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This paper focuses on the life of Liu Shu (1520–1657), a woman warrior who lived through the social and political turmoil of the violent dynastic transition from the Ming (1368–1644) dynasty to the Qing (1636–1911) dynasty. Drawing on the writings of Liu Shu and on different versions of accounts of her life written by male literati in different time periods, this paper intends to reveal the multiplicity and complexity of how a woman could exert her agency and interact with the dominant structure. Commonly, women's agency has been understood as resistance against the male-dominant patriarchal system. However, recently, scholars such as Saba Mahmood have problematized universalizing overtly resistant acts against the patriarchal society to bring radical changes as demonstrations of women's agency. These scholars argue that this approach fails to recognize that through their autonomy and while living a life of self-fulfillment, women have the capacity to reproduce, sustain, or subtly change the social norms and views of values that justify and support the patriarchal structure. In light of these scholars' studies, this paper explores Liu Shu's engagement in political and military activities and her Buddhist practices to analyze how she transgressed established gender norms in order to uphold rather than reject the virtues promoted by patriarchal ideology. The paper also discusses how conflicting demands on women by a male-centered society in the drastic dynastic transition enabled her to negotiate with or challenge the dominant structure. It also considers how her disobedient acts were accepted and applauded by some male literati to address their own agenda in different cultural, historical, and political contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of RumeliDE Journal of Language & Literature Research / RumeliDE Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi is the property of RumeliDE Uluslararasi Hakemli Dil & Edebiyat Arastirmalari Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Among various types of breakfast in China, Cantonese morning tea (Yum Cha) is unique in its form and feature. Morning tea is a Cantonese tradition of morning activity, originated in the Qing dynasty. After years of change, it has evolved to the current form, serving an assortment of small dishes (dim sum) alongside Chinese tea. The classification of Chinese tea is based on the colors, shapes, aroma, and fermentation degree. Several types of dim sum dishes in Guangdong are categorized according to the region, ingredients selection, taste, and cooking methods. Yum Cha has a unique etiquette that is different from the folk cultures in other areas. Morning tea plays an essential role in influencing the dietary patterns and eating habits of Cantonese people. In addition, morning tea supports social interactions and connections of daily human life, providing a practical and acceptable channel for old friendships to nurture and new bonds to build. As a symbol of local culture, morning tea shapes Cantonese people physically and mentally. Therefore, the Yum Cha culture should be valued and propagated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic discussion of traditional zinc-smelting technology in China has been hampered by a paucity of physical data recovered from early production sites. In recent years, however, the discovery of former zinc-smelting sites in the municipality of Chongqing in south-western China has provided important evidence from archaeological excavations that contribute to the study of this topic. Taking the smelting furnace found at the Linjiangerdui site in Zhong County as an example, this paper introduces and discusses the form, use and maintenance of the zinc-smelting furnace of the Ming Dynasty (AD 1368–1644), and makes a preliminary comparison with the smelting furnaces dating to the Qing Dynasty (AD 1636–1912) unearthed in Shizhu County and the mountainous Hunan Province in an attempt to elucidate the development and evolution of ancient Chinese zinc-smelting technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Floods had a massive impact on the development of ancient cities around the world and understanding this phenomenon constitutes an essential part of the history of long‐term and dynamic human–environment interactions. There remains, however, an enormous challenge in identifying records of ancient floods in urban environments due to various sedimentation and postdepositional processes that often remove, erase, and alter such environmental records. During archaeological excavations in the famous historic city of Kaifeng, we identified records of two historical floods at the Shuntianmen site. Related stratums were carefully studied, from which dating and sediment samples were collected. These excavated stratums were also scanned to obtain digital data for modeling. Combining these data, we then applied three‐dimensional modeling to reconstruct the evolution of the natural and cultural landscape of the site since the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127 AD), which was not possible in previous studies due to the deep burial of archaeological strata. Our results indicate that the two floods occurred during the late Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 AD) and the Qing Dynasty (1636–1912 AD), respectively. During the Northern Song Dynasty, Shuntianmen was an important part of Kaifeng, which was, at that time, the capital of China and one of the largest cities in the world. Later, during the Yuan and Ming dynasties, Shuntianmen became a suburban settlement situated along various traffic routes. During the Qing Dynasty, the area became a small village. Subsequently, the area was completely abandoned and deserted until modern Kaifeng, which was built at the same place. The evolution of the regional landscape is the direct result of the interaction between the natural environment and human activities, among which the precarious alluvial processes of the Yellow River were playing an increasingly vital role. Over the centuries, the Yellow River floods, warfare, and wind‐blown sand accumulation reduced the Kaifeng region from a prosperous capital to a comparatively deserted area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statistics in modern China was transplanted from the West. Driven by a wave of Western learning in the late Qing Dynasty, the statistical works translated into Chinese consisted of two main categories: firstly, the statistical yearbooks of various countries