Chinese culture is established by bringing together many nationalities. Chinese historiography has recorded the development of this great culture. Among these records, ethnic minority historiography reflects one important aspect for identifying the historic trend of the formation of a united multiethnic nation. A comprehensive study on the development of Chinese ethnic minority historiography shows that it can be divided into six phases: the Pre-Qin period to the Qin and Han dynasties; the Wei, Jin, Southern-Northern and Sui-Tang dynasties; the Liao, Song, Xia, Jin and Yuan dynasties; the Ming and Qing dynasties (before 1840); the modern times (1840–1949); and the contemporary times. Deep analysis of these phases would inevitably improve the study of the history of Chinese historiography.
From the perspective of historical anthropology, this article examines a great deal of the biographies of religious figures in Tibetan history, reveals their special way of writing, classification, and circulation. In Tibetan Buddhism, biographies of religious figures are considered as a subject’s demise (lung-rgyun) and have their special meanings. They are the text of the largest quantity in the historical works of Tibet and had great influence on Tibetan historiography. A comprehensive research on their cultural characteristic, historical evolvement and historical influence will help us understand the Tibetan culture in depth.
Zougong, the most important local deity at Sibao, Tingzhou Prefecture, was worshipped by local villagers at least from the Yuan and the Ming dynasties on. The Zou lineages in the area regarded Zougong as their common ancestor. Existing literature usually identifies Zougong as Zou Yinglong, a zhuangyuan in the Southern Song Dynasty. However, such identification appeared only in the late Ming period when local elites of several Zou lineages consciously tried to unite and consolidate their lineages. Before that, Zougong was a mighty ritual master in a series of magic contest stories popular at Tingzhou, rather than a zhuangyuan. The change of his identity from ritual master to zhuangyuan was a result of convergence of Taoist tradition, gentry culture and local culture, which may be called “cultural hybridization,” rather than a simple process by which local culture gave way to gentry culture.
Comparison study on the border trading between the Ming and the Qing dynasties shows that during the Qing Dynasty, the Great Wall become an important means for the government to rule other nations like Mongolian; the border trading markets in the Qing were more than that in the Ming, and the folk trading along the Great Wall played an important role; the management about the border trading by the Qing government was embodied in the control of the structure and scale of border trading market and the mutual trading; the trading premise, the market nature, the market value for existence, and the market function of the border trading in the Qing were different from that of the Ming Dynasty.
Resulted from different causes, the majority of traditional cities in modern China underwent a decline in various degrees. The causes of the decline of Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Yangzhou which have started to develop their new industry and commerce since mid-Qing Dynasty lies in such aspects as: the lose of transportation superiority in modern China; the fatal destruction caused by Taiping Revolution; the affects of the rising of Shanghai; the recession of traditional economy and slowed development of new economy; and the conservatism in thinking and ideas etc.
The cave reliefs of Mahao in Leshan City, Sichuan Province, have been world-famous for containing an early Buddhist statue. Yet, little attention has been paid to the co-existent stone reliefs sharing the tomb cave and the cultural significance thereof. Through the Qin and Han dynasties (221 BC–220 AD), the ancient Ba and Shu civilizations in what is Sichuan today gradually merged into the Chinese civilization, of which the Han civilization is the main body, on the one hand, the Han civilization exerted a strong influence on its south-western counterparts, as is revealed by the stone reliefs in the tomb cave; on the other hand, the south-western region was apparently assimilated into the Chinese civilization while concurrently absorbing elements of even farther civilizations (e.g., those in Central and South Asia). The early image of Buddha appeared against a wide cultural background.
