The article examines the processes of the gradual introduction of cavalry troops based on the “barbarian model” into the Chinese army to counter the nomads near the northwestern borders of the empire. The author gives some examples from the written sources of the Zhanguo and Qin Dynasty periods, presenting the gradual transformation of the role of the horse rider as a separate combat unit, but also in combination with chariots. During the Han dynasty, the immediate threat from the Xiongnu by the borders and the need to secure trade routes to the West were the impetus for the reorganization of the army in general and the cavalry in particular. In order to study the peculiarities of horse use for transport needs and military operations in the north-west of the Western Han empire, besides the chronicles, documents of administrative and commercial content – bamboo slips with characters, hanjian, were being used. They were found in large numbers in border fortresses and can significantly supplement the information from the written sources of the Han period and make it possible to reconstruct not only the specifics of inner workings of the northwestern prefectures of China at the turn of the eras but also the peculiarities of horse use for the needs of postal service, patrols and the internal everyday life of garrisons.

The materials of elite burial complexes of the Northern Zhou period (557–581) discovered in the 1980–1990s in the vicinity of Guyuan City in the Ningxia-Hui Autonomous Region of China are analyzed in this article. Due to the epitaphs engraved on stone slabs found inside the tombs, the names of the buried individuals and the exact dates of the complexes are known: the tombs belong to high-ranking officials of Northern Zhou: Yuwen Meng (565), Li Xian (569) and Tian Hong (574). The complexes under consideration demonstrate a high degree of unification of the funeral rite, which is manifested in the similarity of tomb structures, decor and accompanying grave goods. The features of architectural structures and grave goods of these burials continue the traditions of the previous periods of the Sixteen Barbarian States and the Northern Wei. With a general similarity to the synchronous complexes of the Northern Qi (550– 577), the materials of these tombs allow to distinguish specific features of the Northern Zhou funerary practice: the absence of porcelain items, the use of ritual nephrites, and the secular nature of mural paintings. Against the background of the prevailing influence of the Chinese-Han funerary tradition, there are signs of the influence of the steppe (probably Xianbei) funeral and memorial rituals. Prestigious items imported from Iran, Central Asia, Byzantium testify to the significant role of contacts along the Silk Road in the economical and cultural development of Northern Zhou. Despite the available data from written and epigraphic sources, the problem of identifying the ethnicity of the buried has not yet been resolved. However, the version of their non-Chinese origin seems to be the most probable.

The article presents the results of the excavation and studying of the materials from the Jinlianshan graveyard in Yuxi prefecture-level city (Yunnan Province, PRC). The significant part of the site belongs to the late period of Dian Culture (other name: Shizhaishan Culture), which, according to the found bronze coins and seal, dates from the end of  2^nd century BC to the beginning of 1^st century AD. The site was a cemetery of the population with a complex organization and social differentiation, and probably had close ties with the nearby settlement of Xueshan. Two aristocratic graves, as well as burials of representatives of the middle and lower social strata were identified in its composition. Bronze and bimetallic weapons were found in about half of the male graves, which probably indicate that during their lifetime the deceased were part of the local militia. An important feature of this cemetery is the abundance of bone remains of the dead, including those in the secondary burials, which is generally not typical for graveyards of the Dian Culture. The reasons for this characteristic feature are not entirely clear, and data from further morphological and paleogenetic anthropological analysis are needed to determine them. These prove to be opportunities for future research. At the same time, it should be emphasized that the information already obtained provides a solid basis for a more detailed reconstruction of the Dian culture, and the overall picture of the ethno-cultural development of Greater Southeast Asia, as well.

This paper aims to evaluate textual descriptions of Guizhou ethnic groups found in the Qing dynasty Miao albums as  a source for the study of history of large ethnic groups such as Miao, Yizu and Gelao. Two Miao albums about ethnic groups of Guizhou are housed at the library of Saint Petersburg State University, one of them has 72 descriptions with hand-drawn plates, only 28 out of 40 descriptions with plates remain in the other one. Among them are dozens of descriptions of Miao groups, several groups of Yizu, Buyi and Gelao, mainly with information on their costume and customs. Scarce information on history is found only in the descriptions of Yizu, since Yizu had been holding positions of local tusi chieftains and had established their own polities which the Chinese empire was forced to interact with. Rare descriptions of Miao have mentions of historical events. This study traces the historical sources, starting from the Han dynasty, where information was borrowed from, for the Miao albums. The paper restores these pieces of information and provides a commentary. Apparently, the value of Miao albums is presented by their visual images of Guizhou people together with accompanying ethnographic notes rather than the historical accounts. 

