Reflection of the author's Religious Views in fantastic images and folk demonology in N. V. Gogol's Early Prose and Pu Songling's Short stories: typological aspect of description

Sun' Ven'tszyun' ORCID: 0000-0003-1903-2224 Postgraduate student; Department of the History of Russian Literature; Lomonosov Moscow State University 1 Leninskie Gory str., Moscow, 119991, Russia sunventszyun@yandex.ru

Introduction

The study of the creative work of the classics of Russian and Chinese literature N. V. Gogol (1809-1852) and Pu Songlin (1640-1715) has a long tradition in Russian and Chinese science. The study of their work is possible through the prism of typological analysis, taking into account their belonging to different eras, religions and cultures.

Based on the analysis of the works of Russian and foreign researchers in the field of typological study of literature, it is possible to trace the dynamics of interpretation of typological relationships in science. The classical approach, formed within the framework of positivism, assumed the study of texts united by common or similar historical conditions (A. N. Veselovsky ^[2], H. M. Posnett ^[15], etc.). However, since the middle of the twentieth century, during the crisis of comparative identity, the focus has shifted from exclusively genetic connections to the establishment of typological approximations (I. O. Shaitanov ^[13], R. Wellek ^[16], etc.). In recent times, the idea of the cognitive activity of a researcher has been established, who, relying on logic, erudition and methodological rigor, is able to carry out a rational and scientifically based comparison of texts belonging to different cultural traditions (E. Auerbach ^[1], D. Damrosch ^[14], etc.). A modern approach allows us to conclude that that the analysis of typological relationships goes beyond the social context and includes an in-depth study of the poetics of individual authors, expanding the horizons of interpretation and understanding of literary phenomena.

Gogol and Pu Sunlin actively used folklore and literary materials in their work, were passionate about fiction and folk demonology, which provides the basis for a typological analysis of their works. Similar literary characters (demons, ghosts, demons in human form) and plots (the adventure of the main protagonist in the otherworld at night), reflecting the moral and religious quest of the authors, give uniqueness and originality to each of the writers.

The main part

The Origins of Pu Sunlin and N. V. Gogol's Religious Views

Pu Sunlin and N. V. Gogol created their works using vivid fantasy plots with diabolical characters. However, an analysis of Pu Songlin's novels and N. V. Gogol's early short stories allows us to note the different approaches of the Chinese and Russian writer to solving the conflict between good and evil.

In the mid-1820s, with an increasing interest in fiction, mysticism, Gothic, as well as elements of the scary and fascinating, an unusual genre appeared in Russian prose, called the "fantastic story" [9: 5-47]. In the early years of his work, Nikolai Gogol was fascinated by romantic demonology, especially reflected in his in his book "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka", where the writer relies on the Christian model of "linear" thinking with a beginning and an end (salvation of the soul in heaven or its descent into hell) to create different artistic worlds in which reality and unreality harmoniously combine, although the fates of the main characters do not always fit into this the concept. It should be noted that in his later creative life, the writer moves from open and vivid demonology, embodied in mystical and fantastic images, to hidden and subtextual. This evolution is clearly noticeable in the "Dead Souls". In his works there is an eternal struggle between good and evil, in which Divine grace, God's salvation of the soul and the Last Judgment are well represented.

The creation of the work "The Stories of Liao Zhai" is closely related to the religious beliefs of Pu Songlin. In his work, the Chinese writer borrows the concept of "immortality of the soul" from Taoism and the "circular" way of thinking about the concept of "karma and reincarnation" from Buddhism. By giving the devil a human form, he combines fiction and reality, while distinguishing between the realm of humans and ghosts. Pu Songlin criticizes the darkness in real society and forms an ideal utopian world in his imagination.

The origins of his religious views are multifaceted and include both family and socio-historical factors. Pu Songlin's family history is as follows: the author tells in the preface to the novels that one day his father saw in a dream how a sick and thin monk with a bare right shoulder entered the house. There was a piece of ointment the size of a copper coin stuck to his right chest. The father woke up, and at that very moment the future writer was born, and there was a black mole on his chest. The father decides that the son is the reincarnation of the same ascetic monk [See 11:15-16]. The historical background is due to the fact that the writer of the Qing Dynasty existed in a strictly regulated bureaucratic system of feudal China, which encouraged a rational perception of reality, while interacting with traditional Chinese religious and philosophical ideas. Beliefs in magicians and shamans capable of influencing the souls of both the living and the dead, belief in immortal saints and mysterious abodes in which they sought solitude in this world are widespread in this environment.

