Was just a guess on a uniform prior :)

If you have specific evidence of Chekhov referencing Confucius (the similarities are so striking that either he came up with them independently, which was my original point, or he was inspired by Confucius, which should then leave traces) please do tell! That would be really cool.

I'm not savvy enough to know whether or where to find a list of works the Chekhov studied in his lifetime. I'll leave that search to others. Just floating idea that him coming across a translated work and it influencing his writing without him actually referencing it directly anywhere seems at least comparably likely as independent invention. Especially given that such translations at least existed in his time. I've got no idea about how widespread or accessible they were.

But I'm not even a hobby historian or philologist, more of an armchair philosopher.

Just following up on the fascinating prospect you initiated.

Which Russian missionaries translated which Chinese classics, since that you've already searched? I'm turning up Russian -> Chinese, not the other way around.

Here's one of the resources I came across. I only perused it briefly, but it mentions a Father Yakinf returning to St Petersburg and translating "the Confucian classic Four Books (Sishu)" among other things.

Hopefully this link works for you and isn't dependent on local cookies or something. But the book is: China and Japan in the Russian Imagination, 1685-1922: To the Ends of the Orient By Susanna Soojung Lim

https://books.google.com/books?id=RQldRM5wlfcC&pg=PA65&lpg=P...

Haha: "He developed a questionable reputation among the other members of the Mission..."

Yes, I can see it, and this is very cool. Thank you very much!