The article examines the album “Pictures of Miao from the Entire Guizhou” (全黔苗圖 Quanqian miaotu, Xyl. F-27), stored in the St. Petersburg State University Academic Library. The key objectives of the article are to determine the place of the album in the Chinese tradition of describing foreigners; description of the source structure; as well as highlighting ethnographic and folklore information in the album about foreigners. The relevance of the study is seen in the timeliness of a comparative analysis of this album with similar copies stored in research centers around the world and studied over the past few decades. The author sets himself the task of studying this album and identifying its key features. The methodology uses historical comparative studies, which allows to come to general conclusions based on the material of several similar albums. The Album contains valuable ethnographic information about ethnic groups of Guizhou. Descriptions together with hand-written illustrations contain information about the location of particular ethnic groups, their traditional activities, household items, agriculture, clothing. Details concerning the religious activities and rituals reveal the specifics of different ethnicities. This paper discusses various funeral rites making it possible to look at the albums as a source for further research on these groups. Speaking of folklore, it reflects the realities of daily life; for example weaving, drums, birds, tigers are mentioned in the descriptions. Nevertheless, the similarity in linguistic and cultural forms in the Qing Albums and the folklore of the peoples of Southeast Asia can indicate the possibility of relationship and cross-borrowing between administrative documents (such as Albums) and folk narratives. The article is supplied with a table and illustrative material.

This article analyzes artistic seals and stamps as a special tool in incense culture of China and Korea, used from the early Middle Ages to the present day. These tools of varying look and shape are analyzed in a historical and cultural context, using high quality materials and sources drawn from ethnographic sources and anthropological research of the authors. The use and evolution of such tools in China can be traced back as far as the early Esoteric Buddhist practices of the 7^th – 8^th centuries (and their prototypes in the form of Taoist ritual talisman-seals 符 fu or 印 yin can be dated as far back as the 4^th – 5^th centuries). In Korean culture however, the use of these tools can be traced back, presumably, only to the Goryeo era (918–1392), after which a long gap in terms of findings follows. The historical and typological analysis of the development of cultural traditions using these tools, in this particular case, could only be completed  using predominantly current material. As a result of comparative study, this article identifies the most representative types of patterns, and determines the functions and applicability of such tools.

The article deals with three Chinese paintings, created in the 13^th century. All three scrolls depict different personages living at different times, however the general plot remains the same: an enforced departure of a girl to a foreign land.

Zhang Yu’s painting “Wenji returns to Han” tells of an Eastern Han poetess Cai Yan (Cai Wenji), who was a Xiongnu captive for 12 years, redeemed at the beginning of the 3^rd century AD by a famous Chinese warlord, poet and politician Cao Cao. Gong Suran’s scroll “Ming-fei leaves the fort” illustrates a legendary story of Wang Zhaojun, one  of the “four great beauties of ancient China” and a concubine of the Western Han Emperor Yuan-di, who married  a Xiongnu chieftain in the last third of the 1^st century BC to save her country from nomad invasion. The third painting looks the most realistic, however the reason for the creation of “Nomads” by Hu Huan is unknown. The author argues that all three paintings, in various artistic form, reflect the same historical event which happened in 1214. This was the enforced marriage of a Jin Empire princess Qi to the Mongolian chieftain Genghis Khan as a condition set by him to raise the siege of the Jin capital. Paintings by Zhang Yu and Gong Suran treat this event allegorically and Hu Huan’s “Nomads” – realistically.

