ObservationandCognitionofSeaTidesDuringtheHan-TangPeriod
LuXiqi(1)
(Department of History, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China)
Abstract: There were two main paths for the exploration and understanding of sea tides in the Han-Tang period. The first was the empirical understanding from observations, mainly about the tide level and tide time. It was recognized that there existed a relationship between tidal changes and the contraction of the moon, based on which people designed the table to estimate the time of ebb and flow of tide. Another path was imagination and deduction: they put forward theories such as the heavenly river entering the sea, the sun entering the sea and generating tides, and the earth’s movement causing tides, etc. The former was empirical knowledge, coastal people with experience of marine life; and mainly came from and used by the latter was conceptual knowledge, mainly came from the intellectual elites. These two kinds of knowledge complemented with each other and together constituted the knowledge system of sea tides in the Han-Tang period.
Keywords: sea tide; observation; interpretation; empiricism; conceptualism
SoutheastWaterFlowoutoftheTaihuLakeandExpansionofDianshanLakeintheSongandYuanDynasties
JingMiaochun(20)
(School of Sociology, Suzhou University, Suzhou 215123, China)
Abstract: The change of Dianshan Lake during the Song and Yuan dynasties are the result of the changes of hydrological environment in the east of the Taihu Lake. During the mid to late Northern Song Dynasty, Dianshan Lake was expanded due to crustal subsidence in the Dianmao (淀泖)region, the siltation of the Wusong River, and the accumulation of water in the pond, and the main flow of Dianshan Lake was discharged into the Wusong River along the northern ponds, forming a unique overflow hydraulic system between the Wusong River, the ponds along the river and Dianshan Lake. During the Southern Song Dynasty, the drainage pattern of Taihu Lake was southeast and northeast, influenced by the continuous siltation of the Wusong River, and the clear water and tidal water were permanently supported by each other in the northeastern waters of Dianshan Lake, resulting in the spread of siltation and the expansion of polder. The backwater of Dianshan Lake, which has been blocked from flowing northward, gradually develops towards the southeast. During the Yuan Dynasty, the main stem of the Wusong River continued to silt up, the amount of water coming into Dianshan Lake continued to increase. However, with the blockage of the outlet of Dianmao in the northeast pond and the construction of the southeast pond, the water was stagnant in the Mao area, including Dianshan Lake, causing a stagnant catchment area and a second expansion of Dianshan Lake.
Keywords: Song-Yuan period; Dianshan Lake; water environment; reclamation
ReconstructionofSuperTyphoonsAffectingJiangsu-Zhejiang-ShanghaiAreafrom1640-1949
ZhangSen,YangYuda(34)
(Center for Historical Geography Studies, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China)
Abstract: Super typhoons are one of the most severe natural disasters affecting China’s coastal areas. Relying on modern research results of typhoons, this paper uses historical local gazettes, archives, newspapers and other materials to deduct six indicators, including the wind scales, death toll, house damage, crop loss, official and public relief policy, and typhoon impact range, to develop a method for identifying super typhoons in the historical period. It is applied to reconstructing the super typhoon affecting Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai area from 1640-1949, and the results are in turn statistically tested against the records of super typhoons from 1950-2019. This study shows that this method is robust in identifying the super typhoon events in the historical period. The reconstructed sequence shows that an average of 2.3 super typhoons occurs every 10 years, and there are obvious fluctuations in its frequency, which are different from that of general typhoons.
Keywords: super typhoon; Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai areas; historical climate
FromDualControltoExclusiveControl:ShenweiDaoinMingDynasty
GuoHong,ZengShuya(48)
(Department of History, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China)
Abstract: The Bingbei Dao was an important military institution in the Ming Dynasty. During the Jiajing reign, in response to the transprovincial maneuvers of the “mineral thieves” in eastern Guangdong and the intrusion of Japanese pirates, the Shenwei Dao was set up in Pingyuan County in Southern Jiangxi. Later, Pingyuan County was transferred to Chaozhou-fu in Guangdong province. Accordingly, Shenwei Dao was transferred from “dual control” under the governors of Southern Jiangxi and Guangdong to exclusively under the Governor of Guangdong. As a result, Shenwei Dao’s seat was also moved from Pingyuan County to Huizhou-fu. After the stability of eastern Guangdong Province, Shenwei Dao was abolished in the period of Wanli. The changes of Shenwei Dao’s command, responsibility, jurisdiction, and residence was a typical case of Bingbei Daos in the middle to the late Ming Dynasty. The abolition and division adjustment of the Shenwei Dao also reflected the changes of the complex military situation in Lingdong region of Guangdong Province in the same period.
