Contents and Abstracts



Contents and Abstracts

[Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations]

Title: Origin and Prospects: The Development of the Classical Studies in China……………………………………/2

Author: Zhang Tao, Associate Professor, the Department of History, School of Humanities, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.

Abstract:Since the beginning of the 21st century, the Classical Studies in China achieved a new development mainly in three aspects: retrospect of the origins of the Classical Studies by re-examination of the key terminology translations of this field; re-construction of a complete training system of Classical Studies in Chinese universities by emphasizing classical philology studies and original document reading; making special efforts to exam the history of Western scholarship of the Classical Studies. All of these are aimed at a renewal of this discipline in China. These conscientious efforts would greatly help Chinese scholars in this field to keep up with the international academic standard. The Turin Taxation Papyrus recorded in the reign of Rameses XI, the last king of the twentieth dynasty in the New Kingdom, was written by Djehutmose, a well-known scribe of the necropolis. The main content of this papyrus is about what happened in the 12th year and 14th year of Rameses’ reign when Djehutmose was send to several towns in the south of Thebes to collect taxes and move them to Thebes, as well as to distribute grains to the local workers. The conceptions about ethnic others of the ancient Greeks and pre-Qin Chinese are all involved with blood ties, culture, and politics but in different ways. To the ancient Greeks, culture, ties of blood and politics were all taken as important factors in self-identification. In pre-Qin China, on the other hand, culture, rather than ties of blood, was the most important standard to distinguish ethnic self from the others, while politics would also be taken under consideration. The conceptual differences between the two peoples are originated by the different situations, especially the relationships of them with the surrounding ethnic groups, as well as the different features of the related three involved facts. The above-mentioned conceptual differences consequently influenced the historical developments in both Greece and China. The General History of Western Historiography published by the Press of Fudan University (Prof. Zhang Guangzhi as the editor-in-chief) is the most systematic and comprehensive history of Western historiography written by Chinese scholars by far. Its significance is beyond any doubt. However, there are some errors in the section dealing with Byzantine historiography, including factual mistakes and inaccuracies. This essay makes necessary corrections to these problems in hope of contribution to the revision of this general history. The emergence of the medieval Islamic maritime law was a gradual process of development. From fearing sailing to developing sea trade, Arabs were fighting for Mediterranean hegemony while studying the Byzantine culture actively and adjusting Islamic law according to the ever changing social conditions. By learning from Rhode Maritime Law of the Byzantine Empire and cooperation of the related knowledge to the Islamic spirits, the Arabs finally produced their own maritime laws with Islamic characteristics. The retainers as the managing servants of the ordinary noble household is a part of the whole bureaucratic hierarchy along with the officers to the king and the princes in the early period of the Shang Dynasty. Studies about these retainers are necessary for our understandings about the related system and the pattern of the general noble clans. Based upon the non-monarch oracle inscriptions discovered from the ruins of the Shang dynasty, it can be concluded that the ancient retainer system of China already existed in the early period of the Shang dynasty, rather than later in the Zhou dynasty as some scholar held. Meanwhile, the Shang retainer system had different characteristics from that of the Zhou dynasty. The ancient Chinese have strong senses of history. They might consider themselves as parts of later history even when they were still alive. This article analyses this consciousness from three aspects, including the sense of being positive role models or rule makers for future generations, the sense of achieving immortal through consistent direct lineal male descendants, and the sense of strong expectation of being positively recorded in later historical texts. This consciousness is crucial for us to understand the pre-Qing idea of history and it is significantly different from the historical consciousness of the ancient people in the West. The tiger shaped bronze items produced by the people of State Qin during the Spring and Autumn period discovered in the upstream of the upper western Han River region manifest a highly developed bronze casting technology and distinctive characteristics of the Qin arts. The mass quantity tiger shaped bronze items, which are not copies of the Yin and Zhou bronze arts, present the special ideology of the early Qin people. This people worshiped tiger. The group tiger items are cultural symbols reflecting the collective spirit of Qin people, while the back-viewing tigers present the senses of ancestor and eastern origin memory of the Qin people. The bamboo slip inscription entitled “Sikong Yan Fu Ling Tian Dangzuo”（司空厌弗令田当坐）among the Liye Qin bamboo slips is a complete Qin official document concerning the penalty to an official of Qianling County named Sikong Yan who failed to follow the regulations in organizing slaves to reclaim land. The text of inscription of this set of bamboo slips reveals in certain degree that the Qin state still controlled a large quantity of farm land and contains information about the ways of the state to manage those lands. In addition, the text also quoted an entry from the law of Qin dealing with the rules of how to deal with the slave labor exemption, allocation, distribution, and management. Assimilated the practices of the governments in central area of China, the Liao Dynasty established five mausoleum serving counties including Zuzhou (祖州), Huaizhou (怀州), Xianzhou (显州）, Qianzhou (乾州）, and Qingzhou (庆州). These counties are huge in terms of scale with palaces, temples, and governmental offices, reflecting the importance of them. There are two sets of officials in these counties including the mausoleum maintenance officials and the local affair administrators. Both of them are responsible for the central government of the Liao dynasty. The establishment of these counties is a result of the life style change of the khitan. Meanwhile, it is a reflection of the Liao policy of ruling differently according to local conventions. Arose from the economically backward Huaihe river basin, the early Ming political style is rather coarse. Emperor Taizu from a poor peasant family combined his peasant political conception with the Mongolian paternalism of the Yuan dynasty and established an unprecedented autocratic monarchy system. While claiming to restore the Han tradition, he rigorously repressed the Confucian scholars especially those from Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas who were considered to be influenced by the Southern Song politics. This atmosphere changed since the Yongle period when the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Confucian scholar officials gradually controlled major governmental positions including the Grand Secretariat which played an important role to assist the Emperor to make political decisions. Meanwhile, the emperors began to employ the eunuchs to balance the political situation. Promotion of the so-called vestal women is a major practice of the Ming dynasty in carrying out its rural moral and cultural education, as well as a way of the local officials and gentries to present their achievements to the royal court. By stimulating public sentiment, the Guangdong scholar-bureaucrats successfully portrayed a vestal woman Lady Zhuang and helped her to obtain an imperial honor which led to a reconstruction of her tomb, building of her memorial hall and memorial archway ext. This practice attracted more gentries to write about her story and Lady Zhuang eventually became a symbol of the public acceptance of the imperial propagation. Following the tradition of the Goryeo Dynasty, the Chosŏn Dynasty used Dopyeongeuisasa (都评议使司) as the key organization to operate the central governmental power, which maintained obvious aristocratic nature in the early Chosŏn politics. The military meritocracy jointly controlled the Dopyeongeuisasa,therefore dominated the governmental power while the King was in a relative weak position. From King Jeongjong (定宗) to King Taijong (太宗), three kings of the Chosŏn Dynasty carried out central governmental structure reformation imitating the early Ming Dynasty. As a result, the military meritocracy lost their control of Dopyeongeuisasa and the King was enabled to run the central governmental power directly through a system called “yukjo-jikgyeje” (六曹直启制) .

