Decoding the implicit in the Chinese folk tale "How the Old Man Moved the Mountain"

Prihod'ko Viktoriya Konstantinovna ORCID: 0000-0001-7309-0498 Doctor of Philology Associate Professor; Higher School of Russian Philology; Pacific State University 136 Pacific Street, Khabarovsk, 680035, Russia, Khabarovsk Territory ulius-viktori@mail.ru

Introduction

Fairy tales introduce readers to ethnic culture, national traditions and the mentality of the people. They reflect the linguistic picture of the world through specific images and metaphors. They have a fascinating plot and an edifying meaning. A wise old fairy tale can be a reflection of the history of the people, be the product of reflections on the development of scientific and technological progress. Chinese folk tales are a type of folk art that has been passed down by word of mouth for many centuries from generation to generation. Fairy tales began to be recorded in China at the end of the 17th century, collected and published in Beijing in the first half of the 20th century. The climate of China, its geography, flora and fauna, and the peculiarities of everyday life are wonderfully imprinted in fairy tales.

The relevance of the topic raised in the article is due to the fact that the style of decoding as a way of interpreting a literary text is currently of great importance, especially in Russian language classes using a nationally oriented methodology.

The novelty of the research lies in the fact that for the first time a philological analysis of the Chinese folk tale "How the old man decided to dig a mountain" was carried out for its application for educational purposes in the middle of the B 1. I certification level. The analysis is integrated with the methodology of learning reading, aimed at qualitative perception and understanding of the text being read at all its levels. Considering folk tales, decoding their implicit layer through the description and analysis of national metaphors, phraseological units and paroemias allows you to recreate and evaluate the linguistic picture of the world of another country, which undoubtedly contributes to mutual understanding in teaching a foreign language and the development of full-fledged intercultural communication.

The research of Russian and Chinese specialists devoted to a nationally oriented approach is analyzed, as well as works revealing the functioning of metaphors and phraseological units in two languages are studied.

The object of the research is the stylistics of decoding as a way of interpreting a literary text using a nationally oriented methodology in Russian as a foreign language classes.

The subject of the study was the category of implicitness as a hidden semantics in a Chinese folk tale, conveyed through the metaphor of a mountain.

The purpose of this article is to decipher the subtext of the Chinese folk tale "How an old man decided to dig a mountain," the implicit meaning of which reveals the dreams of the Chinese about scientific and technological progress embodied in the ancient folk tale.

Materials and methods

The research material was the Chinese folk tale "How an old man decided to dig a mountain" ^{[11, pp. 59-61]}. The research is based on analytical, descriptive, and semantic-stylistic methods. The analysis was based on the principles of historicism and taking into account the national culture in which the text was created ^{[8; 17]}. Special attention was paid to the works devoted to a nationally oriented approach in teaching Russian to foreigners ^{[6; 7; 15; 18; 19; 27]}. The theoretical basis of the research on the metaphor that creates an implicit layer was the work of Russian scientists: N.D. Arutyunova, V.A. Maslova, V.N. Teliya, ^{[3; 4; 20; 28]}, as well as foreign researchers R. Barth, D. Lakoff, P. Thibodeau ^{[34; 35; 36]}. The category of implicitness in a literary text is created and supported by various expressive means, figures, and tropes ^{[9; 14]}. Phraseological units and paroemias play an important role in creating implicitness ^{[2; 9; 14]}. Numerous modern studies have been devoted to the comparative analysis of Russian-Chinese phraseological units ^{[12; 16; 18; 22; 31]}. Phraseological units reflect the mentality of the people and the linguistic picture of the world ^{[1; 2]}. The article, based on dictionaries ^{[7; 13]}, describes the meaning of 25 Russian and Chinese phraseological units with the component "mountain". In the scientific literature, the concept of "mountain" has been studied for a long time and successfully: in the Kurdish, Bulgarian, Serbian, Kyrgyz linguistic cultures ^{[1; 5; 10; 21; 25]}. During the decoding of the implicit layer of the fairy tale "How the old man decided to dig a mountain", a description of the meanings of the concept "mountain" in Chinese linguoculture was carried out.

