Author:
KE Hui, Associate Professor, School of Humanities, Kaili University.
Abstract:
Interpersonal communication between Jesuits in China and Russian Orthodox priests—the "schismatics" of the Christian church—was an inevitable by-product of diplomatic contacts between Czarist Russia and the Qing Empire in the Early and Mid Qing Dynasty. The competition for evangelism that the Jesuits feared did not come to pass, as proselytization was not the aim of the Russian Mission. The Jesuits desired the convenience of communication via a Eurasian continental route through Siberia, and regarded the members of the Russian commercial corps as possible conduit rather than Orthodox priests in China. Based on historical sources, this article argues that relations between the two were not mutual assistance and mutual need as commonly held, but rather an independent and noncompetitive coexistence, with limited cooperation achieved through personal interaction.
Keywords:
Jesuits, Orthodox priests, noncompetitive, cooperation
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