The Formation of the Tradition of Direct Translation of the Book "Shi Jing" in Russia: D. P. Sivillov and V. P. Vasiliev

The article is devoted to a comprehensive study of the first two translations of the canonical monument "Shi Jing", made directly from the Chinese language in Russia in the 19th century. The objects of analysis are the manuscript translation of D. P. Sivillov (1855) and the published works of V. P. Vasiliev (1860s–1880s). The focus of the study is on such aspects as the transformation of the poetic form, the transmission of key images and cultural concepts, as well as the placement and function of didactic commentaries. Special attention is paid to the reconstruction of translation strategies and the identification of factors that determined the formation of these strategies – from the personal experience of the translators to the cultural-historical context of the era. The aim of the work is to establish the significance of these translations for the formation of the national tradition of studying Chinese classical poetry and to identify the specifics of the reception of the book "Shi Jing" in the Russian scientific space of the specified period. The methodology includes a comparative analysis of texts at the level of form, imagery and conceptology, as well as historical-bibliographic reconstruction. Based on the material of the song "Guan Ju", a comparative study of translation solutions is carried out. The scientific novelty lies in the introduction into academic circulation of the manuscript translation of the book "Shi Jing" by D. P. Sivillov and a systematic comparative analysis with the approach of V. P. Vasiliev. It has been established that, despite the shared experience in the Beijing Spiritual Mission, their strategies diverged radically: the adaptive approach of D. P. Sivillov, which preserved the features of the missionary tradition, is contrasted with the philological literalism and critical reflection of V. P. Vasiliev. It was revealed that V. P. Vasiliev, contrary to tradition, singled out the corpus of "women's love songs", creating an alternative to Confucian hermeneutics. The key conclusion is that the works of both scholars, despite criticism from V. M. Alekseev, not only laid the foundation of Russian Shijing studies, but also reflected its evolution – from the translation of the text (D. P. Sivillov) to its scientific study (V. P. Vasiliev). The results make it possible to reconsider the genesis of the national tradition of studying Chinese poetry, showing the formation of two different but complementary approaches within the same scientific school.