The main part

A large number of students from China study at Pacific State University (Khabarovsk). The university implements joint educational programs. In our experience, the nationally oriented methodology is effective and efficient in teaching.

A nationally oriented methodology is teaching a foreign language using elements of students' native culture ^{[26; 32]}.

The methodology assumes consideration of the following aspects:

1) the specifics of the students' native language,

2) literature and history of the country of students,

3) national traditions,

4) features of the national psychotype,

5) using elements of interlanguage similarity ^{[6; 7; 17; 18; 32]}.

Working with folk tales allows you to observe all aspects ^[19].

The Chinese folk tale "How an old man decided to dig a Mountain" has great educational opportunities for working with international students. It is interesting, small in volume, has a fascinating plot and a didactic character. This training text corresponds to the middle of B1. I certification level. The tale is published in the collection of Chinese folk tales "The Liu Brothers" ^[11].

The work with the text of the fairy tale can be complemented by historical stories about the Guoliang Tunnel, laid in the Taihangshan Mountains in Henan Province in eastern China. The tunnel is named after the small village of Guoliang, which is home to 350 people, for whom the path was paved in the rocks. This road connected the villagers with the rest of the world. The construction of the tunnel began in 1972, when the villagers decided to build a road on their own that would connect their village with the civilization from which the mountains separated. The peasants sold everything they could, and with the proceeds they bought the necessary tools and began to build a tunnel. Thirteen villagers started the project, one of them died during construction. Without access to power tools, they used mostly hammers and chisels. At the most difficult site, the work progressed at a rate of one meter in three days. The entire tunnel is 1.2 kilometers long, the tunnel is 5 meters high and 4 meters wide. The workers also used dynamite and the help of residents of neighboring provinces. The construction took 5 years. The tunnel was opened for passage on May 1, 1977. Currently, the Guoliang Tunnel is considered one of the most popular attractions in the region ^[29].

The author tested working with the fairy tale in the classroom with Chinese students, and positive results were obtained in terms of reading and understanding the fairy tale.

In this case, we relied on the experience of the Belarusian methodologist N.V. Nester, who developed useful speech exercises for learning reading in working with the text. They are divided into pre-text, pre-text, and post-text" ^{[23, p. 101]}.

In the process of learning Russian as a foreign language, different genres of literary text can be used. Effective performance is shown by working with folk tales: they are symbolic, metaphorical, they combine fiction with reality, there is a text and a subtext, which means an explicit and implicit layer.

Implicitness is an important part of the semantic structure of a literary text, it is a special hidden part of the meaning that is decoded using explicit text elements ^{[14; 10]}. According to T.I. Yakovenko, "understanding the category of implicitness presupposes the existence of complex systemic relationships between ways of expressing implicit meaning" ^{[33, p. 5]}. Implicit meanings are deep meanings located under explicit meanings. The explicit and implicit levels of the text are in a supportive and organizing relationship.

Following V.J. Propp, fairy tales are traditionally divided into 6 types:

1) magical, involving heroic and adventure plots, fantastic transformations;

2) cumulative fairy tales, characterized by repetitions, rhymes, and harmonious composition;

3) animal tales, in which animals are personified, humanized;

4) everyday fairy tales, in which everyday situations are ironically and with a share of social criticism, characters are typified (thieves, spouses, guessers, advisers, brothers, neighbors);

5) tall tales about unreal, fantastic events;

6) boring fairy tales, resembling endless pestles and nursery rhymes based on repeated jokes ^{[24, p. 50]}.

The Chinese folk tale "How an old man decided to dig a mountain" is everyday, but there is no irony, no satire, no criticism of social realities in the tale. The old man is trying to improve the quality of life for himself and his children. The explicit layer of the tale is simple and even primitive.

