Cosmic Cycles of Life: New Perspectives on Mawangdui Tombs

Cosmic Cycles of Life offers a groundbreaking look at the Mawangdui Han tombs in China--one of the twentieth century's most important archaeological finds--through the lens of cutting-edge digital technology and interdisciplinary scholarship. Emerging from a collaboration between Harvard CAMLab and the Hunan Museum, it features sixteen essays that examine Mawangdui through intersecting lenses, such as ancient philosophy, medicine, musicology, and taxonomy. With 3D visualization and annotated line drawings, this volume vividly reconstructs the tomb artifacts with unparalleled precision. Together, these contributions reframe Mawangdui not as a static burial site but as a dynamic, cosmological model reflecting ancient Chinese understandings of life, death, and the universe.

About the author

Eugene Y. Wang is the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Professor of Asian Art at Harvard University, the founding director of Harvard FAS CAMLab, and a Guggenheim Fellow. He is the art history editor of the Encyclopedia of Buddhism, and his extensive publications range from early Chinese art and archaeology to modern and contemporary Chinese art and cinema.Xiaoming Duan is Director of the Hunan Museum, where he presented the acclaimed exhibition, The Art of Life: Multimedia Exhibition of Mawangdui Han Culture, jointly organized with the Digital Library of China and Harvard FAS CAMLab.Chenchen Lu, Co-Founder and Associate Director of Harvard FAS CAMLab, is an architect, art historian, media artist, filmmaker, and musician.

Product details

• Assisted by: Chenchen Lu (Editor), Eugene Y Wang (Editor), Xiaoming Duan (Editor)
• Publisher: University Presses
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 11.08.2026
• EAN: 9780674304864
• ISBN: 978-0-674-30486-4
• No. of pages: 530
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; China, PHILOSOPHY / Eastern, HISTORY / Asia / China, ART / Asian / Chinese, Popular beliefs & controversial knowledge, History of Art, Mind, Body, Spirit: thought & practice, Asian History, Mind, body, spirit: thought and practice, Oriental art, East Asian and Indian philosophy, Oriental & Indian philosophy, Popular beliefs