Features of the Reception of Russian Philosophy in China: Slavophiles and Religious Thinkers in the Contemporary Transcultural Discourse

The work is devoted to the study of the methodology of research by Chinese specialists of the foundations and specifics of Russian philosophy, especially the issues of Russian religious philosophy, which allow Chinese colleagues to identify the uniqueness of Russian culture and the peculiarities of the national mentality. The purpose of the study is to identify the specifics of the Chinese reception of Russian religious philosophy as a form of transcultural dialogue, in which its holistic spiritual view is considered as a heuristic resource for a critical analysis of the problems of the world’s modernization and the search for solutions that lie outside the paradigm of purely rational Western thinking. The study also covers the institutional and substantive aspects of this reception, which are rooted in the recognition of the spiritual value and philosophical originality of the Russian Orthodox religious tradition. The paper shows that the study of Russian religious philosophy by Chinese scholars has its own characteristics related to research goals, methods, works, and conferences. The interpretation of the main issues of Russian religious philosophy in the context of China’s spiritual culture (such as the idea of conciliarity, all-unity, integral knowledge, the Russian idea, etc.) deserves attention. It is worth noting that Chinese experts believe that studying Russian religious philosophy not only provides a better understanding of the Russian civilizational code, but also helps Chinese people to recognize the commonality of the political and socio-cultural development of the two countries, as well as to better comprehend their own history. Studying Russian religious philosophy provides a deeper understanding of Western philosophy and a “key” for its competent criticism based on different worldviews. Translations of the works of Russian religious thinkers (primarily N.A. Berdyaev, V.S. Solovyov, the slavophiles, and others) are used to analyze Orthodoxy as a foreign cultural element in China’s spiritual culture. The paper provides some examples of how Chinese scholars have adopted Russian religious philosophy. The results of the study can be used in the preparation of lectures on the history of Russian and foreign philosophy. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the comprehensive analysis and study of the above-mentioned concepts based on the works of Chinese scholars from the 1990-s to 2025.