It makes no sense to cite in the article the text "How an old man decided to tear down a mountain" in its entirety. But in order to further reveal the meaning and subtext, it is necessary to briefly outline the essence of the tale.

The old man had to walk around the mountain all his life when he went to work in the field. It took a lot of time and effort. In old age, he realized that he had spent almost half of his life on this detour and that the same fate awaited his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Then the old man decided to gather his entire extended family and demolish the mountain together. The grandmother objected that there would not be enough lives of either children or grandchildren to cope with the mountain. But she was told that she was against the demolition of the mountain from the road because she had never walked around it and had not worked in the field. The neighbors came to the rescue.

The old man told the skeptics who did not believe that man was capable of coping with a mountain: "I know that I am old and I do not have much time left to live. But I have many sons who have many children, and my sons' children will have children too, and there will be more and more of them... But the mountain does not grow. If I tear off a piece of it, the other one won't grow. And if we all take it up, won't we overcome it? The time will come when people will no longer need to go around this mountain – they will follow the straight path" ^{[11, p. 61]}.

When working with a fairy tale, it is necessary to resort to learning reading, the purpose of which is a qualitative perception and understanding of the text being read at all its levels.

The pre-text tasks in learning reading should include a preliminary explanation of words written on the blackboard that are unfamiliar to students, and an appeal to an explanatory dictionary. The purpose of the preliminary assignments is to prepare international students for the perception of fairy tales. Then the students listen to the fairy tale read by the teacher, memorize the correct accents.

The next stage includes pre-text tasks performed during the reading of a fairy tale, aimed at verifying reading comprehension, clarifying linguistic and cultural details, and consolidating lexical units.

Post–text tasks are a type of exercises related to the process of reading a text. Post-text exercises ensure the control of reading comprehension, the success of semantic information processing in accordance with the questions and tasks formulated in the pre-text exercises. Here you can use reading and retelling, checking the correctness of stress, the "start and continue a phrase" exercise, connect two columns on the board in meaning, question-and-answer exercises that help to reveal the implicit layer of the tale ^{[23, pp.100-104]}.

To the teacher's questions: "What does a fairy tale teach?", students answer that the morality in a fairy tale is multifaceted. For example, they answer that joint, well-coordinated work can accomplish the impossible, even turn over a mountain, that one must be able to dream and foresee a bright future, one must work for the benefit of people, never give up, believe in oneself and count on the help of like-minded people. And indeed, all these meanings lie on the surface.

But deciphering the metaphor of the "mountain" in the fairy tale "How the old man decided to dig the mountain" leads to its deep understanding. Mountains are symbolically perceived in many cultures as solid and insurmountable, embodying stability, inviolability and persistence of difficult life problems ^{[5; 21]}. You can move mountains because of love, for the sake of a dream, for a lofty goal. In Chinese linguoculture, "mountain" is a symbol of high moral human qualities and patience ^[10]. The difficult mountain climb embodies the struggles one has to face in life. But walking around the mountain is always perceived as a manifestation of wisdom, because "a smart person will not go uphill, a smart person will go around the mountain" ^{[2, p. 297]}. In the fairy tale, the old man showed wisdom by deciding to destroy the mountain. His desire to dig down a mountain opened up great prospects for future generations: convenience, saving time and effort. A mountain is an obstacle in the path of a strong, brave, hardworking person. And the fairy tale contains a life-affirming thought: patience and hard work will surely give the necessary results.

There is a Chinese phraseological unit 愚公山山(yúgōng yíshān), which translates as "Yugong moved mountains" (meaning – to overcome all obstacles, to roll mountains) ^{[31, p. 260]}. The phraseology is a metaphorically folded information about the legend of Yugong, who lived in the Northern Mountains in a house located opposite two large mountains: Taihang and Waiwu. The old man suggested that the family move the mountains to facilitate access to the house. The Heavenly Master, touched by the old man's hard work and perseverance, sends two Saints to remove the mountains and clear the way for the old man.

