Fabricatingthe Glory of the “Sun King”：The Divine Kingship and the Shaping of Nation-State in The Fabrication of Louis XIV

Louis XIV ( September 1638—Sep-tember 1715 ) , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King, was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France from 1643 until his death.His reign of 72 year...     

The “War” Mentality of the Liangshang Yi：A Culture of Honor

I. Introduction
This topic was inspired by the findings of the ethnologist Lin Yaohua who investigated the Yi in Liangshan,and discovered that what distinguished the Yi from other ethnic groups wa...     

拱心石与神王——施鲁克人的nyikang神与神圣王权的研究

In his famous book The Golden Bough,James Frazer mentioned one special custom found along the shores of Lake Nemi in Italy. The forest king who lived beside Lake Nemi, was not only once a prisoner, but also the murderer of his predecessor. Why did the King have to be killed? How could he be killed? This was the very starting point of James Frazer’s divine kingship study. This was in contrast to the common idea held in many cultures, that kings, or even gods, would die. However, in the most primitive societies, kings and gods also had a symbolic duty. People be-lieved that their king took the responsibility to maintain the order of society and the natural world. In that case, it was obvious that if the king became old and weak, the society and order would be in danger. The way used by primitive people to solve this problem was to kill the king when he became weak, and to rebuild this symbol of order through the accession of a new king. This worry about the loss of order and fertility, Frazer explained, was the reason why they choose to kill their king, who was also a god to them. To prove his theory, Fra-zer used many examples. Among them, the exam-ple of the Shilluk of Nilotic Sudan was the only real case of a people killing their king. All the kings were possessed by the spirit of Nyikang, who was not only a hero and king in their history, but also the god who created the universe of the Shilluk people. In Shilluk, it was not the king who ruled the country, but the spirit who possessed him. For that reason, once the king showed his weakness and age, he had to be killed or commit a suicide so as to keep Nyikang in a healthy body. This case was mentioned by James Frazer, re-examined by Evans-Pritchard, and discussed by Henri Frank-fort and David Graeber. The Shilluk people lived in Sudan, in the Ni-lotic area alongside the Nile River. Their kingdom consisted of y many hamlets and occupied by linea-ges. But all these hamlets and lineages shared the same king, who was believed to be the descendant of their semi-divine hero and first king, Nyikang. Nyikang was believed to bring the fertility of men, of cattle, and of the crops. He lived among his people and blessed them. He was a mythological figure who represented a changeless moral order and the stable structure of the state. The Shilluk people believed that the king was the embodiment of Nyikang, and, thus, shared his divinity. All the Kings were believed to be descended from Nyi-kang. The king could be killed for two reasons:when he could no longer satisfy his wives, it was time for him to die and make room for a more vig-orous successor; or he would be killed by one of the prince who coveted the shrine at night. There were many graves of kings and of Nyikang all a-round the kingdom, but all the Shilluk people knew that Nyikang was not buried in any of them, he would never die. The king, however, was the container of the Nyikang’s spirit. Thus, after his death, he was no longer divine, so his funeral would be a clan affair rather than a national affair. In Frazer’s opinion, Shilluk kings confirmed their rule and power by maintaining their connec-tion with the god, Nyikang. And, he gained divin-ity from this connection. However, this divinity was not permanent. In the same way, the stability of the Shilluk social order was also not permanent, so the complete failure of that power would cause the danger to the entire society. When the new king ascended the throne, the social order would be re-established. So, to kill the old king when he could no longer take responsibility for the whole of society was the way for the Shilluk to release the tension and handle the danger which resulted from their king’s death and to keep the social order. Several decades after the publication of The Golden Bough, Evans - Pritchard gave a talk at The Frazer Lecture ( 1948 ) . He looked at the Shilluk custom of killing their king together with the social structure of the Shilluk kingdom, and pointed out some of the unreasonable explanations made by James Frazer. He believed that this cus-tom, which Frazer explained as the way the Shilluk maintained the divinity of kingship, had political reasons and social functions. Based on his field-work, Evans - Pritchard described the political structure of Shilluk as follows: Shilluk hamlets consisted of one to fifty different families. Each hamlet was occupied by members of an extended family or a small lineage. The headman of a hamlet was also the head of a lineage in the settlement. All the Shilluk settlements composed a common polity, i. e. the land belonging to the Kingdom of Shillukland. There were two chiefs in the hierarchy between the king and the settlements. These were the Ger, who represented northern Shillukland, and the Luak, who represented the southern shil-lukland. Those two chiefs each ritually represented half of the kingdom, and they played a very impor-tant role in the election of the new king. Evans-Prichard discovered that there were very close con-nections between the kings, the princes and their villages where they were born. The pregnant wives of the kings would be sent back to their natal villa-ges to bear their children, and the princes were brought up by the headmen of their natal villages. Except them, all of the princes had their royal cli-ents ( Ororo) in the villages. These were the com-panions of the prince, so they would live in the capital with the prince if he was chosen to be the king, and would return to their village to guard the king’s tomb. This information will help us to see and understand the social structure of Shilluk soci-ety. The dual balanced structure of Shilluk society was represented by the southern-northern opposi-tion. We find that the Shilluk kingdom had a double configuration—one that was politically re-flected in its territorial division, which was divided into northern and southern parts, and the other one was ritually reflected in the rituals related to the cult of Nyikang. The king and the capital specific-ally stayed in the center. As Evans - Pritchard said, Northern Shillukland and Southern Shil-lukland were the arches of the kingdom of Shilluk, and kingship was the keystone. This duality was clearly represented in the election system and in-vestiture. The investiture of the new king would take place about a year after his election. Since this ceremony was meant to rebuild the social or-der, all the hamlets would participate in it. After the old king’s death, the spirit of Nyikang would no longer stay in his body. Instead, it would move to an effigy of a hamlet which was in a far north dis-trict of Shillukland. The effigy would be sent by the army of north to the outskirts of the capital, where there would be a ceremonial war with the king’s army. Since Nyikang was in the northern army, it was obvious that the king would fail. Then, the ef-figy of Nyikang would be put on the king’s chair. Then, the king would sit on the chair, and, as a result, the spirit of Nyikang entered into the body of the new king. Now, there would be another war— because Nyikang had entered into the body of the new king, the northern army failed, and, they would then take the effigy back to the shrine. This ceremony not only illustrated the tension be-tween the north and the south of Shillukland, but also the tension between the god Nyikang and the human king. And all these tensions were resolved through a unified kingship. We find that Shilluk society, no matter whether within the vertical and horizontal structure of the southern -northern op-position, or among the different hamlets, they all had different objects to show their loyalty. Howev-er, all these differences would be reduced when they faced a unified national symbol— Nyikang or divine kingship. The king did not belong to any single tribe or hamlet after the ceremony. He be-came the symbol of the happiness and continuity of all the Shilluk people. From this ceremony, Evans -Pritchard re -explained the reason for the special custom of the Shilluk. He asserted that in Shilluk society, the king’s death would cause chaos and many dangers. The king had died in the way they described be-cause they were afraid of exposing the tensions hid-den within the social structure. So, this tradition was only a political myth hidden under the facts. The second kind of death of the king was that he was killed by a prince. Evans-Pritchard believed that all Shilluk princes received support from their natal villages. If all the tribes had their own king, the Shilluk kingdom would definitely be torn apart. So, they still needed a center from which to build the whole kingdom, i. e. the kingship. In a king-dom of this kind, if the king attached himself to one hamlet, other hamlets would fight for their own rights. So, because the kingship was permanent and ensured the unity of the whole kingdom, it should be emphasized. In contrast to Evans-Pritchard’ s structural-functionist explanation, the American archaeolo-gist, Henri Frankfort, made his analysis of the customs of the Shilluk based upon the methodology of mythology. He compared the divine kingship of Egypt and Shilluk in his book Kingship and the Gods. And, based upon the process of the combi-nation and separation of the king and the gods, he discussed the function of divine kingship. In E-gypt, the pharaoh was called “the Lord of Two Lands”. This title involved two gods who were en-emies:Horus and Seth. They were respectively the Kings of Upper and Lower Egypt. Even when Seth had been defeated by Horus, it did not mean that he totally disappeared. This is because he had his own function within the existing order. Horus was not only a mythological figure, but also was one which reflected on the pharaoh. The pharaoh was always regarded as Horus or his embodiment. This idea is quite similar to the connection of Nyikang with the Shilluk king. However, in Egypt, there was another god who had a close connection with the kingship, that is, Osiris. In Egypt, the dead king was believed to change into Osiris, and the king on the throne, just as Horus, was regarded as the son of Osiris. Beside this connection, in the myths, Osiris was said to be the “Ka ” of Horus, which was something like energy, and for the king, it was somewhat like a kind of ruling power. This kind of father-son relationship also ex-isted among the Shilluk people. When Evans -Pritchard described the ceremony, he mentioned that Dak, the son of Nyikang, was also honored. However, in Shilluk, Nyikang meant all the kings, no matter whether dead or alive. What was more important is that Shilluk kings themselves were not gods, they were just processed by Nyikang, and it was Nyikang who was the real ruler. That was the reason why the accession ceremony of the king was so important. However, in the Egyptian view, the concept of kingship itself was more complicated than that of the Shilluk. All the Egyptian kings themselves were gods, and their orders, as god’s order, must be obeyed. So, although there was a stable kingship in the two societies, the roles played by the king were totally different. However, we can still find some basic elements of the divine kingship from these two cases. Because the king himself was a human being, he would definitely turn old and die. In order to resolve the social stress caused by the succession of the kingship, the kingship had to be stable. So, the king must have a relationship with the gods. It was the god and the kingship that maintained the unity of this structure. In 2011 , David Graeber published his paper titled The Divine Kingship of the Shilluk in which he used theories from political science to discuss the relationship between Nyikang and the Shilluk king . He tried to use this case to understand the e-mergence of the state and power. He compared the political status of Shilluk with their myth and cos-mology. He proposed three very important con-cepts:i) divine kingship which was absolutely dic-tatorial and had god-like authority—and was one in which this divine god went beyond the morality;ii) the sacred kingship which was ritualized and exemplary—this was a kind of prophetic and legis-lative king ; iii) violence and antagonism with no reason - the subject of the violence was the sover-eign and the people. All of these three concepts, David Graeber said, could be found in the Shilluk Kingdom. That was not because they were so -called primitive ethnic groups, but because this kingdom was a “Utopian State”. In other words, this kingdom, or the construction of its main cit-ies, was an imitation to the cosmic order, and, therefore, did not need a management institution to rule it. However, because this could never exist in the real world, violence appeared. David Graeber divided the kingship into two types: the divine and the sacred. In the former, the king was believed to be the god itself. And, in the latter, the kings were those who brought and created order. However, if order was set up by a king, it was asked whether or not the king himself still stayed within the order? So, the extreme type of sacred kingship would be the denial of the limi-tation of the king’s life. David Graeber suggested that the King of Shilluk did not have real power. The responsibility the Shilluk king undetook was the order of the whole cosmos. When he became weak, he could no longer judge and rule based on the cosmology. This is the reason why he had to be killed. We can see that the king who ruled the state according to the cosmology was more like a divine king, so his fate was that he must be killed by people. However, after he was killed, the for-mer “scapegoat” became the god and was wor-shiped by the people. The social order was rebuilt because of the king’s death, and in doing so he be-came the embodiment of the strength needed to re-build the social order. So, we can note that in Shilluk society, although people expect stability and order, they cannot allow the rule to become a central control and monopoly. The king should be in the center of order, but because the king would definitely become old, people tried to reduce the disorder through killing him. Due to the limitations of the king, he was trapped in the absolute authori-ty of the divine kingship, and the infinite order of the order. Hence, he was killed again and again. The appearance of the king was to resolve the dilemma within this society. He tried to build a U-topia, but was trapped in it because of his own limitations. Just like the kings were killed con-stantly, the conflict between sovereignty and the people would never stop. David Greaber pointed out that this constant opposition was the origin of state. This opinion totally refuted existing political theories, o matter whether they were that of Max Weber or of those who believe that it was through making law and rules to solve the conflict or the so-cial tensions in Africa, for their opinions were based on the perspective of nation state. However, in Africa, at least in Nilotic Sudan, they were u-sing this conflict to build their state. Graeber’s ar-ticle indicated that in the war between the sover-eign and the people, the sovereign is limited, and can never win truly. It reveals a new possibility for the construction of a nation state and political sys-tem. To sum up the discussions above, we have found that in those societies with divine kingship, the reason for the king’s divinity was because he undertook the people’s expectation of a stable soci-ety, and the fertility of crops, and livestock. Be-cause these expectations were not stable in them-selves, people either believed that their king him-self was a god, or tried to ensure that their king was in a healthy state. The similarity between them was that people had to keep the kingship stable and reduce the tension and chaos caused by the king’s death. From their fear of disorder and the fear of powerful order, we can even find a variety of ways of thinking about a perfect and eternal order, as well as on an imperfect and limited life. Thus the King always connected with a stone, for people al-ways expect a stable and changeless eternity.     

