The Structure,Genre, and Meaning of Psalm 129

Psalm 129 depicts the distress of the people in exile. The common understanding is that vv. 6-8 is a lament for the downfall of its present adversaries. This article proves that this is not the meaning of the second half of the Psalm. It contains no appeal to God for salvation or thanksgiving for an ameliorated situation. Verses 6-8 depict the transience of the peoples exilic existence. The psalmist likens the people to the roof-top grass that withers rapidly. The rooftop grass evokes the poverty and the landlessness of the people that compel them to utilize their rooftops to grow crops that yield so little that there is almost nothing to harvest. This situation stands in contrast to the divine blessing of the agriculture in the Land of Israel. The psalmist’s objective is to convey the harsh reality of the exile. He juxtaposes this situation against the much awaited future and against the abundant Divine blessing of the past.     

Screening Singapore: The Cinematic Landscape of Eric Khoo's Be With Me

This paper investigates the mutually constitutive relationship between the context of film production and the composition and content of images produced. Singapore film director Eric Khoo is central to our investigation, and his 2005 film Be With Me is a key example of how Singapore's ongoing urban redevelopment to become a world city reflexively shapes the style and appearance of the city‐state projected in the film. Singapore's history as a developmental state, its pervasive influence on the public and private spaces of its citizens, and recent state‐led initiatives to nurture the arts and media sectors all make it an ideal site to examine the relations between the cinema and space. Be With Me also lends itself to spatial analysis as its mise‐en‐scène is a geography of the life course: particular parts of the city are ‘cast’ as spaces of youth, middle, and old age. We elaborate how the landscapes deployed in the film are simultaneously constituted through state policies, mise‐en‐scène, and gender/age/class considerations. In so doing we show how Khoo's vision of the city‐state has altered since his emergence as a film director in the 1990s: from an oppressed site of hyper‐modernity to a more ambivalent ‘globalised’ built environment in which marginalised or liminal urban spaces for sensuous life and hope for human connection can be experienced.     

泪眼思亲念 高楼寄所怀——论唐寅绘画风格兼记其《怀楼图轴》

《怀楼图轴》充分体现出唐寅绘画情景交融、诗画共汇的艺术风格。     

From the mouth of babes,strength: Psalm 8 and the book of Isaiah

ABSTRACT

As a response to my previous article on Geshur, Nadav Na’aman has recently brought up the history of Geshur. Much is at stake concerning the methodological approach in how archaeological data and the Hebrew Bible are used to reconstruct ancient realities. Geshur is a prime example of how archaeological data should not be interpreted and used. Na’aman’s hypothesis on Geshur is built on conjectures, obscure readings, textual emendations, arguments from authority, lack of methodological discipline, and circular reasoning. The reconstruction of Geshur highlights the importance of investigating the core of the arguments concerning any proposal on ancient Israel.

Geshur may well have existed, but unless something substantial can be said of Geshur, the name is as hollow as the names of the Hivvites, Girgashites, and Perizzites. We do not know when it existed or what its culture, extent, religion, or capital was. The biblical references could well go back to a very small entity or a small town that grew in importance in the transmission of the text. In sum, we do not know much more than its name and perhaps the very approximate area, but this information amounts to next to nothing.     

20世纪80年代以来中国的日本诗话研究述评

日本诗话作为中国诗话域外繁衍的一大支脉,是在中国诗话的直接影响之下产生和发展起来的,它对于开拓我国古代文学的域外追踪研究和汉字文化圈内比较文学研究,有着重要的学术文化价值。上世纪80年代以来,中国学术界介绍研究日本诗话,取得了一定的成果。     

Defending the Concept of Time in the Hebrew Bible

Abstract

Due to the scarcity of reflection on time as an independent subject in the Hebrew Bible, there has been a scholarly tendency to consider biblical time conception more limited than our own_perhaps even nonexistent. This article confronts the scholarly skepticism regarding the ability of the biblical authors to think about time, defending the presence of time conceptualization in the Hebrew Bible. In the article I discuss central research contributions to the subject of biblical time, in particular Sacha Stern’s thesis that the concept of time is entirely absent from the Hebrew Bible and from ancient Judaism more widely. I explore linguistic and anthropological assumptions which underpin large parts of the discussion on time within biblical studies, arguing that one cannot assume on the basis of either that the biblical authors lacked a concept of time. Finally, I suggest that the ability of the biblical writers to coordinate unrelated processes according to a temporal axis is a strong argument in favour of their awareness of time.     

盛唐集贤院诗歌活动考论

一般认为律体律调定型于初唐,但并不意味之后的诗歌活动都无须关注声律。盛唐集贤院群体性诗歌活动,群体性除创作实践外,还表征于人才汇聚、诗文评议和文艺书籍修撰等方面。在这层意义上,可以说"二张"和他们领导的集贤院学士一起推动了唐诗声律从定型走向成熟。     

Sarah the Princess: Tracing the Hellenistic Afterlife of a Pentateuchal Female Figure

This article analyses Philo of Alexandria’s and Josephus Flavius’s interpretations of Sarah from the viewpoint of social and political power attached to her. Both ascribe the figure royal attributes (i.e. she is depicted as a princess or queen) and other features that promote her as a virtuous model and an individual of public standing. A variety of emphases, philological and philosophical interpretations alike, jointly serve to construct Sarah’s exemplarity. The aim of this article is to demonstrate that different dimensions of biblical female figures may be revealed when their role as spouses and mothers is not taken as the starting point of analysis in studies concerning the reception history of biblical women.     