translated directly from English; secondly, the statistical works translated by Japanese scholars from Japanese, who translated the English word statistic as tokei, or as political table, notation, tabulation or comprehensive calculation, which was later transferred from Japan to China. The translation and publication of the Japanese-translated statistics works marked the beginning of modern statistics in China. On the basis of the translation of Western statistics, Chinese scholars began to explore the compilation of a variety of statistical handouts for the use of teaching in the new style of schools . The early intellectual elites' perception and acceptance of modern Western statistical knowledge was not simply the infiltration and transplantation of the other, but a complex process of localization and reproduction involving both Western cultural transmitters and local recipients With the widespread establishment of new style of schools and the gradual formation of the seven disciplines, statistics took its place in the new school system and gradually grew into an independent modern discipline in China [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Soochow University Philosophy & Social Sciences Edition is the property of Soochow University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Any investigation of society's historical development should begin with the fundamental issue of productivity level. The Song witnessed at least 45 new advances in production technologies, items and tools, of which at least 15 took place in agriculture and 30 in handicraft. Although the Song surpassed previous dynasties in overall productivity, it was also affected by a number of limitations, seven of which were particularly relevant to productivity level. With the exception of agricultural technology and firearms, the Ming and Qing failed to make major breakthroughs in the remaining five fields. Although these dynasties outperformed the Song in terms of total productivity and technology, particularly in the introduction of crops, they fell behind in productivity per capita and quality of growth, due to the population boom and the stagnation and even regression of farm technologies. Whether compared with previous dynasties or with the Ming and Qing, the Song dynasty saw the zenith of productivity development in ancient China. The level of productivity underlies Song progress and Ming and Qing stagnation, as well as the rise of Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the theoretical level, Bartsch shows that Plato's I Republic i and the creation myth underpinning the ideal city, Kallipolis, have been the subject of considerable discussion in China. I Plato goes to China i is an expanded version of the Martin Lectures that Shadi Bartsch delivered at Oberlin College in 2018. [Extracted from the article]

While books typically dominate in the field of print and publishing history, what happens when we redirect our attention towards ephemeral texts? Employing a widely dispersed material source base, this article focuses on Chinese gazettes: daily publications that recorded official communications and state activities at the provincial and imperial levels during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). Gazettes, rarely studied under the auspices of book history and existing on the periphery of xylographic book publishing, offer important revelations about the geography, economics, and procedures of print and scribal publishing in late imperial China. Their producers employed a diverse range of rarely recognized techniques including movable typography, wax stereotype printing, slat printing, and other adaptations. Like other non-book ephemera, publishing practices for gazettes were determined locally in vernacular contexts, and not dictated by the imperial state. Attention to ephemeral texts brings less recognized print techniques to the fore, challenging assumptions previously formed from the perspectives of book collecting and bibliographical studies. As digitization and cataloguing efforts reveal non-book texts preserved in private, library, and archival collections, continued attention to the material record is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wooden cantilever covered bridges are known for their marvelous shapes and manufacturing technique. Many wooden cantilever covered bridges were constructed during Ming and Qing Dynasties in Anhua province, China, due to the "Tea-Horse Trade" policy. The excellent performance of wooden materials and exquisite building techniques have kept these wooden bridges well-preserved and worthy of investigation. This paper conducted a comprehensive review of wooden cantilever covered bridges in Anhua, especially for the eight bridges listed as historical and cultural heritage protected at the provincial or the national level. The discussions covered the historical background of the bridges, their locations and dimensions, and the details of their structures including the cantilever systems, corridors, and roofs. Moreover, the cultural background was introduced to better understand the meaning of the decorations carved on the bridges and the logic of location selections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Beijing Institute of Civil Engineering & Architecture is the property of Journal of Beijing University of Civil Engineering & Architecture Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A coalition of Chinese, Vietnamese, and French authorities spent much of 1878–1879 putting down a thousands-strong revolt led by Li Yangcai, an officer dismissed from the Guangxi provincial army. Using Chinese and Vietnamese court records, newspapers, and memoirs, I argue that the Li Yangcai rebellion and the imperial reactions, albeit ephemeral and limited compared to other revolts and their responses in the tumultuous nineteenth century, underline the crucial element of personal connections in borderland insurgencies during the last decades of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). Literature on these figures highlights how personal circumstances, particularistic connections, and the borderland setting played a key role in facilitating the growth of these small but influential insurgencies. My examination of Li Yangcai, focusing on similar elements, contributes to the growing scholarship on limited wars. Additionally, I show how the state, in addition to using official bureaucratic channels, relied on personal relationships with influential characters in the local communities to suppress the rebels. I demonstrate