Two Courts of the’Phags-pa Era

1. Preamble An event which is said to have taken place in 1267, just prior to' Phags--pa's leisurely re-turn to the Mongol imperial court in China was his organization of an entourage of attendants andofficials who were responsible for the wide variety of duties and functions that had accrued to him inthe course of his growing prestige and influence. In keeping with his position in Tibet as the spiritual     

南京国民政府时期全国性议政机构中少数民族代表考察

China is a multi-ethnic country. From the wuzu gonghe ( Five nationalities under one union ) in the early Republic of China to the current union of 56 ethnic groups, the participation of ethnic minorities in political affairs has always been a vital and important factor for the develop-ment of China’s democratic politics. On one hand, the Nanjing National Government was dedicated to the model of a“civil identification” and weakening ethnic characteristics. On the other hand, due to the immense pressure from the resistance of the Japanese invasion and the increase of minority representatives’ appeals, they had to gradually al-low some ethnic elites, as ethnic minority repre-sentatives, to participate in the national affairs so that they could acquire more political identity. Al-though the government of the Republic of China claimed “Five nationalities under one union” as well as declaring many times to guarantee extensive and orderly ethnic minority participation in national affairs, by analyzing cases of elections in the state council agencies during the period of Nanjing na-tional government, not all the promises were imple-mented. I. The general situation of the elections for ethnic minority representatives in the state council agencies. In the National Conference in 1931 , only Mongolia and Tibet were allowed to organize their own elections and send their own ethnic representa-tives. Among the total of 520 national conference representatives, Mongolian representatives accoun-ted for 12 , and Tibetans accounted for 10 . The National Political Council, which also known as“the Congress during war”, was founded on July 6 , 1938 , and was abolished on March 28 , 1948 . It lasted for 9 years and held conferences a total of 4 times. In all the 4 conferences, 10 people were elected as participants to represent Tibet to discuss political affairs, and 18 people were elected as participants representing Mongolia. However, al-though other minorities were not regarded as elec-ted units, yet still some outstanding personages from these ethnic minorities were recommended by their provinces or other political organs as partici-pants to discuss national political affairs. In the National Assembly held on November 15 , 1946 , each of the following provinces, including Yun-nan, Guizhou, Xikang, Sichuan, Guangxi and Hunan, were allowed to send ten people who re-presented their local ethnic minorities to discuss political affairs. In the National Assembly held in March of 1948 , not only the numbers of ethnic mi-norities increased, but also the way of electing them was improved. II. An analysis of the election conditions of the ethnic minority representatives in the national state agencies. 1 . Although the numbers of ethnic minority representatives increased, nevertheless, the pro-portion of them did not. During 18 years ( 1931-1948 ) , the number of the ethnic minority repre-sentatives increased from the initial 22 to 147 . However, the proportion of them only increased by 0. 7%, which was not so remarkable. 2 . The structure of the ethnic minority repre-sentatives was complicated, but most came from the “upper classes”. In the year of 1931 , there were only 6 representatives for the state conference from both Mongolia and Tibet. By the year 1948, there were 148 ethnic minority representatives coming from Mongolian, Tibetan, Hui, Manchu, Miao, Yi, and, so on, ethnic groups. As a result, the structure of ethnic representation was more complex as the numbers increased during the peri-od of Nanjing National Government. Many repre-sentatives were elected by the selection method, and most of them came from the upper classes. Therefore, structurally, representatives from the bottom rung of society who deeply understood the sufferings of ethnic people, were lacking. 3 . The regional characteristics of the ethnic minorities were weakened and the ethnic character-istics were strengthened. With regard to the elec-tion of representatives for the National Conference held in 1931, in consideration of regional politics, only Tibet and Mongolia were chosen as election u-nits which could hold their own elections. When the National Political Council was held in 1938 , the situation had not changed. Many provinces, for example, Xinjiang, and Ningxia, and many south-western provinces, which were home to many eth-nic minority people, could only select their repre-sentatives through elections held either by organiza-tionsor elections on the provincial or municipal lev-el. It was not until the victory of the war against Japan, that the National government acknowledged the particular characteristics of the southwestern ethnic minorities. It was only at the time of the e-lection for the representatives for the National As-sembly, that the Manchu and Hui achieved the right to hold their own election separately. III. “Five nationalities under one union” or“Single nation state”? Although the Nanjing National Government claimed “Five nationalities under one union” and asserted to the public that all the nationalities were equal, Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek were hopeful of building a country which promoted the situation of a “single nation state”. Their ethnic policies embraced the hope of the national govern-ment, i. e. to replace“ethnic identity” with“state identity”. In fact, with the awakening of ethnic consciousness in modern times, it was obvious that the idea that 400 million of people came from the same nationalities was only the government’s view. During that time, although the political status of a few ethnic minorities was acknowledged by the gov-ernment and the number of the ethnic minority rep-resentatives increased, the change was not promo-ted by the national government on its own accord. First of all, because of the pressure from the resist-ance to the Japanese invasion, all the social clas-ses needed to unify. In addition, many ethnic elites tried their best to gain the opportunity to par-ticipate in national affairs. What’s more, the eth-nic policies in those regions governed by the Com-munist Party were also one of the influential fac-tors. From the National Conference to the National Assembly, the criteria for holding elections were still only acquired by the Mongols, Tibetans, Hui, Manchus and the ethnic minorities in the southeast-ern border areas. All in all, it was an unequal way for ethnic minority representatives to participate in national affairs. Objectively, the ideal of a “Single Nation state” which was pursued by the nationalists was not suitable for China’s situation. Instead, it might be the cause of ethnic conflicts. China has a vast territory with uneven economic development. The transportation, economy and education in the re-gions where ethnic minorities live were mostly un-developed. As a result, it was difficult for the eth-nic minorities to win when they campaigned with the inner regions which held many resources. Fur-thermore, although a few of the ethnic minorities were gradually granted the status of political sub-ject by the Nanjing National Government, this process lacked efficiency. A large group of the ci-vilians belonging to ethnic minorities had trouble approaching state identification while, moreover, their own ethnic identification was not acknowl-edged by the government. Therefore, the ethnic minority region naturally found it difficult to identi-fy with the rule of the national government.     