The notes of "Liao Zhai" contain an extensive body of folklore and magical stories, where the influence of Buddhist and Taoist philosophy and folk superstitions is clearly visible (almost two thirds of the stories are devoted to this topic). Pu Songlin's attitude towards religion and folk beliefs is very polemical. On the one hand, the writer portrays a whole gallery of monk characters, but in some of his stories from Liao Zhai, these characters have nothing to do with high qualities such as righteousness and holiness. He ironically refers to deities from any pantheon (Buddhist, Confucian, or Taoist) because they look more like robbers and gamblers. Their magic from the afterlife is just a way to help earthly people predict the future or move up the career ladder by getting official positions. Convincing examples of the above are the stories "The Witchcraft of Hashanah" ("僧术") and "The Dragon Teases the Spider" ("龙龙"). In the first case, a student can use the supernatural power of a monk to buy a position for himself; and in the second, there are these words in the postscript to this story: "Isn't the heavenly lord too stupid! Why is such a good official, an honest and loving people, being subjected to such a tragic catastrophe" [17: 1957]. On the other hand, Pu Songlin constantly quotes the words of famous monks at the end of the stories, who serve to educate the people. For example, in the afterword to the novel "The Painted Wall" ("画壁"), he writes: "Wonderful things are born from the very people themselves!”There is perhaps the deepest truth in these words. <...> The old monk's heart was strengthened by Buddhist wisdom" [10:143]. It can be concluded that Mr. Liao Zhai is more convinced that people create their impression of the gods based on their own character, so the gods of a fool and a philosopher will look different. The author expresses his deep desire to see honest and decent people on earth, and not in the heavenly kingdom. Pu Songlin's ridicule somewhat undermines faith in the cult of saints and underground life, refuting superstitions about the gods, but not criticizing the very idea of God.

The formation of N. V. Gogol's spiritual worldview was also significantly influenced by family traditions. According to V. A. Voropaev, "among Gogol's ancestors were people of spiritual rank: his paternal great-grandfather was a priest, his grandfather graduated from the Kiev Theological Academy, and his father graduated from the Poltava Seminary. <..Family traditions defined Gogol's first concepts and beliefs. <...> Maria Ivanovna was distinguished by her piety" [6:9-11]. Although, according to the writer himself, his spiritual feelings arose not from sincere love for God or thirst for truth, but rather from a spontaneous fear of death, the idea of retribution and the Last Judgment. Over time, the writer established a "close" relationship with God and prayed constantly. In a letter to his mother, Gogol wrote: "Try to see me better as a Christian and a human being than as a writer" [6:415]. The socio-literary context of Gogol's work also looks different: his motives turn to genre fiction, folklore demonology, which was largely determined by the literary situation of that time: romantic historicism, interest in folk culture and poetry, national character, and language, which in Russia in the 1820s and 1830s was associated with the spread of German Romanticism. Little Russian motifs are often found in the works of Russian writers (V. T. Narezhny, K. F. Ryleev, O. M. Somov). The works of the early Nikolai Gogol (including "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka" and "Mirgorod") are marked by a deep influence of folklore and were created against the background of the romantic fascination of the aspiring writer with national exoticism. In his first cycle of stories, Gogol combines folklore, inspired by Little Russian fairy tales with their dualism and the struggle of God and the devil, and literary (in particular, the German romantic demonology of L. Tick and E. T. A. Hoffmann), striving for stylistic unity.

The specifics of the author's religious thinking

in Pu Sunlin's "Stories..." and N. V. Gogol's "Evenings..."

In the Liaozhai stories, a circular model of thinking can be traced back to the archaic symbol "Mandala" ("circle", "ring") [12: 332-333], which, according to V. N. Toporov's theory, is a key sacred element of Buddhist mythology. This symbol originated in India, was adopted by Buddhism and spread to the cultures of Tibet, Central Asia, Mongolia, China and Japan since the first centuries of our era. This symbolic image is also intertwined with the concepts of "three rebirths", "karma" and other aspects of Buddhist cosmology, reflecting the wisdom and depth of ancient spiritual teachings. For example, the story "The Three Immortals" depicts the story of a conflict between an examiner from Hunan Province and a student Xing Yu Tang, whose enmity, due to the exam failure, passes through three reincarnations. In the first life, a student of the Sin, failing to pass the exam due to the incompetence of the examiner, dies of despair; in the second life, the examiner, reborn as a peasant, is executed by a court decision, where the judge is a student of the Sin. After complaining about the injustice, both are reborn as dogs, killing each other in a fight. In the third life, having become father-in-law and son-in-law by the will of the Lord of the underworld, they reconcile when the father-in-law helps the son-in-law become an official, which symbolizes the resolution of karmic conflict. Thus, under Pu Songlin's pen, the souls of the main characters possess immortality and go through cycles of reincarnation. If the first two levels of the fantastic world created by the author are filled with criticism of social injustice and the vices of reality, then the third world embodies ideal harmony, representing a utopian space where all contradictions are resolved and the highest justice is achieved.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the problems of the Orthodox worldview in Gogol's early work became the subject of serious study, and in modern Gogol studies, the spiritual and moral aspects of his works continue to be actively studied by such scientists as I. A. Vinogradov ^[3], V. A. Voropaev ^[4], S. A. Goncharov ^[7] and V. Sh. Krivonos ^[8]. The study of Gogol's religious worldview reflects the evolution of approaches, demonstrating the importance of Christian culture at all stages of his literary career. If earlier Christian ideology was considered mainly in the context of the late period of creativity, especially in connection with the work "Selected places from correspondence with friends", where religious issues are most clearly expressed, in recent years, researchers have increasingly drawn attention to the importance of church culture already in Gogol's early works of the 1830s. As S. A. Goncharov notes, "Christian culture began to be considered as a necessary context not only for the late, but also for the mature and even early work of the writer, which significantly changed the ideas about the dynamics of his creative development" [7:4]. A similar point of view is supported by I. A. Vinogradov, emphasizing that "understanding of Gogol's early prose is impossible without taking into account the subsequent spiritual and creative path of the writer" [3: 10-11]. In addition, as V. A. Voropaev points out, "Gogol's early works clearly show the eternal confrontation of good and evil, which gives these texts a deep religious connotation. These works, despite their folklore and humorous basis, represent peculiar religious teachings, where good invariably overcomes evil, and sinners receive well-deserved punishment" [4:28-29].

