Imperial China

Online Museum and Library Exhibitions

Antique Maps of China Special Collections of the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology Library. The Antique Maps of China collection includes more than 230 maps, charts, pictures, books and atlases. It represents almost all samples of China maps produced by European cartographers from the 16th to 19th centuries.

Chine, l'Empire du trait (China, Empire of the Brushstroke) Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris

Chinese Rubbings Harvard University

Defining Yongle: Imperial Art in Early Fifteenth-Century China Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Digital Silk Roads Project Toyo Bunko (in Japanese and English)

Freer and Sackler Galleries Song and Yuan painting and calligraphy image database

Gilded Splendor: Treasures of China's Liao Empire (907-1125) China Asia Society

Lienü zhuan Biographies of Exemplary Women, illustrated woodblock-printed text, University of Virginia Library

Monks and Merchants: Silk Road Treasures from Northwest China, Gansu and Ningxia, 4th-7th centuries Asia Society

Rubbings of Chinese Inscriptions East Asian Library, University of California, Berkeley

Southern Inspection Tour Scrolls of the Kangxi and Qianlong Emperors The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Columbia University

Treasures from a Lost Civilization Ancient Chinese art from Sichuan. Seattle Asian Art Museum

Turning the Pages British Museum (includes 868 Diamond Sutra)

Yin Yu Tang: A Chinese Home Virtual exhibition of Peabody Essex Museum's re-erection of a Qing Dynasty merchant mansion

Image Collections (Academic and Commercial: see Museum page for museum collections)

Antique Chinese Porcelain Collector's Page 500+ pages on the history of and research on Chinese pottery and porcelain

Antique Maps [of China] Database. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

The Architecture of China University of Virginia Digital Image Center

Art of the Silk Road University of Washington

Beijing of Dreams Chinese History of Science and Culture Foundation

Chinese Calligraphy: Language as Art

Chinese Hell Scrolls at Reed College Collection of Ken Brashier, Reed College

Cities/Buildings Image Archive Meredith L. Clausen's archive of architectural images from all over the world, including Burma, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Tibet

Classical Chinese Furniture

Collections of Chinese Painting Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo

Digital Scrolling Paintings Project Center for the Art of East Asia, The University of Chicago (among the scrolls available: (1) "Wangchuantu 輞川圖", attributed to Guo Zhongshu 郭忠恕 (ca. 910-977), after Wang Wei 王維 (701-761); (2) "Landscape after Huang Gongwang 臨大痴山水圖" by Lan Ying 藍瑛; and (3) "Orchids" by Yun Xiang 韻香 (fl. 19th cent.)

Formosa Compiled by Douglas Fix, Reed College. "This digital library gathers together a large body of primarily European and American images of the island of Taiwan -- called "Formosa" by foreign visitors in the 19th Century -- and its various peoples. These textual representations, woodcuts, maps, and linguistic data were originally published in European and North American books and journals during the 19th Century, but are not easily accessible to those interested in the history of Taiwan today."

Historical Architecture of Asia "Thousands of online photos of historical architecture in Asia from China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Cambodia, Thailand, Nepal, India, Pakistan"

Historical Chinese Postcard Project, 1896-1920 Regine Thierez, editor IAO, Lyon

Historical Wonders of Sanxingdui China Information Center

Huntington Archive of Buddhist and Related Art Ohio State University

International Dunhuang Project

Merit, Opulence, and the Buddhist Networks of Wealth Sarah Fraser, Northwestern University (3D rendering of Dunhuang caves 196 and 285)

The Nianhua (New Year woodblock prints) Gallery compiled by James Flath, University of Western Ontario

Perspectives on Artistic and Cultural Exchanges between Europe and East Asia, 1600-1800 多方觀照 Wang Cheng-hua, Academia Sinica, Taiwan

Photographs by John Thomson Wellcome Trust web site, archive of 65 Thomson images (use advanced search using Thomson and photograph as key words)

A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization an indispensable guide prepared by Patricia Buckley Ebrey "to add to the material teachers can use to help their students understand Chinese history, culture, and society"; topics include geography, ancient tombs, Buddhism, calligraphy, military technology, painting, homes, gardens, clothing, and graphic arts"

Bibliography, Databases, and Online Journals

Art History Forum at the National Palace Museum

asianart.com An online journal for the study and exhibition of Asian art. In addition to full text articles and images of numerous works, this site gives information on associations, galleries and exhibitions relevant to Asian art.

Bibliography of Chinese Architecture Tang Center, Princeton

Buddhist Studies Bibliography WWW

James Cahill, Professor Emeritus, History of Art, University of California, Berkeley, personal website

China Historical Geographic Information System "A database of populated places and historical administrative units for the period of Chinese history between 222 BCE and 1911 CE." Harvard University.

Chinese architecture. Links compiled by Ronald Knapp

Chinese Art and Architecture An annotated bibliography of recent Western-language publications created at the Freer-Sackler Museum, Smithsonian Institution

"Chinese History for Beginners" a compilation of links mainly to academic sites on dynastic China

Chinese Torture/Supplis Chinois: Iconographic, Historic, and Literary Approaches of an Exotic Representation Jérôme Bourgon, Institut d'Asie Orientale, ISH Lyon

Classical Historiography for Chinese History. Compiled by Benjamin A. Elman, Princeton University

CulturE-ASEF Information System for the Asia-Europe Cultural Exhcange [sic]

Dunhuang art through the eyes of Duan Wenjie "English translation of selected writings of Prof. Duan Wenjie, Director of the Dunhuang Academy, who has given a chronological study of the contents inside the Mogao caves"

East & Southeast Asia: An Annotated Directory of Internet Resources Robert Y. Eng, University of Redlands

Gender and Sexuality in Pre-Modern China: A Bibliography of Materials in Western Languages (PDF) Paul R. Goldin

History of Gardens in East Asia François Louis, Bard Graduate Center, New York

International Dunhuang Project British Library, UK: Access to Manuscripts; Highlights of the Dunhuang Collection; Bookbinding Site; IDP News

Orientations: The magazine for collectors and connoisseurs of Asian Art

Researching Histories of Art in the Tokyo Area compiled by Lisa Claypool, 1998-99

Society for Qing Studies Research Resources

Song research tools A guide to bibliographies, indexes, dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases and chronologies of use to those interested in all aspects of Chinese society during the Song Dynasty (960-1279).