Key words:Title: Translation and Commentary on the Turin Taxation Papyrus………………………………………………/10;Author: Yang Xi, Ph. D. Candidate, Institute for the History of Ancient Civilizations, Northeast Normal University; Changchun, Jilin, 130024, China; Guo Dantong, Professor, Institute for the History of Ancient Civilizations, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, Jilin, 130024, China. Title: On the Conceptual Similarity and Difference of Ancient Greeks and Pre-Qin Chinese about Ethnic Others/19;Author: Li Yuan, Lecturer, School of History, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China. Ancient Greeks; pre-Qing Chinese; Barbarians; Culture; Ties of Blood; Politics The General History of Western Historiography; Byzantine Empire; Western Historiography; the Middle Ages Middle Ages; Islam; Maritime Law; Formation Title: On the Consciousness of Being a Part of Later History of the Pre-Qin People………………………………/51;Author: Wang Can, Associate Professor, Humanities School, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, Henan, 471023, China. Pre-Qin China; Sense of History; Being role model for the future; Descendant; Memory of history Title: A Textual Study of Liye Bamboo Slip Inscription “Sikong Yan Fu Ling Tian Dangzuo”………….………/68;Author: Yu Hongtao, Ph. D. Candidate, Institute of the Chinese Ancient Document, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China. Liye Qin bamboo slips; Land ownership; land Tax; Slave system Title: On the Geographical Origin and Political Character of the Ming Dynasty in Connection with the Role of the Confucian Scholars from Jiangsu and Zhejiang Area……………………………………………/83;Author: Zhao Xianhai, Associate Senior Research Fellow, Institute of History, Chinese Academy of Social Science, Beijing, 100732, China. Title: On the Vestal Woman Image Construction of Lady Zhuang by the Guangdong Scholar-ureaucrats……/88;Author: Liu Zhenggang, Professor, College of Arts, Jinan University, Guangdong, Guangzhou, 510632, China. Ming Dynasty; Guangdong; Scholar-bureaucrats; Vestal women Early Chosŏn Dynasty; Dopyeongeuisasa; Military meritocracy; Aristocrat politics; Reformation

[Byzantine and the European Middle Ages]

Title: Some Corrections of the “Byzantine Historiography” Section in the 3rd Volume of The General History of Western Historiography…………………………………………………………………………………………/28

Author: Zhao Faxin, Lecturer, College of Tourism and Historical Culture, Southwest University for Nationalities, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610041, China.

Title: On the Formation of the Medieval Islamic Maritime Law……………………………………………………/32

Author: Wang Xiaobo, Professor, Research Administration Office, Kaili College, Kaili, Guizhou, 556011, China.

[History of Pre-Qin China]

Title: The Retainer System of the Shang Dynasty Reflected in the Non-monarch Oracle Inscriptions…………/40

Author: Xie Naihe, Professor, School of History and Culture, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, Jilin, 130024, China.

[Imperial China]

Title: An Interpretation of the Tiger Shaped Bronze Items of State Qin Discovered in the Upper Western Han River Region………………………………………………………………………………………………/59

Author: Yu Yonghong, Professor, the Department of Arts, Longnan Teachers’ College, Cheng Xian, Gansu, 742500, China.

Title: A Primary Study of the Mausoleums Serving Counties of the Liao Dynasty………………………………/76

Author: Sun Weixiang, Lecturer, College of the History, Liaoning University, Shenyang , Liaoning, 110036, China; Gao Fushun, Professor, College of the Humanities, Jilin University, Changchun , Jilin, 130012, China.

[Eastern Asian History and Culture]

Title: A Study of the Reformation of the Early Chosŏn Central Administrative Organization…………………/99

Author: Liu Bo, Ph. D. Candidate, School of History and Culture, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, Jilin, 130024, China.

[Newsletters]

Title: The Fourth Academic Conference on the History of the World Civilization and the Academic Thoughts of Mr. Zhu Huan Held in Changchun……………………………………………………………………………/98

Title: An On-spot Report of the Conference of the Social Structure and Historical Trend of Imperial China and the Hypotheses of the Agro-mercantile Society vs. the Wealthy Dominated Society………………………/107

English Contents and Abstracts………….……………………………………………………………………/112

Editor’s Notes…………………….…….……………….…………………….….….………………/cover page 2

Call for Papers…………….…………..….……………………………………….…..……….……/cover page 3