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Philosophies in the East and West have favored wisdom in their search for truths. The Chinese civilization has sought holistic wisdom in its long history of absorbing the Abrahamic faiths since the seventh century. This paper aims to investigate how the Abrahamic faiths have interacted with ancient Chinese culture. In particular, this paper will examine the earliest written records in Chinese of the Luminous Religion (or Jingjiao), the earliest Jews in Kaifeng, and the earliest Muslims in China. By analyzing their theology of creation with reference to the Holy Spirit and qi (wind/breath/pneuma), this paper attempts a constructive Chinese natural theology based on a sympathetic and critical assessment of Alister McGrath's natural theology but makes up for his spirit deficit. This paper argues that the holistic wisdom achieved in the early integration process of the Abrahamic faiths with the Chinese culture is closely intertwined with the Spirit and qi, which provides a fruitful ground to construct a Chinese natural theology. The contribution of this paper lies in its original research into the earliest written records of the three Abrahamic faiths in China from the perspective of the doctrine of creation and its relationship with the Spirit and qi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facing growing contemporary crises, many scholars turn to ancient eastern religions and goddess civilizations as a means of culture root-seeking. As one of the origins of Chinese civilization, Taoist female worship (道教女性崇拜) shows profound eastern wisdom and feminine philosophy on human–nature, human–human, and human–self relationships. From feminist perspectives, this paper traces the origin and development of Taoist female worship and elaborates its classical principles—Qiwu (齊物) theory, Zhuyin (主陰), and Xujing (虛靜). On this basis, this paper discusses the contemporary practices of Taoist female worship's classical principles—thingness re-enchantment (物性復魅), harmony world (和諧世界), and self-cultivation (修身養性)—and illuminates their realistic significance: rethinking ethical relationships, establishing efficient ethics, and helping people to resolve crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since China entered the Xi Jinping Era, the CPC has formally put forward a series of significant theories on China's future development path, including Xi Jinping Thought on Culture. These theories have sparked active discussions and responses within both domestic and international academic and theoretical circles. This paper argues that when analyzing the major relationships between Chinese civilization and other civilizations worldwide, the Chinese path to modernization and the modern civilization of the Chinese Nation, and Chinese culture and its constituent ethnic cultures, we should further elucidate relationships and adhere to the three foundational principles: subjectivity, the contemporaneity of Chinese culture, and the arterial and leading attributes of Chinese culture, which encapsulate the core issues in fostering the modern civilization of Chinese Nation. A proper understanding and nuanced handling of these issues not only bolsters the perpetuation and evolution of China's excellent traditional culture but also propels the trajectory of the Chinese path to modernization and the overarching construction of the modern civilization of Chinese Nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural heritage is closely linked with individual historical figures, who become a key focus for cultural tourism. Confucianism laid the foundation for much of Chinese civilization, and Confucius and Mencius have been studied extensively and have been influential in many parts of the world. Zhu Xi, the founder and master of Neo-Confucianism (an important part of the Mount Wuyi world cultural heritage), has received less research attention. With the big bang of the metaverse, research on the immersive cultural heritage digital documentation and information service for historical figures has become a new perspective. This paper presents a metaverse-based digital documentation framework for historical figures. This framework addresses the digitization of multimodal data for cultural heritage and adapts to the needs of metaverse presentations. For cultural research and cultural preservation, the paper has explored a combined contactless virtual and real cultural heritage experience system. For tourists, we intend to develop an immersive and holistic cultural tourism information service before, during and after the tour. In particular, we have also developed the Zhu Xi metaverse system. This is a step forward in the construction of a metaverse of historical figures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, the protection of intangible cultural heritage has received more and more attention from all levels of society. Intangible cultural heritage is a treasure of national culture. It is an indispensable part of Chinese civilization, the crystallization of the wisdom of Chinese civilization, and represents the country's soft power. The effective organization and management of intangible cultural heritage knowledge is the premise and foundation for the protection, dissemination, and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage. Ontology and linked data technology provide a new method and realization path for the organization and management of intangible cultural heritage knowledge. In this paper, the intangible cultural heritage knowledge is organized reasonably semantically based on the method of linked data, and the purpose is to use the structure of linked data to express the resource data of different structures in a structured manner. This paper first introduces the meaning and background of the research and analyzes the relevant research at home and abroad. Second, it introduces the related knowledge of linked data, analyzes and sorts out the elements and semantic relationship of knowledge in the field of intangible cultural heritage, and designs and constructs the ontology model of intangible cultural heritage knowledge, Finally, based on linked data technology, the process of intangible cultural heritage knowledge organization and linked data set construction is studied, including key steps such as entity to RDF, entity association, linked data storage, and publication. The application of linked data technology in the field of intangible cultural heritage knowledge organization and management can promote the standardization and standardization of intangible cultural heritage knowledge management and is of great significance to the protection and inheritance of my country's intangible cultural heritage culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This transition from gathering to cultivation is a significant aspect of studying early agricultural practices. Fruit trees are an essential component of food resources and have played a vital role in both ancient and modern agricultural production systems. The jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.), with its long history of cultivation in northern China, holds great importance in uncovering the diet of prehistoric humans and understanding the origins of Chinese agricultural civilization. This paper focuses on the domestication of jujube by analyzing the morphology of jujube stones found in three Neolithic sites in northern China's Qi River basin, Zhujia, Wangzhuang, and Dalaidian. The measurements of these jujube kernels are compared with those found in other areas of northern China, as well as modern jujube kernels that were collected. The measurements revealed that the length-to-diameter (L/D) ratio of sour jujube kernels ranged from 1.36 to 1.78, whereas the L/D ratio of cultivated jujube stones varied between 