The Path to Chinese Philosophy in Russia (From the 1950s to the Beginning of the 21st Century)

Abstract

The article examines the main scientific research on Chinese philosophy published in the USSR and Russia from the beginning of the 1950s to the beginning of the 21^st century. Until the 1980s, the Soviet scholars described Chinese philosophy with ideological bias, the teachings of ancient Chinese philosophy were classified by them based on the criteria of materialism and idealism. During that period, the specifics of Chinese philosophy, especially traditional, was not successfully revealed. Since the beginning of the 1980s, special attention has been paid to the main philosophical schools, such as Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism. In particular, in the 1980s the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences published the books Confucianism in China: Problems of Theory and Practice, Tao and Taoism in China and Buddhism and Society in the Countries of Central and east Asia, in which the main figures and concepts of classical Chinese philosophy were researched in depth. At the beginning of the 21^st century, the six-volume encyclopedia The Spiritual Culture of China, edited by M.L. Titarenko, A.I. Kobzev and A.E. Lukyanov, was published. The first volume of the encyclopedia is dedicated to philosophy and covers the history of Chinese philosophy from ancient times to the present day. The author of the article, being the project manager for translating this encyclopedia into Chinese, shows that Russian sinology has completely freed itself from old clichés and has come closer in this encyclopedia to comprehend the very essence of ancient Chinese philosophy. The author concludes that in the era of globalization, in the context of a constantly deepening intercultural dialogue, it becomes necessary not only to limit ourselves to our own perception rooted in our tradition but also to absorb the interpretations of the researchers of other traditions.