Ancient Rome, Latin, and the Reception of Antiquity in China

The study focuses on a systematic description of the forms of presence of European antiquity and the specifics of its reception in Chinese culture at different stages from antiquity to the present day. The object of study is multifaceted: it includes the first contacts between Greco-Roman civilization and China in antiquity; the history of Latin language studies; translations and traditional literary reception; and, finally, the study of antiquity in modern Chinese universities. The relevance of the study is due to the expansion of the concept of ‘reception’ in philological science on the one hand, and the growing interest in Chinese culture and the specifics of its interaction with European culture on the other. The methodological basis of the work is a combination of descriptive and comparative research methods. As a result of a detailed description and generalization of the material, the specificity of the perception of ancient culture outside the European context is shown. The traditional aspect of reception (borrowing of plots) in Chinese culture is predictably minimal; this work offers a new interpretation of ancient allusions in Guo Moruo's play The Peacock's Gallbladder. With the growth in the number of translations and studies of antiquity in China in the 21st century, there has been a change in the nature of reception: while in the 20th century the study of ancient texts and authors was perceived as a way of studying Western civilization and was intended to promote its understanding, now the ‘appropriation strategy’ is more commonly used, which contributes to the understanding of one's own culture first and foremost. The results of the study contribute to the description of the mechanisms of interaction between Chinese and European cultures, and the trends identified add new insights to the study of the reception of the ancient heritage as a whole.