Representation of V. A. Zhukovsky’s creative work in the “History of Russian Poetry” (2002) by Xu Zhifang

The aim of the research is to determine the position of V. A. Zhukovsky’s personality and creative work in Chinese cultural reception using the material of the textbook “History of Russian Poetry” by Professor Xu Zhifang of the Peking University. The article focuses on the issues of Russian-Chinese literary interrelations as the most important component of the national and world literary process. The main attention is devoted to the representation of Zhukovsky’s lyrics in China in the early 21st century through the analysis of its thematic and genre composition, comprehension of the peculiarities of the Russian romantic poet’s psychology, highlighting the main stages of his creative evolution. The research is novel in that it is the first in Russian literary studies to present the integral creative work of Zhukovsky as a poet and translator in Chinese critical reception. In addition, the article identifies the place of Zhukovsky’s poem “Flower”, rendered in Chinese by the translator and researcher of Russian poetry Zhang Xuezheng, in the system of the poet’s lyrical works in Chinese. The research findings determined the significance of Zhukovsky’s lyrics for the reconstruction of the history of Russian poetry of the first third of the 19th century in China, revealed the peculiarity of Zhang Xuezheng’s translation principles in the perception and interpretation of Zhukovsky’s poetry in a foreign-language environment, and compared the images of flowers in Russian and classical Chinese poetry.