Abstract

This article presents the results of the authors’ research on cosmological and philosophical narratives related to the personality of Lady Xian and her cultural heritage, and on their function in the contemporary cultural practices of Guangdong Province and the whole modern Chinese culture. The authors systematise Lady Xian’s corpus of cosmological and philosophical narratives, reconstruct Lady Xian’s main cosmological concepts and philosophical ideas, and reveal their specific features as well as their differences with Western cosmology and with cosmological narratives in Western culture. The authors show that Lady Xian’s philosophical and cosmological ideas function as the masterplot of modern Chinese culture, which comprises such essential components of China’s international cultural policy as cultural identity, cooperative attitudes to other cultures, the dissemination of Chinese traditional culture in the world, peaceful coexistence, and soft power. The authors argue that Lady Xian’s cosmological concepts are an essential component of the implementation of the cultural aspects of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and that they can be used as an effective and helpful tool in the spread of modern Chinese culture in European countries. The article concludes that Lady Xian’s cosmological concepts are an essential method for deepening the understanding of China’s international cultural policy and China’s Belt and Road Initiative in European countries. In addition, Lady Xian’s culture can be used as a counter-narrative in overcoming some negative stereotypes about China’s international cultural policy and China’s Belt and Road Initiative present in the information space of European countries.