Dec 2006, Volume 1 Issue 4
    

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  • Imperial power, gentry power and clan power: Western and Chinese cultural traditions in a comparative perspective
    Wang Bing, Wang Dan
    2006, 1(4): 503-516. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11462-006-0016-y
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    The differences between China and Western countries in human and physical environment has brought about two distinctive models of state. In the Chinese-style state of quasi-consanguinity, in which family and state have a similar structure, imperial power, gentry power, and clan power are the product of common ownership of consanguineous groups. The similarity in the structures of these three kinds of power derives from the fact that they are all restricted by the power of lineage generated from the self-sufficient small farmer economy, and must obey the conventions of ancestors which hold the benefits of the group as supreme. The relationship between these three kinds of power, is definitely not the one that is based on the division of power that is founded on individual private ownership in Western countries, where public power  and individual private ownership  are antithetic, but are three aspects of the patriarchal dictatorship that complement each other. Therefore, village rule in China and autonomy in the West are two totally different concepts, and gentry power is also not the authorized power  from the state.
  • On the ‘Meishan Phenomenon’ in Song culture
    Zhu Shangshu
    2006, 1(4): 517-534. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11462-006-0017-x
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    The Song Dynasty enjoyed a splendid culture. Meishan, a small county in Southwest Sichuan, was one of the most developed cultural areas. This is closely related to a large-scale immigration after the collapse of the Tang Dynasty and the Jingkang defeat  in the Song Dynasty. Meishan was an area receiving more immigrants than other regions. A great number of distinguished families from North China brought with them the advanced culture of the Yellow River areas to Meishan, which combined with native culture, and produced many cultural clans  from this clan culture.  Some of these people became elites in various areas through education and the Civil Service Examinations. The so-called Meishan Phenomenon  was a result of cultural melting.
  • Rise and fall of Kantu: A historical study of an ancient Tibeto-Burmese speaking group
    He Ping
    2006, 1(4): 535-543. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11462-006-0018-9
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    On the basis of Chinese records and previous academic achievements in and outside China, the author makes a deeper study on the history of Kantu. As an ancient Tibeto-Burmese speaking group, Kantu was likely to have developed from the Qiongdu (Kontu) of Xinan yi (ancient ethnic groups in southwestern China). During the 12th 13th centuries, the Kantu group resided in an extensive area expanding from the border area between present Sichuan and Yunnan provinces of China to Burma. In the late 13th century, the Yuan troops occupied the area of Kantu. Since then, there have been no more record about Kantu in Chinese annals, and they were likely merged into the groups of Luoluo  (Lolo). In Burma, most of the Kantu people had been merged into the local peoples, with only a few remaining in remote mountain forests of northern Burma and still keeping their own name and customs. Thus, these people are just the living sources for our studies on ancient Kantu.
  • Relief services for the aged in Hunan and Hubei during the Ming and Qing dynasties
    Zhou Rong
    2006, 1(4): 544-562. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11462-006-0019-8
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    Focused on the Hunan and Hubei areas during the Ming and Qing dynasties, this paper provides a discussion on the relief services for the aged. With an emphasis on the quota and object of the aged who needs to be relieved, the constructional scale of the relief houses and the operation patterns of the institutions, it reveals the gap between the ideal and the reality, the policies and the implementation, the philosophy of the philanthropy and the limit of the government budget.
  • Hanxue Shangdui : A case study on the contentions between the Han School and the Song School in the middle Qing dynasty
    Zhang Shuhong
    2006, 1(4): 563-589. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11462-006-0020-2
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    During the Jiaqing and Daoguang periods of the Qing dynasty, Fang Dongshu published the Hanxue Shangdui, which launched a fierce attack on the Han School and marked the open contentions between the Han and the Song schools. While defending the Song Learning, Fang attacked the shortcomings of the Han School, mainly in four aspects: the Han School s methods of scholarship, various concepts of philosophy proposed by the Han-Learning scholars, the trivial and piecemeal character, and the heterodoxy of the Han School. Fang Dongshu criticized the Han-Learning scholars who paid attention only to the books and neglected the social affairs. Sharp and reasonable as it was, his criticism however seemed less objective, especially when he tried to use the emperor s authority to threaten the Han School, which was beyond the range of the normal academic debates.
  • Conflicting viewpoints on opium prohibition: Radical changes to opium policy in the late Qing dynasty
    Liu Zenghe
    2006, 1(4): 590-610. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11462-006-0021-1
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    The ban on opium at the end of the Qing dynasty was larger and more influential than ever before. Opinions differed on opium prohibition between the court and society. The intelligentsia and government believed in a set of policies, while opium farmers and traders resisted them. Subsequent conflicts became more and more intense, especially when opium farmers began protesting the ban on planting opium. The reactions of officials and commoners towards this backlash against the opium ban were very complex. The rehabilitation plans and measures following the backlash proved ineffective, leaving a confused situation out of control.
  • Cause analysis of meager salaries of Sichuan primary school teachers in the 1930s
    Zeng Chongbi
    2006, 1(4): 611-628. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11462-006-0022-0
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    This paper aims to investigate the phenomenon wherein primary school teachers in Sichuan received low salaries in the 1930s. Compared with other professions among either physical or nonphysical jobs, primary school teachers had lower salaries, which were often paid in arrears and deducted. The main causes were instability, mismanagement, and an unbalanced distribution of education funds.