1.96 and 4.23. Furthermore, jujube stones obtained from Zhujia and Wangzhuang sites exhibit pointed ends and possess an elongated oval or narrow oval shape overall, which is indicative of clearly artificial domestication traits. Therefore, this study suggests that jujube was selected and cultivated as an important food supplement in the Qi River basin no later than around 6200 BP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the basic position of comprehensively building a socialist modernized country, Xi Jinping puts forward the major theoretical propositions of “creating a new form of human civilization with Chinese path to modernization” and “building the modern civilization of the Chinese nation”, emphasizing the continuous development of Chinese civilization in the “two combinations”, especially “ the second combination”, so as to provide a broader and deeper cultural space and a solid foundation of civilization for Chinese path to modernization. The existing literature on the internal relationship between Chinese path to modernization and Chinese civilization is still in its infancy, and there is a lack of systematic and rational interpretation of the specific connotation and significant value of Chinese path to modernization in inheriting and developing Chinese civilization. This paper adopts the method of literature research and systematic analysis, and on the basis of systematically combing Xi Jinping's important statements on Chinese path to modernization, Chinese civilization, modern civilization of the Chinese nation, and new forms of human civilization, summarizes Xi Jinping's core views on the internal relationship between Chinese path to modernization and Chinese civilization, excavates the specific connotation of Chinese path to modernization to inherit and develop Chinese civilization, and systematically and scientifically explains its significant value. Compared with the previous literature, this paper has made extensions in the following three aspects: first, from the theoretical, historical and practical aspects, it expounds the logical way of Chinese path to modernization to inherit and develop Chinese civilization. This paper argues that the continuous development of Chinese civilization in the construction of Chinese path to modernization benefits from Marxism's correct understanding of the interaction between modernization and civilization development, the CPC's high awareness of creating modern civilization of the Chinese nation and promoting cultural innovation, and the practical needs of building a solid foundation of civilization for the socialist path with Chinese characteristics in the new era. Second, it reveals the profound connotation of Chinese path to modernization in inheriting and developing Chinese civilization from three aspects: the logical starting point, overall layout and value pursuit of Chinese path to modernization. This paper believes that the logical starting point of "people supremacy" in Chinese path to modernization has inherited and developed the people-oriented ideology of Chinese civilization, the Five-sphere Integrated Plan has inherited and developed the cultural genes of Chinese civilization, such as benefiting the people and providing them with stability and prosperity, and following the rules of nature, and the pursuit of universal values has inherited and developed the cultural concepts of Chinese civilization, such as peaceful development, staying open and inclusive, embracing the world with a global vision. Thirdly, it systematically explains the great value of Chinese path to modernization in inheriting and developing the Chinese civilization from three aspects: endowing Chinese path to modernization with a deep foundation of civilization, breaking the western civilization myth of "modernization = westernization", and constructing the discourse system of the modern civilization of the Chinese nation led by the CPC. From the perspective of "the second combination", this research systematically explains the logical way, specific connotation and value implication of the continuous development of Chinese civilization in Chinese path to modernization, deepens the discussion on the internal relationship between Chinese path to modernization and Chinese civilization to a certain extent, and is conducive to guiding all sectors of society to strengthen the inheritance of civilization in the construction of Chinese path to modernization, realizing the creative transformation and innovative development of Chinese excellent traditional culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses a new definition of "Chinese characteristics" in recent propaganda works in the People's Republic of China (PRC). The definition associates the expression with ancient Chinese civilization and traditional Chinese thought. As the new definition is gaining currency in state propaganda, some scholars interpret it as a signal that the Chinese Communist Party is ready for reconciliation with Confucianism or an experiment to replace, at least partially, Marxism with Confucianism as the state ideology. Some Confucian scholars thus try to formulate an account of Confucianism that could negotiate power with Marxism. This phenomenon shows that the practice of state ideology and propaganda in the PRC sometimes does not aim to shape people's beliefs or value systems. Instead, it aims to channel the intellectual efforts of the educated toward memorizing the official interpretations of the settled state ideology or decoding new propaganda messages. The function of new propaganda messages resembles "calls for papers": they invite academics to participate in building theoretical grounds for new formulations (such as mottos or slogans) or making policy suggestions that resonate with the formulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ancient Luoyue ethnic group created a splendid culture, which had a significant and farreaching impact on Chinese civilization, Southeast Asian civilization and even world civilization. The various festivals and sacrificial ceremonies that have been passed down to this day in Luoyue ethnic group are the reflection of historical and cultural memory of the ancient Luoyue Ethnic Group, and also the realistic reflection of ethnic identity enhancement of the Luoyue descendants. This paper will study the Luoyue dance culture, sort out the ancient Luoyue dance elements, and create a Luoyue dance drama named "Walk Out of Zushan Mountain" based on the true form of Luoyue dance. This paper results will help to show the Luoyue culture in detail, expand dissemination of the Luoyue culture, and provide a new dimension for the research on the Luoyue culture [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ancient Luoyue ethnic group created a splendid culture, which had a significant and farreaching impact on Chinese civilization, Southeast Asian civilization and even world civilization. The various festivals and sacrificial ceremonies that have been passed down to this day in Luoyue ethnic group are the reflection of historical and cultural memory of the ancient Luoyue Ethnic Group, and also the realistic reflection of ethnic identity enhancement of the Luoyue descendants. This paper will study the Luoyue dance culture, sort out the ancient Luoyue dance elements, and create a Luoyue dance drama named "Walk Out of Zushan Mountain" based on the true form of Luoyue dance. This paper results will help to show the Luoyue culture in detail, expand dissemination of the Luoyue culture, and provide a new dimension for the research on the Luoyue culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ancient Chinese murals have a long history and a large number of types. They are witnesses to the development of ancient Chinese civilization. They still have important historical, artistic, and