韦皋与唐代南方丝绸之路的重开

Weigao was one of the famous Jie-dushi ( regional military commissioners ) of the Jiannan Xichuan ( located in today’s southern Si-chuan) in the Tang Dynasty. During the rule of Wei Gao, he successfully defeated the Tubo, and changed the Tang court’s submissiveness in the southwestern region and the fight between the Tang and Tubo along the southern line. He also restored the links between Yunnan and Xichuan including all the way to the Central Plains, and, as a result, the once closed Southern Silk Road was reopened. A further exploration and evaluation of Wei Gao’s actions and his influence on reopening the Southern Silk Road ought to be given. I. Wei Gao’s Alliance with the Nanzhao King-dom and Reopening the Southern Silk Road In 785 A. D. , Wei Gao arrived in Chengdu and was appointed Jiedushi of Jiannan Xichuan. The situation of Jiannan Xichuan at that time was very critical. After the Tianbao war, the Kingdom of Nanzhao, which had unified the area around Er-hai Lake with the support of the Tang in the past, turned against the Tang and publicly announced its alliance with the Tubo. The Nanzhao Kingdom, to-gether with the Tubo, struck the Tang in the south-western region. This shift not only put the Tang in a submissive position in the southwestern region, but also significantly influenced the relations be-tween the Tang and the Tubo. As the Jiedushi of Jiannan Xichuan, Wei Gao became a unique practitioner and actively promoted a joint strategy in Yunnan. After the Tang decided to make an alliance with the Nanzhao Kingdom, relevant actions were taken immediately. However because relations between the Nanzhao Kingdom and the Tang had been broken for many years, at the beginning, Wei Gao could only communicate through some of the tribal chiefs of the Dongman ( Eastern Barbarians) . Through several years of ef-fort and mutual contact, Wei Gao’s endeavors to make an alliance with the Nanzhao, at last, were effective. Wei Gao’s efforts to make an alliance with the Nanzhao certainly involved issues related to trans-portation between Xichuan and the area of Erhai Lake. During that period, the route between Xi-chuan and Nanzhao was not only under military threat from the Tubo, but it was also overseen by the tribes of the Dongman who supported the Tu-bo—this indicated that the line of communication was not in a normal situation. The Southern Silk Road was one of ancient China’s important land trade routes to overseas. In looking at relevant re-cords in the Shiji ( Records of the Historian ) , we can see that this route had been known by people in the Central Plains from at least the Qin and Han dynasties. It was called the“Shushen Dudao” dur-ing the Han dynasty, and the “Xi’er Tianzhu zhid-ao” in the Taizhong period of the Tang dynasty.“Xi’er” refers to Erhai Lake, which was called“Xi’er He” during that time; “Tianzhu”, i. e.“Shendu”, refers to present day India. Since the Qin and Han dynasties, there were two primary routes between Xichuan and the area of Lake Er-hai. One was the Shimendao, also called the Wuchidao or Rongzhoudao, which started from present Chengdu and went through present day Le-shan and Yibin. The other was the Qing Xidao, also called the Lingguandao, Songzhoudao or Qiongnan Yilu,which, started from present Cheng-du, and went through present day Ya’an, and Xichang. These two routes were also called the“North Route” and the“South Route” in the Yun-nan Zhi ( The History of Yunnan) compiled by Fan Cuo in the Tang Dynasty. These two were the main routes between Sichuan and Yunnan on the South-ern Silk Road in the Tang dynasty. In 794 A. D. , the Tang and the Nanzhao Kingdom swore an oath of alliance, and Wei Gao started his plans to reo-pen the routes. By making a comprehensive analy-sis of relevant historical records, we are certain that starting with a plan in the 8th century, and fol-lowing the realization of the alliance between the Tang and Nanzhao as part of the strategy for the Southwestern area, and, together with the success in the fight against the Tubo, the two main chan-nels between Sichuan and Yunnan on the Southern Silk Road were reopened as a result of the concern of Wei Gao at the beginning of the 9th century. II. The Basic Situation of the Route between Sichuan and Yunnan on the Southern Silk Road in the Tang Dynasty and Its Historical Significance It was a long way from Xichuan to the area of Lake Erhai, and, moreover, the situation was also very complicated. Whenever the North Route or the South Route opened, it was not something that was completed immediately; it was a process. Al-though some sections of the road might be comple-ted initially, the opening of the entire route could not be completed within a short time. Through the records of Fan Cuo in his Yunnan Zhi, we can glean a general understanding of the basic situation regarding the reopening of the two main routes be-tween Sichuan and Yunnan along the Southern Silk Road in the Tang Dynasty. Seen from the records of Fan Cuo, there were courier stations along the South Route, so that travelers and their horses could have services and accommodation. It is very significant to note that in addition to the records of courier stations along the route managed by the Xichuan administration, the Yunnan Zhi also recorded that special translators were arranged for facilitating the contact and ex-change between the two sides, i. e. Xichuan and Nanzhao, after the route reached Ezhunling. This detail reflected Xichuan’s attention to the manage-ment of this route, but it also reflected the frequent contact between the people from the two sides of this route and the need for better communication. The road which started from Ezhunling was man-aged by the Nanzhao Kingdom. The situation of the North Route was quite different from the South Route. Based upon an analysis of the records found in the Yunnan Zhi, along the north route, there were not only high mountain, steep slopes, and winding roads, but the traveler also had to pass through many areas inhabited by the Wuman (Black Babarians). So, people were able to pass through the stations only after their words had been translated three or four times. Generally speaking, the conditions along the North Route were worse than those along the South Route. Therefore, al-though the reopening of the South Route was later than the North Route, people usually chose to pass through the South Route after it was reopened. It should be mentioned here that although Fan Cuo’s Yunnan Zhi was compiled during the early years of Xiantong Period in the Tang dynasty, the situation along the route and courier stations recorded in the book were probably not much different from those along the route during the time of Wei Gao. Al-though more than half a century of time had passed the road and courier stations along the South and North Routes might have only had some minor changes, and it was probably generally the same as in the past. Moreover it was unblocked for a long term due to the concern of the both sides. Another point that should be noted here is that although both the South and North Routes connecting Si-chuan and Yunnan on the Southern Silk Road in the Tang dynasty were managed by the administra-tions of Xichuan and Nanzhao separately, seen from the close relations and common demands of the two sides, the construction and management of these two important routes were combined through the negotiation of the two sides’ considerations and demands. As the major supporter for making the alliance with Nanzhao, Wei Gao should be the one who played an active role in this process. Because of the alliance between the Tang and the Nanzhao Kingdom the Tubo suffered a setback in the southwestern region, and they gradually re-treated to the north. Under this scenario, the channels of communication between Sichuan and Yunnan were unblocked, and communication be-tween the envoys from the Tang and Nanzhao be-came more frequent, the local trade developed, and the number of businessmen traversing Sichuan and Yunnan increased. Seen from the perspective of the development of Nanzhao, the frequent ex-changes between the artisans and traders from the two sides via the South and North Routes that ran between Sichuan and Yunnan promoted the eco-nomic and commercial development of Yunnan. In addition, there were many ethnic groups in the Nanzhao Kingdom. These included the Wuman, and Baiman ( white barbarians) . For several dec-ades,“more than a thousand” people from differ-ent ethnic groups went to Chengdu to study. This reflected that the reopening of the Southern Silk Road during the Tang dynasty played an important role in cultural transmission. On the other hand, training youth from the different ethnic groups liv-ing in the Nanzhao Kingdom also had a deep influ-ence on the cultural development of Yunnan. More important is that this action enhanced the commu-nication between the ethnic groups of Yunnan and the Central Plains. In addition, after reopening the road between Sichuan and Yunnan on the Southern Silk Route, the road continued through Nanzhao territory, crossed into the Myanmar-India route, and arrived in South and Southeast Asia. It could be said that Wei Gao’s reopening of the Southern Silk Road was not only helpful for communication between the people of Xichuan, the Central Plains and Yunnan, but it was also helpful for communi-cation between the Tang and the countries of South and Southeast Asia. It should be mentioned that Wei Gao’s reope-ning of the Southern Silk Road was conducted with-in the framework of an alliance with the Nanzhao Kingdom to attack the Tubo. Hence, speaking truthfully, reopening the road was not the main re-sponsibility of the Jiedushi of Xichuan, and was al-so not his main strategic goal. Under the serious situation faced by Jiannan Xichuan, Wei Gao’s main focus during that time was how to contact and make an alliance with the Nanzhao Kingdom so as to take military action against the Tubo. Even if he planned to reopen this road and took some action, it was conducted by targeting his military strategic action. However, reopening the Southern Silk Road could not be separated from the action of making an alliance with the Nanzhao Kingdom. Moreover, after reopening this road, it really pro-moted economic -cultural exchange and develop-ment along the road. Hence, we should give a full understanding and evaluation on Wei Gao’s histori-cal role in it.     

