07.07.2025

Lecture: Tracy Miller, "Son of Heaven, Cakravartin, and Empire in 10th Century China: Song Taizong's Kaibao Monastery and its Architectural Legacy"

On Tue, July 7, Prof. Tracy Miller will talk about the significance of Kaibao Monastery during the Song period

Prof. Tracy Miller PhD (Vanderbilt University), “Son of Heaven, Cakravartin, and Empire in 10th Century China: Song Taizong's Kaibao Monastery and its Architectural Legacy”

Abstract From approximately 982 to 989 CE Zhao Kuangyi (Song Taizong (r. 976-997)) oversaw the construction of the 111-meter tall Kaibao Monastery Sarira Pagoda (Kaibaosi sheli ta) in the Song dynasty imperial capital at Kaifeng (Bianjing). Yet, rather than employing the craftsmen, the first Song dynasty emperor, Zhao Kuangyin (Taizu, r. 960-976), had used to make over the palaces in the manner of those at the Western Capital of Luoyang during the 960s, Zhao Kuangyi selected Yu Hao, the most famous builder of the Wuyue kingdom, to construct his towering Buddhist edifice. Why import a builder from the tiny coastal kingdom to handle such a visible project? In this paper I examine how architecture was used in demonstrating imperial legitimacy and personal power in early Song China. The pattern of building patronage and ritual performance in the first decades of the Song dynasty suggests that much of what characterizes Song visual culture emerged from competition between the first two sibling emperors. In this story, the Kaibao Monastery Pagoda emerges as more than a reliquary, rather it was a tool of Buddhist power, one whose monumental scale helped legitimate patronage of southeastern aesthetics across north China for centuries to come.

Bio: Tracy Miller (Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania) is a specialist in the history of Asian art and architecture, especially the ritual architecture of imperial China. Her research focuses on the impact of belief in divinity on the production of art, architecture, and larger spaces for spiritual encounters. She is author of The Divine Nature of Power: Chinese Ritual Architecture at the Sacred Site of Jinci (Harvard University Asia Center) and has recently completed a monograph on the use of Indic and Inner Eurasian design strategies in the Buddhist temple architecture of Early Medieval and Medieval China. Her articles have appeared in The Art Bulletin, Asia Major, Archives of Asian Art, and Artibus Asiae, among other venues. Active in the Digital Cultural Heritage community, Miller is also co-PI of the ATTCAT (Annotation and Translation of Traditional Chinese Architecture Terminology) Project, an international collaborative research initiative dedicated to the study of the technical terminology used to describe traditional Chinese architecture, which is published on the open-source website architecturaainica.org.

Tuesday, 8 July 2025, 16:00 c.t.
Online via  Zoom
Meeting-ID: 936 0056 4476, Kenncode: 928919