Not a Vain Precaution: the Russian Orthodox Mission and the Question of the Property of the Portuguese Mission in Beijing in the 19th Century

Abstract

The Catholic Christianity began its history in China in the XVI century, when the numerous missionaries infiltrated to the country. China's isolationist policy was especially intensified in the early XIX century. This policy led to the shutdown to all the Christian missions in China. There was the only one exception - the Russian Orthodox mission (ROM). After the closing almost all foreign mission in China and in Beijing, numerous properties of European mission still existed in China. The author introduces the results of analysis of the numerous archival sources from the Russian State Historical Archive, The Russian National Library, and the Saint-Petersburg Branch of the Academy of sciences archive. The article attempts to contribute to the debates upon the history of the cooperation between Russian Orthodox mission and the Catholic missions. The article bases on the analysis of the history of the Portuguese mission property’s transfer to the Orthodox mission. The work moves beyond the examination the only history of transferring but shows the interaction between the Russian Orthodox mission and the Russian state officialities. The situation was show in the context of the aggravated crisis between China and England, which later turned into a war. The main aim of the article was to show how in this situation ROM and the Asian department of the Foreign Affairs Ministry tried to find solution. As a methodology, the author used the methods of archival heuristics, as well as problem-chronological, according to which the description of events was carried out in a time sequence.