not only how people behaved within institutional constraints but also how the state incorporated personal ties into its institutional arsenal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use the 1910 Copyright Code of the Great Qing Dynasty (Qing Copyright Code) as a lens to understand China's initial encounter with international intellectual property norms, examine the dynamic political economy in which the law was enacted, and provide an overview of the structure and important provisions of the Qing Copyright Code. We argue that, although foreign pressure was an important factor shaping the Qing Copyright Code, the Code was designed not to protect the economic interests of foreigners in China but to achieve a pair of distinct goals: advance China's national interests in accessing Western knowledge and incentivize the production and dissemination of knowledge in the country. This argument is substantiated by not only the political economy of the legislation but also the later implementation of the law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyse the structural function and symbolic function of the historic building Yuan Guan during the inculturation process in the early Qing dynasty in China. This process was the dominant Western practice during the early Qing dynasty, when technology, design, aesthetics, and linear perspective were considered indispensable tools to express the nature of an architectural encounter between China and Europe. Given the artistic–cultural richness of this context, the masterwork Yuanying Guan complex can be examined from a spatial semiotic study in an original and unique way. Thus, semiotic tools were used to interpret the expression of the architectural space and to formulate a subsequent understanding of the architectural forms of this destroyed heritage, turning each element into a tool of communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing insight from various museological concepts, such as "disciplinary museum" and "exhibition complex," I sketch a brief history of museums that first emerged in China during the mid‐nineteenth century. In this paper, the museums in China—from the late Qing dynasty (1850–1912) to the early Chinese economic reform period of the late 1970s and early 1980s—will be studied through a Foucauldian lens to further illuminate the nation's museum history. By studying four types of museums—China's first foreign museums, private museums, the Kuomintang museums, and the Chinese Communist Party museums—I explore how these institutions provided the public with different modes of consciousness and civil identity and how individuals respond to the cultural effects of museums. Whereas museums had been utilized as an instrument for different political parties, I aim to show how discourse has been radically transformed while these institutions represent the administrative mechanisms throughout different periods. I hope to initiate a discussion for future studies on how the contemporary museological phenomenon might be linked to the reminiscence of museums in the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the ways in which dead bodies were transformed by traditional Chinese forensic methodology into objects of postmortem examination during the Qing dynasty. The Qing authorities implemented various devices to standardize not only the forensic examination as an administrative procedure but also the cognitive activities involved, such as corpse observation, wound interpretation, and transcription. The essay argues that these devices, such as the official forensic manual, formalized documents, and strict norms of documenting, were constituents of a specific pattern of perception that normalized the ways in which a corpse should be regarded and understood so as to bear forensic significance. Although this pattern of perception led to a rigid vision of crimes and the consequent corporeal damage, it enabled forensic reasoning to function like an operational procedure, which presented certain advantages with regard to the particular legal culture of the Qing era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Body size is an important biological phenotypic trait that has attracted substantial attention. Small domestic pigs can serve as excellent animal models for biomedicine and also help meet sacrificial culture needs in human societies. Although the mechanisms underlying vertebral development regulating body size variation in domestic pigs during the embryonic period have been well described, few studies have examined the genetic basis of body size variation in post embryonic developmental stages. In this study, seven candidate genes—PLIN1, LIPE, PNPLA1, SCD, FABP5, KRT10 and IVL—significantly associated with body size were identified in Min pigs, on the basis of weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), and most of their functions were found to be associated with lipid deposition. Six candidate genes except for IVL were found to have been subjected to purifying selection. PLIN1 had the lowest ω value (0.139) and showed heterogeneous selective pressure among domestic pig lineages with different body sizes (p < 0.05). These results suggested that PLIN1 is an important genetic factor regulating lipid deposition and consequently affecting body size variation in pigs. The culture of whole pig sacrifice in Manchu during the Qing Dynasty in China might have contributed to the strong artificial domestication and selection of Hebao pigs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qixiang is a unique sacrificial culture created by the Han army eight banners in northeast China. This culture not only has elements such as shamanism and Han people burning incense, but also has military sacrificial elements. This paper argues that Qixiang is the evolution and legacy of Maji, a military sacrificial ritual in ancient China. The Han military banner people in the Qing Dynasty took Maji as the main body, combined the Manchu Shamanism with the Han incense burning, and created a cultural symbol representing their own ethnic group. At present, the study of Qixiang not only helps to understand the complexity of the development and evolution of Manchu shamanism, but also helps to reveal the ethnic identity of Han bannermen under the Eight Banners system of the Qing Dynasty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has numerous relics from tomb murals. Over 70 years (1949–2019), 1495 relic sites were excavated. Distributed across more than two-thirds of China's provincial administrative regions, the relics