A Full Inspection on Chinese Characters Used in the Secrete History of the Mongols

PACLIC 20 / Wuhan, China / 1-3 November, 200

Animals depicted in jade of the 13th to 14th centuries in China

The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate, with regard to the relationship between man and nature, how and why animals were depicted in jade carving, compared to other arts during the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) in China. In this way the thesis seeks to make a direct contribution to an understanding of the significance of animals in various aspects of art and life throughout the Yuan Dynasty. The former idea, that the Mongols, as nomads and forest hunters, their illiterate status and barbaric customs effectively discouraged their interest and ability in scholarly and artistic matters, used to be widely accepted. There are much more negative comments and "matter-of-fact" historical records of the Mongol rulers in China to demonstrate how true they were that the Mongols were nothing but a group of fearsome and vicious barbarians. In recent years, although this prejudice has been partially reassessed, there are still significant gaps to fulfil, to look into and to comprehend about art in the Yuan period. It is clear, however, that several aspects of the Mongols' tastes and concepts of art differed from those of the people they invaded, conquered and ruled. Art of human being has long been existed ever since the man appeared on this planet, no matter how primitive. Their sense of art and work of art were, however, born together with the nation themselves the very first moment, even without any understanding and appreciation of the rest of the world. The first and foremost aim of the present thesis is to demonstrate the interested scholar of Yuan jade (and indeed Yuan art in general) with a preliminary manual, which assembles, as comprehensively as possible, all relevant information available on early Yuan jade developed during the 13th to 14th centuries. These will reveal how and why Mongols used their most treasured material - jade - to depict the favourite subjects in their style of life - namely animals. Secondly, the thesis will also present a series of potential clues, not only to the specific understanding of Yuan jade animals, but also of Yuan art and culture as a whole. Finally, the analysis will indicate how the Yuan style was influenced by the Song Dynasty (960-1279), and how it in turn subsequently had an influence on Ming aesthetics (1368-1644). The number of jade animals known of the Yuan Dynasty remains very small, largely due to many surviving jade objects and heirlooms are difficult to be properly dated because of lack of evidence and definite provenance. Furthermore, the Yuan Dynasty was extremely short in duration (98 years), and it was ruled by people of steppes coming fi om far away in the North to China, which has always been largely segregated from mainstream of full historical studies in China, let alone much cultural appreciation by the Chinese. The framework and conceptual tools in this thesis for the analysis of the animals in three-dimentional forms of art derive from many historians, artists, scholars and zoologists. Studies of history of art based on artefacts are a scientific research. It is different from traditional art appreciation and religious art fetishism. Its aim is to try to understand insights of arts by using comparative sciences. It needs a wide range of knowledge to understand every possible aspect of culture and arts during the Yuan Dynasty, then it goes finally to the artefacts themselves

Forging the Imperial Nation: Imperialism, Nationalism, and Ethnic Boundaries in China's Longue Duree.

In this dissertation, I study the dynamics of ethnic group boundaries in China, emphasizing its continuity through changes from the pre-imperial times to the present day. I distinguish the imperial, patrimonial pattern of ethnic relations, to which China belongs as a case, from the colonial and national type in which ethno-racial boundary-making tends to function as a source of social inequality and political discrimination. Further, I depict the post-imperial Chinese state as the ‘imperial nation,’ enshrining the traditional Sinic ideals of statehood and nationhood together with the patrimonial structures of ethno-territorial governance, albeit with reconfigurations in a national form. The current imperial nation of China is to some degree the prison-house of nation, which symbolizes the fundamental contradiction of being in the midst of the empire-nation continuum in the age of nation-states. Yet, like most non-colonial world-empires, it is modeled not on ethnic exclusion but on the trans-ethnic inclusion underscoring its multiethnic unity. Therefore, I critically examine several misunderstandings and misconceptions in that scholarship which interprets Chinese realities through the lenses of racism, internal colonialism, and Oriental Orientalism. I illustrate ethnicity in China as an imagined category associated with the state-making process and examine how the macro-level structure has affected the individual’s ethnic self-identity. I identify three major characteristics, which constitute major chapters of this study. First, I discuss the ethnic boundary-making process in both cognitive and institutional dimensions. Despite the enduring evidence of Sinocentric prejudice, the various Chinese states have institutionalized ethnic categories not so much to discriminate against non-Han groups as to protect and privilege them compared with the Han peoples. Second, I trace the ethnic boundary-clearing characteristic in the construction of national self-imagery. The conception of common descent as the primordial foundation of Chinese genealogical nationalism has not identified one particular group at the expense of others, but has been employed to integrate diverse ethnicities within one big family, often portrayed as descendants of the mythical Yellow Emperor. Lastly, I demonstrate the porous nature of ethnic boundaries at the individual level, based on the analysis of the Eight Banner household registers as an empirical case of boundary-crossing.Ph.D.SociologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/89783/1/bhlee_1.pd