Keywords: Shenwei Dao; Guangdong; the governor of Southern Jiangxi
TheTransformationofGuangdong’sGrass-rootsDivisionsintheLateQingDynastyanditsOriginintheLocalMilitiaCorps
LiuGuiqi(60)
(Department of Politics and Law, Guangdong University of Education, Guangzhou 510303, China)
Abstract: The Qing government promulgated theActofTown-countrySelf-Governmentin 1909, which established the “town-country system” as the grass-roots autonomous divisions. Since then, with the disintegration of “Quasi-compound administrative districts pattern” which had been formed since the Qin and Han dynasties, the grass-roots divisions have entered the period of a unified and full-functional “Country-town system”. However, the initial practice of“town-country system” was not fully complied with rigid regulations. In Guangdong Province, where the grass-roots militias were prevalent, most of the grass-roots autonomous divisions followed the “County-district” mode rather than “Urban, town and country” system as defined in the act. The division and allocation of “District”actually originated from the local grass-roots military defense divisions “Tuan”. That is to say, the modern grass-roots autonomous divisions derive from the grass-roots militias corps. To a large extent, with the functions of public security defense, administrative management and quasi-autonomy, the grass-roots militia corps not only met the establishment requirements of the grass-roots autonomous divisions, but also the internal needs of Guangdong’s grass-roots social governance at that time.
Keywords: late Qing Dynasty; Guangdong; division transformation; grass-roots militia
ATypologicalAnalysisoftheRefinementofChinesePlaceNamesinHistoricalPeriods
TianXuezhi,LanYong(73)
(School of History and Culture, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China)
Abstract: “Refinement” is regarded as a prominent value orientation in the evolution of place names in historical China, but there is still a lack of clear cognition and definition of the connotation and category of “refinement” in the existing research. Based on the analysis of the “indecent” place names narrative in historical periods, this paper draws the following conclusions. The refinement of Chinese place names in historical periods can be generalized into several types which are guided by the Han people’s hierarchy of cultural value orientation, and embodied by the objects, orientation, paths and ways of refining. The objects that are to be refined include place names with negative, ominous or inelegant meanings. The orientations include auspiciousization, confucianization and poeticization of the old place names. The ways of refining include eleven ways under the leading of the two paths of retrieving the old name and establishing a new name. The refinement of place names reflects the ancients’ general cognition over “indecent” and the geographical infiltration and diffusion of the traditional cultural thoughts of the Han people while has its historical limitations. Therefore, the refinement of place names should be adapted to the three main functions of place names which are regional recognition, historical memory and cultural inheritance.
Keywords: Chinese place names; historical periods; inelegant place names; “refinement” types; functional adaptation
TheChangingFarmingSystemintheAreaBorderingJiangsu,Shandong,HenanandAnhuiasInfluencedbytheAlteredCourseoftheYellowRiverDuringtheMingandQingDynasties
HuQiwei(87)
(Culture Exhibition Centre, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China)
Abstract: During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Huaihe River was captured by the Yellow River after the later altered its course. Consequently, a series of measures were taken to control the Yellow River and ensure transportation in the Grand Canal, such as “transport by the Yellow River”, “avoiding the Yellow River”, “sluicing sand with water” and “storing clear water against Yellow River”. But the second last strategy also led to the rise of the Yellow River riverbed. Drastic environmental changes happened in the border area between Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan, and Anhui, resulting in the “inversion” of the farming system, namely rice agriculture gave way to dryland agriculture based on wheat and beans.