of tomb murals span from the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) to the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911). In previous studies, scholars focused on the qualitative analysis of tomb murals. In this paper, we applied GIS tools to visualize these relics and analyze their density values for the first time. In terms of academic standards, we propose the material distribution index, the regional distribution index, and the temporal distribution index for relics. The academic innovation of this paper is threefold. First, with regard to the distribution of relic sites, this paper draws a distribution map of the relic sites of Chinese tomb murals and explores the preliminary significance of these relic sites in the culture of the Yellow River basin and its ancient political center. Second, in terms of synchronic viewpoints, this paper designs a material distribution map and a kernel density distribution map based on the distribution map of relic sites. Third, from a diachronic viewpoint, this paper sketches the secondary-level distribution map of six historical periods for the overall kernel density distribution map of relic materials in nine provinces, whereby it outlines the general trend of the development of Chinese tomb murals and the contributions of nine provinces. In brief, with the use of the GIS tool, this paper obtains information on the distribution of relics and reveals the characteristics of tomb murals in terms of their regional and temporal distributions through the ranking of various density values. This paper aims to construct a frame of reference for testing traditional theoretical achievements from the two perspectives of information acquisition and theoretical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Little Ice Age was concurrent with frequent natural disasters in China during the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368–1911 AD). Using historical documents created in the Yangtze River Delta during these dynasties, we reconstructed the severity and frequency of locust plagues. We uncovered their temporal and spatial patterns, the relevant influencing factors, and the applied control measures. These locust plagues occurred in the Yangtze River Delta during summer and autumn and were considered moderate-degree disasters. The locust plagues during the Qing Dynasty were less harmful than those during the Ming Dynasty. The locust plagues occurred north of 31°N and were concentrated around lakes and rivers. Regarding long-term changes, three periods of frequent locust plagues were identified: 1520–1540 AD, 1610–1670 AD, and 1850–1870 AD. The locust plague cycles were dominated by long-term changes of 100 and 350 years, alternating with short-term changes of 10–30 years. Locust growth and development typically occur under suitable climate conditions. However, in the Yangtze River Delta, the relationship between locust outbreaks and temperature changes was insignificant, whereas flood disasters provided suitable humidity conditions for locust nymph growth. Locust plague outbreaks had a series of social impacts, one direct result was rising food prices. When facing locust plagues, the Ming and Qing Dynasties formed effective top-down preventative measures corresponding to local conditions. The locust plagues in the Yangtze River Delta during the Ming and Qing Dynasties occurred with regularity, were responsive to local hydrological conditions, and impacted social economies and technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Large Machine Factory (LMF) was built in the complex historical context of the late Qing Dynasty (1840–1912). Its space and construction faithfully record the architectural and cultural fusion between Chinese and western traditions and mark the beginning of modern architectural techniques in China. Through historical data and empirical studies, the historical background and architectural characteristics of the LMF were analyzed, and interventions aimed at ensuring authenticity were established. The cultural significance and results of construction were considered two crucial elements in terms of outstanding characteristics. Comprehensive inspection and assessment strategies were discussed, with minimal intervention and interpretation principles. Preventive reinforcement of the foundation, complementary reinforcement of the main structures, restoration of the historic façade and environment, and adaptive spatial interventions were found to be effective ways to ensure authenticity. The principles of minimal intervention and interpretability, which include prevention, recognizability, invisibility, subsidiarity, and intertextuality, were proposed through a comparison with the literature and practical experience. This study provides an appropriate technical reference for ensuring authenticity in the conservation and reuse of modern historic buildings with complex contexts. We propose a new understanding of intervention principles and suggest a guiding intervention path that avoids the complexities arising from the generalized interpretations of authenticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the lack of research on the embroidery types and needle techniques of the Gaoshan nationality of Taiwan, China, we used the two-dimensional verification method of literature and image analysis, Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator to illustrate their stitching techniques and to summarize the basic application rules of Gaoshan embroidery stitch. The results show that the Gaoshan nationality in Taiwan is closely related to the Han nationality. Since the Qing Dynasty, after the Gaoshan nationality traded with the Han nationality in Chinese mainland, the embroidery utensils of the Gaoshan nationality have been gradually improved. According to the degree of communication with the Han nationality, the embroidery of the Gaoshan nationality is divided into primitive ecological embroidery and immigrated embroidery. The primitive ecological embroidery has a strong primitive and religious atmosphere. The immigrated embroidery has been developed from the integration of Han and Gaoshan ethnic characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The roots of the genealogy writing tradition of the Chinese Sibe go back to the Qing Dynasty. This tradition has played a crucial role to create a genealogical community of the Sibe: genealogies were the material carriers of knowledge preserved about their ancestors and their past. However, many of the genealogies were lost during the turbulent time