揭秘红夷大炮

明天启六年(1626),明军在宁远城头重创努尔哈赤军队的红夷大炮是谁铸造的?努尔哈赤是被谁打死的?这两大历史疑问一直是学界争论不休的话题。2005年,福建石狮市博物馆从民间收集到一块明代兵部尚书黄克缵为其堂兄黄克立撰写     

军事博物馆藏明代火器

中国人民革命军事博物馆收藏明代各类火器30余件,多数带有年款、制造或使用机构、人物等铭文。这些火器按照发展特点可分成四个历史时期,分别是:火器的探索与创制期(洪武时期)、传统火器的繁荣期(永乐至弘治时期)、佛郎机盛行与传统火器的进一步发展期(嘉靖、万历时期)和红夷大炮的时代(天启至崇祯时期)。本文按照不同的历史阶段分别介绍了馆藏的不同类型的明代火炮。     

红夷大炮与皇太极创立的八旗汉军

由于宁远、锦州等役的失利 ,皇太极深刻认识到红夷大炮的威力 ,遂积极起用汉人铸炮、操炮 ,终于在天聪年间成功铸成“天助威大将军”炮。在同明军作战及制造和使用红夷大炮的过程中 ,皇太极创建了八旗汉军 ,不仅每役所动员的红夷大炮均已超过明军 ,并开创出以汉人炮兵与满蒙步骑兵协同作战的卓越战术。清军在入关前夕所铸成的“神威大将军”炮 ,其品质已达到当时世界最高水平 ,在中国带动了一场影响深广的军事革命。     

红夷大炮 误国的利器？

这是中国火器史上最为纠结的一段历史。中国是火药和火器的故乡,但明朝时却要花尽心思偷学、引进两方的火炮。中国人曾经无比迷恋、呼为神器的“红夷大炮”真的能挽救国家于危亡吗？历史证明,明朝的城池大多是被他们自己引进的大炮轰开的．红夷大炮竟是“误国的利器”？     

郑成功和他的画像

郑成功明福建泉州府南安县石井人,父郑芝龙,母日本人川田氏,明天启四年(公元1624)生于日本。原名福松,七岁时回国至泉州,改名森,字大木。十五补南安县学廪生,廿一岁至南京国子监读书。南明隆武帝(朱聿键)颇器重之,赐国姓,改名成功。隆武二年(公元1646)郑芝龙降清,其母于清兵入南安时惨死,朱聿键亦被掳死。成功"乃悲歌慷慨,谋起师,携所着儒巾蓝衫,赴文     

明天启张瑞图书“承天寺十奇诗”诗刻

泉州古称"泉南佛国",是佛教文化传入较早较集中的地区之一。泉州承天寺是泉州最富盛名的佛教寺庙之一,留下了许多宝贵的财富,明天启张瑞图书"承天寺十奇诗"就是其中的佼佼者。     

辽沈地区新见后金钱币

<正>努尔哈赤于明万历十一年（1583）起兵,逐步统一女真各部。明万历四十四年（1616）初建大金国,称汗建元天命,史称“后金”。明天启元年（1621）三月,努尔哈赤率领后金军队攻陷辽东重镇辽阳,继而兴建东京城并迁都于此。努尔哈赤在辽阳期间铸造了天命铜钱,分别以满、汉文书写钱文,今称之为满文“天命汗钱”和汉文“天命通宝”。明天启五年（1625）三月,努尔哈赤迁都沈阳,     

明亡于神宗辨

明亡后,清人首论明“不亡于崇祯”而“实亡于神宗”。今人具体论证,一说万历十五年为明亡之始,一说万历十三年至二十年为明亡的“关键时期”。本文详论神宗“播乱机”,自万历十一年至二十五年陷入全面危机,但未必亡国。神宗之后,又历（泰昌）天启、崇祯二朝,尚有２４年补救机会,以举措失当而成溃烂之势。故明之亡,天启、崇祯不能辞其咎     

明“天启通宝”小平钱中的奇葩——小巧古拙的“鬼天启”

正众所周知,明朝洪武以后,因政府强制推行"大明通行宝钞",各地钱局已多停铸。至万历年间民间铜钱已不敷使用,钱价日渐上涨。帝遂令广开铸局,以解钱荒,题准十三布政司、南北直隶开局铸钱。到了天启年间,开铸钱局已遍布全国各地,最高峰时有炉156座,年铸量达200多万贯,盛况空前。由于明钱历来北重南轻,所以规定北方铸钱以六十三文折银一钱,南方钱以一百文折银一钱。并严禁私铸。据资料记载:明光宗在位仅数月,所以未铸"泰昌通宝"钱。明熹宗即位后于泰昌元年(1620年)十二月下令补铸"泰昌通宝"一年,然后再铸"天启通宝"。天启二年(1622年)开始铸造"天启通宝"     

