On 4 November 2016, more than forty students and professors from the School of Oriental Language and Culture, and Institute of East Asian Studies of Zhejiang Gongshang University were ushered in a heavyweight exhibition “Night of Shōsōin : From the Silk Road to Cross-Cultural Dialogue” at the National China Silk Museum. It was co-hosted by China National Silk Museum and the Provincial Association for Promotion and Exchange of Zhejiang Culture and Arts, and co-supported by China National Tea Museum, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Zhejiang Provincial Association of Dun Huang and Silk Road Studies (浙江省敦煌学与丝绸之路研究会) and the Professional Committee for Yarn-Dyeing Fashion of the Chinese Dun Huang and Turpan Studies Society (中国敦煌吐鲁番学会染织服饰专业委员会)under the the guidance of Zhejiang Provincial People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.

For over one thousand years, Todaiji temple had maintained Shōsōin Repository under the supervision of the Imperial court. Today’s Shōsōin (正倉院) Repository refers to the treasure house that belongs to Todaiji, Nara. Shōsōin is the oldest treasure warehouse with the largest collection of eighth century Silk Road artifacts in existence today, holding not less than 9000 items. Until Meiji Restoration, the treasures of the Shōsōin lay virtually undisturbed except for very rare occasions. Policy of Shōsōin does not allow the exhibition of any object more frequently than once every ten years and thus rarely open and accessible to the public, in order to ensure the protection of fragile colors and materials from damage by exposure to light, changes in humidity and the inevitable trauma of mishandling. With the assistance of Tokyo National Museum in this display of Shōsōin treasures outside Japan for the first time, this thematic exhibition brought together the silk treasures which had previously been kept by Shōsōin and Horyuji in seventh and eighth century. These silk treasures are of great artistic and scholarly value and represent the most precious national repository of ancient Japanese cultural treasures.

The highlight of this cultural tour at the China National Silk Museum was a special program of Japanese tea ceremony organized by National China Tea Museum. Chanoyu (the tea ceremony) was brought from China to Japan along with Zen Buddhism, and later grew into one of the cores of Japanese mainstream culture. A full-length formal tea ceremony involves a meal (chakaiseki) and two servings of tea (koicha and usucha). In the presence of students and professors of Zhejiang Gongshang University and other guests, the artworks of ritualized preparation and serving of powdered green tea were explored and explained in detail.

At the close of the day, Professor Wang Yong of IEAS and Professor Zhao Feng of China National Silk Museum presented seminars on Sino-Japanese Road of Silkworm and Three Visits to Shōsōin : Silk Treasures in Nara Period respectively. As researchers in East Asian culture, the contents of their seminars were like all the exhibits at the show providing absolutely essential resources for our further understanding of East Asian history.