of the twentieth century, and although numerous Sibe clans embark on reproducing their own family trees, it is only the memory of the elderly they can most often draw on. This study is intended to present and highlight the significance a specific collection of genealogies compiled by a self-taught Sibe historian, offering valuable sources for conduct research on the history of the Qing-dynasty and the Sibe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that scholars should see environmental history not as a specialized subfield but as a research paradigm useful to all students of modern China. It first presents an expanded definition of an "historical actor" and encourages scholars to integrate a range of organic and inorganic Others into their cast of characters. The article then addresses the subject of the environment and time, proposing alternative ways of periodizing Chinese history, linked to the idea of the Anthropocene. In the final section the discussion turns to the problem of space, focusing on the ways that Qing history has reshaped our understanding of the relationship between the natural world, center and periphery, and state formation. Setting aside both declensionist and triumphalist narratives about China's past, this article suggests that the methods, concepts, and research agenda of environmental history can enrich the work of all students of Chinese history regardless of specialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zhi Wu Xue in late Qing dynasty is very important both in the history of botany and Chinese-western scientific and technical communication. It has made great influence in scientific and cultural field. There are many factors to make book a successful one, but among which the most important is that in the process of its translation, Li Shanlan’s translator subjectivity had been fully played. He creatively translated many terms, which fully expressed the scientific connotations and cultural phenomenon, thus to promote the communication of modern botany in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By examining a series of events involving sightings of multicolored clouds and discoveries of colorful minerals in China's southwestern provinces, this article considers the political implications of natural manifestations of polychromy in the Yongzheng period. Through previously unexamined written and material correspondence between governor-general Ortai (1680–1745) and the Yongzheng emperor (r. 1723–35), I argue that physical occurrences of color, both above and below ground, were understood as signs of Heavenly approval of the emperor's governance at a time of questionable military expansion into the Southwest. I also consider how celestial phenomena and colorful stones were translated into design motifs and carved into exclusive items at the Qing court, positing that these objects were understood as signs of the Yongzheng emperor's political legitimacy and concrete evidence of Qing control over the remote reaches of the empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chang Ping-Ying's book, "The Chinese Astronomical Bureau, 1620–1850: Lineages, Bureaucracy and Technical Expertise," explores the relationship between science and bureaucracy in premodern China. The book focuses on the Imperial Astronomical Bureau of the Qing dynasty and challenges the prevailing view that China's bureaucracy hindered scientific development. Chang highlights the role of hereditary astronomer families within the Bureau and their contributions to the history of mathematical sciences in the Qing dynasty. The book examines key events and transformations in Qing astronomy, shedding light on the careers and influence of these families. While the book has some limitations, it provides valuable insights into the study of low- and middle-level government officials who were important figures in premodern China's scientific community. [Extracted from the article]

This study examines how the availability of river transportation routes affected the effectiveness of the Qing artillery corps. The Yangzi River system and the Pearl River system guaranteed timely and stable artillery support for the Qing siege force in Jiangnan and Liangguang respectively. This was made possible by the Qing's large reserves of cannons and the sizeable water forces at several strategically important cities along the two rivers, which constituted a river-based artillery logistic system. In the mountainous and unpopulated areas of China, however, the Qing artillery corps faced considerable logistic difficulties. This put the besieging army in a strategic dilemma, i.e., whether to wait for the siege train indefinitely or to assault the city with cold weapons. To push further, this strategic dilemma posed by the terrain may explain why the Qing army, despite possessing the latest artillery technology, continued using cold weapons extensively until the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Trans/Form/Ação is the property of Trans/Form/Acao and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Poyang Lake is the property of Journal of Poyang Lake Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Global historical land use scenarios, including HYDE3.2 and PJ, are widely used in global change research. However, their uncertainties have not been well evaluated. Based on the historical-documents-based Chinese historical cropland dataset (CHCD), we evaluated the uncertainties of the representative global historical land use scenarios in past-millennium cropland reconstruction in China in terms of the area and spatial pattern. The results show that apparent differences exist in cropland area at the national scale between HYDE3.2 or PJ and CHCD for the Song-Liao-Jin Era (AD 1000–1279) and the Qing dynasty to present (AD 1644–1999), with a maximum relative difference ratio (RDR) of about −35% and 112%, respectively. We detected similar differences at the provincial scale, except for Guizhou, Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Xinjiang provinces. Specifically, HYDE3.2 underestimates cropland areas of nine provinces, with an absolute difference of up to 5.2 × 104 km2, while overestimates cropland areas of ten provinces, with an absolute difference of up to 5.1 × 104 km2. As for the spatial pattern, the percentage of grids with an absolute value of RDR greater than 70% between HYDE3.2 and CHCD reach up to 54%–82%, mainly distributed in major agricultural areas, frontier areas, and geographical transition zones. In conclusion, neither HYDE3.2 nor PJ reflects China's cropland area and its past-millennium change accurately, resulting from the differences in data sources, area estimation, and spatial allocation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The North China Plain is a region where the natural vegetation was increasingly influenced by human activities from ∼3000 cal yr B.P. (Zhang et al., 2017; Peng, 2019). We used pollen, charcoal and sediments from the Dacaozhuang Holocene profile in Ningjinpo, central North China Plain, in combination estimates of relative pollen productivity, to quantitatively reconstruct vegetation changes over the last 3000 years using the REVEALS model. Our aims were to study the combined effects of climate change and human activities on the zonal vegetation. The principal findings are as follows. 