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SUMMARY:Buddhist Book Roads: The Dynamic Spread of Buddhist Print Culture 
 in China and Beyond
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260615T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260615T140000
DTSTAMP:20260608T005451Z
UID:62b06ff5-f660-f111-a826-7ced8d9a5614
CREATED:20260605T155523Z
DESCRIPTION:This lecture investigates the "Buddhist Book Roads\," explorin
 g the dynamic transnational spread of Buddhist print culture through a wea
 lth of illustrated books discovered in archaeological sites\, statues\, an
 d museums. Moving beyond viewing Buddhist woodcuts as static relics\, this
  talk examines their holistic impact within multicultural contexts and as 
 objects transmitted across vast networks both within and beyond Asia.\n\nE
 xamples highlight this journey:\n· The 868 Diamond Sutra from Dunhuang\, 
 the world's earliest dated printed book.\n· Twelfth-to-fourteenth century
  Lotus Sutra art from Hangzhou\, extensively circulated throughout Japan\,
  Korea\, and Central Asia.\n· Printed fragments from Turfan\, illuminatin
 g elite Uighur migration to Mongol-Yuan China.\n· The popular 15th-centur
 y Beijing Dharani Sutra\, sought by female donors for its protective and h
 ealing properties.\n\nMoreover\, the lecture will demonstrate how Buddhist
  woodblock images transcended Asian borders\, reaching European audiences 
 by the seventeenth century. Four copperplate etchings in a 1670 Dutch trav
 el book\, directly copied from Avatamsaka Sutra frontispieces\, serve as a
  prime example. These illustrations mimicked traditional Chinese woodblock
  prints and calligraphic brushstrokes\, shaping European perceptions of Ch
 inese art\, religion\, and culture.\n\nAbout the speaker:\nDr. Shih-shan S
 usan Huang is the T. T. and W. F. Chao Professor of Transnational Asian St
 udies Professor in Rice University. She holds a Ph.D. in History of Art fr
 om Yale University\, specializing in Chinese painting. Her first book\, Pi
 cturing the True Form: Daoist Visual Culture in Traditional China (Harvard
  Asian Center\, 2012\; Chinese translation published by Zhejiang Universit
 y Press\, 2022)\, explores the historically overlooked visual culture of D
 aoism\, China’s primary indigenous religion. Her second monograph\, The 
 Dynamic Spread of Buddhist Print Culture: Mapping Buddhist Book Roads in C
 hina and its Neighbors (Brill\, 2024\; paperback\, 2025)\, is part of the 
 Crossroads – History of Interaction across the Silk Routes series. This 
 book examines Buddhist printed texts and images\, not merely as static cul
 tural relics\, but as dynamic objects circulating within multicultural con
 texts and transregional networks\, which she terms the “Buddhist Book Ro
 ads.” Among her other notable publications\, she co-edited Visual and Ma
 terial Cultures in Middle Period China (Brill\, 2017) with Chinese histori
 an Patricia Ebrey.\n\nMore recently\, Dr. Huang served as a guest editor a
 longside Buddhist scholar Stephen F. Teiser for the special issue Ritual a
 nd Materiality in Buddhism and Asian Religions\, published in the Hualin I
 nternational Journal of Buddhist Studies (2025). She is currently undertak
 ing two projects: one focusing on representations of hells in later Chines
 e painting and print\, and another on the reception and fabrication of Bud
 dhist and Daoist images in 17th- to 19th-century European travel books.
LAST-MODIFIED:20260607T090437Z
LOCATION:Weston Library - Sir Victor Blank Lecture Theatre\, Sir Victor Bl
 ank Lecture Theatre Weston Library Broad Street Oxford Oxfordshire OX1 3BG
  United Kingdom
SPEAKER:Prof Shih-shan Susan Huang (Rice University)
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