A Study on the Change in Occupational Structure of China’ s Ethnic Minorities

The occupational structure of the employed population and its changes reflect the level of economic development and the change of social status of a population group .Based on cen-sus data , this paper analyzes the occupational structure of the employed population of China ＇ s ethnic minorities.It shows that： 1 ） Among the employed population of the eth-nic minorities （ excepting those people who are en-gaged in forestry , animal husbandry and fishery , etc., a proportion which is higher than the overall population or the Han ） , the proportion is lower than in either the overall population or the Han population . 2 ） The gender differences and directional change of the occupational structure of the em-ployed population indicates that the status of women was gradually promoted during the period 1990 to 2010. 3） Seen from the proportion of those engaged in mental labor versus physical labor;the proportion ethnic minorities engaged in mental labor is low . 4） The degree of diversity in the occupational structure of the ethnic minorities has made some improvement. 5 ） The ethnic differences in occupational structure are obvious . 6） The urbanization level and the educational level of the population are the key factors which determine the occupational structure of the em-ployed population . From this study , we feel that the degree of so-cial exclusion of the ethnic minorities has gone up during the past ten years .This ＂going up＂ has lead or is leading to social problems .Hence, it is necessary to pay high attention to this issue .Re-garding this, the author thinks that , firstly, sup-port to ethnic minority education should be en-hanced;secondly , the proportion of ethnic minori-ty people in civil servant recruitment should be im-proved;thirdly, the proportion of the employment of ethnic minority workers in projects in ethnic mi-nority regions should be stipulated .     

民国时期天山北麓东路城市多民族居民生活的变化

Although the Republican era of China did not last very long, it was a significant period in which China transformed from an agricul-tural to an industrial era, and from a traditional so-ciety to a modern one. During this period, not only did the politics and economics change dramatical-ly, but also the lives of urban residents. Although Xinjiang is located in the western frontier area of inland China, since the Qing dynasty, its politi-cal, economic and cultural connections with inland China gradually increased. Xinjiang is not an iso-lated region, it actually is located in the central ar-ea of Asia. So, its openness is very pronounced. Even though during the Republican era, inland China was gripped in the chaos of war, Xinjiang’s political, economic and cultural connections with the inland were never broken. Although sometimes the central government’s control in Xinjiang was not so strong, the central government’s policies had always impacted strongly on Xinjiang. In addition, due to the continuous migration of the inland popu-lation ( especially intellectuals, and political and military people) into urban areas, such as Dihua in Xinjiang during the Republic era of China, the politics, economics and culture of inland China had a big impact on the lives of Xinjiang urban res-idents. Moreover, Xijiang is neighbors with Rus-sia. Since the middle of the 19th century, Russia, whose industrialization and modernization occurred earlier and faster than China’s, often made political and military invasions, as well as cultural infiltra-tion, into Xinjiang. After the founding of the Sovi-et Union, its influence on the cities of Xijiang gradually increased. Especially during the period when Sheng Shicai managed Xinjiang, the influ-ence of the Soviet Union on Xinjiang was the stron-gest. In addition to political influence, economic and cultural influences became more pronounced, and numerous industrial and cultural products made in the Soviet Union were imported into Xin-jiang. This had a dramatic impact on the urban residents of Xinjiang. As a political, economic and cultural center of Xinjiang, Dihua was alive with many Russians who engaged in political, economic and cultural activities. Hence, their direct or indi-rect influence on the lives of Dihua residents was stronger than in other cities. At present, the research on Xinjiang during the Republican era of China mainly focuses on the political and economic domains , and less attention is paid to its urban life. However, the changes of modernization are not only reflected in the aspects of politics and economics, but also in the field of social life. Hence, to strengthen the research on the changes in social life in urban areas of Xinjiang during the Republican era of China is significant. The Republican era of China was an important pe-riod for Xinjiang society. Although if we compare it with the urban areas along the eastern coastal ar-ea of China, the impact of western culture on the lives of urban residents in Xinjiang during this pe-riod was not so strong, and the changes in social life also reflected multi - ethnic characteristics. The changes in urban life in Xinjiang were also an important part of the changes following China’s modernization. It reflected a both generalization and a diversity of the urban changes created by China’s modernization. In addition, one should note the impact of the changes in Xinjiang’s urban life during the Republican era on that of Xinjiang during the latter half of the 20th century. Thus, it is very necessary to conduct a research on the lives of Xinjiang’s urban residents during the Republican era of China. Xinjiang has been a multi-ethnic area since ancient times, a fact which contributes the ethnic diversity that characterizes the social life of Xin-jiang cities. During the Republican era, the mate-rial life of the various ethnic groups living in Xinjiang’s cities changed successively due to the impact of external cultures, and the wave of mod-ernization. However the changes to the material lives of the various ethnic groups were different. The content of material life is very broad. General-ly speaking, it comprises people’s daily life, inclu-ding clothing, food, shelter and transportation, all of which are regarded as basic essentials for peo-ple. In a period of scarcity of goods and materials, material life became the most important thing for most of the public. Hence, changes with regard to material life, to a large extent, is reflected in the changes in the social lives of urban residents. Generally speaking, compared with the situa-tion in the Qing dynasty, the clothing in Xinjiang cities such as Dihua exhibited a big change. How-ever , this change displayed multi-ethnic and diver-sified characteristics. Concerning the food culture of Dihua urban residents during the Republican era of China, it reflected more open, inclusive and mutually influential features. In other words, the existence of a diversified food culture and diverse development was an important characteristic of the time. Concerning shelter during this period, a big change in Dihua’s urban style was that some mod-ern buildings co-appeared alongside traditional style buildings, no matter whether it was in the pri-vate space or public space. Moreover, the trans-portation mechanisms also changed during this pe-riod. Roads for cars appeared in Dihua, which opened the gate for Xinjiang’s automobile age. During the Republican era of China, most ur-ban residents in Xijiang’s cities, such as Dihua, kept their traditional customs. However, there were also some changes due to the influence of ex-ternal cultures—these changes were presented as the characteristics of pluralism, diversity and a mixture of the old and new. Multiple ethnic groups concentrated in an area in the eastern zone line of the northern foot of Mount Tianshan. During the process of history, the different ethnic groups formed their own cultures and religious beliefs. In the Republican era of China, the various ethnic groups lived in harmony most of time, and the plu-ralism and inclusiveness of cultures gradually in-creased. Generally speaking, the lives and cus-toms of the Han in Xinjiang cities, such as Dihua during the Republican era of China, were almost same as those of the Han in inland China. On one hand, they kept many of their traditional customs;yet, on the other hand, they also gradually accept-ed some new ones from external cultures. The eth-nic minorities, such as the Uygur and Hui, were deeply influenced by Islamic religious culture. Their religious cultural life exhibited almost no change during the Republican era of China, and they, for the most part, maintained their tradi-tions. During this period, in keeping with the gradual consciousness of ethnic equality, although various ethnic groups kept their own traditions, and they did not reject each others’ traditions, and instead, there was some mutual exchanges among them. This made the urban culture more diversi-fied . Not only were the festivals of the Uyghur pop-ular among themselves, the Han were also invited to participate in them. Moreover, the Han’s festi-vals, especially the Spring Festival, Lantern Festi-val and others, were also gradually accepted by other ethnic groups, and, for example, the Uy-ghur, Hui, Mongolian and Kazakhs, and others all participated in these festivals. In the middle and latter period of the Republican era, the urban cul-ture of Xinjiang exhibited a sense of openness. Within the basis of maintaining their own ethnic cultural traditions, each ethnic group showed an opened attitude to new cultures, and, hence, ur-ban culture became more diversified and rich. During the time when agriculture was more dominant , traditional cities lacked of public cultur-al spaces. Hence, Buddhist monasteries, Taoist temples and mosques became the sites for organi-zing public cultural activities in the urban areas. Since modern times, the public cultural spaces in urban areas have experienced a great change. Parks, as a new mode of public space, began to appear successively in some important cities. At the end of the Republican era of China, the public cultural space of Dihua had been further expand-ed. In 1948, there were four such kind of public cultural sites in Dihua, such as Zhongshan Park, Hongyan Lake, Shuimo River, and Wulabai. In addition to these, the cinema also played a very important role in the new entertainment life of the urban residents of Dihua. In 1944, Dihua had three movie theaters which were run respectively by the government, a businessman and a Russian. Movies had a very direct impact on the residents’ vision and mind, especially on the youth. A new movie sometimes would change some people’s view of life or the rules of their behavior. In short, the Republican era was a dramatic period of change during which China transformed from a traditional agricultural society to a modern industrial one. Following the changes in politics, economics and culture, people’s material life and cultural life were also changed. Due to the vast territory, and uneven political and economic devel-opment of China, the changes differed in various regions. Xinjiang is a frontier area in western Chi-na. Its communication with the outside world was not so convenient. Hence, compared with the east-ern coastal region, the degree of change in Xin-jiang was lower, and the speed of change was also relatively slower. However, this kind of change ac-cumulated over several decades, so, with time, the changes also became very noticeable. Howev-er , due to the uneven regional development in Xin-jiang, the changes in some cities were slow while in some they were fast. Compared with other places of Xinjiang, the changes along the eastern line of the northern foot of Mount Tianshan, and taking Dihua as the center, were faster and more obvious in the Republican era. On one hand, Di-hua was more strongly influenced by the politics, economics and culture of inland China; and, on the other hand, Dihua was also influenced more di-rectly by the politics, economics and culture of the Soviet Union With the combined role played by the both sources, the material life of the urban resi-dents of Dihua, including clothing, food, shelter and transportation, as well as the customs, and cultural entertainments, changed dramatically. This change was not only similar to that of inland cities, but it also reflected regional characteristics of Xinjiang—the characteristics of ethnicity and di-versity wee more pronounced. In addition, com-pared with Tibet which is also in the western fron-tier of China, the changes brought by the urban modernization in Xinjiang was more dramatic. This was directly connected with Xinjiang’s geographical location, natural climatic conditions, as well as its political, economic and cultural development. Al-though Xinjiang lies in the western frontier of Chi-na, its transportation connections with inland Chi-na and the outside world were more convenient than those in Tibet. During the Republican era, the railways, highways and aviation routes devel-oped relatively well, the Xinjiang’s economic, and cultural connections with both inland China and the Soviet Union were also relatively close. In addi-tion, an important natural condition which also created good conditions for the opening up of Xin-jiang is that the elevation of most areas of Xinjiang is not high—the average elevation is around 1000 meters. Hence, the natural geographical conditions promoted a population flow between Xinjiang and inland China, as well as between Xinjiang and the Soviet Union. Moreover, after the settling of Xin-jiang province at the end of the Qing dynasty, the feeldings and unity with inland China were ensured from an institutional aspect. It was just under such kind of background that the lives of the urban resi-dents living in the eastern zone of the northern foot of Mount Tianshan experienced a dramatic change, and presented a characteristic of ethnic diversity, pluralism and mixture of old and new.     

