Is it true that the winged phrase about the floating corpse of the enemy is an old Chinese saying?

It is generally accepted that wisdom “if you sit on the riverbank for a long time, you can see how the corpse of your enemy will swim by” either the philosopher Confucius or the Sun Tzu thinker. We checked how plausible this statement is.

Nobel laureate in literature Joseph Brodsky made this, as he calls it, a Chinese proverb with an epigraph for his essay "Collection copy". On the site "RIA Novosti"It is also reported that this is an ancient Chinese proverb, "RBC-Sport" clarifies that the author of the phrase is a commander and strategist Sun-Tzu, but readers "Radio Liberty" They can see the name Confucius next to her. On RBC In general, the name of the philosopher Lao Tzu appears. The latter is also often mentioned as the author of this quote in various Collections of aphorisms. Winged phrase and on West.

Indeed, this saying has been so firmly entered into our lives that it seems that it has always existed - at least from antiquity. However, the search in Russian brings unexpected results. One of the relatively early mentions is not at all connected with the coast of the river: “On the eastern proverb: be patient, sit calmly on the porch, and sooner or later the corpse of your enemy will be carried by” (magazine "Moscow"1985). Similar phrases, only with a threshold instead of a porch, are given in literary sources 2002 And 2003 years. And the "Bank of the River" is mentioned by Alexander Zinoviev (1989), the above Joseph Brodsky (1991), Nikolai Psurtsev (1994), Mikhail Panin (1996) and a number of other writers. The publication in the journal "Working Class and Modern World" is worth1978) - She was dated as a year 1978. Well, in the memoirs of Soviet volunteers - participants in the Civil War in Spain (1965) It is said: "But being optimists - this does not mean to sit back, expecting to be carried by the corpse of our enemy." In the same year in the collection of essays "Two worlds, two youths" The phrase “the duty of every revolutionary appears - to make a revolution, and not sit at the door of his house in anticipation, while they carried the corpse of imperialism by.” As for the line “The corpse of the enemy in the wake is swims” from the collection of the Soviet poet Teymuraz Dzhangulashvili (1960), then her connection with the winged phrase is not obvious. At the same time, it is worth noting that in all the earliest Russian -speaking references to the phrase - and with the floating corpse of the enemy, and with the spray - its Chinese origin is not mentioned.

As for foreign sources, among them there are quite popular work. Umberto IVF in their "notes on the fields" "Rose" (1983) mentioned The phrase about the shore as an Indian (or Indian) proverb. In the film showing bestseller James Clavella "Shogun" (1975) The Japanese hero pronounces it. Japanese saying is called in an action movie "The rising sun" (1993) with Shona Connery. But earlier English -language examples of mentioning the phrase, as in Soviet sources, are an option with a threshold (1950 And 1956 years). Moreover, in the second case, the foreign author put her in the mouth of Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky-apparently considering the Russian proverb. In the 1948 Source attributed Maurus - Arabian residents of the north of Africa (and this is not its only attribution Arabs). Until 1948, the options for this phrase in English are practically not found.

We turn to, finally, to Chinese sources. The famous treatise Sun-Tzu "The art of war" It has gone to this day, but it does not contain such quotes. There is nothing similar in the surviving work of Confucius. A very distant connection can be seen with quote "Standing on the riverbank, the teacher said:" Everything leaves like these waters, every day and every night. " One is not very convincing theory suggeststhat the “departed” could be incorrectly translated as “departed”, that is, “dead” (in addition, there is an alternative interpretation This phrase), however, it is still very far in form and in meaning from the desired phrase. Many Chinese They say that they have never heard of such a phrase in their homeland, and one of the leaders of the People’s Bank of China, quoting it, Reference Not on compatriots, but on the French economist Erica writing. Lao Tzu's similar statements did not reach us. There are no traces of the appearance of the phrase in Japan.

From all this, the following conclusion can be drawn. Until the second half of the 20th century, the proverb about the corpse of the enemy existed in the “land” version with the threshold and its analogues, and it was not common in East Asia. In addition, neither in the West nor in Russia they almost did not know it. In the second half of the 20th century, its merger took place with one of the Chinese phrases about the river bank (possibly with the above quote of Confucius), and works of popular authors of the West contributed to the spread of this option. However, neither Lao Tzu, nor Confucius, nor Sun Tzu, nor any other anonymous ancient Chinese author did not directly participate in its birth.

Incorrect attribution of quote

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