scientific values, as well as other values such as cultural relics, economy, and missionary education. Yet, the clear and smooth images of earlier have been damaged and covered by fog after the ancient murals were destroyed by human being and the nature. Therefore, the ancient murals that exist till now have been bothered by different damages and sickness. Protection and prevention are needed the most. In recent years, the application of scientific and technological means has played a role in the protection of ancient murals, making the work methods of cultural relics protection more scientific and diverse. In the context of the increasingly rich digital protection of cultural relics, the protection of murals requires more innovative work. However, at present, the resolution of ancient murals is low and the texture details are ambiguous, which leads to the problems of insufficient viewing and low research value. This paper focuses on ancient Chinese murals and conducts exploration on the phenomenon of mural damage and blurred colors. The deep learning intelligent laser scanning technology is used to extract the damaged ancient mural images. In this thesis, the images of murals have been restored using the new-super resolution technology to achieve the optimal mural images so that the mural images are more beautiful and artistic, which provides new ideas for the protection of murals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tai Chi Chuan is an important part of Chinese wushu and is the product of the Chinese civilization; it contains abundant philosophy sense. Tai Chi Chuan has experienced a long historical process of development; in the process of development and change numerous for brief, to the rough, now widely process of Tai Chi Chuan for its style is easy to learn and has a strong role of strengthening the body while widely popular among the people of all ages. The existing Tai Chi Chuan training methods have not satisfied people's pursuit of spiritual life that has more and more high request, therefore urgently needs to study new and efficient Tai Chi Chuan training method. In this paper, the characteristics and development history of the Tai Chi Chuan development were analyzed. In order to overcome difficulties in training, at present, the research on application of AI technology with fine motion capture method auxiliary taijiquan training is aimed at, which can further improve the social mass to understand Tai Chi Chuan, and guide people to exercise more scientifically, improve the body quality, training effect, and enrich the spiritual and cultural life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ancient text known as the Laozi Daodejing is a treasure of Chinese culture and civilization, and it also represents one of the world classics of religion and philosophy. However, it is also a notoriously difficult work to interpret, and modern scholars have exerted tremendous energy in attempting to make an overall sense of just what the text is all about: is it religious or philosophical? Is it a synthetically coherent work with a unified perspective, or an anthology of disparate ideas compiled from multiple sources? Is its main character, the anonymous sage, a master of bodily techniques living in mountain reclusion, or an enlightened ruler who manipulates the Dao from his royal throne to order an empire? The famous German philosopher, Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), himself dabbled in the thought of the Laozi, and in doing so he opened a novel phenomenological reading of the text that rejected the metaphysics traditionally read into it, but his approach had little impact until the discovery of several excavated versions of the ancient manuscript that appear to confirm his phenomenological interpretation. Since then, a growing number of contemporary scholars are accepting, absorbing, and furthering this phenomenological reading of the Laozi, allowing them to make great progress in exploring its religious and philosophical foundations that have deeply influenced Chinese culture and society for more than two thousand years. This paper examines this legacy bequeathed by Heidegger to Laozi studies as well as comparative philosophy more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work of Theravāda Buddhist monks is often understood as being focused on two different areas or “burdens”: the burden of books and the burden of insight. In other words, monks (and novices) are supposed to be either studying or meditating. While no one can deny that monks do in fact engage in these activities, this paper argues that these activities comprise only a small portion of the work performed by monastics, a fact that scholars have tended to ignore. On the basis of fieldwork conducted in a Theravāda community in Southwest China, in this paper I argue that we need to have an expanded view of what we should think of as appropriate monastic labor, to include activities that are not usually or necessarily seen as religious. It is only by seeing this wider variety of activities that we can begin to fully understand monks as social actors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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This paper examines how the Yeonam group, led by Bak Ji-won (1737-1805), collected and compiled Korean literature written in classical Chinese during the mid-18th and early 19th centuries. The Yeonam group attempted to prove how well Korean intellectuals had adopted and developed Chinese culture. Korean history, culture, and literature rapidly garnered the attention of Silhak (Practical Learning) intellectuals during this era. Previous studies, which tend to reflect the perspective of modern nationalism, have understood this academic trend as an early form of Korean nationalism. However, the Yeonam group held the opinion that Korean literature written in classical Chinese served as an indicator of the writer's degree of embodying Chinese culture, which was understood by the Yeonam group as the epitome of cultural advancement. For this reason, the Yeonam group explored and compiled a series of Korean literary works written in classical Chinese, the ideal language according to the group. This paper demonstrates that the Yeonam group's interest in Korean literature written in classical Chinese stemmed from the idea that Joseon was a sophisticated dynasty endowed with Chinese civilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The blue and green water resource distribution of the Jing River Basin, a cradle of Chinese civilization on the Loess Plateau, was studied using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool and the Sequential Uncertainty Fitting algorithm (vers. 2). Understanding these resources aids in the ecological preservation of the Yellow River Basin and its high-quality development. Future climate conditions were simulated using the Statistical Downscaling Model (SDSM). The data came from the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) projections (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, and SSP5-8.5) in the Canadian Earth System Model (vers. 5), covering the 2030s, 2060s, and 2090s (based on 2015-2045, 2046-2075, and 2076-2100 climate projections, respectively). The SDSM accurately simulated temperature and precipitation trends, with its temperature predictions being more accurate. The results show that the maximum temperature, minimum temperature, and precipitation tend to increase under the three future climate scenarios, and the amount of blue and green water continues to increase in the future, with the SSP5-8.5 scenario showing the highest amount of blue and green water, and the SSP1-2.6 scenario showing the lowest amount of blue and green water, in terms of the climate scenarios. In terms of temporal distribution, 2090s has the most