Abstract

As a “landscape of death,” tombs are not only the result of institutional operations but also serve as vessels of emotional memory. The discovery of the Hu Family Tomb from the sixth year of the Tianbao era (747) in Tang Dynasty Xi’an provides a rare case study for the research of emotional history. According to the epitaph, Hu’s husband, Zhang Sijiu, died on the frontier at a young age, while their son, Zhang Youbin, later entered the imperial court as an official. Taking the opportunity of constructing his mother’s tomb, Zhang Youbin simultaneously conducted a soul-summoning burial ritual for his father. The murals within the tomb exhibit distinct connections to this ritual, with many details extending beyond the conventional framework of archaeological typology. These details point to emotional practices that were not entirely regulated by institutional norm and prompt a reconsideration of the overlooked micro-historical experiences embedded within historical folds.

Speaker Bio

Zheng Yan is a professor at the School of Arts, Peking University. He graduated from the Department of History at Shandong University and the Department of Archaeology at the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He has held positions at the Shandong Museum and the Central Academy of Fine Arts. His primary research areas include the history of art and archaeology from the Han to Tang dynasties. His major works include A Study of Mural Tombs from the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties, From Archaeology to Art History: Selected Works of Zheng Yan, Masking Death: Funerary Art of Medieval China, and Iron Cassock: Destruction and Rebirth in Art History. He has also co-authored Buddhist Sites in Shandong: Shentong Temple, Longhu Pagoda, and Small Longhu Pagoda and Anshangfang: Oral Narratives, Texts, and Images.

Event Information

• Free and open to public
• March 28th (Friday)
• 9:00 – 10:30 PM ET
• Online Streaming via Tencent Meeting (VooV).

Please note

Advanced RSVP required.
The event will be conducted in Chinese with simultaneous English translation.