Yi Zhao
Yi Zhao specializes in Buddhist art and visual culture of the Northern and Southern Dynasties (ca. 3rd to 6th centuries) in China. He is particularly interested in the art related to the early Amitayus/Amitabha cult and representations of paradises in Buddhist visual culture of this time.
Fields of Study
Early and Medieval Chinese Buddhist Art and Architecture
Early Japanese Buddhist Art
Modern and Contemporary Japanese Art
Chinese Landscape and Literati Painting
Dissertation Title
Images of Buddhist Heavens and Pure Lands in Early Medieval China (3rd to 6th Centuries)
Peer-reviewed Articles
Zhao, Yi. “Qinzhou Shrine: A New Perspective on the Regional Cult of Amitābha in Gansu and
Shaanxi Area during the Northern Dynasties.”
Journal of Inner and Central Asian Art and Archaeology 4, (2020): forthcoming.
Zhao, Yi. “A Venerated Ghost: Social Life of the Snowy Stream attributed to Wang Wei.”
Meishu shi yu guannianshi [History of Art and History of Ideas] 24, (2019): 353-384.
Translation Work
Translation (English to Chinese), with Chaoyang Chen and Pinyan Zhu. Amy McNair. Donors of Longmen 龍門石窟供養人: 中古中國佛教造像中的信仰, 政治與資助關係. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2020 (forthcoming).
Conference Presentations
2020. 8 "Images of 'Becoming the Buddha': Reinvestigating Images of Pensive Bodhisattva in
Early Medieval China"
will present at the 19th Congress of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Seoul.
2019. 3 “ A Path to Paradise: Reevaluating Pure Land Belief in the Northern Dynasties with
Sukhāvāti illustrations.”
presented at the 229th Annual Meeting of American Oriental Society, Chicago
2018. 2 “A Hell Built for the Living: A Research on the Hell Tableau at Baodingshan, Dazu.”
presented at the 106th Annual Conference of College Art Association, Los Angeles
2018. 10 “ Reevaluating Pure Land Belief with the Nine-Buddha-halo Shrines.”
presented at the 67th Annual Meeting of Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, Minneapolis
2018. 4 “ A Venerated Ghost: Social Life of the Snowy Stream attributed to Wang Wei.”
presented at the 45th Annual Conference of Midwest Art History Society, Indianapolis