abundant blue and green water and 2030s has the least blue and green water content. Forecasting blue and green water changes due to climate change is vital for regional water management and risk assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese civilization, which stands as a shining star in human civilizations, is distinct in its nature and development path. Although it suffered numerous turns of devastation in its 5,000 years of history, it has resiliently remained uninterrupted in its growth and radiance. Characterized by continuity, innovation, unity, inclusiveness, and longstanding commitment to peace, it also exhibits strong cohesion, vitality, flexibility, and adaptability. These characteristics emerged in the Paleolithic Period, indicating that the Chinese civilization did not emerge overnight. Its roots run deep with a long history, sprouting in the Paleolithic Period, breaking ground in the late Neolithic period, and gradually growing into the towering trees it is today. How did the ancient people in China evolve into today's Chinese nation? How did the ancient culture of prehistoric times develop into the current Chinese civilization? What are the connections between the history buried underground and the society we see today? Obviously, there is no clear answer to these questions. There are still many gaps in prehistoric China that need to be filled, and the process of and reasons for the evolution of ethnic groups and cultures still need to be further interpreted. The author tries to trace the roots of the Chinese nation and its civilization back to the Paleolithic Period, using archaeological materials to connect the survival and reproduction process of ancestors and delve into studying the ancient roots of the Huaxia people and Chinese civilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The Sanxingdui Site in Guanghan City, Sichuan Province, China, is one of the precious heritage sites of the ancient Chinese civilization. Archaeological work at Sanxingdui is of great significance in clarifying the origins and main contents of the ancient Shu culture and the Yangtze River civilization. Since the 1920s, archaeologists have conducted extensive excavations and research at the site, with particular attention given to the large number of ivory artifacts unearthed. However, the buried ivory is influenced by soil pH, temperature, humidity, and other physical and chemical factors, along with the potential impact of microbial activities that may lead to the corrosion and decomposition of ivory. By understanding the types and activities of microorganisms, appropriate measures can be taken to protect and preserve cultural relics. Methods: Multi-point sampling of soil samples around the ivory of the three sacrificial pits at the Sanxingdui site was carried out, and strict aseptic operation was carried out during the sampling process. Subsequently, the microbial community structure and diversity in the buried ivory soil of Sanxingdui site were identified and analyzed by Illumina high-throughput sequencing technology. Results: 16S rRNA and internal transcribed spacer sequence analysis revealed significant differences in the soil microbial community structure among different sacrificial pits. The dominant bacterial phyla were the Proteobacteria, GAL15, Actinobacteriota, Bacteroidota, and Methylomirabilota. The dominant fungal phyla were Ascomycota, Mortierellomhcota, and Basidiomycota. Most dominant bacterial and fungal communities play an indispensable role in the ivory corrosion mechanism, promoting the decay and decomposition process through various means such as decomposing organic matter and producing acidic substances. Discussion: It is particularly important to take a series of measures to control microbial activity to effectively protect ivory. Our preliminary study of the mechanism of action of microorganisms on ivory in a buried environment provides a scientific basis to prevent and protect against microbial degradation in ancient ivory unearthed in Sanxingdui. Following the research results, suitable antibacterial agents tailored to the preservation environment and microbial characteristics of ancient ivory can be prepared. Ensure that the selected antibacterial agents meet safety and effectiveness requirements to maximize protection against microbial degradation of ancient ivory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will show how the Yeonam Group's perception of the Han Chinese influenced the development of Northern Learning. Previous studies have noted this influence but did not adequately examine its cause. Conservative intellectuals in Joseon regarded the Qing and its subjects as barbaric, even repugnant. The queue hairstyle which the Qing insisted every adult male wear became a focal point for this disdain. The Yeonam Group also made the queue a focal point, but rather than seeing it as shameful, they tried to view it as an indication that the Han Chinese were acting in accordance with Confucian virtues, foremost of which was the loyalty a subject owed his sovereign. The Yeonam Group believed the Qing to be a worthy inheritor of the Mandate of Heaven and that the queue could be seen as a legitimate institution of the new dynasty. This belief did not cause them to abandon the Ming. By focusing on loyalty, the Yeonam Group found a Confucian virtue that allowed them to accept the advances made by the Qing without forsaking their fidelity to the Ming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book Lidai Shenxian Tongjian (The Comprehensive Mirror of Immortals Throughout the Dynasties), a compilation of Taoist narratives from the early Qing dynasty, contains a dedicated section on "The Life of Jesus," accompanied by two images portraying Jesus and the Virgin Mary. "The Life of Jesus" is believed to have originated from Gaspar Ferreira's Nianzhu Guicheng (Rule for the Recitation of the Rosary) and Diego de Pantoja's Tianzhu Yesu Shounan Shimo (The Passion of the Lord Jesus). The narratives and images of Christian content within Tongjian showcase the influence of Chinese Ming–Qing Taoist immortal stories and the indigenization of Christianity that resulted in a fusion of Chinese and Western cultural elements. Multiple versions of the accompanying images exist in different editions of Tongjian, indicating an evolution in the depictions of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Through a comparative analysis of these images and their variations, we can glean valuable insights into the Qing dynasty editors' reception of Western culture, shedding light on the process of localizing Christianity during the Ming–Qing period and emphasizing the significance of the cultural exchange and mutual understanding between Chinese and Western civilizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this symposium, guest editor Shoaib Ahmed Malik brings together five papers from a conference hosted by Leiden University in July 2021. The strength of the collection is that it brings together Shi i and Sunni voices, with some perspectives on Islam and evolution, such as an Ismaili Shi i one, being published in English for the first time. Shoaib Ahmed Malik, Hamza Karamali, and Moamer Yahia Ali Khalayleh look at "intelligent design" (ID) and the design discourse in the Qur an from a Sunni kalamic framework - Ash arism and Maturidism; they expose an important difference between the two and argue that critiquing ID does not undermine the design discourse of the Qur an. [Extracted from the article]

