Abstracts

Confidential Letters of Zhang Quan, Zhang Jian, and Zhang Bin to Zhang Zhidong from Beijing during the1898 Reform Period
The library of Institute of Modem History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences holds the invaluable ＂Archives of Zhang Zhidong＂. These archives include 492 cases, more than 2,000 volumes, and considerable independent sheets of documents. A archives relates to the 1898 Reform （wuxu bianfa） key part of these ,     

Abstracts

Structural Features and Expressions of Five-Character Poem in Western Jin： Also on Differences between ＂Weizhi＂ and ＂Jinzao＂
Ge xiaoyin （p. 1）
The most significant change of the five-character poem in Western Jin, compared with Han and Wei dynasties, was diversifications in chapter structure and Symmetry in words. Structure changes of the five-character poem in Western Jin which started in the Wei Dynasty drove the poetry out of the single scene of Han＇s poety and be able to organize different time and space scenes more freely, elaborating the scenes, event progress or mentalities completely. These may be the reason West Jin＇s poetry was called cumbersome rhetoric, but also the reason the capacity of the five-character poem was expanded greatly, which was the very stage of five-character poem from Han and Wei to Jin and Liu Song dynasties.     

Abstracts

The Tangut Contracts of Selling and Hiring Livestock
Shi Jinbo （ p. 1 ）
The newly discovered Tangut contracts of selling livestock which provide many details of livestock trade prove to be very valuable on the research of the commerce, the agriculture and animal husbandry economy, and the civil life in the Tangut Kingdom. Having translated 20 nearly complete contracts of selling or hiring livestock written in cursive Tangut characters into Chinese, this article exhibits the form and content of these contracts. Based on the new data provided by these contracts, an exploration of the price of livestock in the Tangut Kingdom can be carried out. After analyzing the different features of exchange of grain and money for livestock in Khara Khoto and Wuwei, the paper considers the monetary economy in Wuwei region being more developed. The soaring price of livestock in the contracts at the end of the Tangut Kingdom describes a miserable scene of unrest and inflation on the background of the Mongol invasion.