In Chinese phraseology, there is also the metaphorical expression 使蚊 负π (shi wen fu shan) "to send an ant to a mountain"^[7], that is, to give backbreaking work; to set tasks that are initially doomed to failure. The old man and the ant are equally weak, but stubborn and hardworking rivals for the mountain.

The implication is that the numerous Chinese people, with their perseverance and unyielding will, will be able to subjugate nature sooner or later.

There is also an opposite translation of the phraseological unit: "a stupid old man moves mountains," the meaning of which is about the futility and futility of expended efforts to fight an impregnable and strong nature. But this value is less common.

Deciphering the subtext in the fairy tale leads to the conclusion that the mountain in the ancient Chinese fairy tale is not just an obstacle on the way, cutting off villagers from their place of work and from civilization, but also a metaphor for the transformation of people's consciousness. This is a measure of morality and justice, a kind of ancient Chinese dream that over time scientific and technological progress will make it possible to build roads in the mountains, create tunnels and shorten the path - this is a kind of fantasy about the rationalization of labor and its application for the benefit and convenience of man. The old man's dream of cutting the road by destroying the mountain in the modern world has come true. Today, many technologies have been developed in the construction of roads and tunnels in the mountains.

Russian Russian students, studying using a nationally oriented methodology, while analyzing and analyzing the Chinese folk tale "How an old man decided to dig a mountain", get acquainted with Russian and Chinese metaphors (mountain as a vital barrier, stability of moral principles, struggle with difficulties) and symbols (bypass the mountain, climb the mountain, dig the mountain). hidden in the implicit layer of the fairy tale, with paremiology (smart will not go uphill – smart will go around the mountain, turn mountains), phraseology (愚公山山山 (yúgōng yíshān), 使蚊 负山 ( (shi wen fu shan), they are interested in the plot of the fairy tale, in stories about the labor exploits of their compatriots, pride and joy from contact with with their folklore. The nationally oriented teaching methodology, supported by "learning reading" with pre-text, pre-text and post-text work, promotes good contact with students and provides effective results in learning the Russian language.

According to the national-oriented approach, it is methodically correct to offer students a task to select Chinese phraseological units and paroemias with the "mountain" component, translate them into Russian with an explanation of the meanings and origin stories.

For example: 稳如泰π- "steady as Mount Teshan". According to legend, Mount Taishan is one of the five highest mountains in China. A mountain was formed from the head of Pangu, who created the universe. The name of the mountain means "Eastern Mountain", which, according to Chinese beliefs, connects Heaven and Earth. The mountain is inhabited by the souls of the dead, and on its top there are golden caskets with jade plates on which the life spans of people are recorded. According to legend, standing on the divine mount Taishan, Confucius exclaimed: "The world is small!".

It is important for a teacher working with Chinese students to know and take into account that Chinese phraseology has a different typology of phraseological units than in Russian. In Russian studies, there are two approaches to phraseology: 1) "narrow", based on the typology of V.V. Vinogradov (phraseological coalescences, phraseological units, phraseological combinations); and 2) "broad" approach, recognizing the typology of V.V. Vinogradov, but classifying other reproducible units among the majority of native speakers of the Russian language (proverbs, sayings, catch phrases, popular quotations). In the Chinese tradition, a systematic approach to phraseological units focuses more on allegory, origin, and stylistic depiction than on structural and semantic features. Chinese typology reflects the focus of Chinese phraseology on the historical, cultural and philosophical aspects of Chinese linguistics. In Chinese metaphors and phraseological units, the subtext is interesting, that is, the implicit layer that needs to be decoded correctly.

According to the classification of the Chinese phraseologist Ma Guofan, there are five types of phraseological units: 1) chenyu – philosophical expressions consisting of four Chinese characters; 2) yanyu – proverbs conveying philosophical thoughts; 3) sehouyu – omissions-allegories in which the first part of the utterance is a hint and the second is the key to it; 4) guanyunyu – stable expressions combining words in a certain order; 5 suyu are sayings that are used daily to convey the experience of ancestors ^{[30, pp. 60-68]}.

