Проблемы литератур Дальнего Востока. Часть 1

Новые вопросы изучения классической китайской литературы... Issues of Far Eastern Literatures. Vol. 1. 2018 93 tanhuang ⚈㉗ . In the modern period these festivals (temple fairs) and dragon boat racing have been revived and proclaimed intangible cultural heritage of Changshu city (see Figure 2). Many customs related to gods’ celebrations, described in HFJ, have already completely disappeared frommodern practice. These are, for example, the festival in honor of Guandi ޣ ᑍ (GuanYu ޣ 㗭 ), which in the past was celebrated by different social groups, or the tours of City gods ( chenghuang ෾䲽 ) statues 1 . Unfortunately, HFJ does not provide the clear list of major temples and festivals of local deities, which one can find in traditional gazetteers. This has to do with the style and purpose of his writing. Rather than providing historical data, Wu Shuangre concentrates on his impressions and thoughts concerning such events. Especially valuable areWu Shuangre’s descriptions of exorcistic rituals, a variety of which existed in Changshu in his days. He characterized these negatively, and described Changshu people as superstitious in general: “Whenever a snake appears in the house, or an ant shows up on the bed, a cock flies over the roof, a dog’s barking resembles weeping, or a mouse makes a strange noise similar to throwing divination blocks, once superstitious people encounter one of these things, they interpret them as inauspicious. In all these cases they would turn to a blind fortuneteller, and if [a disaster is predicted] to be small, they organize chanting scriptures, or [when the danger] is big, they arrange a Daoist offering, warding off a calamity in this way” ( ࠑ 㳷⨮ᯬᇔˈ㸫㐓ᯬᒺˈ䴎伋кቻˈ⣜㚢ྲଝˈ啐ᆀ࠷࠷֌≲㊔㚢ˈᴹаᯬ ↔ˈ䘧ؑ㘵Ⲷԕ⛪н⾕ˈ䕂୿ঌᯬⷭ㘵˗ሿࡷ䃖㏃ˈབྷࡷᔪ䟞ˈ㫻ᡰԕ⿣ҏ ; HFJ, 91). Wu Shuangre’s records preserved information about many such rituals, which are extinct in Changshu nowadays or changed their form. These include the rites of “sending of the monkey immortal” 䘱⥤ԉ , “joyous calling” ਛௌ (i. e. “summoning the soul” ᤋ兲 ), and “borrowing longevity” ُሯ , which were done on the occasions of grave illness (HFJ, 47–50). Though mentioned in other historical sources, we can hardly find so many details there, as in HFJ. Wu Shuangre mentioned important role of mediums in the local society, which still exists in Changshu now.  2 They were main operators of exorcistic rituals. Besides, HFJ gives information about rare rituals aimed at protection of children, such as “opening barriers” ᔰ ޣ and consecrating a child to a local deity — “conscription” ᇴ਽ (HFJ, 64, 67–68). The same applies to the records on the traditional funerary rites, which could be staged in the period of 49 days after a person’s death, according to the division into seven parts of seven days each (HFJ, 55–59). The funerary rites have been greatly simplified in the modern period, though 1 In the period of 1724 and 1912 the territory of modern Changshu city was divided into two counties: Changshu and Zhaowen ᱝ᮷ , so there were two City gods in that city. 2 On mediums, see Qiu Huiying шភ⪙ , “Jiangsu Changshu Baimao diqu xuanjuan huodong diaocha baogao” ⊏㰷ᑨ⟏ⲭ㤶ൠ॰ᇓধ⍫अ䃯ḕ๡੺ , Minsu quyi ≁؇ᴢ㰍 169 (2010): 183–247.