Доклады Международного конгресса ИИСАА. Т. 1

III. Far East, South and South-East Asia / Дальний Восток, Южная и Юго-Восточная Азия Доклады Международного конгресса по источниковедению и историографии стран Азии и Африки. Т. 1. 2020 617 period (1911–1949), they were produced about 50–60 years later than the pieces from the Schrenk’s collection. Wuqiang prints from Wang Shucun’s catalogues are rougher in execution, matching of colors is less accurate, they are more tacky in colouring, the characters are cut not so neatly. The narrative function is less evident on the pictures from Wang Shucun’s collection, the scenes chu 出 and their titles are not numbered as in the case of Schrenk’s collection. A series of pictures with a multipart composition similar to those kept at MAE RAS may also be found in the collection of the State Museum of Oriental Art (Gosudarstvenny Muzei Vostoka) in Moscow: six pictures form their collection are published in B. L. Riftin’s album of rare folk pictures 1 . The commentary to plate 71 in the album says that chu as ‘scene’ “has been borrowed from theatre lexicon”. Our study shows that larger proportion of pictures from Schrenk’s fund represents plots from plays, vernacular narratives and novels. We note a pronounced narrative function of these theatre woodblock prints. In Wuqiang county the opera genre Hebei bangzi 河北梆子 was most popular, its repertory influenced themes of theatre pictures produced in Wuqiang. But we do not see the characters in theatrical make-up and poses characteristic of the Chinese traditional opera as they were frequently depicted on Yangliuqing drama prints. Division into chu acts is probably the only parameter that differs these images from illustration pictures to novels, novelettes or narrations, since the action takes place in the natural setting either indoors or outdoors. When talking of the value of woodblock prints from the Schrenk’s collection, it must be noted that these are currently the earliest specimens of nianhua , whose entry year 1857 is clearly recorded in the archival list and the collector’s list of the museum. Of course, the authors do not exclude the possibility of discovering even earlier prints in other Russian museums. In our opinion, pictures of an earlier production period may be kept in the collection of the Ethnographic Museum of the State University of Kazan, where prints could be part of a vast collection brought by O. M. Kowalewski (Józef Szczepan Kowalewski, 1800–1878), who accompanied the 11 th Russian Orthodox Mission in Beijing. Also, early prints can be located at the State Hermitage collection, the Department of Manuscripts of the Russian State Library (Moscow), as well as at the Department of Manuscripts and Prints of the Russian Public Library (St Petersburg), which requires further study. References Archives: 1. Archival list of items of MAE No. 675. Household Items. From academician [L. I.] Schrenk, 1856. (In Russian). 1 Riftin B. L. Wang Shucun. Plate 71. P. 116–120.