On November 19, 2020, the National Museum of China held the Academic Seminar of the Artistic Form and Evolvement of Chinese Buddhist Sculpture. This seminar aims to provide an academic platform for the scholars engaged in Buddhist sculpture art and Buddhist archaeology to demonstrate and exchange their research findings; and it also seeks to broaden the research of Buddhist sculpture in China in cooperation with Mirror of the Mind: An Exhibition of Buddhist Sculpture from Bo'xing, Shandong Province, held by NMC. The seminar invited the well-known experts and scholars from many research institutions like the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Palace Museum, Hebei Museum, Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, Shandong University and Bo'xing Museum to conduct discussion together. The relevant personnel from NMC and Weifang Museum of Shandong also attended the Seminar.
Chen Yu, director of NMC Institute of Research, attended this seminar and delivered the opening speech. He said that this seminar is the first academic seminar featuring the theme of Buddhist sculpture held by NMC based on its century-long accumulation in this field, so it is of great significance. He hoped it could promote the academic exchanges among domestic Buddhist sculpture researchers, strengthen the communication and connection between NMC and academia, and raise the general level of NMC’s research in sculpture.
In this seminar, more than 20 experts and scholars as well as many others attending the meeting carried out thorough and in-depth communication about such hot topics as the discoveries and new understanding in the archaeology of Chinese Buddhism, and the artistic form and evolvement of Chinese Buddhist sculpture. They also proposed suggestions for the protection, usage, research and inheritance of ancient Buddhist sculpture, thus providing more solid academic support for the exhibitions of NMC and further broadening and deepening the academic study of NMC in Buddhist sculpture.