A Review on Socioeconomic Status of Sichuan Frontier Areas in the Modern Writings of the Foreigners

In the 32nd year of the Guangxu period in the Qing dynasty ( 1906 ) , a position of“minister for managing frontier affairs” ( bianwu dachen) of Sichuan and Yunnan was set up .It was responsible for man...     

香料与世界

Around 1500 , the world experi￣enced an explosion of exploration which greatly transformed the world for the next several hundreds of years. During this time, Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and other seafaring entrepreneurs sought new routes to India’s Malabar Coast and the Indonesian archipelago. The objective of their ef￣forts was mainly spice specifically pepper, cinna￣mon, nutmeg, clove, and a few others. In the en￣suing years, the Spanish, Portuguese, English, and Dutch would all seek to dominate the spice trade, employing an astonishing amount of blood￣shed and brutality to achieve their aims. They were undermined only by pirates, who would occasional￣ly plunder the spice boats, relieving them of their precious cargo.
The reason behind their desire to seek spice, was not only, and in fact, not even primarily, profits. In an age that poured its commercial ener￣gies into such un - poetical ends such as arms, oil, and mineral ores, the drive to obtain anything quite so quaintly insignificant as spice must strike us today as mystifying indeed. While historians of￣ten point to medieval Europe’s problems with ran￣cid meat, along with the mind -numbing repeti￣tiveness of its diet, as the source of spice’s early popularity, the main reason for desiring spice came down to one simple thing: mystery. Spices were, in a sense, magical if not divine, arriving by un￣known means from the vast blank spaces on the map, spaces populated by dragons, gods, and monsters. From mystery grew mystique. It was a seductive premise.
This article starts by examining the rise of Europe’s economy after the first millennium and the subsequent demand for Eastern luxuries. Ginger, mace, and other exotic ingredients quickly became status symbols among noblemen—not unlike furs or jewels—as well as staples in upper -class kitch￣ens, with nearly every dish deluged by seasonings, to the point where the medieval appetite for spice looked less like a taste than an addiction. It was also believed that ingesting spices was a way to im￣prove one’s health and that they could cure every￣thing from gangrene and paralysis to constipation and lung disease. Then there’s sex. Spice has long been associated with eroticism, including recent examples like the pop-music sex kittens the Spice Girls and the Spice soft-porn cable TV station. In the Middle Ages—when noblemen’s fear of infertil￣ity ran rampant—spices were widely believed to serve as aphrodisiacs. It was these very qualities, that led many medieval Christian leaders to de￣nounce spices—ginger in particular—arguing that their corrupting influence undermined monks’ vows of celibacy, with one mystic even comparing them to the forbidden apple of Eden. Others claimed their overuse could lead to drying out, derange￣ment, and even death. The most puritanical critics saw spice as nothing less than an affront to God, who had already met man’s basic needs by provi￣ding local foods, a gift cooks were now tampering with by introducing foreign flavors. Moreover, spice served as a medieval perfume, with the most spicy, most expensive varieties favored among the social elite. And spice was also used in mummifi￣cation and embalming techniques that continued in future centuries. For instance, the practice dates back to Ramses II, an Egyptian pharaoh who died in 1224 b. c.; an examination of his remains re￣vealed peppercorns stuffed up his large, and crooked nose, a discovery which startled scien￣tists.
Despite efforts by the Dutch to maintain their monopoly over spice plantations and prevent propa￣gation, products like cloves and nutmeg eventually spread to other regions of the world. This was largely due to Spanish and Portuguese smugglers—who reduced them to mere commodities and dimin￣ished their intrigue and notoriety, not to mention their cost. By the mid-1600s, pepper in particu￣lar had long since become available to the Europe￣an masses, prompting the nobility to lose interest. At the same time, crops like tomatoes and chilies, brought back from the New World, were broade￣ning the European diet and creating new options for cooks. A shift to simple, fresh, local ingredi￣ents—to foods that tasted like themselves—was un￣derway, a transformation nowhere as successful as in Italy, where simplicity remains the quintessence of its cuisine. As a result, the heavily spiced meals of the Middle Ages fell from favor. Once the province of aristocracy, spice became just the op￣posite. In the modern world, it tends to be the poor, not the rich, who eat spices.
While the history of spice from a Western point of view remarkably transformed the world, it should be noted that spice also underwent a quite different way of becoming modernized. In the re￣spect, spice in Chinese history constitutes a large part of the world history of spice.
Prior to the 15th century, pepper was regar￣ded as a rarity. In China it was as highly valued for medicinal purposes as ginseng and cassia bark are today. During the Tang dynasty, we find pep￣per mentioned side by side with stalactites, one of the most valuable drugs of the time. This is an in￣dication of how highly valued spice was. From that time onwards, the expression “800 piculs of pep￣per” came to be synonymous with riches and luxu￣ry. In China, the change in the value of pepper from being a precious commodity to one in common use came about as the result of several polices of Ming Emperor, including tribute trade, Zheng He’s voyages, and the scheme of supplying pepper instead of salaries to officials. The advent of direct dealings with the supply sources had a profound effect in China, and the circulation of other foreign commodities generally also increased greatly after these voyages.
From early Ming times, foreign trade, inclu￣ding that in pepper and sapanwood, was an Impe￣rial monopoly, closely guarded to ensure that all the profits went to the Emperor. One inevitable re￣sult of the importation into China of such huge a￣mounts of pepper, however, was that hitherto un￣developed exchange relations improved, though the equilibrium between demand and supply remained unsteady because of obstacles in the way of equita￣ble distribution. A sudden expansion of the selling market could only be expected to cause a dramatic fall in the price of pepper. This occurred much earlier than did the discovery of the direct passage to India by Vasco de Gama.
During the reign of the first Ming Emperor, Hong Wu, pepper and sapanwood were frequently given to subjects as a reward for services rendered, a practice first recorded in 1379 . During 1391 and 1392 , altogether 13 ,800 naval officers and soldiers on active service, and 12,000 soldiers engaged in ship-building were rewarded in this way, the lat￣ter receiving one catty of pepper each. In both ca￣ses these rewards, which were small in scale, were for completing tasks assigned. At the time of the enthronement of the second Emperor, Yong Le (1403), four catties of pepper, the highest pepper reward recorded, in addition to 30 ting of paper money, were given to a minor official for comple￣ting the Imperial seal. Considering the high value of paper money at that time, this showed that pep￣per was still treasured as a scarce commodity, and had not yet fallen into common use.
The effect of Zheng He’s voyages on the distri￣bution of pepper in the Chinese market is reflected by the form payments took in the early part of the Ming dynasty. In the 5th year of Yong Le (1407), following Zheng He’s return from his first voyage, came the first proclamation of an arrangement to supply the soldiers in all military stations in Peking with sapanwood in lieu of winter clothing. It is es￣timated that at least 250 , 000 army servicemen were involved. It was in 1420, after Zheng He’s fifth voyage, that pepper was first announced as a substitute for the clothing due to these same ser￣vicemen. However, the amount was by no means large:one catty and six ounces of sapanwood and four ounces of pepper were paid in lieu of a piece of thin silk material, and one catty of sapanwood and three ounces of pepper were paid instead of a piece of cotton cloth. The same scheme of suppl￣ying sapanwood instead of winter clothing was em￣ployed again the following year, 1421. At the same time it was proclaimed that part of the salary of all civil and military officials in Peking paid in the form of paper money was to be paid in sapan￣wood and pepper instead. Henceforth it was estab￣lished that the salary of officials should be paid partly in sapanwood and pepper, and it was clearly the pepper brought back by Zheng He’s fleet that was being used as substitute currency. Silver, pa￣per money, cloth, sapanwood, and pepper were interchangeable as currency.
Except for a very small amount retained for their own consumption, the officials would have had to sell most of their pepper on the market, which would inevitably accelerate the fall in its market price. By the mid-Ming period, spice that had been exclusively enjoyed by the upper classes, began to be popular among the commoners. The frequency of appearance of spice in dietary books, recipes, and daily life guides increased to an un￣precedented level. Pepper, especially, was broad￣ly used for cooking, pickling fruits, brewing, and making fragrant tea. The widespread application of perfume, as a typical merchandise from maritime trade, led to a profound transformation in people’s conception and style of everyday life.     

