The Religious-Political Strategy of the Mu Chieftains in Ming Dynasty Lijiang: A Spatial Analysis of the Murals in the Dabaoji Palace
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsI am impressed by the author's expertise. I am not that knowledgeable about Buddhist and Tibetan iconography. I find the idea of combining architectural research in a given socio-political region and at a specific time with religious elements to be very original.
Author Response
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to you for your constructive and helpful comments for substantial improvement of this paper. The manuscript has been carefully revised according to your comments and suggestions, which are very valuable to the improvement of this manuscript.
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsRecommended for publication
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to you for your constructive and helpful comments for substantial improvement of this paper. The manuscript has been carefully revised according to your comments and suggestions, which are very valuable to the improvement of this manuscript.
Comment 1： The paper under review is a clearly articulated expression of academic engagement with the art of Lijiang and perhaps deserves a place in the historiography of Chinese art history. The paper is focused and perspective-based and helps the reader easily slip into the strategic world of the Ming dynasty. Centered on the murals of the Dabaoji Palace, the author ably explains the reasons of the Mu chieftains’ deliberate and strategic spacing out of the murals to artistically represent their “religious, political and cultural strategies.” (p. 2)
Reply：Thank you very much for your meticulous review and recognition of our research.
Comment 2： The paper is strongly founded on the rich historiographical background. The author, however, laments that despite scholarly engagement with the Dabaoji murals, scholars did not address the “murals' full spatial hierarchy as an integrated visual system” and overlooks the narrative that the Mu chieftains desired to frame through their scheme (p.2). The author neatly divides the paper into three sections to discuss the spatial configurations of the Dabaoji murals based on the strategies of the Mu chieftains. The sections include: Entrance—The Introductory Space of Daoism; Central Area: A Syncretic Space Dominated by Han Buddhism; Back of Hall: The Sacred Space of Tibetan Buddhism
Reply：Thank you very much for your valuable comments. We study the Religious Political Strategy from the spatial perspective. We hope to further develop related research in the future.
Comment 3： The conclusion of the author appears confident. The author convinces that the tripartite division of the murals reveals a coherent political-cultural sequence: from the Daoist facade at the entrance (a declaration of Han allegiance), through a central space of Han-Tibetan integration (the core of political-cultural strategy), to the tantric sanctum at the rear (a reinforcement through sacred empowerment). Moreover, this structure frames the murals not merely as religious display, but as a visual mechanism of frontier governance devised by the Mu chieftains (p.17)
Reply：Thank you very much for your affirmation of our research conclusions. We hope this strategy can also be found in other arts and we also hope to further develop related research in the future.
Comment 4：Overall, the paper successfully grasps the attention of the reader to visually imagine the space and its purposeful design which sought to drive home a point to its contemporaries. The author certainly deserves to be applauded for the uniqueness brought to the study of historical spaces.