旅游地域结构的量化研究--以湖南省为例

运用景观生态学的空间格局指数定量分析旅游资源空间分布格局,采用门限自回归模型模拟旅游客源市场的时间变化特征,运用模糊聚类分析方法对入境旅游客源市场进行分类,并以湖南为例作实证研究。     

The Literary Style of Sarmiento in Recuerdos De Provincia

I am parting from the premise that poets and writers such as Juan González de Mendoza wrote literary works commissioned by the Philippine colony oligarchy in order to influence the Habsburg Court, to continue the imperial expansion in Asia. In Historia de la China, Juan González de Mendoza offers to the Spanish Court and the King a messianic discourse proclaiming that the overtaking of Asia by the Spanish throne would be understood as a divine plan for the recuperation of the kingdom of Jerusalem and the conclusion of the medieval biblical prophecies.     

From prophecy to apocalypse: the verb tenses of Jerusalem in Robert the Monk's Historia of the First Crusade

In the prologue to his Historia of the First Crusade, Robert the Monk posed this rhetorical question: ‘since the creation of the world what more miraculous undertaking has there been (other than the mystery of the redeeming Cross) than what was achieved in our own time by the journey of our own people to Jerusalem?’ For Robert, the answer was of course simple: nothing was more miraculous. Yet when we answer that question along with Robert, we lose sight of its significance, and how staggering that claim actually would have been in the early twelfth century. For Robert, the events of 1095–9 signalled a new moment in sacred history. Old Testament prophecy had come true in his own day. What ‘was to come’ became what simply ‘was’. For Robert the Monk, prophecy became apocalypse.     

Psalm 55 Interpreted in View of its Textual,Metatextual and Intertextual Connections

Psalms 52-55 constitute a cluster of psalms with significant links to one another, to Proverbs, and also to the history of David. Psalms 52 and 55 were both also influenced by motifs from Jer 9. These features point to their having been composed (Ps 52) or edited (Ps 55) with a specific focus in mind. This article attempts to read Psalm 55 on its own, but also within the context of the cluster and in its relationship to Jer 9 as well as David’s history in order to refine our knowledge of the problems, values, hopes and expectations of the Persian period editors who compiled and edited the cluster.     

“同制京师”——大云山西汉王陵形制初识

从陵园、封土、墓穴、外藏坑、祔葬墓、陪葬墓、道路等七个形制要素,对大云山西汉江都王王陵进行对比分析,可以判断大云山王陵与汉代帝陵属于同一陵墓制度,但等级较帝陵稍低。此外,其与帝陵形制上的区别,也是地理位置、气候条件等综合作用的结果。     

Population Distribution and Spatial Structure in Transitional Chinese Cities: A Study of Nanjing

Two geographers use population surface model techniques to analyze the distribution of population in Chinese cities. Focusing on Nanjing, they utilize detailed urban land use and building distribution data to develop a productive alternative method to reveal spatial variations in the distribution of inhabitants. The findings indicate that despite suburbanization, Nanjing remains a compact city with a population density that declines rapidly as distance from its central business district increases. Also, suburbanization has been limited to an inner area where population is densely distributed while commercial and office development is less prominent. Lastly, commercial activities influence the distribution of urban inhabitants and suburbanization more significantly than industrial development in suburbia. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O15, O18, R12, R14. 9 figures, 3 tables, 37 references.     

秦代山川祭祀格局研究

山川祭祀在中国古代国家祭祀体系中地位显要,秦代首创了统一王朝山川祭祀的大格局,将名山大川整合为一个体系,其中又有"崤以东"与"华以西"的区分。西汉中前期对秦的格局既有延续也有调整。本文逐一梳理了秦至西汉初年"名山大川"的地望,考证其祠庙具体位置及设立时间。同时,本文考察了秦至西汉中期的国家山川祭祀格局,并分析了这一格局形成的原因及其意义。秦汉的山川祭祀不仅是国家祭祀中的重要组成部分,也是政治地理格局的一种反映,承担着宣告王朝正统性及皇帝控制力的意义。     

意象与现实:宋代城市等级刍议

人口数量是反映城市发展水平的重要指标。不少学者在论著中,从不同的侧面提出了他们关于宋代城市等级的看法,研究思路都是通过广泛搜集文献记载中偶存的宋代城市人口数据的片断信息,归纳得出结论,但相互间歧见颇大。其实,宋人关于城市人口规模的表述更多地是出于意象,宋人的这种意象,与其说主要依据于实际人口数量,不如说依据于城市的行政地位,因此在时人意象中城市规模的差序格局就形成了都城百万家、路治十万家、州军与重要县城万家以及一般县城数千家这样几个等级分明的序列。这说明至少就某种程度而言,在两宋士人的心目中,城市的行政地位比它们的实际规模更为重要。讨论宋代城市发展史不应忽视这一史实。     

太原满城时空结构研究

本文研究了太原满城的建置情况,一方面分析了该城筑建的经过,一方面探讨了其所处位置的军事地理形势;阐明了满城的形制以及内部设施,就满城的城垣、城门和城角以及内部衙署、营房、祠宇、学舍、街巷等相关设施进行了论述;并揭示出了满城的驻防官兵数量和内部经济结构。     

艾略特小说的希腊悲剧式结构

乔治·艾略特是英国19世纪著名的批判现实主义女作家.她的小说主要描写英国中部的乡村生活,书中的人物及其命运浮沉成为转型期英国社会的一个缩影.1860年出版的长篇小说《弗洛斯河上的磨房》,被公认为是一部自传体性质的小说,是艾略特的代表作;1872年发表的《米德尔马契》则被认为是她创作生涯的巅峰之作.两部小说采用了希腊悲剧式的结构,分别讲述了三位主人公悲剧性的人生境遇,生动再现并深刻批判了19世纪英国乡村的社会现实,两部作品堪称形式与内容的完美结合.