Date: 17 Sep 2026 - 17 Sep 2026
During the Yonghui reign of Emperor Gaozong, Master Xuanzang conceived of the mural program Illustrated Eulogy on the Eastward Transmission of Buddhism for the corridors of the central cloister at Ximing Monastery in Chang’an. This is the only known artistic work personally conceived of by Xuanzang. His newly completed translation of the Record on the Abiding of the Dharma marked the first introduction of the Sixteen Luohans into East Asian art. This talk critically examines the lost early text, Painted Illustrations and Eulogy Texts, and reconstructs the spatial narrative of the Twenty-Four Patriarchs and Sixteen Arhats in the west corridor and of the eminent monks who came to China in the east corridor. It argues that this established a new pictorial program for murals of sacred monks in Tang dynasty temple cloisters, serving as a forerunner to the sectarian patriarch murals of the High and Mid-Tang periods, and further discusses its influence on Daian-ji Temple in Nara, Japan.
This is a part of the UMAG Lecture Series 2026. For other lectures in the series, please click here.
Date: 17 September 2025 (Thursday)
Time: 4:30 – 5:30 p.m.
Venue: 1/F, Fung Ping Shan Building, UMAG, The University of Hong Kong, 90 Bonham Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Language: Mandarin
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Speaker: Dr. XU Zhu, Associate Professor in the School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen)
Discussant: Dr. Zhao Yi, Assistant Professor of Chinese Art, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Speaker
Dr. Zhu Xu is an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen) and a scholar of ancient Chinese architectural history. His research focuses on Buddhist architecture, art, and ritual space from the Northern and Southern Dynasties through the Sui and Tang periods.
Discussant
Zhao Yi (Joey) received his PhD in Art History from the University of Kansas in 2023. He is Assistant Professor of Chinese Art at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and is currently completing a monograph entitled Resonation between Tombs and Temples: Art, Beliefs and Practices of Heavens and Pure Lands in Early Medieval China. His recent work also explores Tibetan Buddhist art at the Qing court. His publications have appeared in Archives of Asian Art, Artibus Asiae, Religions, and Arts.