也谈万历版《广西通志》

关于明《（万历）广西通志》刻本,有学者认为有万历二十七年原刻本、天启二年补刻本、天启二年以后再补刻本,并认为天启二年补刻时增加了新的内容。本文对此提出不同的看法,认为天启二年补刻没有增加新的内容。而在万历三十五年,广西巡抚杨芳进行了补刻,在艺文志中增加了42页,收录的内容基本上是他本人的诗文。因此,《（万历）广西通志》的刻本,还有万历三十五年的补刻本。     

中英街历史博物馆馆藏火炮的保护修复

为了调整改造"百年中英街"基本陈列,中英街历史博物馆专程到广东台山征集了三门与陈列所反映历史时期相关的火炮,加上原馆藏的一门在深圳东部沿海大梅沙出土的火炮,博物馆现有四门火炮。为了更好地保存、保护和修复这批火炮,对其进行了观察和研究。结果表明这四门火炮均为英国制造的火炮。由于馆藏大梅沙出土的这门火炮病变锈蚀具有典型性,为此,特别制定了一整套保护修复方案:采用机械去污和去离子水清洗、75%乙醇脱水干燥,再用2% ParaloidB72封护的方法实施了保护修复。修复结果表明,火炮恢复了原有的历史风貌,通体光滑无铸缝,整体性好,坚固紧实。从修复保护的结果还可以看出,所实施的保护修复方法是恰当和有效的。保护修复后的火炮陈列在"百年中英街"基本陈列中的"英国割占香港"部分,陈列及观赏效果良好。     

The Praelium Nuportanum by Isaac Dorislaus: Anglo–Dutch Relations and Strategic historiography1

This article investigates the Anglo–Dutch scholar and diplomat Isaac Dorislaus's sole published work, Praelium Nuportanum (PN; 1640), on the battle of Newport in 1600. After presenting some new or little known information about the work, it discusses PN's intellectual context and concludes that the work is a reminder of successful Anglo–Dutch cooperation in the past, of Dutch indebtedness to English assistance, and the Republic's importance as an ally for England, all relevant to the negotiations running in 1640 for an Orange–Stuart wedding, and their backgrounds in the British Civil Wars and Anglo–Spanish–Dutch relations at the time. After the troubles ensuing from Dorislaus's Cambridge lectures on Tacitus in 1627, PN shows the author reconciled with the Court and the Laudian faction. With respect to style and content, PN appears clearly Tacitist in style, with many direct quotations from Tacitus, but this Tacitism operates more on a literary than a political level. Much of PN's historical content is a reworking of Francis Vere's Commentaries (published 1657). From the perspective of the Protestant ‘Anglo–Scoto–Dutch public sphere’ recently discussed in the scholarship, PN might perhaps be read as a warning of the gradual emergence of an Anglo–Dutch Calvinist–parliamentarian ‘realm’ as a force opposing the Crown.     

Risky business: historical archaeology of the Dutch salt enterprise on La Tortuga Island,Venezuela (1624–38)

SUMMARY: In the decades of the 1620s and 1630s the Dutch engaged in salt extraction on the island of La Tortuga, Venezuela, erecting a wooden fort, portable cannon emplacements, jetties and semi-industrial solar saltpan production facilities. The relative paucity of the archaeological record juxtaposed with the wealth of detailed documentary data and fieldwork experiences led to the operationalization of the heuristic tool of ‘scapes’. A critical construction of these socially alive portions of the island landscape and seascape demonstrates 1) how north-western European conceptions of the cultural control of nature were embodied in Dutch orderliness and industriousness; 2) how the strategy of maximization of extractive practices and minimization of risk was evidenced in the overall ephemerality of structures; and 3) how these structural imperatives were imbricated in the prose of human life and death that was unfolding from one small-scale event to another on this desolate island.     