This paper uses the cult of Assunta Pallotta, an Italian Catholic nun who died in a north China village in 1905, to critique the existing literature on missionary medicine in China. She was recognized as holy because of the fragrance that accompanied her death, and later the incorrupt state of her body, and her relics were promoted as a source of healing by the Catholic mission hospital, absorbed into local folk medicine, and are still in use today. By focusing on Catholics, not Protestants, and women, not men, the paper suggests similarities between European and Chinese traditional religious and medical cultures and argues that instead of seeing a transfer of European biomedicine to China, we need to think of a single globalized process in which concepts of science and religion, China and the West were framed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The focus of traditional anthropology has been on the "simple and primitive" tribal societies that still exist. The question of how anthropology can carry on to study complex civilizations, especially those with a long history like Chinese civilization, has gained attention due to the discipline's development and expansion. Anthropologists around the world have developed several significant research methods in the study of complex societies in response to this challenge. Taking anthropology research in China as an example, these methods include not only the summary and improvement of Western anthropological methods applied by Chinese scholars to Chinese practice but also methodological innovations based on traditional Chinese research paradigms and explorations of anthropological fieldwork methods in the digital age. In China, the latest advancements in anthropological methods for studying complex societies can be seen in historical anthropology, multi-sited ethnography, internet anthropology, and Rapid Anthropological Assessment. This effectively responds to many doubts about whether anthropological fieldwork methods are capable of studying complex societies and spurred anthropology's reciprocal adaptation to new fields of study and contemporary needs. In this sense, anthropological research on complex societies is entirely possible, feasible, and necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of ecological civilization has become necessary to ensure that emerging industrialized countries can achieve healthy and sustainable development under the background of tightening resource constraints, serious environmental pollution, and the deterioration of the ecological environment. In the case of China, one representative emerging industrialized economy, this paper builds an ecological civilization performance evaluation system to measure the efficiency of ecological civilization in 30 provinces and municipalities in China by using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) game cross-efficiency model. From the perspective of the "five-in-one" approach, and by taking full account of the three main bodies of government, enterprises and residents, this paper selects nine explanatory variables, namely industrial structure and degree of marketization (Economic perspective), government environmental risk awareness and government green actions (Political perspective), residents' happiness and corporate environmental responsibility (Social perspective), culture education investment (Cultural perspective), and green travel and ecological construction (Ecological perspective). Geographically Temporally Weighted Regression (GTWR) is used to analyze determinants of the Chinese ecological civilization performance. The results show that China's ecological civilization performance is low, and the efficiency ranking of most provinces fluctuates greatly. The regional development of China's ecological civilization performance presents a spatial distribution pattern that was high in the east and low in the west. The impact of various influencing factors on the China's ecological civilization performance is largely positive, and indicates regional characteristics. These results not only contribute to advancing the existing literature on ecological civilization performance evaluation, but also merit particular attention from policy makers in emerging industrialized countries. • A new indicator is built to assess ecological civilization performance. • Vertical and horizontal scatter degree, DEA game cross-efficiency, GTWR are employed. • ECP measured by CCR and Game Cross have significant differences. • ECP in China is low, fluctuating greatly in ranking and obvious east-west differentiation. • The same influencing factors exert different impacts in different regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature in the field of archaeological predictive models has grown in the last years, looking for new factors the most effective methods to introduce. However, where predictive models are used for archaeological heritage management, they could benefit from using a more speedy and consequently useful methods including some well-consolidated factors studied in the literature. In this paper, an operative archaeological predictive model is developed, validated and discussed, in order to test its effectiveness. It is applied to Yangshao period (5000–3000 BC) in the Songshan area, where Chinese civilization emerged and developed, and uses 563 known settlement sites. The satisfactory results herein achieved clearly suggest that the model herein proposed can be reliably used to predict the geographical location of unknown settlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Challenging the reification of ethnic categories, this paper sets out to examine the genealogy of Chineseness in Siam before the early twentieth century by focusing on the pigtail as an alleged sign of Chineseness. A critical scrutiny of G. William Skinner's arguments in his Chinese Society in Thailand and the political and cultural history of the pigtail in both the Middle Kingdom and the Kingdom of Siam reveal the variable, situational, and pluralistic meanings of the pigtail. With the pigtail as signifier being thus deconstructed, Chineseness turns out to be a recent invention in Thai racist discourse that had little to do with the pigtail as such. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) of traditional Chinese medicine is a vivid testimony to the continuous inheritance of Chinese civilization. The study of ICH of traditional Chinese medicine from the perspective of the geographical environment, spatial relationships and diachronic development is of great significance for understanding objectively the reasons for the formation of spatial distribution patterns of ICH and the pathways and extent of its spread; as a consequence, such information can help us improve our understanding of the integrity and historical continuity of culture. From a geography perspective, this study seeks to explore the spatial patterns of traditional Chinese medicine ICH based on knowledge concerning the extent of spreading of traditional Chinese medicine ICH. At the same time, the spatial analysis technique ArcGIS is used to express the spatiotemporal development of traditional Chinese medicine ICH in a simple, clear and visual way. Also, the factors influencing the spatial distribution of traditional Chinese medicine ICH are analyzed. The main findings are as follows: (1) The spatial distribution of traditional Chinese medicine ICH practices is cohesive as a whole, with a tendency to aggregate and strong imbalance in distribution. (2) There are significant differences in the classification and number of traditional Chinese medicine ICH. (3) Traditional Chinese medicine ICH practices have obvious differentiation in time and space distribution when factoring in their announcement in batches. (4) Traditional medicine practices have significant spatial autocorrelation. Appreciation of the aforementioned features allows us to gain consensus on the development and evolution of traditional Chinese medicine ICH, and hence can justify how we allocate funds to promote traditional Chinese medicine ICH projects, paying particular attention to researching