1) During 3000–2600 cal yr B.P., the study area was strongly influenced by the Yellow River, leading to a complex pollen source area, which is inappropriate for REVEALS models. Since 2600 cal yr B.P., the sediments were mainly supplied by rivers originating in the Taihang Mountains, and the reconstructed tree coverage was generally less than 20%, while that of herbaceous plants such as Artemisia , Poaceae and Asteraceae was more than 50%. This indicates that the study area was predominantly grassland with trees sparsely distributed in the mountains. 2) Crop plants (Poaceae≥35 μm, and Fagopyrum), and the occurrence of synanthropic plants like Brassicaceae and Urtica/Humulus , together with a high sedimentary content of coarse charcoal particles (>100 μm), indicate substantial disturbance of the natural vegetation by human activities from 2600 cal yr B.P. 3) During the Medieval Warm Period (1300–600 cal yr B.P.), the concentration of charcoal and the proportion of synanthropic plants were relatively high, indicating strong human activity. Nevertheless, the proportion of trees, dominated by Pinus and Quercus , was substantially higher (increasing to more than 19%) compared with the previous interval, indicating an increase in forest vegetation and thus a strong climatic influence on the vegetation. 4) During the periods of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (after 500 cal yr B.P.), the concentration of charcoal and crop plants reached a maximum and the tree coverage decreased substantially (to 4.8%), indicating the highest level of human influence on the vegetation. The shift to a cool and dry climate may also have contributed to the reduction of trees within the landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The society was filled with the emotions of self-examinations and restraining sins during late Ming and early Qing dynasties. The introduction of Catholic hamartiology undoubtedly further enriched the discusses of sins in the intellectual world in Ming and Qing China. This article explores the Catholic Hamartiology in details and its social significances during late Ming and early Qing dynasties by analyzing related literatures. It firstly discusses the concepts on sins by Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism before the Catholic Church entered China; secondly, it discusses the main contents of Hamartiology of Western Christianity represented by St. Augustine and St. Aquinas. Then it analyzes the thoughts of Hamartiology in the Catholic works in Ming and Qing dynasties, and the social responses to these thoughts. Catholic Hamartiology actually marks the boundaries of the Catholic community, so as to distinguish it from other social groups, and thus plays an important role in shaping the identity of the Catholics during late Ming and early Qing dynasties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has become a serious issue, and tracing climate events from historical records could be a solution to find a way to deal with it. This study conducted two experiments for classifying metrological text data—one unsupervised method for exploring a solution in the lack of labeled data and another supervised method for achieving high-performance classification. Both experiments took the meteorological text records as material in the early Qing Dynasty (1644 C.E. to 1795 C.E.) from the REACHES database. We also integrated the classification results to develop a Spatio-Temporal research platform with an instant response front-end interface to help humanity researchers access and analyze data according to the three dimensions of time, area, and event categories. With our Spatio-Temporal research platform, we had the ability with ease to analyze the meteorological records during 1650 C.E. to 1700 C.E. the late stage of the Little Ice Age, to investigate the phenomenon of climate change in the Qing Dynasty of China. We will continue to expand the capacity of the database and establish a mature Spatio-Temporal research platform in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LoGart, and especially its image search function Page with Image (PWI), allows for the use of local gazetteers to trace the development of new institutions and spaces for science in China in a geographically more diverse assortment of places than historians of science have hitherto examined. This essay looks at how results obtained by using LoGart help to map out a new spatiality of science in modern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is “Sichuan Qingyin Performance in China; The Transmission Process, Obstruction and Way to Resolve”. The study employed the qualitative research methodology of ethnomusicology. The objectives were to 1) Investigate the development of Sichuan Qingyin performance in China. 2) Examine the transmission process of Sichuan Qingyin performance in Sichuan and Chongqing, China. Based on the study findings, 1) Sichuan Qingyin is closely related to ancient Chinese Quyi art. The sources of Sichuan Qingyin are complex. Sichuan Qingyin was formed roughly during the early Qing Dynasty. From the late Qing Dynasty to the early years of the Republic of China, Sichuan Qingyin flourished. During this period, the performances of Sichuan Qingyin were very popular in the streets of Sichuan and Chongqing. Sichuan Qingyin has developed significantly since the People's Republic of China was founded. Due to changes in the times, Sichuan Qingyin is being squeezed by other art forms, so the present state of affairs is not optimistic. 