Visual Image and Historical Context in Song Dynasty (960-1279)

The Sixth International Symposium for Ph.D. Students of Art History,
Peking University, November 1-2, 2015

Keynote Speaker: Professor Li Song, Department of Art History, School of Arts, PKU

There are two ways to lead us to know the past. The one is the literary materials, the other is the visual materials. Lu Ji (261-303 said, “languages are best for explicating principles of everything, and paintings are best for memorizing appearance of everything.” Literary and visual materials have their pros and cons. Chinese traditional academic study used to focus on the former and neglect the latter; meanwhile, in previous art studies, many scholars either followed the way of traditional Chinese academic study, or tucked away in the small area of the image study and notice little out of their area. In recent years, such situation has been changed. Visual materials gradually receive more attention from scholars outside the area of visual study, while art historians explore many things out of their own areas. It is said that Song Dynasty is the period like Renaissance. It is the period of prosperity, advanced technology and culture. Meanwhile, the northern minors had always been a threat. In the field of art, paintings of Song Dynasty is almost an impassable peak in the art history. The Chinese literati painting came into being in Song Dynasty, and then developed into the mainstream of Chinese painting. How do we explore the history of Song Dynasty through its art? How do we explain the art of this period in the historical context?

The Sixth International Symposium for Ph.D. Students of Art History at Peking University in 2015 will provide young scholars with an intellectually engaging platform, where they can exchange ideas and share their own researches through the theme of “Visual Image and Historical Context in Song Dynasty”, which was divided into four parts:

(1) Scrolls and literati lives.
(2) Art and the politics in Song Dynasty.
(3) Religious art and folk beliefs.
(4) Cultural and artistic exchanges between the Song and the surrounding.

The symposium is to be scheduled within one day, November the 1st.

On November the 2nd, the invited participants will be organized to visit the Palace Museum in Beijing where ‘the Shiqu Baoji Special Exhibition’ will be on. The famous painting, Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, will be presented in that exhibition.

In addition, the invited participants also have the chance to participate the “Hongmen Dialogue”, a symposium which will be hosted by School of Arts, Peking University on 30 – 31 October.

The two symposiums will share the same theme, and the expert lecturers will include Martin Powers (professor from Michigan University), Hui-Shu Lee (professor from University of California at Los Angeles), Deng Xiaonan (professor from the Department of History, Peking University), Hang Kan (professor from School of Archaeology, Peking University), and several other well-known scholars from China and overseas. Further communications will be expected between the experts and the young researchers.

During the symposium, we will offer accommodations to the invited participants, including food and lodging.

The working language will be Chinese and English.

We are now open to accept abstracts from Ph.D. students both in China and overseas. Potential participants should submit an abstract of 300-500 words and current curriculum vitae to: conferencepkugmail.com by 15 July 2015.
A confirmation email will be sent to the applicants after the abstracts are reviewed.

If you have any questions, please contact:
Ms. Ruan Jinyi: 1301111097pku.edu.cn
Mr. Wang Han: 1401111192pku.edu.cn
Address: 5 Yiheyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, PRC, 100871
School of Arts, Peking University
Tel. 0086-10-62751197
Fax. 0086-10-62759675