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Reconstructing the History of a Monastery: The Kaiyuansi of Ji'nan

Reconstructing the History of a Monastery: The Kaiyuansi of Ji'nan

A talk by GAO JIXI (Ji'nan Municipal Institute of Archaeology)

Thursday, October 01, 2009
4:30 PM - 6:00 PM
11377 Bunche Hall
UCLA

In 2003, some Buddhist remains, including an underground chamber, two hoards of broken statues, and other related things, were excavated in the ancient enclosure of Ji’nan city. Fortunately, a stele of the Northern Song (AD 960–1127) buried in the underground chamber indicated that all of these things belonged to the Kaiyuan monastery of Qizhou (the ancient name for Ji’nan). In the 1950s a monastery named Kaiyuansi still existed in the southern suburbs of Ji’nan. What was the relationship between this monastery and the Kaiyuansi of the Song dynasty? What happened to the Song dynasty monastery? In this talk, I plan to partially reconstruct the 1,400-year history of the Ji’nan Kaiyuansi though combining the archaeological remains and historical records. Cultural relics will tell us some interesting stories about the economy, administration, names, and other other facets of the Kaiyuansi.

Gao Jixi is the Director of Archaeology at the Ji’nan Municipal Institute of Archaeology and a Visiting Scholar with the Center for Chinese Studies, 2009-10. While at UCLA, Mr. Gao is conducting research on “Unveiling the Historical Materiality of Religious Images,” which focuses on Buddhist sculptures recent unearthed in the city of Ji’nan. Mr. Gao’s visit to UCLA has been made possible by a fellowship from the Luce/ACLS Initiative on East and Southeast Asian Archaeology and Early History.  

For more information please contact

Richard Gunde
Tel: 310 285-8683
gunde@ucla.edu

Sponsor(s): Center for Chinese Studies

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