Prince K. A. Vyazemsky’s Notes about Trip to China in 1894-1895 as Historical Source (Through Pages of “Russkoye Obozrenie” Magazine)

Abstract

The article presents fragments of travel notes of Prince K. A. Vyazemsky, compiled during his trip to the Eastern States and published in the journal “Russkoye obozrenie,” which was published in Moscow at the end of the 19th century. It is noted that in the 19th century printed periodicals were the only source of information about the Asian States available to the general public living in different regions of the Russian Empire. The analysis of publications about China allows to judge not only how the Russian traveler perceived the Chinese culture, but also what information was transmitted to the Russian society through the periodical press. The author characterize those aspects of life of the population of the Qing Empire, which attracted the greatest attention of the Russian traveler. The subject of the study is the image of China created by K. A. Vyazemsky. The main attention is paid to the analysis of articles that describe Chinese spiritual and material culture. The relevance of the problem is due to the fact that for historical science it is important to attract the attention of the general public to the characteristics of the everyday life of representatives of different segments of China society (high-ranking official, successful trader, innkeeper, peasant, servant), the rules of etiquette, features of national character. The author evaluates the degree of information content of K. A. Vyazemsky’s travel notes. Specific examples illustrate the Eurocentric views of the Russian aristocrat, which influenced the assessment of what he was able to see in China.

Keywords

• russian empire
• qing empire
• chinese traditions
• russian periodical press
• “russkoye obozrenie” magazine