The Image of China in Modern Discourses of Marginal Eschatology

Abstract

In contemporary eschatological discourses of marginal Orthodoxy, the image of China occupies one of the central places. Over the centuries, an ambivalent attitude towards China has been formed in Russian religious culture. On the one hand, China acted as a religious and geopolitical adversary, on the other, as “almost a brother in faith.” Such contradiction in assessments is typical for a mythological culture. This ambivalence remains in a modern eschatological discourse as well. In apocryphal and pseudonymous eschatological prophecies China appears as the religious and political antipode of Holy Russia. In pre-eschatological times China invasion is expected as an eschatological sign and a real threat. Numerous prophetic texts depict the horrors of China's impending military invasion of Russia, as a result of which a significant part of the territory will be under Chinese occupation. And the very beginning of the invasion is conceptualized as a sign of the beginning of the apocalyptic scenario. At the same time, the eschatological Chinese invasion is also seen as a “scourge of God”, as a punishment for sins and wickedness, as an instrument of cleansing the Russian land from abomination and vice. It is expected that as a result of the apocalyptic events, the Chinese will be converted to Orthodoxy. The eschatological hermeneutics of China's image has not been influenced by a current coronavirus infection. Perhaps this is due to both certain inertia and covid-dissident sentiments that are popular in marginal Orthodoxy.