Religious Art of Medieval China
A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Humanities/Philosophies".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2023) | Viewed by 30866
Special Issue Editors
Interests: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist art; Chinese contemporary art
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
During the medieval era in China, between the fall of the Han dynasty (220 CE) and the fall of the Mongol (Yuan) dynasty (1368 CE), Chinese religions and their art fully developed, and these quintessential features remained through later imperial times. Art of the three major religions in Chinese history—Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism—comprises a distinctive complex of beliefs and practices that evolved in this period of time. Mainly traveling the Silk Road, Buddhism and its art entered China in the Han dynasty and found a home in Chinese culture. The Chinese artists merged native mythological images of previous eras with foreign Buddhist iconography and art styles to picture the Buddhist spiritual realm. At the same time, Daoism and its art evolved, partially inspired by the practice and art of Buddhism. Meanwhile, Confucianism also established rituals, liturgies, temples, icons, and pictorial and scriptural expression of its ideology during this period to the extent that Confucianism can be viewed as a religious tradition.
In recent years, the study of religious art in medieval China has progressed rapidly. Not long ago, it was a small field with only a handful of scholars (in the western language spoken world), who mainly focused on Buddhist art. However, the past two decades have witnessed the growth of a large body of young scholars and their students. Beyond stylistic analysis and traditional iconographic studies, scholars increasingly studied images in new perspectives by examining how images were used in their original physical space, religious practice, or in integration with Chinese culture. In addition, other scholars focused on the development of Daoism and its art and other indigenous forms of religious art in China.
This Special Issue of Religions is devoted to examining the religious art of medieval China. It aims to present the most recent developments within the field. Scholars are invited to take contextualization and interdisciplinary approaches. We welcome scholarly contributions concerning all aspects of religious art of the period.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Prof. Dr. Patricia Eichenbaum Karetzky
Prof. Dr. Tianshu Zhu
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- Buddhist art
- Daoist art
- Chinese religions
- art history
- Confucius art
- medieval China
- contextualization
- interdiscipline
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