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.
China: 5,000 Years Guggenheim Museum, 1998
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)
Eternal China Exhibition of Pre-Qin to Han Objects at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art
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)
Visible Traces: Rare Books and Special Collections from the National Library of China
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)
Antique Chinese Porcelain Collector's Page 500+ pages on the history of and research on Chinese pottery and porcelain
The Architecture of China University of Virginia Digital Image Center
Art of the Silk Road University of Washington
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
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 (only three scrolls are 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
Photographs by John Thomson Wellcome Trust web site, archive of 65 Thomson images (use advanced search using Thomson and photograph as key words)
Reed College Chinese Humanities Visual Resources (user: hum230) password protected
Toyo Bunko Digital Archive of Rare Books (with narratives about the Silk Road; go to links, and then select Rare Books)
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"
Yi-Luo River Archaeological Survey (Henan, China): includes background information, team members, research strategy, survey maps, photos of the region and survey results
Bibliography, Databases, and Online Journals
Ancient East Asia an independent website devoted to the archaeology and prehistory of China, Japan and Korea
Art History Forum at the National Palace Museum
Asia Reference a resource of the Asia Society
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 webpage
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 Folk Art Information Service From Southeast University (Nanjing), a comprehensive introduction to the genres of & research on Chinese folk arts; index of the Journal of Chinese Folk Arts & Crafts
"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
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
Knowledge Bank Ohio State University: PDF files of James Cahill, Hills Beyond a River: Chinese Painting of the Yuan Dynasty, 1279-1368; James Cahill, Parting at the Shore: Chinese Painting of the Early and Middle Ming Dynasty, 1368-1580
London Missionary Society's Collection of Books, National Library of Australia (search terms: London, Missionary, Society)
Orientations: The magazine for collectors and connoisseurs of Asian Art
Researching Histories of Art in the Tokyo Area compiled by Lisa Claypool, 1998-99
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).