Routledge Handbook of Chinese Medicine

The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Medicine is an extensive, interdisciplinary guide to the nature of traditional medicine and healing in the Chinese cultural region, and its plural epistemologies. Established experts and the next generation of scholars interpret the ways in which Chinese medicine has been understood and portrayed from the beginning of the empire (third century BCE) to the globalisation of Chinese products and practices in the present day, taking in subjects from ancient medical writings to therapeutic movement, to talismans for healing and traditional medicines that have inspired global solutions to contemporary epidemics. The volume is divided into seven parts: Longue Durée and Formation of Institutions and Traditions Sickness and Healing Food and Sex Spiritual and Orthodox Religious Practices The World of Sinographic Medicine Wider Diasporas Negotiating Modernity This handbook therefore introduces the broad range of ideas and techniques that comprise pre-modern medicine in China, and the historiographical and ethnographic approaches that have illuminated them. It will prove a useful resource to students and scholars of Chinese studies, and the history of medicine and anthropology. It will also be of interest to practitioners, patients and specialists wishing to refresh their knowledge with the latest developments in the field. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 licens

A History of Islamic Court Dress in the Middle East.

The aesthetic ideal of the well-dressed Muslim male and female was formulated in ?ad?th literature, which counselled that the individual's devotion should be reflected in suitable humble and unostentatious attire. Although the evidence is fragmentary, the reality of the Umayyad and Abbasid courts, however, shows an increasing concern for ritual and ceremonial, along with a growing belief that the individual's status, profession and political (and religious) allegiance should be manifested in dress. It has been generally assumed that costume in the Islamic Middle East remained virtually unchanged in its structure and form until the 19th century. A careful examination of the visual sources in respect of the military dress in the medieval and post-medieval periods challenges this assumption, which is further weakened by the pictorial evidence of court costumes in the Ottoman and Safavid empires. At both courts, distinctive features in dress and head-gear identified the wearer's rank, status and to some extent, office. To don clothes associated with another group was to indicate publicly one's social aspirations, and for this reason sumptuary laws were repeatedly issued, with questionable effect, to re-establish as traditional a social order and stratification. Similarly in the 19th and 20th centuries, government programmes of radical modernization were accompanied by rigorous clothing reforms for both men and women. As the study of costume has to be undertaken with reference to political, social and economic history, each section is introduced by a short historical summary. This is followed by the examination of data relating to the court dress of the period, and concluded with information on the economic situation of the textile industry

A serological-genetic study of Iranian and neighbouring populations.

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:D51998/84 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

HM 23: New Interpretations in Naval History

Selected Papers from the Seventeenth McMullen Naval History Symposium Held at the United States Naval Academy, 15–16 September 2011.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/usnwc-historical-monographs/1022/thumbnail.jp

HM 23: New Interpretations in Naval History

Selected Papers from the Seventeenth McMullen Naval History Symposium Held at the United States Naval Academy, 15–16 September 2011.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/usnwc-historical-monographs/1022/thumbnail.jp

Siberia revealed through the travel narrative : a Russian, American and British perspective

This study examines how travelogues by the Russian author Anton Chekhov, an American, George Kennan and a British citizen, Harry de Windt, contributed towards establishing the image of Siberia towards the end of the 19th century, juxtaposing their individual views against the commonly perceived view of the region at the time. In examining the texts, a literary analysis is merged with elements of other approaches, through a strong thematic focus, centring on the cultural and ideological assumptions implied in the texts. The findings reveal that both native inhabitants and foreigners are capable of expressing a justifiable opinion on a locality, resulting in different versions of what is observed, from divergent points of view. Although the three writers in this study appear to support a negative view of Siberia, closer investigation show evidence of optimism about the eventual destiny of a region in a stage of transition.Linguistics and Modern LanguagesM.A. (Russian