol. 9, p. 241, 243) translates this sign as "tradition", thereby infinitely expanding the search field for quotations given by Sima Qian (regarding the very translation of the first of them, including Lao Tzu's phrases, one can find grounds to challenge the translator's understanding of the text, but this is not my task).

⁴ It is impossible not to cite this literary and political-diplomatic finding of Sima Qian: "At the beginning of 202 [BC], close associates began to ask Han Wang to accept the title of emperor. Han-wan replied: "I've heard that the title of emperor is only held by the wise (xin - maybe 'worthy'). If this title is just an empty insignificant word, it should not be accepted. I don't dare take the emperor's place." All officials (Qiong Chen, perhaps more appropriately referred to as "subjects") They said, " You, great Wang, have risen from the lowest position, punished the cruel and rebellious, and pacified and pacified the lands of the four seas. To all those who have merit, you have allotted lands and granted them possession, granting the titles of Vanir and hou. If you, Great Wang, do not accept the honorary title of Emperor, then [our titles and possessions] will be questioned and we will not be trusted. We, your servants, are ready to defend [our offer] to the death." Han-wan refused three times, but when he saw that he had to agree, he answered: "If you consider this an undoubted good, then it will be a good thing for the state" (vol. 2, 2003, p. 187; Sima Qian, 1959, vol. 1, p. 379).

Of course, many materials collected by Sima historians on the problems of the first century of Han Dynasty history are in the full sense of the word primary sources. To a large extent, these are the biographies of contemporary officials and administrators of the recent past, where the main outline of the documentary biography was obviously copied from archival service records (it is clear that Sima Qian retained the right to use these materials until the end of his work: not so final and irrevocable was his "resignation"). The principle of compiling biographies of grandees and officials, developed or accepted by historians of the Sima, becomes a clear historiographical tradition. Moreover, according to Sima Qian, even with certain gaps, a fairly clear history of the early Han administration can be compiled. I believe that such materials in comparison with the Qin imperial documents will allow us to reconstruct many real features of the Qin administrative order in the future. This is all the more promising after authentic planning documents from Qin and Han tombs began to get into scientific circulation. In any case, the latest developments of M. V. Korolkov's ideas in this direction are relevant and convincing [Korolkov, 2010].

So far, the comparison of authentic planning texts with Sima Qian's statements has only affected the laws on certain types of land ownership, but the topic is far from exhausted. In addition, new materials continue to arrive. In this connection, it is argued that there is a persistent need to develop methods and analytical techniques that allow us to reliably determine the authenticity of new planar finds. And in general, it is necessary to pay attention to serious training of specialists for detecting falsifications and imitations of ancient texts. In turn, the study of authentic newly found texts should dramatically affect the development of ancient Chinese textology (the area of preparatory work for its creation as a special applied historical discipline can be attributed to the doctoral dissertation of I. Galambos [Galambos, 2006]. Given the number and capabilities of modern antiquarian owners, this area of expertise can be directly linked to particularly lucrative areas of business operations and ways to accumulate capital, and therefore it seriously needs to guarantee authenticity, describe the exact conditions of finds and protect property rights.

In conclusion of this brief review of the volumes of the completed outstanding work and some related problems, I will emphasize its uniqueness in Russian, Soviet and Russian historiography. However, this is rather a worthy legacy of Soviet historiography. The difficulties of translation here are still largely inferior to the difficulties of commenting. Translation is hindered by text defects, interpolations, and stylistic differences introduced by the ancient"text editing". In the end, all these substitutions, corrections and additions to the text can be considered its "imperial revision": when it was carried out, not only the author was not alive, but also the emperor, to whom all the thoughts of taishigun were dedicated. However, on reflection, we have to admit that two thousand years can not but leave even on an outstanding work of spiritual creativity their senseless, gross, destructive traces. Not all substitutions of chapters, partial and complete losses of them can be explained logically, by analyzing the text itself. The history of China in the first centuries of our era was as turbulent as in the centuries before them. The destruction of palaces with their libraries, archives, bureaucratic documents, the desolation of metropolitan districts-all this was. Much has "died irretrievably", but great is the living power of the ancient "weapon of thought" - a clear, focused text that tells about the events that gave final shape to the state system of the country, its territorial space, in which each noticeable topographic point turns out to be a monument of ancient remote epochs, often several at once.

A large number of archaeological sites in the territory of the People's Republic of China have been discovered in recent decades. The above-mentioned findings of new highly informative written monuments bring the study of classical texts closer to the study of archaeological materials. However, these latter can increasingly be transformed into full-fledged historical facts under appropriate research procedures. Problems of urban planning [Dmitriev, 2006], the study of construction equipment, a multi-faceted study of Zhanguo and Han handicraft professions [Barbieri-Low, 2007], and new archaeological finds increasingly confirm the data on material culture reported not only by Sima Qian, but also by other sources close to his time. Over the past half-century, various discoveries in the field of material culture research, improvement of research methods in the fields of paleography, paleoeconomics, paleogeography, paleosociology, etc. have been significantly improved.

We have expanded our research field in understanding the early historical past of China. Many popular scientific works devoted to these periods themselves look like glimpses of the distant past (see, for example: Deben-Frankfort, 2002).

But there are also some works that we regret losing interest in: they cannot be replaced by later texts. Thus, the beautiful ethnographic description of China published in the series " Peoples of the World. Ethnographic essays "[Peoples of East Asia, 1965]. Equally important are the six volumes that characterize the ethnic history of traditional China, tracing it from the earliest epochs to the middle of the twentieth century (for a review of the first three volumes, see Kozhin, 1986, pp. 253-257; Kozhin, 1982(1), pp. 419-448). A powerful scientific movement was also reflected in the almost forty-year history of the publication of the Russian Sima Qian. Many judgments and conclusions have become sharper and more definite. Translators and commentators are becoming more and more determined to engage in polemics on controversial issues that seemed to have already been resolved definitively,but are now becoming relevant again. We are particularly pleased with the great progress in the approach to the problems of Central Asia during the Qin and Han periods (see comment. 110, 111, 123, etc.). And this is due not only to the rejuvenation of the translation team, but also to the general rise in the level of historical science, which is still one of the main sciences in China.

list of literature

Bichurin N. Ya. (O. Iakinf). Collection of information about the peoples who lived in Central Asia in ancient times. Vol. 1-3. Moscow-L., 1950-1951.

Vyatkin A. R. Introductory article / / Sima Qian. Istoricheskie zapiski (Shi ji), vol. 9, Moscow: Vostochny lit., 2010.

Vyatkin R. V. Izuchenie nauchnogo nasledstviya Sima Tsyanya na Vostoke i Zapad (Istoriko-bibliograficheskiy obzor) [Studying the scientific heritage of Sima Tsyan in the East and West (Historical and Bibliographic review)].

Deben-Frankfort K. Drevny Kitay [Ancient China] / Translated from French by E. Barsukova, Moscow, 2002.

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