IMPERSONAL CONSTRUCTIONS AS A WAY OF NARRATIVE ENCОDING OF THE LYRICAL SUBJECT IN ANCIENT CHINESE POETRY

Abstract

The research identifies impersonal narrative in ancient Chinese poetry, expressed in impersonal constructions. It is suggested that impersonal constructions are a typical way of narrative encoding of the lyrical subject in ancient Chinese poetry. This is due to the following features. Firstly, classical Chinese sentences often lack a subject. Secondly, impersonal constructions reflect Chinese philosophy, as well as aesthetic and poetic principles – mystery, impersonality. Thirdly, the volume of poems is small. The practical part analyzes impersonal constructions in poems from the collections “Shijing” and “Lisao” and in the works of Li Bo and Du Fu. It has been discovered that personal narrative was present in early Chinese poetry. Then it gave way to the impersonal one, when classical poetic principles were established. Impersonal narrative is carried out through such condensed forms of expressing emotions as quatrains and octets, since it is extremely difficult to include pointers to the first-person singular in a minimum volume. This creates an objective picture of emotions. The development of Chinese lyrics is contrasted with the process of penetration into the inner world of the subject in Western lyrics.