An analysis of the artistic function of fiction and Slavic demonology in "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka" reveals Gogol's unique "linear" way of thinking, influenced by the biblical worldview, which contrasts with Pu Songlin's "circular" model of thinking, conditioned by Buddhist and Taoist concepts. In accordance with the biblical tradition, Gogol portrays the universe as a linear process that begins with the creation of the world and ends with the Last Judgment, where every soul is brought to justice (Hebrews 9:27). Almost every story included in "Evenings ..." touches on the theme of the struggle of light and darkness, the invisible war between God and the devil for the souls of people. For example, in the story "The Night before Christmas" parallels with biblical motifs are found, such as the motive of retribution for sins, the motive of the apocalypse, the motive of saving the human soul, etc. Firstly, the action takes place during the sacred feast of the Nativity of Christ with warm Christmas carols. For evil spirits, it's already "the last night left to wander around the world and learn the sins of good people. Tomorrow, with the first bells for matins, he will run without looking back, tail between his legs, to his den" [5:150]. The linear pattern shows a spiritual dichotomy from beginning to end between the opposing forces – the "ancient serpent" (Rev 20:2), Satan, and the "descendant of a woman" (Gen 3:15), Jesus Christ. The pious blacksmith Vakula can resist the dark force precisely with the help of prayer and icon painting. In The Terrible Revenge, the linear model is presented through the depiction of the death of the Cossacks Ivan and Peter, as well as their divine condemnation, while unrepentant sinners are banished from the Kingdom of Heaven: "As Peter died, God called the souls of both brothers, Peter and Ivan, to judgment. “This man is a great sinner!”Said God. <..“God, make it so that all his descendants will not have happiness on earth! so that the last of his kind would be such a villain, which has never happened in the world!” <...> “The punishment you have invented is terrible, human! "Let everything be as you have said, but you also sit there forever on your horse, and you will not have the kingdom of heaven" [5:216]. In addition, the linear model is manifested through divine retribution for sins, where unrepentant sinners, such as a sorcerer, are doomed to eternal damnation, which emphasizes the idea of the finality of judgment and the impossibility of salvation outside of God's grace. Thus, through the biblical motifs of retribution, apocalypse and salvation, Gogol reveals the spiritual dichotomy characteristic of the Christian worldview.

Features of the interaction of real and unreal characters

in the works of N. V. Gogol and Pu Sunlin

Various religious models of thinking significantly influence the nature of the interaction of the main characters with demonic images. If in Gogol's Dikanka, otherworldly beings usually act as tempters and antagonists opposing man, then in the works of the Chinese writer they often serve as helpers and comforters, which reflects a fundamentally different perception of the supernatural, characteristic of Buddhist and Taoist traditions. For example, in the story "The Evening before Ivan Kupala", the tempting devil, embodied in the "human form" [5: 101] by Basavryuk, personifies dark forces opposed to the divine order. He tempts the main character Petrus to commit a grave sin – the murder of innocent Ivan, the younger brother of his beloved Faggot. In this case, the demonic character acts as an active participant in the spiritual confrontation, using human weaknesses and passions to lead the protagonist to moral decline and death. On the contrary, the image of foxes becomes the center of the character system of many Liao Zhai stories. For example, the short story "Student Guo and his Teacher" ("郭生") tells the story of a student named Guo who meets his teacher in the form of a ghost fox. Lisitsa assisted student Guo in editing his articles while he was sleeping at night. Thanks to this, his writing skills were gradually improved. This episode illustrates that supernatural beings in Pu Songlin's works often act as helpers to promote a person's intellectual and spiritual growth.

Conclusion

Thus, the study of the reflection of the religious views of N. V. Gogol and Pu Songlin in the depiction of fantastic images and folk demonology in the early prose of the great Russian writer and the stories of the outstanding Chinese novelist is possible within the framework of a typological approach. Pu Songlin accepts the idea of the "immortality of the soul" from Taoism and the concepts of "karma and reincarnation" from Buddhism ("circular" thinking), endows the devil with a human form, combines fiction and reality, differentiating the realm of people and ghosts, castigates the vices of society and builds a utopian world in his texts. Gogol, relying on the Christian model of eschatological "linear" thinking, creates artistic worlds in which the real and the fantastic harmoniously combine. The fate of his characters reflects the eternal struggle of good and evil, which leads to the Last Judgment, salvation or death of the soul.