The literary heritage of Alexander Pushkin is well known to a wide range of readers. A line in a letter to Count A. Benckendorff, written in January 1830 and in which Pushkin asks permission to let him go to China, attracts attention. The purpose of the article is to try to find out what reasons prompted Pushkin to make such a request. It is essential to understand the age during which the poet lived. The fascination with Chinese culture came to Russia from France, which significantly impacted Russia’s life in the 18th-19th centuries. Chinese goods, the so-called Chinese rarities, began to appear in Russia even during Peter I’s reign, who often gave orders to buy them for the St. Petersburg Kunstkamera. Exotic things from China were delivered to St. Petersburg by caravans from Beijing through Siberia and the Urals or by sea on ships of the East India Company through Western Europe. Empress Catherine II set the fashion for interiors in the Chinese style: the Chinese Palace (1762-1768) appeared in Oranienbaum; Chinese buildings, the largest complex of buildings in the Chinese style, appeared in Tsarskoe Selo. There, in Tsarskoe Selo, in 1811, Emperor Alexander I established the Imperial Lyceum, in which Alexander Pushkin studied, and where, undoubtedly, the poet’s first encounter with the Middle Kingdom occurred. At this time, Russian periodicals also paid much attention to China. In them, articles about the trade of Europeans in China, about porcelain and silk factories, as well as about the wisdom of Chinese rulers and moral instructions for posterity began to be published. Pushkin read a lot and could not have been unaware of these publications. The acquaintance of Pushkin with monk Father Iakinf (N. Bichurin), an outstanding Russian sinologist, had a significant influence on the poet. Father Iakinf was appointed the Head of the ecclesiastic mission in Beijing in 1807 and lived there until 1821. As the examination of Pushkin’s library shows, the poet had Bichurin’s books about China. Also, he read Jean-Baptiste Du Halde’s book The General History of China in the Russian translation known at that time. As the study shows, Pushkin was interested in China and was going to visit it; however, fate had its own plans.
亚历山大·普希金(Alexander Pushkin)的文学遗产为众多读者所熟知。 1830年1月写给A. Benckendorff伯爵的信中的一句话引起了人们的注意,普希金在信中要求普希金允许他去中国。本文的目的是试图找出促使普希金提出此类请求的原因。重要的是要了解诗人生活的年龄。对中国文化的迷恋是从法国来到俄罗斯的,这极大地影响了18-19世纪俄罗斯的生活。即使在彼得一世统治期间,中国商品(所谓的中国稀有商品)也开始在俄罗斯出现,彼得一世经常下令为圣彼得堡艺术博物馆(Kingstkamera)购买这些商品。来自中国的奇特物品通过北京的大篷车从西伯利亚和乌拉尔运送到圣彼得堡,或者由东印度公司的船通过西欧经海上运送到圣彼得堡。凯瑟琳二世皇后以中国风格设定了室内装饰的风格:中国宫殿(1762-1768)出现在奥拉宁鲍姆(Oranienbaum); Tsarskoe Selo出现了中国建筑,这是中国式建筑中最大的建筑群。 1811年,亚历山大一世在沙皇斯基洛(Tsarskoe Selo)创立了皇家墓地,亚历山大·普希金(Alexander Pushkin)在此学习,毫无疑问,诗人第一次与中东王国相遇。这时,俄罗斯期刊也对中国给予了极大的关注。在这些文章中,有关欧洲人在中国的贸易,瓷器和丝绸工厂以及中国统治者的智慧和后代道德指示的文章开始发表。普希金读了很多书,可能还没有意识到这些出版物。普希金与和尚的杰出俄国汉学家僧侣父亲艾金夫(N. Bichurin)的相识对诗人产生了重大影响。雅金夫神父于1807年被任命为北京传教团团长,并一直居住到1821年。正如普希金图书馆的检查所显示的那样,诗人拥有比丘林关于中国的书籍。此外,他还阅读了让·巴蒂斯特·杜·哈尔德(Jean-Baptiste Du Halde)当时用俄语翻译的《中国通史》。研究表明,普希金对中国感兴趣,并打算去中国访问。然而,命运有自己的计划。