一个多民族文学融合互动的范本——《述善集》文学文献价值考述

“Tangwu” is an alternative name for the descendants of the Xixia dynasty. In 1227 AD, a number of these Xixia descendants moved inland after the destruction of the Xixia Dynasty by the Mongolians. One group of them migrated to the area near Puyang, Henan Province. Tangwu Chongxi ( Yang Chongxi ) of the Yuan Dynasty compiled the Shu San Ji, which is divided into three volumes: Shansu, Yucai and Xingshi, and appended with the biography of Boyan Zongdao. It reflects the historical origins, social class, living conditions and the relations with the Han people of the descendants of the Dangxiangqiang minority af-ter they moved to Puyang. This book attracted a lot of attention in academic circles, and it was there-fore reorganized and published in 1985 after being treasured by the people for more than 600 years. It has high academic value for its comprehensive his-torical records. We can not only acquaint ourselves with the history of the make-up of the Chinese na-tion, but also research this diversity from multiple perspectives, such as history, nationality and folk-lore . That is why it has drawn so much attention a-mong academic researchers. The book contains po-ems, prose and biographies, which belong to dif-ferent celebrated scholars from different ethnic mi-norities, all of whom had relationships with Tang-wu Chongxi. It is also a typical model of Qiang-Han literature, which is very rare. This paper gives a preliminary exploration on the book, and shows a small part of its comprehensive value. Shu San Ji is not a merely personal collec-tion, but is also different from general literature collections. The compilation of the book took a long time. Shu San Ji Xuxie ( Continuation of Shu San Ji) , written by Zhang Yining, was finished in the 18 th year of the Zhizheng Period in the Yuan Dynasty (1358), which indicates that the Shu San Ji had already been finished by that time . Zeng wuwei chushi yangxiangxian xu ( Presented to Chu Shi Yang Xingxian·Preface ) , written by Wei Su and finished in the 24 th year of Zhizheng ( 1364 ) , suggests that the Shu San Ji had been compiled in-to a book by that time, and that it was compiled with the compositions of social celebrities of the time. However, the Shu San Ji, as it has been handed down to us today, includes the Song Yang-gong Xiangxian gui Tanyuan xu ( Preface of Send-ing Yanggong Xiangxian Back to Tanyuan) by Tao Kai, written in March in the 5 th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty ( 1372 ) . It indicates that Yang Xiangxian kept on collecting articles even after the book was finished. The Xu yangshi yiji ( Preface of Yang’s Last Collection) by Wang Chongqing, writ-ten in the 6th year of Jiajing (1527), indicates that the Shu San Ji was still being written after Yang Chongxi’s death. At the end of the Shu San Ji , Boyang Zongdao zhuan ( Biography of Boyang Zongdao) and Weiti shi (Poems) were collected in the 16 th year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty (1529) and in the 16th year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1629), respectively. It suggests that the
Shu San Ji had been supplemented and continually recompiled since Yang Chongxi firstly finished his book in 1358. After 271 years, in 1629, the Shu San Ji, as we read it today, was finally comple-ted. Through the basic components of the Shu San Ji,readers can understand that the Tangwu family was a harmonious, multi-ethnic family. A number of multi-ethnic writers spent long periods compos-ing works collected in the Shu San Ji and Tangwu Chongxi was also influenced by China’s diverse culture and traditional Confucian culture. The work is strongly connected with his study in Guozixue. In the late Yuan Dynasty, the restora-tion of the imperial examinations promoted Confucianism’s influence further. Pan Di, as Tang-wu Chongxi’s teacher in Guozixue, wrote most arti-cles in the Shu San Ji, which shows their close re-lationship and his influences on Tangwu Chongxi’s literature and Confucian studies. Tangwu Chongxi and others’ works reflected their sense of admira-tion for and deep feelings for their Dangxiang an-cestors, but more so helped to propagate the con-cepts of Confucian edification, diligence, thrifti-ness and benevolence, and some of them did so in a very polemic way. For example, Boyan Zongdao wrote the Jiefu xu ( preface of “Jiefu”) and Tang-wu Chongxi wrote the Jiefu houxu ( epilogue of“Jiefu”) , which reflect the social reality and ide-ology of all scholars with different ethnic back-grounds at that time. His work, “Tangwu gong-bei” fushi ( Poem inscribed on Tangwu Tablet ) , was written in a plain and authentic way and showed that he always remembered his origins and his ethnic desire to inherit the family’s heritage. Meanwhile , it was also mixed with the popular ide-as of upholding the honor of their ancestors from the central plains and Han areas, which shows the
editorial purpose of the Shu San Ji and also dem-onstrates the value of Chinese multi-ethnic litera-ture and cultural integration.     