2) Today, the transmission process consists mainly of school education and professional performance groups. There are many obstacles to contemporary Sichuan Qingyin, such as a lack of performance venues, a loss of audiences, and an absence of newly composed works; this study outlines corresponding measures and recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The granary in the Ming and Qing dynasties was important to continue the previous agriculture, which required the official institution in the application process to stabilize the local area. The middle reaches of the Huang He River was an important agricultural area in ancient China. With the lack of land resources and the decrease of political attention, many problems occurred in grain storage operation in this area. In order to solve the problems caused by the expansion of the granary function, the local government gradually introduced local merchants in the middle reaches of the Huang He River since the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, whose professional skills not only improved the insufficient use of grain storage in the region, but also maintained the social stability and development of the border areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary infrastructure loans from the PRC's Belt and Road Initiative may well parallel foreign railway loans and construction to China during the late Qing dynasty, many of which also involved state-affiliated foreign firms and various local interests. Li's contribution nonetheless provides a welcome step to appreciating contemporary PRC positions on intervention and its effects, topics that are sparking important conversations at a time when Beijing is again reassessing external engagement. A basis for Li's argument for PRC moderation is a comparison with the excesses of other major powers, especially the United States. [Extracted from the article]

The modern police system was first introduced in China at the beginning of the 20th century through the late Qing Reform. The Qing government sought to reform China's traditional public safety system by modeling it after civil law standards in the world and especially after Japan's police system—a tendency later also inherited by the Republic of China. However, there also existed a tendency of modeling after common law. This second tendency, which was manifested more in the Nationalist government period and was mainly orientated towards copying the police system of the US, was a topic not yet sufficiently dealt with in previous research. This paper examines the topic by referencing the so-called the system of "police management zones" (警管区制) implemented after the Sino-Japanese War. As postwar China was planning a radical shift towards constitutional government, this new system caused great public dispute, questioning the significance of concepts such as constitutional rule and freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The architectural conservation movement began in China during an era of transformation. In the period from 1840 to 1966, i.e., the end of the Qing Dynasty to the initial 17 years of the People's Republic of China, China changed its regime twice times, from the feudal Qing dynasty to the Republic of China (ROC) and then to the People's Republic of China (PRC). In of the past regime changes usually led to the complete demolition of historic buildings and cities by successive authorities. However, both the Kuomintang Party (the ruling party of ROC) and the Communist Party of China (the ruling party of PRC) chose to protect historic buildings and cities, as they considered architectural conservation helpful for nation-building. Their actions encouraged the generation of architectural conservation in China. The paper reviews the development of architectural conservation in China. It introduces the conservation policies of the KMT and CPC authorities and discusses how the government-led conservation policies impacted the development of the Chinese conservation movement. The paper provides an example from China reflective of the political influences on conservation practice in a global context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The New Text school Gongyang Commentary on the Confucian classic the Spring and Autumn Annals operates on the principle that the classical text contains deep meanings that lie beyond the literal sense of the words and need to be discovered by reading between the lines. Such a principle of the hermeneutics of suspicion makes it possible for the interpreter to fit the text into any context or framework with political implications, and the Gongyang school commentaries have indeed often been used for a particular political purpose, with the general tendency of establishing the dichotomy of the Chinese and the barbarian in political Confucianism. Although the Gongyang commentaries did not have much influence for a very long time in Chinese history, it was revived during the last imperial dynasty of Qing and by the royalist and reformist Kang Youwei at the end of Qing. Some Chinese scholars have taken a new interest in the Gongyang commentary tradition for expressing their views on contemporary geopolitics, and therefore it is important to review the Gongyang Commentary and its hermeneutic principles to help us better understand the connection of hermeneutics with politics in contemporary scholarship in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Translation among different ethnic languages has always played a political and cultural role throughout the history of China. Its importance can be comparable to the translation of the Buddhist Scriptures in the Tang and Song dynasties and, to a certain extent, it is deemed to surpass the scientific and technological translation wave in the late Ming and early Qing dynasty in terms of duration, number of participants, and number of translated works. However, it has not drawn much scholarly attention. The present paper aims to investigate translation among different ethnic languages in the Yuan dynasty from the standpoint of the 'state translation program'. The analysis will be conducted, from four aspects, namely the nomination of translation officials, the selection of texts to be translated, the establishment of translation institutions at the national level, and the cultivation of translators. The results of our study show that the governors of the Yuan dynasty enhanced translation as a method of state governance by embedding translation officials in the administrative machinery, setting up cooperative state translation agencies, selecting materials to be translated and training national translators in a systematic manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural and social environment changes have played important roles in social evolution in different times and