清末四川庙产兴学进程中的砍伐庙树

During Sichuan’s promotion of education in the late Qing Dynasty, trees in the domain of Buddhist or Daoist temples, which were part of temples’ property, had been felled across the province. The profits gained were used to repair or build schools as well as to fund their management. In different regions, the characteristics and intentions of the felling activities differed. Meanwhile, such fever gave rise to corrupt practices of deceitfully seeking profits which in turn caused numerous disputes and lawsuits, reflecting the confrontation provoked between the state and the people as well as different communities over tradition, ritual, and belief. The investigations of felling temple trees could enrich the understanding of provincial promotion for education in the late Qing period, and that of the social and cultural changes taking place in rural communities in modern times. Translated by Chen Haitian from Sichuan Daxue Xuebao 四川大学学报 (Journal of Sichuan University), 2007, (5): 136–144     

中国对日、韩、越三国科举的影响

China’s imperial examinations greatly influenced the East Asian world. Japan imitated it during the eighth to tenth centuries; its subjects include xiucai, mingjing, jinshi, mingfa, as well as medicine and acupuncture. Korean imperial examinations are the longest and most comprehensive ones among other East Asian countries. Vietnam was the last to abolish the imperial examinations. All three East Asian countries imitated China in their imperial examinations, which greatly raised their cultural levels. Translated by Yang Chunyan from Xueshu Yuekan 学术月刊 (Academic Monthly), 2006, (12): 136–142     

Conflict and mutual support between local consciousness and national consciousness disturbance on Chuanxing suoji in 1936

From the late Qing Dynasty to the Republican period, there was a transition on the understanding of the relationship between China as a state and its localities. Local and national consciousness generally supported each other but were in conflict at times. In this essay the author intends to explore the reasons and influences of the Sichuan people’s criticism of the Chuanxing suoji (Rambling Notes on Sichuan) letter written by Chen Hengzhe, and analyze the interplay between local and national consciousness in the early days when the Nanjing government controlled Sichuan. The uproar caused by the article also showed the gap between mainstream intellectuals and peripheral intellectuals. __________ Translated from: Sichuan Daxue Xuebao Zhexue Shehui Kexue Ban 四川大学学报: 哲学社会科学版 (Journal of Sichuan University, Social Science Edition), No.1, 2004     

The expansion of water communication and transportation between north and south China during the Six dynasties

Although a split and turbulent age, the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern dynasties, known as the Six dynasties, witnessed a continuous expansion of waterway communication and transportation between north and south China. A significant waterway from Hangzhou to Tianjin held the greatest potential for development during this period, eventually leading to the construction of the Grand Canal in the Sui dynasty. __________ Translated from: Wuhan Daxue Xuebao 武汉大学学报: 人文科学版 (Wuhan University Journal, Humanity Sciences), Vol. 2, 2004     

中国传统工商业城市在近代的衰落

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. Translated by Huang Bangfu from Xinan Minzu Daxue Xuebao 西南民族大学学报 (Journal of Southwest University for Nationalities), 2007, (4): 1–11     

明代中国历史趋势:帝制农商社会

Majority of contemporary Chinese historians have been employing a conceptual framework focusing on the difficulty of capitalistic development in China to analyze the historical trend and potentials of late imperial China. This approach based upon the presupposition of viewing the pattern of Chinese history as abnormal reflects with the remaining influence of the Western-centric methodology. Further, based upon a “normal” point of view, seven fundamental, irreversible, and systematical changes to the Ming society could be identified. By conclusion, China in the Ming period was transforming into an imperial agric-mercantile society. This process proves that late imperial China was not stagnate society without “history,” meanwhile, its pattern of development was clearly not identical to the Western style modernization progress. __________ Translated by Chen Cheng from Dongbei Shida Xuebao 东北师大学报(Journal of Northeast Normal University), 2007, (1): 5–13     

Several issues influencing the course of German history

The course of German history is very sinuous. German nationalism, the imbalance of the political and economic development generated by the influence of the historical and cultural traditions, the might of the Junker feudal aristocracy, the weakness of the bourgeoisie, the postwar reeducation of democratization imposed by the western allied powers on Germany, the developed education and technology, etc. are all important factors that influenced Germany’s history. __________ Translated from: Wuhan Daxue Xuebao, Renwen Kexue Ban 武汉大学学报: 人文科学版 (Wuhan University Journal, Humanity Science), No. 3, 2004     

可疑的繁盛——日军阴影下的都市女性文化探析

Wartime Shanghai (1937–1945) was a crucial period in women’s Yue opera history, during which the opera took roots in the city and was transformed into a modern art form. The opera established itself as a dominant presence in the city’s popular entertainment in the first half of the 1940s and gained national and international influence in the 1950s and 1960s with its masterpiece plays such as The butterfly lovers and Dream of the red chamber. The rise of women’s Yue opera in wartime Shanghai was more a ramification of long-term developments in urban migration, urban cultural transformation, and women’s integration into society that ran through the entire Republican even the early PRC periods. Translated and revised from Huadong Shifan Daxue Xuebao 华东师范大学学报 (Journal of East China Normal University), 2008, (2): 56–67     

近代天津城市边缘区的形成及其结构特征

During the first half of the 20^th century, when China experienced a new tide of urbanization, a tendency appeared, in which the upper strata moved to the urban center and the lower strata distributed over the marginal area, where poor people formed a new community. This marginal community bore distinctive characteristics no matter in spatial structure or in residents’ life style in the development of modern Tianjin. The lower culture from the marginal areas and the upper culture from the foreign concessions constituted an interaction urban cultural structure in modern China. Translated by Lü Chunjun from Tianjin Shifan Daxue Xuebao 天津师范大学学报 (Journal of Tianjin Normal University), 2007, (4): 37–41     

On official corruption in the Yuan dynasty

The vicious cycle of official corruption got worse unprecedentedly in the Yuan dynasty (ca. 1279–1368). Corrupt officials at all levels from the local to the central governments were “extremely shameless and greedy.” Even many court ministers got involved in the vicious cycle of corruption. The top officialdom was polluted and degenerated badly because the Mongolian nobles made their “Sauqat” (taking gifts) tradition and the Semu, both official and merchant groups, took bribes as a way to amass wealth. Although the Mongol Yuan rulers did make a set of anti-corruption policies such as detailed rules of censorship and inspection relating to corruption crimes, these didn’t work well. Of all the reasons of the Yuan official corruption, the old Mongolian steppe traditions play the most important role, which formed the context for the low salary, improper selection and poor quality of the officials and of bending the law wrongly to pardon official misconduct. __________ Translated from: Nankai Xuebao Zhexue Shehui Kexue Ban 南开学报: 哲学社会科学版 (Nankai Journal, Philosophy and Social Science Edition), Vol.5, 2004, by Zhang Weiwei