康定锅庄文化遗产价值新阐释

The understanding of the traditional research of Kangding Guozhuo mainly covers four aspects:1 ) It is widely believed in the academic world that the Guozhuang ( meaning singing and dancing in a circle ) of Kangding was a unique product which combined politics, economics and culture together. 2) It was a specific business form based on the family unit, fulfilling multiple func￣tions such as an inn, a shed, a commodity inter￣mediary, an administrative office, a commodity transformation point, and a banking establishment. And it was also a place for cultural exchange be￣tween the Tibetans and the Han . 3 ) The formation of Guozhuang culture establishes a new element in the culture of the Tibetan-Yi corridor. 4 ) Zheng Shaoxiong mentions that the Guozhuangzhu ( the Guozhuang host ) had played an intermediary role in assisting the Tibetan businessmen to sell or pur￣chase goods - this helped to maintain the trade relations between the Han and Tibetans ( or their communication) . This kind of ingenious institu￣tional arrangement was a historical practice in keeping the balance of the relationship between different cultural communities, such as the Qing court, Tusi ( native officials ) and the Guozhuang host of Kangding. It reflects the wisdom in ethnic interactions, and can be borrowed in present ethnic regional autonomous system.
The above mentioned understanding is a result of study from the perspective of history, ethnology or economics. Although Zheng Shaoxiong’s re￣search was born from the old mindset, and pro￣posed the new value of Guozhuang cultural mecha￣nism, there is still a lack of research on this cul￣ture from such comprehensive perspectives as ur￣ban history, cultural anthropology, and economic anthropology. Thus it cannot fully reveal the fea￣ture and value of Kangding Guozhuang, a complex cultural phenomenon.
Based on existing data, past research, and fieldwork on the oral history of Kangding Guozhuang conducted in August 2013 , this article gives some new interpretations to the features of Guozhuang culture from an interdisciplinary per￣spective as follows:
1 ) The forever “48 Guozhuang” are a Kang￣ding urban memory, which displays the common cultural psychology of regarding Kangding as an important trade city of the Han and Tibetans; and Guozhuang carries a folk cultural memory of more than 200 years. After the gaitu guiliu policy ( re￣placement of native officials with centrally appoint￣ed officials) in the late Qing period, the number of newly appeared Guozhuang even reached 60 to 70 .“Although each of them had its own courtyard, and people also called them Guozhuang, they were still quite different from the 48 Guozhuang in the minds of the Kangding people”. This not only in￣dicates that the 48 Guozhuang within the orthodox system were deeply rooted in the hearts of the local people, but also reflects that Guozhuang were re￣garded as the most proper carrier for the communi￣cation between the Han and Tibetan during the late Qing period, otherwise so many Guozhuang court￣yards would not have appeared in history.
2 ) From the name to its architectural form, or function, a Guozhuang was influenced by the Han culture, however, it still had strong Tibetan char￣acteristics. Actually it could be regarded as a min￣iature of local culture of Kangding. Every Guozhuang had its own Tibetan name and Chinese name. The architectural style of the Guozhuang was actually different from traditional multiple -level blockhouse. There was always a courrtyard, and it was larger than that of Han. The vast court￣yard was not only a space for the Tibetan business￣man to cook food and boil tea, but also a space for organizing their entertainment activities, such as singing and dancing in a circle. You Tai, a minis￣ter of the Qing dynasty in Tibetan areas, recorded a grand dancing party organized by the local Tusi to welcome his arrival, which reflected the significant position of the Guozhuang in cultural activities. The upper-class of the Kham area, including Tusi and the Guozhuang host, tried to build a close re￣lationship with both Tibetan and Han in all means, including the title, kinship relation or customs, and successfully built up a central zone on which both sides can be understood. It was just due to the special geographical location and cultural tradi￣tion that made the reconstruction of a cross cultural buffer zone possible.
3 ) The managers of the Guozhuang were mainly the hostesses ( Ajia Kaba in Tibetan lan￣guage) , and this also reflected a kind of feminism in Kham culture. The tradition of the Dong nv guo ( East Kingdom of Women ) enabled the women to run their business in and out of the family. When the tea trade started, the Guozhuang host had to spend much of their energy on providing service to the Tusi, so the Guozhuang hostess took the re￣sponsibility of managing the business of the Guozhuang. Ajia normally controlled the initiative of negotiation in the Han-Tibetan trade, and they played the role of interpreters in the negotiation. There were many live -in son -in -laws in the family of the Guozhuang and this kind of marriage was even more popular in the period from the late Qing dynasty to the Republican era.
If we conduct an analysis of the value of Kangding Guozhuang from multiple dimensions, we would notice that the existence of the non-market interpersonal model in this institution, on some certain degree, had solved the problem of the lack of social cohesion resulting from marketization. From this angle, the value of Guozhuang culture in the improvement of the economic institutions of the market cannot be ignored.
This fieldwork also reflects the significant and comprehensive influence of the Guozhuang cultural heritage of Kangding. When viewed from this an￣gle, its value is incredible. According to the data collected from the fieldwork, all the people, inclu￣ding officials, scholars, businessman and ordinary people, are aware that the Guozhuang is a cultural heritage which has a high and comprehensive val￣ue. If the relevant government bodies could in￣clude it into the scope of heritage protection, and build it into a cultural space of intangible cultural heritage, it will have a much higher heritage val￣ue , and play an important role both in the econom￣ic development and construction of harmonious eth￣nic relationships.
The Kangding Guozhuang also played a role in the deconstruction of the Han - Tibetan social structure - this kind of value can not only be in￣troduced to the present world and influence the fu￣ture world, but also can be seen as a hub which connects the “ancient” and “modern” Han -Ti￣betan relations. Traditionally, there was a structur￣al rule in the communications between the Han and Tibetan, namely that “the Han and Tibetans are somewhat separated from each other ”, however, the Guozhuang model in Kangding deconstructed this Han-Tibetan rule. This was closely related to elements such as social composition, ways of life, marriage, family, kinship, and religious customs. The disappearance of Guozhuang also has its own causes, for instance, the absence of inheritors and failure in operation of this system. However, this article proposes that it is mainly influenced by the social reforms in the historical process. Hence, that is the reason why modern enterprises which re￣tain certain connotations of the Guozhuang could re-appear in the Kang area. In the survey, we no￣tice that some enterprises have already made efforts in this regard. In summary, Kangding Guozhuang had creatively formed a security institution with a more humanized nature, and played an important role in the alleviation of social tensions in ethnic areas. Contemporary society, composed as it is of people with multi-ethnic backgrounds, still needs this kind of “deconstruction”.     

师儒与官绅：传统中国治水社会的士绅研究述评

Already for quite some time, the u-nique power structure of the traditional Chinese so-ciety has been viewed and discussed in the field of humanities and social sciences. Focusing on the status and role of its gentry class, Chinese and Western scholars have deeply researched the gen-eral characteristics of the political structure in the traditional Chinese society. And the analysis of the interaction between different social groups from the perspective of the traditional Chinese ‘hydraulic ’ structure has even gradually deepened and expand-ed this research topic. This paper looks at relevant research conducted by former scholars like e. g. Weber, Wittfogel, and Fei Xiaotong while attemp-ting to come to a more historic understanding of the relationship between the imperial power and the gentry class within the power structure of tradition-al Chinese society: this essay indeed focuses on the political status and social function of the gentry class in the traditional Chinese hydraulic society. Based on the research findings of scholars like Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, and Karl Heinrich Marx, Weber pointed out that in Eastern societies there was a certain relationship between the autoc-racy and the local irrigation-based agriculture. And Weber believed that the relationship between the autocratic imperial power and the more local Con-fucian gentry was the key to understanding the po-litical structure of the Chinese society. At that time and place, the local water management-projects, other entrenched bureaucracies, the respected Confucian gentry, as well as the central imperial power were all intertwined together; this shaped a unique form of political power in traditional China. By borrowing Marx’ s concept of ‘the Asiatic mode of production’ , Wittfogel discussed the rela-tionship between ( i ) the political autocracy and ( ii) indigenous irrigation projects in Eastern socie-ties, seen from the perspective of political econom-ics. He proposed that the political autocracy was a result of the social functioning of hydraulic pro-jects, and briefly described the Eastern society as an ‘Oriental-authoritarian ’ society under the rule of an ‘absolute monarchy’ . In the eyes of Wittfo-gel, the traditional Chinese gentry was just a bu-reaucratic group attached to the totalitarian rule:their power did not draw from their own knowledge monopoly of value ethics and ritual standards, but solely from their power-relationship with the des-potic ruler. According to Wittfogel, the‘hydraulic society’ , totalitarian rule, bureaucratic groupings, and imperial power were all intertwined and togeth-er made up the government form of the traditional Chinese society. While Weber described the gentry as reputa-ble Confucian intellectuals, Wittfogel regarded them as mere bureaucrats firmly attached to the to-talitarian rule. In contrast with the Western schol-ars’ too simple view of the ‘gentry group’, Chi-nese scholars have emphasized that this ‘gentry group’ was an organism made up of bureaucrats and literati:they not only participated in local gov-ernance and cultural activities, but they also lived and passed on the inheritance of Confucian ortho-dox ideology. Fei Xiaotong stressed constantly that the tradi-tional Chinese political system wasn ’ t completely arbitrary;instead it was closely related to the so-cial class of the scholar-officials ( a combination of the bureaucrats and gentry within Chinese socie-ty) . Fei stated that the traditional Chinese society had a‘bottom-up’ or‘secondary/parallel’ track:this ‘informal track’ made it possible for the ordi-nary people to pass on their opinions to top level people. Guided by tao-t’ung ( Confucian orthodox-y) , the scholar-intellectuals were able to influence political power by expressing their opinions and by putting forward a set of ethical principles. Al-though they had no part in real political power, they still maintained a social prestige. As a buffer between imperial power and the common people, the scholar-officials could not only extend the pow-er of the monarch to the far corners of society, but they also could properly protect the interests of farmers through some informal channels outside of the system. In the view of Yu Yingshi, the scholar-offi-cials not only were royal officers but also teachers of the emperor: that is why they could exert con-straint to autocratic imperial power. Nevertheless, autocratic imperial power also constrained them. Even so, the bureaucrats and gentry kept alive the tao-t’ung in traditional Chinese political life, which safeguarded basic social values. However, the strength of tao-t’ung was always weaker than that of the royal power, therefore, Chinese society did have a tendency of ‘oriental despotism’ described by Wittfogel. In the study of Zhang Yahui, the scholar-offi-cial group was positioned right in middle of the so-ciety: this allowed them to work upwardly and downwardly. They thus could ( i) cooperate with the public to fight against the rulers ’ invasion of local life, and they ( ii) could compromise and a-gree with the rulers as to construct a new harmoni-ous coexistence model. His study reemphasized the historical role of the scholar-official group in keep-ing social harmony. In this study, the scholar-offi-cial group on one hand counterbalanced the central power’ s interference with local affairs, and on the other hand shaped more reasonable identities of the central power, acceptable for local communities. Zhang Yahui’ s study reminds us that-in the tradi-tional Chinese society-authoritarian rulers, the scholar-official group, and the public interlaced with, constrained, and supported each other, and thus constituted the overall picture of the traditional China. The scholar-official group thus was a major force in maintaining the social cohesion of the tra-ditional Chinese society. When indeed we consider both the ‘master-scholars’ and ‘bureaucrats’-the two special components of Chinese scholar-official class-we can better understand the characteristics of the vivid and interactive relationships between the rulers, the scholar-officials, and the local com-mon people. In other words, only when we recog-nize these two aspects of the gentry class, can we see the ‘unifying mechanism ’ of the traditional Chinese society;this allows us to develop a clearer social and historical picture of the traditional Chi-nese interaction between imperial power, scholarly power, and civil rights. To get to this new under-standing of the power structure of the traditional Chinese hydraulic society, we need to critically re-view all sorts of other simplified understandings of the period gentry group.     