Keywords: environmental change; The Yellow River; border zone between Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan, and Anhui; system of farming
TheSpatialandTemporalProcessofEconomicStructureDiversificationinSuiyuanAreaDuringtheQingDynastyandtheRepublicofChina
FanRusen,LiYanyan(96)
(Center for Historical Geography Studies, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China)
Abstract: During the period of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, Suiyuan, which was located in the western part of the Northern Agricultural Pastoral Ecotone, underwent diversified changes in its industrial structure in response to changes in the situation at home and abroad. Diversification became a prominent feature of local economic geography. By the 1930s, it was mainly reflected in the non-local primary industries of agriculture, industry, commerce and transportation, which infiltrated, superimposed and transformed with the local native nomadic economy into a modernity and diversified regional economic system. Before that, it could only be called piecemeal changes, rather than full scale changes. Thereafter, Suiyuan had evolved from a nomadic landscape of cattle and sheep throughout the territory in the early Qing Dynasty, to a new pattern of diversified industries in the late Republic of China, which was characterized by pastoral farming, numerous industrial enterprises, prosperous domestic and foreign trade, and interlaced roads and railways. It had become a common home for Mongolian and Han peoples with a prosperous regional economic and harmonious inter-ethnicity relations.
Keywords: industrial structure; Suiyuan area; diversification; the period of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China
MutualProtection:AResearchontheSystemofFortressesontheBorderofHedongLuinNorthernSongDynasty
MaWei(110)
(School of History and Culture, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, China)
Abstract: During the confrontation between the Northern Song and the Liao dynasties, the song army attached great importance to the northern border defense system of Hedong Lu. The defense line runs for more than 400 miles, along which a defense system with Daizhou as the center, and Fanshi and Guxian as the East and West wing respectively, has been formed. It mainly consists of citadels and fortresses and the aim is to deter the southward attacks through the Xiagu road of the Liao army. The fortresses are surrounded by defensive facilities such as square fields, protective forests, stone walls, ditches, and beacon towers. Taken together, they form a defense system integrating the functions of monitoring, reconnaissance, counter-attacking, military information transmission and so on. Horizontally, the distances between fortresses in different regions ranged from eight to seventy miles, with the majority at around thirty. Vertically, they rely on hinterland counties and towns, thus forming a three-tier defense system, which played a key role in the border defense system of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Keywords: Northern Song Dynasty; Hedong Lu; fortress; defense system
MilitaryHuntingofAlashaQoshotBannerinQingDynastyandtheGeographicalEnvironment
QiGuang(125)
(Center for Historical Geography, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China)
Abstract: By analyzing ten Mongolian language bylaws regarding large-scale military battue hunt issued by the Mongolian Alasha Qoshot Banner in 1829, this paper provides the historical background, modality, procedures, precautions, origins, and so forth of the military battue hunt and examines the correlations between military battue hunts, cavalry organization, and the geographical environment. The bylaw concerns not only the military battue huntpersebut also how the Qing warfare strategy that evolved as it involves the Mongol cavalry operating system. As the military battue hunt closely resembles the annihilation siege undertaken by the Modern Armored Division, the study is of particular importance to both military history and war studies.
Keywords: Alasha Qoshot Banner; military hunting; geographical environment
FromLinetoNetwork:theAdjustmentandImprovementofDefensePatterninGuizhouProvinceinQingDynasty
LuoQuan(133)
(Research Center for Karst Ecological Civilization and Historical Geography, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang 550025)
Abstract: The Qing government achived effective governance of the whole of Guizhou province by altering the native chieftain system into governmental appointed officials, establishing garrisons, county-level administrations and pioneering new frontiers, ending up the situation that all were wild beyond the settled line. This also rendered great changes in the patterns of military geography. The Qing government transformed the linear defense military mode of the Ming dynasty into a more ambitious “two-governor” system: one in Anshun to control the hinderland of Guizhou, and the other in Guiyang to manage the soldiers from the newly subdivided land. Both of the governors could mobilize the troops around the province. In addition, a generalship was set up in Zhenyuan to safeguard the eastern courier route and gain special control of the new land of Songtao, Taigong and Qingjiang. Generals of Weining, Guzhou and Anyi were also set up to manage the northwest, southeast and southwest, respectively. The new governance penetrated into countryside and achieved the goal of controlling the province as a whole.
Keywords: Qing Dynasty; Guizhou; military geography
AQueryontheSongshuZhoujunzhiifGovernorTaokanwasBasedinMianyang
ZhangZhongyin(144)
(Yellow River Civilization and Sustainable Development, Henan University, Kaifeng 475001, China)
Abstract: In Jin Dynasty, Taokan(陶侃) served as the cishi of Jingzhou twice. During this period, the Jingzhou perfectual seat was never based in Mianyang(沔阳). By analyzing historical records, it is revealed that the related claims all mistook Mianyang for Dunyang.
Keywords:SongshuZhoujunzhi; Mianyang; Dunyang