The article aims to explore alleged folklore basis of three Chinese chuanqi tales about a husband's intrusion into his wife's dream written during the middle-late Tang period, namely, the first episode of “A Record of Three Dreams”  by Bai Xingjian, “Student Zhang” by Li Mei, and “Dugu Xiashu” by Xue Yusi. The psychologism inherent in these stories masks their closeness to folklore and literature tales about supernatural or uncommon road encounters. The use of Chinese and foreign comparative material allows us to show that these stories originate in belief in the night feasts of spirits and in the possibility of humans participating in those feasts. Two of the three tales, “Student Zhang” and “Dugu Xiashu”, also contain the international motif of a musician engaged to entertain spirits or devils during their night revels. All three chuanqi are based on a fairy-tale concept of rescuing a spouse: by interrupting his wife’s sleep, the hero thus saves her from spirit possession that could end badly for her. It is possible to conclude that the international tale type of the three tales about a husband's intrusion into his wife's dream come, in some respects, closest to is “The Danced-out Shoes”. About a dozen Chinese narratives of the 8^th – 10^th centuries in the centre of which is the participation of a woman in the night feasts of spirits including even Daoist immortals, which should be assigned to the same group. Such plots, which have no close analogues in previous and subsequent Chinese tradition, most likely owe their appearance to the influence of folklore and beliefs of the Iranian peoples. 

This article is devoted to the study of parenthetical constructions and structures in the Chinese language of fiction, based on the material of the novel “Tired of being Born and Dying” by Mo Yan (《生死疲劳》莫言，2005) as  a problem of modern semantic-syntactic and functional-stylistic phenomena, which, representing localized fragments of speech as part of the main utterance, emphasize the nonlinearity of linguistic thinking and act as an artistic means of expression. Hence, the purpose of this work is to determine and systematize the features of the use of such plug-in constructions in artistic discourse on the selected material, to fix the beginning of the use of such a language practice not typical for Chinese literary texts previously. In the syntax of the Chinese literary language, such pragmatic inserts, or so-called parenthetics, were completely absent until the last quarter of the 20^th century, because they were not  a normative and characteristic means of Chinese grammar. Its active implementation in artistic discourse can be attributed only to the turn of the 20^th – 21^st centuries and the first quarter of the 21^st century. Syntactically parenthetical constructions function at the system (combinatorics of components), pictorial (stylistic labeling) and compositional (organization of text space) levels. Based on the factual material, it has been proven that the use of parenthetical constructions practice is one of the features of Mo Yan’s idiostyle, integrating different narrative plans. The paper also systematizes the main functions of plug-in structures. The results of the study provide a basis for further research of parenthetical constructions in Chinese prose.

Information structure of an utterance is one of the key factors determining phonological unit realization patterns including the duration which is manifested differently in males and females. This article examines the influence of information load and gender on the Chinese syllable duration in commercial and social advertising discourse. The material was taken from the texts of commercial and social oral advertising produced by 6 professional speakers (3 males, 3 females). The measurements were performed in Praat on the syllables with identical phonemics and the same lexical tones occurring both on informative (previously classified as such by a minimum of 6 out of 10 listeners) and uninformative (the remaining) utterance parts. The results show that duration is one of the most important markers of a syllable information load. In both commercial and social advertisements, in over 50 % of cases informative syllables’ duration was longer than that of uninformative ones. The difference was not large but rather consistent. It means that not only duration is involved in manifesting the utterance information structure but other prosodic parameters as well. Another finding was gender difference: 1) on the whole, syllables in female speech have longer duration than in male; 2) males use the duration technique more effectively than females: the contrast between loaded and unloaded syllables is higher

Alliances are one of the most effective ways for states to preserve and gain power. The study of alliance formation has long been a prominent issue in international politics. This article examines the factors that influenced the alliance between Sun Yatsen’s regime and the Soviet government through the lens of alliance theory, taking the “alliance with Russia” of the Guangdong government led by Sun Yatsen in the early 20^th century as the subject of study. The scientific innovation lies in the analysis of historical events and their causes from the perspective of international relations. Due to the complexities of the Chinese situation, the southern regime under Sun Yatsen coexisted with the Beijing government, but was not recognized as the official government of China. As a result, Sun Yatsen needed to use an “alliance approach” to seek the backing of external forces in order to keep his own regime secure. After several failed  attempts to enter into alliances with Britain, the United States and Germany, Sun Yatsen eventually elected to join forces with the Soviet Russia. According to the alliance’s conclusion, four major factors influenced Sun Yatsen’s “alliance with Russia” policy: balance of threat, diplomatic assistance, ideology, and political infiltration. Among them, balance of threat was the main motivation for Sun Yatsen’s alliance with Russia, and while ideology was not an important factor influencing the alliance, the ability to provide assistance to Sun Yatsen’s regime played an important role in the establishment of the alliance, considering the huge power gap between the two sides. The Soviet political penetration of Sun Yatsen’s regime helped the alliance’s establishment, but also led to its final dissolution.

