Tian Yuwei

Within the framework of the cognitive-discursive approach to translation, which views translation as an activity mediated by the "objective" and "cognitive" worlds of its participants (author, translator, reader), existing studies on Russian translations of Confucius's The Analects remain fragmented. While these works address either the history of translations or specific cognitive aspects of translation, a comprehensive model explaining the historical variability of translations through the interaction of all translation subjects is still lacking. This study aims to develop and empirically verify an interactive model of interaction between translation subjects, tested on Russian translations of Confucius's The Analects from the 19th to the 21st centuries. The research employs theoretical analysis of literature on cognitive translation studies and the history of Russian Sinology; content analysis of four translations of the Analects (by V.P. Vasilyev, I.I. Semenenko, A.E. Lukyanov, and L.S. Perelomov); historical-cultural analysis to reconstruct the context and goals of translations in the missionary and sinological periods; and cognitive-discursive analysis to identify the relationship between specific lexical choices and the factors described in the model. As a result, an interactive model has been developed in which the translator reconciles their own "objective world" with the "cognitive world" of the author and the perceived "cognitive world" of the reader under the influence of the translation purpose and individual characteristics. A comparative analysis of a key fragment from The Analects demonstrates that the shift from the missionary paradigm (Vasilyev's adaptive "variegated cow") to the academic sinological paradigm (Perelomov's precise "draught ox calf") is a systematic consequence of differences in the translators' "objective worlds" and goals. The analysis confirms that the proposed model fills the identified research gap by providing a systematic tool to explain the evolution of translation strategies through objective patterns of interaction between translation subjects within a specific historical and cultural context. The model's practical value lies in its applicability for comparative translation analysis, historical translation criticism, and pedagogical practice in teaching translation history, intercultural communication, and Sinology.