The foundations of modern political thought

This paper aims at setting Montesquieu's 1729 sojourn in the Dutch Republic within its specific Dutch context whilst reconsidering the impact this short period may have exerted on his work. Based on a wide variety of Dutch, English and French sources, the article offers a study of Montesquieu's Dutch networks and contacts, a comparative Franco-Dutch approach to taxation and fiscal policy and an insight into the history of the stadholderate under William IV. The main argument made in the paper is two-fold: first, that the Dutch Republic was a mirror Montesquieu held up to the French monarchy, allowing him to put a number of ideas of government to the test; secondly that, owing to the fluctuating nature of Dutch political events between 1729 and 1748, the Dutch model remained somewhat elusive in Montesquieu's broader understanding of the paradigm of republican regimes.     

Twentieth Century Revival Architecture and The Gentry

This case study focuses on the 20th century revival houses of a Midwestern University city, Urbana, Illinois. English Revival houses are most closely associated with faculty families viewed as constituting a “gentry class” housed in a traditional “faculty row.” Other people (businessmen, managers, operatives and self-employed professionals) have occupied the Colonial Revival and Dutch Colonial houses and Cape Cod cottages. Initially, the Early American style (the Colonial Revival diluted for use on ranch houses) was employed by developers and builders to house lower-middle class families in the new subdivisions of the 1960s. The occurrence of various style houses in Urbana is compared with national architectural trends as reflected in a leading builders' magazine.     

Spatial Planning in the Network Society-Rethinking the Principles of Planning in the Netherlands

The Dutch planning system rejoices a very positive reputation in the international academic planning literature. Yet both the conceptual orientation and the institutional practices of Dutch planning are eroded. New institutional practices have emerged that effectively form a 'shadow structure' to the official planning system, eroding both its effectiveness and legitimacy. The article suggests that this instititutional development is to be understood against the background of larger processes of social change to which the system has so far not responded: the coming 'network society'. In light of this analysis it is suggested that Dutch planning could enhance both its effectiveness and legitimacy by reconsidering some of the basic features of the planning system.     

Maritime Archaeology and the Early Atlantic Trade: research at Elmina,Ghana

This article details recent maritime archaeological research off the town of Elmina in coastal Ghana. Founded in 1482, Elmina Castle was the first and largest European outpost in sub‐Saharan West Africa, and remained a centre of maritime trade for almost four centuries. Survey and diver investigations led to the discovery of several sites, including a shipwreck dating to the mid 17th century, which is characterized by a mass of trade goods, cannon and buried hull remains. A second Dutch vessel dating to c.1700 was documented after its discovery during dredging operations in the Benya Lagoon adjacent to Elmina. These sites present an opportunity to study ships and cargoes involved in the West African trade.     

Malthusianism,socialism and feminism in the United States

This article examines and compares Adam Ferguson's and Guillaume-Thomas Raynal's analyses of modern commercial states by reconstructing their accounts of the history and politics of the Dutch Republic. For both writers, the Dutch case stood as a clear instance of the political dangers implicit in a particular type of commercial polity, and both sought to apply its lessons to an understanding of the future of their own states. Although Ferguson's and Raynal's arguments about the decline of the Dutch trading state overlapped, their analyses reflected different evaluations of the relationship between modern states and modern economic institutions (trading companies and public debts). The broader purpose of the article is to shed light on the distinctive theories of commerce and models of European development that informed the major works of Enlightenment historiography and political thought produced by Ferguson and Raynal in the 1760s and 1770s.     

As nation,people and public collide: enacting Dutchness in public discourse

In recent decades, Dutchness has become an intensely debated issue in Dutch public sphere. The article problematises the labelling of nations and nationalisms that occurs in public and academic understandings of these developments. Craig Calhoun's concept of discursive formation is argued to be more fruitful for understanding the recent contestations over Dutchness. Yet Calhoun's theory is itself in need of elaboration. Whereas Calhoun proposes to focus on the extent to which nations are constructed as publics of highly differentiated members, it is precisely this image that is central to an exclusionary discourse of Dutchness and enables the exclusion of cultural others from the Dutch imaginary. By analysing the enactment of Dutchness through discourses on citizenship, the surprising congruence of pluralism and exclusion in the Dutch context is explored.     

L'enfer tonique (Malthus et gobineau)

This article focuses on the Tacitist thought shared by Justus Lipsius and Hugo Grotius. Contrary to what his later works might suggest, in the years before the Dutch political crisis of 1618, Grotius appears willing to look at history and contemporary politics in terms of the Tacitist and reason-of-state-based categories defined in Lipsius's political works. A specific Lipsian inspiration seems present in Grotius's Amsterdam address of 1616, and his analysis of the early Dutch Revolt in the Annales et Historiae is determined by categories of thought which at the time were identified with Lipsius's intellectual legacy.