匈奴姻亲氏族与其职掌

Affinity clans and luandishi ( or luandi clan ) constituted the backbone of the Xiongnu’s social structure, among which luandishi was in the dominant position while those affinity clans were subordinate. But affinity clans’ status in Xiongnu society started to change since Tuqitang became Chanyu( chief of Xiongnu in ancient China ) in 60 B. C. The reason for affinity clans’ change of their position was not only due to their affinity relations with Chanyu, but also due to the internal contradictions on the succession of Chanyu, and the influence of the Han Dynasty’s polices. The presence of affinity clans and the change of their position had played an important historical role in Xiongnu’s social development, thus it is worth of doing an in-depth academic study in this field.     

Thoughts on Ethnic Regional Autonomy and China’ s Frontier Governance

Frontier governance has a histori-cal origin .Before the Opium War , the Qing gov-ernment mostly determined territorial borders with neighboring countries using border lines drawn ac-cording to traditional custom .Since modern times, under the situation of being surrounded by powerful enemies together with frequent invasions , it was imperative for the Qing government to reform tradi-tional governance .At the end of the 19th century, the Qing government successively established prov-inces （ xingsheng,行省） in Taiwan, the northwest and northeast regions; and in Kaiguan, Yadong, Tibet, they established a port （ bu, 埠）.In the early of 20th century, the ＂New Policy＂, such as gaitu guiliu （ i.e.the replacement of native offi-cials with imperial ones ） and the establishment of provinces , was carried out in the frontier regions of Sichuan （ current Ganzi prefecture in Sichuan and Changdu in Tibet ） by Zhao Erfeng , in Tibet by Li-anyu , the minister of Tibet , and in the Outer Mongolia （ Uliastai ） by Sanduo , the minister in Kulun.     

秩序之下的国家——评卡西尔《国家的神话》

The Myth of the State is Ernst Cassirer’s last works. In this book, he reveals the myth of modern politics, and examines the genera-tion of totalitarianism. In Cassirer’s view, the myth and language of early times reflects intuitive human cognition, when humans and gods lived within the order of myth. When philosophy arose, the gods retreated, and people become the first principle. Although Plato created the concept of the ideal state, in the Middle Ages,God again replaced ra-tionality, and the secular state was under the di-vine order of God. After Machiavelli’s reforms, the secular state won independence from the divine or-der, and history’s replacement it with rationality became the first principle. Until Hegel’s objective idealism combined history and rationality, realistic countries became not only the care takers of abso-lute spirit, but also the ultimate form of history. Actual states were like living gods, because of no constraints, it finally was utilized by totalitarian ambitions. In his book, Cassirer reveals that cul-ture restricts the state’s power. However, he does not think that power could legislate itself. Instead, it is only the construction within the order of either culture, rationality or history, that states can con-firm their own positions.     

The Strategy of Multinational Country in Modern China-The Exploration for the Historical Reason of minzu Recognition

The Chinese Communist Party （ CCP ） launched a nationwide census and voter registration campaign in the summer of 1953 .After debating which questions should be posed to their nearly six hundred million respondents , officials ultimately decided upon only five .The first four of these involved the most basic of demographic infor-mation, including name , age, gender , and rela-tionship to the head of one ＇ s household .The fifth one was settled upon a question：that of nationality or minzu.The outcome of the census proved shock-ing to Communist authorities and ultimately precip-itated the Ethnic Classification Project . Why the Communists wished to include minzu on the census schedule？ The author argues that there were three reasons .The first reason is the deeply historical problem of maintaining the territo-rial integrity of a highly diverse empire .The sec-ond problem is more proximate , and originates in the ongoing rivalry between the Communists and the Nationalists during the first half of the twentieth century.Third, with regards to categorization , the advent of the Classification is attributable to a po-litical crisis prompted by the failure of the state ＇ s initial experiment with a highly noninterventionist policy of self-categorization . To understand each of these questions , the author brings the readers to explore the history of the term minzu itself, and suggests that the very in-clusion of minzu in the 1953-54 census schedule was itself the culmination of a complex history dat-ing back to the fall of the Qing dynasty （ 1644 -1911 ） and the formation of the first Chinese repub-lic.     

鲍德温•斯宾塞与后维多利亚时代的古典人类学

The post-Victorian anthropologist Baldwin Spencer was the first to investigate the central and northern aboriginal tribes of Australia. His ethnographic works in this area have greatly in-fluenced related disciplines and studies in fields such as kinship, totem worship, and primitive reli-gions. In the field of classics and anthropology, Spencer’s academic heritage has received wide-spread respect and recognition, and has made sub-sequent academic discussion possible. In order to present Spencer’s personal experiences and aca-demic ideas clearly and comprehensively, it is nec-essary to return to the post-Victorian context, and comb Spencer’ s life history and academic history. Taking important clues from various times an e-vents in his life, the paper introduces three peri-ods:Spencer’s early training in the discipline and his epistemic background, his medium-term eth-nographic investigations and works, and the later investigations of Tierra del Fuego. Textual study, based on Spencer’s life history and academic histo-ry, is very useful to understand his ethnographic investigations. Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer ( 1860 -1929 ) was born on 23 June, 1860 in Lancashire, Eng-land. Spencer was educated at Old Trafford School and at the Manchester School of Art. His interest in art and sketching was lifelong, and would reveal itself in his competence as a scientific draftsman and illustrator ( D. J. Mulvaney,1990 ) . Entering Owens College ( Victoria University of Manchester) in 1879, Spencer intended to study medicine. In-spired by Milnes Marshall, a disciple of Darwin disciple, he became a committed evolutionary biol-ogist, soon abandoning conventional religion. He entered the University of Oxford in 1881 to study
science under Professor H. N. Moseley, who com-bined an enthusiasm for evolutionary biology with ethnological interests. Spencer grasped Oxford ’ s diverse opportunities, which included lectures by Ruskin and E. B. Tylor. In 1887, Spencer ar-rived at Melbourne University . With his colleague Professor David Masson, Spencer helped to trans-form university standards and they co-operated as entrepreneurs of Australian science. Spencer was recruited as zoologist and photog-rapher in the 1894 Horn scientific exploration ex-pedition to central Australia. His anthropological interest was rekindled when he met F. J. Gillen, the Alice Springs postmaster, during the expedi-tion. In 1896 Spencer joined Gillen for the most intensive fieldwork then attempted in Australia. The Native Tribes of Central Australia ( 1899 ) , which resulted, was to influence contemporary theories on social evolution and interpretations of the origins of art and ceremonial practices. Spencer and Gillen drove a buggy from Oodnadatta to Borroloola in 1901-02 . Their research resulted in The Northern Tribes of Central Australia ( 1904 );Haddon had written that the names of Spencer and Gillen are familiar to every ethnologist in the world, and probably no books on ethnology have been so wide-ly noticed and criticized as have The Native Tribes of Central Australia and The Northern Tribes of Central Australia (A. C. Haddon ,1902). To assist the Government of the Common-wealth, Spencer was appointed Special Commis-sioner for Aboriginals in the Northern Territory, and also their Chief Protector. He also led three other scientists, including J. A. Gilruth, on the 1911 Preliminary Scientific Expedition. Native Tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia (1914)
described his ethnographic observations and the ex-tensive collections made on the expedition. At the government ’ s request, Spencer visited Alice Springs and Hermannsburg in 1923 . He published The Arunta: A Study of a Stone Age People ( 2 vols, 1927 ) to respond to the criticisms derived from Carl Stretlow and defend his work. A popular rewrite of previous books followed—Wanderings in Wild Australia ( 2 vols, 1928 )—this time under his sole authorship. Spencer retired as emeritus professor in 1919 . His nerves and his judgments were impaired from the strain of continuous overwork, the virtual disin-tegration of his marriage, and he was finally hospi-talized in 1921 . His health improved and within two years he resumed anthropological activities and rebuilt his art collection. He sailed to Tierra del Fuego together with Jean Hamilton to undertake anthropological studies early in 1929. Spencer, with an unrivalled record of anthropological field-work in Australia, undertook this journey to fill a gap in our knowledge, and compare very different and remote races of mankind (A. C. H. ,1931). However, his gallant attempt was prematurely frus-trated by his death from angina pectoris, at which point he had been only two months in the field. His notes were organized and published as Spencer’s Last Journey (1931). His achievements were recognized. Elected as a fellow of the Royal Society in 1900 , he was ap-pointed C. M. G. in 1904 and K. C. M. G. in 1916 . Manchester University conferred him with an honorary doctorate of science, while Melbourne a-warded him a doctorate of letters. Exeter College, Oxford, elected him to an honorary fellowship in 1907 , and stained glass in its hall commemorates his contribution. James Frazer’s letter to Spencer in 1899 was prophetic: books like mine, merely speculative, will be superseded sooner or later ( the sooner the better for the sake of truth) by bet-ter induction based on fuller knowledge;books like yours, containing records of observations, will nev-er be superseded ( John M. Cooper, 1932 ) . Therefore, the sense and value of reading and un-derstanding Spencer and his books today goes with-out saying.