the historical context, and preserving the extraction of the local characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine ICH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Previous studies of archaeology and history suggested that the rise and prosperity of Bronze Age culture in East Asia had made essential contribution to the formation of early state and civilization in this region. However, the impacts in perspective of genetics remain ambiguous. Previous genetic researches indicated the Y-chromosome Q1a1a-M120 and N1a2a-F1101 may be the two most important paternal lineages among the Bronze Age people in ancient northwest China. Here, we investigated the 9,000-years history of haplogroup N1a2a-F1101 with revised phylogenetic tree and spatial autocorrelation analysis. Materials and Methods: In this study, 229 sequences of N1a2a-F1101 were analyzed. We developed a highly-revised phylogenetic tree with age estimates for N1a2a-F1101. In addition, we also explored the geographical distribution of sub-lineages of N1a2a-F1101, and spatial autocorrelation analysis was conducted for each sub-branch. Results: The initial differentiation location of N1a2a-F1101 and its most closely related branch, N1a2b-P43, a major lineage of Uralic-speaking populations in northern Eurasia, is likely the west part of northeast China. After ~4 thousand years of bottleneck effect period, haplgroup N1a2a-F1101 experienced continuous expansion during the Chalcolithic age (~ 4.5 kya to 4 kya) and Bronze age (~ 4 kya to 2.5 kya) in northern China. Ancient DNA evidence supported that this haplogroup is the lineage of ruling family of Zhou Dynasty (~ 3 kya-2.2 kya) of ancient China. Discussion: In general, we proposed that the Bronze Age people in the border area between the eastern Eurasian steppe and northern China not only played a key role in promoting the early state and civilization of China, but also left significant traces in the gene pool of Chinese people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are obvious ecological benefits of a hybrid energy system (HES) with its advantages of energy resources cascade utilization and multi-energy supply. With the increasing attention to ecological civilization (EC) construction in China, the HES has attracted more and more attention. Constructing HES projects that meet the requirements of EC is meaningful to government policy implementation and corporate social responsibility performance. There are a lot of studies on the benefit evaluation of HES, but all of them lack pertinence to EC construction, and the research results are insufficient to promote EC construction. Therefore, this paper evaluates the comprehensive benefits of HES in close combination with EC construction. Firstly, the connotations of EC and HES and their relationship are analyzed, and the evaluation criteria system of HES based on EC is established. Secondly, the group fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (GFAHP) is introduced to calculate the criteria weights and find out the important indicators. Thirdly, an improved model combining fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) and the cloud model is introduced for the calculation of the EC comprehensive benefits of HES. Finally, the feasibility of the GFAHP–Cloud–FSE model in this paper is verified through a case study. The focuses of general HES projects and the case study are confirmed. This work provides suggestions for the government to evaluate and supervise HES projects for better EC construction, and it is helpful for enterprises to meet the government requirements for EC and fulfill social responsibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In response to the increasingly serious ecological and environmental crisis, China has upgraded its national strategy from environmental protection to ecological civilization. China has carried out comprehensive publicity and education on ecological civilization. Many universities also arrange ecological civilization courses for students, or infuse ecological civilization into traditional courses. This paper investigates Chinese university students' ecological civilization cognition and behavior. Based on the 13404 questionnaires of 152 universities and using the multinomial logit regression model, the authors explored the relationship between Chinese university students' cognition and behavior. This paper divides the students' ecological civilization cognition into two parts, one being the common-sense cognition that comes from China's long-term public ecological and environmental education and the other one being the cognition of national ecological civilization strategy that comes from the recent intensive and comprehensive political publicity. This paper finds that university students with the latter cognition show a stronger willingness to implement ecological civilization behavior. This result reveals the role of China's political publicity on ecological civilization in terms of influencing its citizens' behavior, and provides inspiration for other countries to publicize environmental politics and promote public environmental protection via mass media. • The multinomial logit regression model is used to analyze the factors of ECB. • ECC is divided into common-sense and national strategy cognition. • China's political publicity has played a certain role in influencing ECB. • Courses involving ecological civilization knowledge can promote ECB. • Personal characteristics should be taken into account for educational system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zhengzhou is located at the dividing point of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, which is the core area of the origin of early Chinese civilization. Studying the influence of the ancient Yellow River distributary on the aggregation of early sites is conducive to understanding the interaction between the water environment and early humans. It will provide strong support for the systematic protection and overall display and utilization of heritage. This research is based on the data of the ancient Yellow River distributary, lakes and swamps, and early settlements. This research adopted a GIS spatial quantitative analysis method to identify early settlements. The early sites in the distributary area of the ancient Yellow River were identified from the aspects of kernel density and cluster complexity. The study analyzed the influence of the evolution of lakes and swamps on the aggregation of sites, and the distance relationship between different levels of settlements and lakes and swamps. The results show that: (1) From the Peiligang period to the Xia and Shang Dynasties, early settlements aggregated in multi-center bands along the west ancient Yellow River distributary. Moreover, the Xingyang–Guangwu trough area was an aggregation area with a large quantity and high degree of complexity. (2) From the Yangshao period to the Xia and Shang Dynasties, the settlement presented the characteristics of distributions around lakes and swamps. From a spatial perspective, the distribution of a centric zone around the Xingyang–Guangwu trough lake and swamp in the west moved to the Xingze lake in the east. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of sponge cities is a crucial measure for the development of an ecologically sensitive urban civilization in China, but a systematic and comprehensive construction control target has not yet been established. Considering the Nanjing Jiangbei New District as an example, this article explores how to decompose the control objectives of stormwater management in urban regions into four levels, namely, urban areas, control planning units, implementation plots, and individual technical measures, which will form the basis for the design of sponge cities. The findings of this study are expected to serve as a reference for other regions of China in the design of rainwater management systems, which form the structural backbone of the sponge cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flood control initiated Chinese civilization. Chinese civilization has a long history, and Chinese ancestors invented "aquatic engineering technology" for flood control and water management, including the Fascine body, as early as two thousand years ago. The Fascine body is a structure used to protect the bank and prevent breaching of an ancient Chinese flood control project. Excavation of the Shahe ancient bridge ruins in Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, China led to discovery of a Fascine body structure. Through 14C dating, fibre, slice observations, infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analyses and SEM energy spectrum analyses of the fascine material, microbes in the structure and the surrounding soil were identified, the dominant microbial community was analyzed, and microbial diseases were controlled in a targeted manner. Research on the fascine bank ruins identified the width and length boundaries of the Shahe ancient bridge, determined the exact age of the Shahe ancient bridge, provided important materials for research on ancient bridges, river embankments and other ruins, and provided important clues for the traffic and layout around Chang'an during the Qin and Han Dynasties of Chinese history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the place of Chinese food, identity, and everyday religion in the Canadian rural Midwest. Through a discussion of an annual grave custom to honor the earliest Chinese Canadian settlers in a small community, it develops the argument that Chinese cafes signify complex and efficacious public and private identities. Intersecting cafes both connect and attract Chinese people from hundreds of miles away to celebrate public festivals, rites of passage, and private achievements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The land of China has always been one of the main civilizations of the East. This country has never been part of the Muslim realm or even had a government with the Islamic religion. However, from the beginning of the formation of Islamic civilization until today, Chinese Muslims have had a special place, such as masque. Architecture is one of the most prominent relics of human civilization, and in this regard, valuable works have been created in Chinese Muslim civilization. There is a question here that where has the architectural model of Chinese mosques come from, considering the civilization that Muslims have created through economic or cultural relations leading to the transmission of Islam and the formation of Chinese mosques; To answer this question, one of the perfect examples of Chinese Mosques called the Great Mosque of Xian has been reviewed. In the present study, to discover the architectural pattern of this mosque, the characteristics of the early Islamic mosques and the pre-Islamic architecture of China have been compared. The present article is based on the premise that the architectural model of Chinese Mosques has been derived from its ancient temples. The adopted research method is a case study analysis, and interpretations are based on the features of the selected sample of 'Medina Mosque', from the early Islamic mosques, and the 'Confucius Nanjing Temple' from the native architecture of China in pre-Islamic times. The comparative study of the Great Mosque of Xian with early Chinese mosques and temples shows that the architectural pattern of this mosque is derived from the traditional Chinese temples and its influence from Islamic mosques is limited to the building direction the presence of Mihrab, changing the function of traditional architectural spaces and using Islamic architectural scripts in traditional decorations of the target building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese civilization has a long history, and the Central Plains, with Henan as the core, is one of its birthplaces. Understanding the psycho-linguistic changes in Henan is of great significance for understanding the evolution and formation of national cultural psychology. The traditional method is mainly qualitative or speculative, which makes the consistency among the research results low. Moreover, because most of the research are conducted in a specific period or on a specific figure, they are relatively scattered and unsystematic. To systematically and quantitatively study the psychological changes in the Central Plains represented by Henan Province, this article aimed to examine the self-reported discourses of historical celebrities in Henan in official history and their psycho-linguistic changes based on the classical Chinese Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (classical Chinese LIWC, CC-LIWC) psycholinguistic dictionary and the classical Chinese words segmentation system, using big data. The research found that the frequency of male words in Henan historical celebrities (F = 2.938, p < 0.05), of differ words (F = 4.767, p < 0.01), of motion words (F = 4.042, p < 0.01), and of time words (F = 5.412, p < 0.01) are significantly different among the five dynasties. The conclusion is that during the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States periods, 100 schools of thought contended, and the status of "scholars" in Henan rose. The frequency of male and differ words was at that point significantly higher than during the other dynasties. From "The Contention of a Hundred Schools of Thought" to "The Supremacy of Confucianism," the scholars in Henan were in decline, and differential cognitive tendencies had diminished since the Han dynasty. During the period of the Three Kingdoms and Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, political powers and territories changed, and the historical celebrities in Henan show a remarkable tendency that were related to time and space. The psycho-linguistic changes found in this study are highly consistent with the development of social history, which indicates that the guidance of the social, political, and cultural environment has an important influence on the psycho-linguistic changes of social class. This is the first time that the text analysis system has been applied in classical Chinese to carry out quantitative research on the psycho-linguistic changes of ancient Chinese people, which provides new ideas and new methods for humanistic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indian and Chinese civilizations have economically dominated the world for 15 centuries, when they are overtaken by: Europe, America, Russia, the Arab states, Brazil, Mexico or Japan, shamefully entering a shadow cone that stretched 3-4 centuries. Towards the end of the twentieth century they begin to matter again, and during the twenty-first century it seems that they will replace the European Union and the United States, dividing the planet into two major spheres of influence, avoiding regionalization on religious or civilizational criteria or the multipolar world predicted by some geopolitics, so China will represent the continuity of the planned and agile economy of the USSR, but with a high dose of determination found locally in the Japanese and Koreans, while India will be the 3rd West after the end of world domination by Western Europe and the USA, based on democracy, parliament, federalism and the individual economy but also characteristics specific to the states of the planetary geopolitical south. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discussion on Chinese cultural heritage started to emerge as a result of inspiration coming from foreign travels of Chinese scholars-officials and as protective measures against looting of artifacts in the 19th and 20th centuries. The most spectacular robberies were carried out by Anglo-French forces in the Old Summer Palace (Yuanming Yuan) during the Second Opium War in 1860. That event became one of the cornerstones of the “century of humiliation” (bainian guochi) in the Chinese historical narrative. Even though the Communist Revolution classified historical sites as remnants of feudalism, today the Communist Party of China has assumed the role of a defender of the Chinese heritage. In contemporary China, its cultural heritage is a phenomenon of both domestic and international significance. The Chinese emphasize the antiquity of the Chinese nation, pointing to the origins of Chinese civilization as early as five thousand years ago. In contemporary China, recovering cultural treasures is important for the political legitimacy of a government and for erasing the national humiliation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extraction of atmospheric water using a passive mechanism instead of a complex and advanced equipment has become an emerging subject. There is a clear record in MengxiBitan by Shen Kuo(1031~1095) that an ink slab has the ability to collect water from the air. Its mechanism is exactly similar to the Fangzhu [1], a recently investigated device for atmospheric water harvesting (AWH). Based on the Fangzhu device, a mathematical model for the AWH mechanism in ink slab-like materials is suggested. Using He's frequency formulation and two-scale fractal derivatives the possible working mechanism of ink slab-like materials is investigated. The potential applications of ink slab-like structures for AWH in interior and exterior architecture are also presented and discussed. It is revealed that efficiency of the slabs highly depends on velocity and temperature of the flowing air and also its low-frequency characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of an ecological civilization is a strategic idea proposed based on the conditions of different countries and the laws governing social development. It is a new way to promote harmonious coexistence between humans and nature. Therefore, exploring the evolution characteristics and influence of ecological civilization in China is helpful for the country's future development. This study uses the pentagon model, panel threshold regression model, and spatial analysis tool to explore the law of space-time differentiation and analyze regional coordination and ecological civilization construction in 31 provinces, cities, and autonomous regions in China from 2000 to 2018. During the study period, the construction of ecological civilization in China generally fluctuated; the spatial differentiation pattern of the eastern region was more developed than that of the central region, which was more developed than that of the western region. The regional coordination degree decreased in the order of east >central >northeast >west, and the degree of coordination in provinces and cities gradually shifted and finally accumulated to be reflected in the economy and environment in 2018. The most important factor affecting the development of ecological civilization was determined to be scientific research, followed by air quality and government information disclosure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Asian monsoon (AM) played an important role in the dynastic history of China, yet it remains unknown whether AM-mediated shifts in Chinese societies affect earth surface processes to the point of exceeding natural variability. Here, we present a dust storm intensity record dating back to the first unified dynasty of China (the Qin Dynasty, 221–207 B.C.E.). Marked increases in dust storm activity coincided with unified dynasties with large populations during strong AM periods. By contrast, reduced dust storm activity corresponded to decreased population sizes and periods of civil unrest, which was co-eval with a weakened AM. The strengthened AM may have facilitated the development of Chinese civilizations, destabilizing the topsoil and thereby increasing the dust storm frequency. Beginning at least 2000 years ago, human activities might have started to overtake natural climatic variability as the dominant controls of dust storm activity in eastern China. How the Asian monsoon, earth surface processes and human development interact is not well known. Here, a new record of dust storm intensity shows a relationship between the stability of dynasties and dust storm activity for the last ~2200 years, which argues for a strong human control of dust storms in East Asia over this time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The upper Yellow River drains the central and northeastern Tibetan Plateau. Understanding the origin of this river is essential for unraveling the interplay between fluvial incision, basement uplift, and climate change. However, the formation age of the upper Yellow River is highly debated, with estimates ranging from Eocene to late Pleistocene. In order to clarify the history of the upper Yellow River, we present a heavy‐mineral dataset from drill core in the Yinchuan Basin, a depositional sink at the end of the upper Yellow River course. Our results reveal that the drainage area of the upper Yellow River (i.e., northeastern Tibetan Plateau) has been serving as a major sediment source region for the Yinchuan Basin since at least 3.3 Ma. A late Pleistocene formation of the upper Yellow River, and erosion of neighboring deserts or bounding mountains as an explanation for thick sediment accumulations in this area, is thus ruled out. Plain Language Summary: The Yellow River, the sixth longest in the world, is often called "the cradle of Chinese civilization." However, due to high sediment loads, it often flows above the level of surrounding farm fields in the Yinchuan‐Hetao Basin, the depositional zone of the upper Yellow River. Catastrophic flooding has occurred several times here in the recent past. Thus, the river is also called "China's Sorrow." Understanding where the vast amount of sediments in the Yinchuan‐Hetao Basin came from would help to guide river management. Here we present a first investigation of sediment sources in the Yinchuan Basin using heavy‐mineral data of long drill cores spanning the last 3.3 million years. Our results suggest that the majority of the sediments in this region were transported from the northeastern Tibetan Plateau by the upper Yellow River and not from erosion of the neighboring deserts/drylands or mountains. Only during the last 10,000 years might human activities have increased erosion of neighboring deserts/drylands, causing a provenance shift. Key Points: We present provenance evidence for establishment of the upper Yellow River since at least the late PlioceneThe evidence from the Yinchuan Basin drill core supports a prolonged history of the upper Yellow RiverThe sediments in the Yinchuan Basin were transported from the northeastern Tibetan Plateau mainly by the Yellow River [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article is devoted to researching of historical-cultural and legal-philosophic factors that influence on the formation of value orientations inside the Chinese society. The analysis of these factors was made by using of the historical-philosophical method, which enables to trace the turning points of cultural genesis of Chinese civilization, as well as the specifically-historical approach. The last one contributes to a better understanding of the current status of Chinese socio-cultural reality, in its dependence on the recent past events, and on the Chinese traditional spiritual values. In conclusion it's stated that the essence of actual Chinese approach to regulation of wide-range social relations could be defined as a "legal-philosophic syncretism". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]