When working with the fairy tale "How the old Man decided to dig a mountain", foreign students are given the opportunity to tell in Russian about the beliefs and legends of their country.

Further, the teacher offers Russian stable expressions and collocations with the "mountain" component for translation and memorization:

Sample: roll up a mountain, pull down (或 move) 做了很多事; 移π倒海

Task: 1) climb the mountain, 2) descend from the mountain, 3) the sun has disappeared behind the mountain. 4) mountain and mountain do not converge, but man and man will converge.〈谚语〉山与山不能相遇, 人与人总会相逢, 5)The mountain gave birth to a mouse.〈转〉龙生跳蚤, 6) inhabitants of the mountains 山区居民, 7) to live in the mountains 住在山区, 8) walking in the mountains 登山游玩, 9) ice mountain 滑雪橇的高台, 冰山, 10) ride the mountains 从山上滑下来, 11) mount sand 一大堆沙子, 12) business is booming. 13) and she looks like she walks like a mountain. 14) what a mountain I have on my soul. 我的内心有多么沉重, 15) relieved (fell) 如释重负, 16) is not far off (或горой) 不远, 在近处; 快到; 17) big 丰盛的筵席, 18) as you go down (或 roll) 走下坡路, 每况愈下, 19) to stand for that someone (做...的靠山, 全力维护); 20) mountain tents load. 马车上的货物装得高高的 etc ^[7].

The practical significance of this work lies in the fact that:

1) the phraseological units under consideration and the metaphors contained in them help to reveal the depth of the fairy tale and prove that the deep decoded subtext helps to comprehensively understand not only an individual work of art, but also the national picture of the world.;

2) the studied language material has great learning potential;

3) this material can be used in universities (China and the Russian Federation) in the course of teaching Russian as a foreign language.

Conclusion

The nationally oriented approach takes into account the specifics of the students' native language, the peculiarities of the national psychotype, history and literature, and the traditions of the country. In order to establish intercultural communication and quality education, special didactic material is selected, incorporating linguistic and cultural codes understandable to foreigners.

Russian Russian students, studying using a nationally oriented methodology, get acquainted with Russian and Chinese phraseology (25 phraseological units with the "mountain" component) when parsing and analyzing the Chinese folk tale "How the old Man decided to dig a mountain".

Together with the teacher, the students identify common metaphors and symbols for both countries (the mountain as a vital barrier, the stability of moral principles, the struggle against difficulties, circumventing the mountain, etc.), reflect on the meanings hidden in the implicit layer of the fairy tale: 1) a smart old man decided to move mountains; 2) a stupid old man moves mountains.

Reading a Chinese fairy tale in Russian, students feel an interest in the plot, the joy of coming into contact with their folklore, and are also proud of the labor exploits of their compatriots who conquer the mountains.

The nationally oriented teaching methodology, supported by "learning reading" with pre-text, pre-text and post-text work, promotes good contact with students and provides effective results in learning the Russian language.

Students get acquainted with the classification of V. Propp's fairy tales, the classification of V.V. Vinogradov's phraseological units, the typology of Ma Guofan's phraseological units, the concepts of "subtext", "concept", "metaphor", "symbol", "implicit layer", "decoding".

Deciphering the subtext in the fairy tale leads to the conclusion that the mountain in the ancient Chinese fairy tale is not just an obstacle on the way, cutting off villagers from their place of work and from civilization, but also a metaphor for the transformation of people's consciousness. This is a measure of morality and justice, a kind of ancient Chinese dream that over time scientific and technological progress will make it possible to build roads in the mountains, create tunnels and shorten the path - this is a kind of fantasy about the rationalization of labor and its application for the benefit and convenience of man. The old man's dream of cutting the road by destroying the mountain in the modern world has come true. Today, many technologies have been developed in the construction of roads and tunnels in the mountains.