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Study on export paintings has gradually shifted from artistic form to cultural connotation, with an emphasis on cross-cultural communication. Although the economic and social dimensions of their artistic value have been explored, few studies delve into the connection between Qing-era Guangzhou's trade culture and its color characteristics. Utilizing the HSV color model and the k-means algorithm, this study analyzes the color traits of 35 export paintings depicting Guangzhou landscapes and works from the "Thirteen-houses commercial zone," revealing Qing-era Guangzhou's urban impressions and Sino-Western artistic interactions. Key findings include: (1) the hue pixel range in Guangzhou export paintings primarily spans 10°–60° and 120°–250° (dominated by red and yellow-green), saturation values range from 1–82% (primarily low saturation), and value values range from 11–94% (with a wide variance); (2) compared to traditional Chinese paintings, the transformation from pure color (正色) → inter-color (间色) → projection-perspective and light source illustrates both the blending of Eastern and Western artistic cultures and a diminishing influence of traditional ceremonial culture; (3) in contrast with Western artworks, some Guangzhou export paintings display a Westernization trend in color structures, evident in vibrant colors and stark chiaroscuro contrasts. As bespoke art commodities, export paintings microscopically reflect Guangzhou's unique trade culture and socio-political dynamics. The shifts in color schemes, integration of realistic styles, and human-centric characteristics unveil the intricate interplay between quasi-realism and transcendental aesthetics in Qing-era Guangzhou, as well as the nuanced dynamics between social capital and art within a global trade network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The determination of channel evolutions and the causes is important for reconstructing the evolutionary history of river landforms. This study aimed to elucidate the downstream channel evolution of the Yuan River in Hunan Province, China, during the Qing Dynasty via Landsat 8 satellite image data and relevant literature. The objective was to establish the modes of channel evolution and discuss the significance of historical climate change. The downstream paleochannel of the Yuan River was identified in the Late Ming Dynasty and Early Qing Dynasty (1600–1644 AD), the Kangxi-Qianlong periods of the Qing Dynasty (1661–1796 AD), the Late Qing Dynasty (1840–1912 AD), and the World War II (1939–1945 AD), and three main modes of river evolution were determined. Using remote sensing data and the ancient literature, the evolution characteristics of the paleochannel in the Lower Yuan River were analyzed and its distribution across historical periods was comprehensively revealed. The findings reveal a strong correlation between channel evolution, flood events, and climate change. Numerous flood events that occurred from the Late Qing Dynasty to the World War II caused a high rate of channel evolution, demonstrating the combined effects of climate change and human activities. These findings will help adopt robust and resilient hydrological management methods in the future of a changing climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the structures and possibilities of love, friendship, and fraternity in a sexual relationship between men in the late imperial Chinese zhiguai tale (strange tale) Huang Jiulang. Huang Jiulang is a short fictional supernatural story by Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) writer Pu Songling (1640–1715) about a homosexual love affair that takes place between mock brothers, a fox spirit Huang Jiulang and a human He Shican, first published c.1740 in the third volume of Pu's zhiguai tale collection Liaozhai Zhiyi (Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio). In China there is a long tradition of people who were not blood related but shared a fraternal bond, for instance by becoming sworn brothers or sisters due to their shared interests, ambitions, or responsibilities. In terms of the wulun (five Confucian interpersonal relationships) brotherhood is superior to friendship. By converting friendship into this mock kinship of brotherhood, the relationship was able to become both more enduring and more affectionate than ordinary friendship. In other words, taking such an oath allowed people to establish a non-kinship family bond. In Huang Jiulang, however, Pu Songling uses the relationship between a human and a fox figure to demonstrate that mock brotherhood could in fact be quite complex by showing the existence of slippages between homosociality and homosexuality, i.e., male friendship, fraternity, sex, and romantic love in late imperial China. In this article, we argue that for Pu Songling, when mock brotherhood became caught up with erotic relations, it signaled a crisis in Confucian masculinity and consequently created a disciplinary model that restricted masculinity to the familial domain and marriage. This takes place within a late imperial Chinese context where marriage was of the gravest importance to both families and society, as well as being important for the cultivation of virtue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background of climate warming, drought disasters occur frequently in China, especially in the Central China. In this study, drought disaster grade sequences from 14 representative stations were chosen from 268 years of drought disaster historical data for the Hunan Province of China collected during the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911). The empirical orthogonal function (EOF) and rotated empirical orthogonal function (REOF) methods were used to conduct a spatial characteristics analysis of these drought disasters. The results are as follows. (1) There was an inconsistency between the frequency and intensity of the drought disasters. (2) The spatial distribution of the first four EOF loads for the drought disasters showed regional consistency; however, there was a difference in the anti-phase changes in the east–west, south–north, and central directions. (3) The features of the drought disaster distribution in the Hunan Province during the Qing Dynasty are evident, and according to the high values (absolute value ≥ 0.6) for the first six EOF rotational loads, the study area can be divided into the following sections: northeast Xiang (Section I), west Xiang (Section II), southeast Xiang (Section III), middle Xiang (Section IV), north Xiang (Section V), and southwest Xiang (Section VI). The study of drought disasters in Qing Dynasty is of great significance and reference value for disaster prevention, disaster reduction and climate prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decoration with feathers is a universal phenomenon in human history. Objects decorated with feathers were regarded as fine artworks and hence were enormously prized. In ancient China, dotting a surface with blue kingfisher feathers was a famous, complex and delicate decoration technique called diancui. Although various ancient diancui artworks appear in many museums around the world and researchers have realized significant results in studies of the history, technique and conservation of diancui, some key historical details are still not clear. In this research performed during restoration, an important object from the Palace Museum, the "Feather Decoration Hanging Screen with Birds and Flowers Pattern", was analyzed by various scientific technologies. This object is a Chinese imperial artwork of the Qing dynasty (seventeenth to eighteenth century) decorated with kingfisher feathers and the feathers of several other birds, and it represents the highest level of this period. As a typical and valuable case, the results provide important clues for solving questions arising from related academic fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on historical records of extreme climate events and population densities in Gansu and Shaanxi, and information on climate change, populations, new cultivated cropland, and administrative system reform in Xinjiang, this study explores the interaction between climate change, migration, and regional administrative reform in the middle Qing Dynasty. The results showed that the surge in population migration from Gansu and Shaanxi to Xinjiang during 1760-1820 was caused by extreme climate events (droughts and floods) and population pressure in Gansu and Shaanxi. During 1760-1880, the climate in Xinjiang was unusually cold and humid, which was highly conducive to abundant regional water resources. This provided favorable conditions for farmland irrigation and further promoted agricultural cultivation, population growth, and town development within this region. Additionally, the interactions between climate change and the above-mentioned social factors, which acted as driving forces, spurred the reform in the administrative system of Xinjiang whereby the military administration system was transformed to a province administration system. Through this reform, the Qing government managed to restore peace and stability in Xinjiang. This study contributes to a better understanding of climate-related population migration and enhances our knowledge of the impact-response chain between climate change, ancient social developments, and political coping strategies, especially in regional administrative reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]