Core moral concept of ren (仁) in the Analects (Lunyu) and its translation in Rus-sian Sinology
- DOI
- 10.5922/2225-5346-2026-3-2
- Pages
- 26-45
Abstract
This article examines the interrelationship among the key Confucian concepts known as the “Five Constants” (五常) in the ancient Chinese philosophical text “The Analects” (Lunyu). It focuses on the polysemy of the central moral concept ‘ren’ (仁) in different contexts and analyzes how this concept is rendered in Russian through a comparison of passages translated by Russian sinologists. The study aims to describe the methods and strategies used by Russian translators of classical Chinese philosophy over the three centuries of work on this canonical text, to identify shortcomings and shifts in meaning in their translations, and to offer a revised translation of selected passages. The research methodology combines descriptive, historical-comparative, and comparative analysis with inductive and deductive reasoning to clarify the meanings of key concepts and their interrelations in diverse contexts. The findings show that many Russian sinologists relied primarily on literal translation and preservation of the formal structure of classical Chinese. In earlier periods, numerous discrepancies arose from insufficient historical knowledge of the concepts embedded in Confucius’s teaching, leading above all to misunderstandings or under-representation of subtextual and connotative meanings. The highly condensed structure of the original often resulted in the loss of logical connections between clauses and a weakening of philosophical content in translation. A detailed pre-translation analysis makes it possible to adopt a translation strategy guided by the original text’s intent, including tactics for making implicit meanings explicit and supplying omitted sentence elements and connective units where required for clarity in Russian.
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