spaces. Geopolitical change, in particular, might play a decisive role in social evolution during historical periods. The eastern Tienshan Mountains was a transportation hub for communication between the East and the West, where the natural environment is fragile and the social environment has been complex during the historical period. However, geopolitical change and its impact on local social development remain unclear due to fragmented historical records and limited studies. This study investigates the spatiotemporal variations of military facilities in the Hami region, and compares historical documents and archaeological and paleoclimate records to discuss geopolitical changes and social evolution during the historical period in the eastern Tienshan Mountains. A total of 84 visible organic remains from 38 historic beacon towers and 8 dak sites in the Hami region of the eastern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwestern China, were collected and the radiocarbon (14C) dates of these ruins were systematically determined with accelerator mass spectrometry. The dating results show that these sites were mainly built during two major periods: ca. 600–900 cal AD and ca. 1600–1950 cal AD, which roughly correspond to the Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD) and the Qing Dynasty (1636–1912 AD) in ancient China. Human settlement intensity was high during the Han, Tang, and Qing dynasties, and relatively low when the area was controlled by nomadic or local regimes. This suggests that agricultural empires and nomadic/local regimes adopted different strategies for regional management. Climate change might have affected geopolitical patterns, which, in turn, profoundly influenced human activities and social evolution in the eastern Tienshan Mountains over the last two millennia. This study systematically reveals the spatiotemporal variations of beacon towers and dak ruins in the region through a large number of reliable direct 14C dating, it reveals the remarkable differences in human activities in the eastern Tienshan Mountains under different administrations, and it explores the influence of geopolitics and climate change on social evolution in the eastern Tienshan Mountains from a multidisciplinary perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the Opium Wars, traditional notions of China as encompassing "all under heaven" (tianxia 天下) and the "Sino-barbarian dichotomy" (huayi 華夷) could no longer be sustained. Under the pressure and intimidation of the Great Powers' advanced warships and fire power, the Qing government signed the unequal treaties and China was forced to adopt Western conceptual reasoning, discursive language, and rules of conduct. Western knowledge and lexicon was successively translated into Chinese, affecting transformations in local discourse and society. As part of this process, Japanese texts, which contained a great volume of Chinese characters, became an important medium for the transmission of Western epistemology. During the first Opium War between China and England, the cultural and political hegemony of the Great Powers were demonstrated through debates over interpretations of the Chinese character yi 夷. During the Late Qing, Chinese intellectuals drew on their foundations in traditional Chinese lexicon to understand and adopt the foreign-derived words zhongzu 種族 (race) and minzu 民族 (nation). This process reflects both shifts in how Chinese people regarded collective identity and the various presumptions underlying state-building visions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet of Things is a huge system that collects and transmits real-time information. The smart space location is a part of IOT that collects location information, and on the other hand, it is an important tool to analyze the internal relationship of information and help users better understand its laws. As an integral part of the geographical landscape, human settlement environments have the main characteristics of both physical and cultural geography. The human settlement environments in the area along the Shu Road in the late Qing Dynasty (1840–1912) have important historical and geographical features. The main route of the Road to Sichuan takes the basic pattern of "Four in the north and three in the south," with extensive coverage and overflow range; its complex landform brings diverse climate types and vastly different scenery as there are many factors related to the three cultural regions of Guanzhong, Qinba, and Shudi involved. In the application of the Internet of Things in geography, through high-frequency active monitoring, the situation changes can be grasped in a timely manner, the law of changes and trends can be discovered, and the geographic information of mountain village landforms can be provided to the public in a timely manner. Based on Ferdinand von Richthofen: Tagebücher aus China and Hand Drawing of China: Record of the History of Chinese Architecture in Japan, by retrospective restoration, on-site investigation, comprehensive application of relevant theories, and methods in historical geography, architectural typology, art phenomenology, and aesthetics, this study attempted to reasonably divide, scientifically classify, thoroughly analyze, extract the characteristics from, and improve the culture of the village landscapes in the Qinba Mountains along the Shu Road in the late Qing Dynasty from the perspectives including the size types and site relationship, building types and form structures, construction materials and decorative arts, general style, and aesthetic characteristics. It intends to revitalize the culture of village landscapes in the Qinba Mountains along the Shu Road in the late Qing Dynasty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In December 1911, as a revolution continued to unfold in China, the secretary of the Melbourne-based revolutionary group the Young China League wrote a scathing letter to the Chinese Consul General in Australia criticising the consulate for raising the 'hateful flag' of the Qing Dynasty, and showing sympathies with the 'despotic' Manchu government. At the centre of this letter was a clear frustration at the Manchu ethnic group that then ruled China. This article examines this letter as a case study in the development of anti-Manchu rhetoric among Chinese people all over the world, revealing its impact on Chinese Australians' changing concepts of loyalty during the Qing Dynasty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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