The peer-reviewed collective monograph “The Image of Peter the Great in the Countries of East Asia” was prepared by scholars from St. Petersburg State University and the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This book examines the features of the perception of the image of the first Russian Emperor Peter the Great (1672–1725) in China, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam. The main content of ideas about this Russian Tsar in these countries is revealed, the sources and ways of disseminating these ideas are considered. The study covers the chronological framework from the reign of Peter the Great to the 21^st century. Archival texts of the 18^th century, works of the 18^th – 19^th centuries, articles by publicists of the 19^th – 20^th centuries, works of modern historians of the considered countries, publications of various genres on the Internet, translations of Russian works about Peter the Great, educational and children's literature, documentaries and other materials have been studied. The specificity of interpretation in different ethno-cultural environments of facts about the life and work of the Tsar is explained.

Chinese tea culture has a long-standing history, is rich in content, and contains the unique spiritual characteristics of the Chinese nation. Learning about and understanding Chinese tea culture is an important and effective way to understand contemporary Chinese culture and contemporary China. The book General Introduction to Chinese Tea Culture makes use of historical research methods, international perspectives, and the concept of combining theory and practice to comprehensively discuss the conceptual connotation, development history, thoughts and art, etiquette and customs, international exchanges, to summarize and generalize Chinese tea culture. It describes the core ideas and concepts of Chinese tea culture, and illustrates the methods and paths of tea art practice, the types and functions of tea, which provides readers with a concise understanding of Chinese tea culture by setting a solid foundation for them. The book can improve a reader’s personal temperament and taste in making friends.

A two-volume scholarly publication edited by Zhou Guofu, head of the China International Tea Culture Institute,  A Compendium of Global Tea culture (2019), is a practical guide that explains how tea and tea culture from China spread throughout the world, and how different countries used tea to expand trade and cultural exchanges. The book traces the general meaning, references historical events, and performs a deep analysis of tea culture. The book is notable for its reasoning, harmony, consistency of presentation and rich content. That is why the book is deservedly called “The Encyclopedia of World Tea Culture”.

In 2022, the Confucius Institute at Novosibirsk State University withstood the test of the pandemic. With the full support of Novosibirsk State University and Xinjiang University, it actively continued to carry out Chinese teaching and various cultural and scientific research activities, while the scope of influence extended to Siberia, the Urals and Altai regions, and the work of the year was completed with high quality and efficiency. During this year, under the leadership of the Chinese and Russian directors, all staff of the Confucius Institute worked tirelessly to build digital Chinese teaching resources, enriching the diversity of cultural activities, enhancing the influence of competitions and academic activities, vigorously cultivating Chinese talents, and creating outstanding talents. Remarkable results have been achieved. In the new year, the Institute will continue to work hard in all work-related aspects, firmly grasp new development opportunities, and promote the rapid recovery of inter-university exchanges and cooperation between China and Russia and achieve new and greater development.

The “Chinese Dream” has existed as a combination of Chinese characters for more than 700 years, however its connotation varies in different social development stages. At the beginning of the 20th century, Chinese intellectuals began to look for the “Chinese Dream”. In the 1980s, the cultural community regained the “Chinese Dream”. After entering the new century, all sectors of society deeply discussed the “Chinese Dream”. The development and evolution of the concept of this phrase actually reflected the vicissitudes of Chinese society in the past century. The “Chinese Dream” we are talking about today is closely linked with the limiting phrase “realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”, proposed by the General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping in 2012. The “Chinese Dream” is no longer a common word combination in modern Chinese, but a core concept of the ideological system of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, which has been given a new and profound meaning. The “Chinese Dream” has become a cultural symbol, which will be integrated into the development history of Chinese civilization and coexist with the ever-growing Chinese culture.