Speaking the Truth to the Power of the Presidency

Abstract

Instead of focusing on what characteristics the next president of the United States should have, we need to focus on the institutional realities of the presidency. Those realities consistently reflect a system dedicated to maintaining the dominance of the United States through economic and military power, and maintaining the ruling elite's control of economic and political power in this country. Persons committed to the practice of the Gospel, especially in solidarity with the poor, must name, confront and resist those institutional and cultural realities. This truth-telling can take many forms, such as life in community with the poor, public speaking, preaching, writing, demonstrations, civil disobedience, and some involvement in electoral politics. All of these will be informed by a realism that struggles faithfully without placing undue hope on presidential politics.     

朝野纠葛:北京政府时期的舆论与外交--以关税特别会议为个案的考察

关于北京政府时期的外交,尽管学术界近来已开始有了较为客观的评价,不过对于其背后因素的考察还有待深入。实际上,在北京政府时期,由于特殊的时代背景,各种社会舆论被全面动员起来,以汹涌澎湃之势冲击着外交这一特殊的政治领域,从而形成了近代史上国民外交的黄金时期。于是,由于中央政府统治的虚弱,在其决策者进行外交运作时,就处处受到来自舆论界的影响,这是一个极为明显的历史特色,通过对当时舆论的考察,就会更深层次地探究北京政府外交的两难境地。笔者在考察时,主要以关税特别会议为个案,以上海舆论为核心,以《申报》、《东方杂志》等报刊为第一手资料。     

论明清之际东北边疆城镇的衰落

文章对明清时期东北边疆城镇兴衰过程进行了探讨。认为由于战略地位的重要和军事斗争的需要 ,明在辽东兴建了大批城镇 ,但至明清之际 ,因后金 (清 )采取了“毁城迁民”的政策 ,明代以来在辽东地区兴起的城镇遭到了毁灭性打击。至康熙中期 ,辽东城镇仍未恢复元气 ,其原因主要在于大量人口的外迁和清在东北实行封禁政策。     

野牛的灭绝与大平原印第安人的命运

野牛是美国西部大平原地区最重要的一种动物,曾对人类的生活产生过直接的影响,更与印第安人的生存息息相关。在内战后的西部开拓中,白人移居对野牛进行了野蛮的屠杀,致使野牛灭绝。与此同时,白人拓居在美国政府的支持下推行种族灭绝政策,导致失去生活所依的印第安人陷入了严重的生存危机。这种残暴和不义之举是无可挽回的历史失误。反思这段历史今天仍具重要意义。     

清末民初酒税制度因革论

清末财政困窘,支出浩繁,政府在维持旧有税收的同时,力图开辟新的税源,并因应时势而不断变化,酒税从厘捐到烟酒税这样的变化就体现了这一发展历程。民国初创,面临的财政危机依然如故,酒税征收仍然沿习清末旧制,弊病百出。当政者对酒税制度重新设计,意欲将其纳入国家财政收支系统的正轨。对原有酒税加以改革,举办公卖制度开征公卖费,新征烟酒牌照税,构成了民国初年酒税制度的主要内容。然而由于各种各样的原因,这一努力并没有达到制度设计者的初衷。     

元《庆元儒学洋山砂岸复业公据》碑考辨

《庆元儒学洋山砂岸复业公据》碑是目前发现存世的仅有的一例附有八思巴字元代公据碑。本文在释录碑文的基础上,通过对宋末元初庆元路儒学对位于昌国州的洋山砂岸被侵占所提起的二次诉讼案及相关人物的考察,试图揭示元代赡学砂岸被占的实质,以起补史、证史之作用。同时,作为一例完整个案,为元代司法、儒学等方面的研究提供第一手史料。     

评蒙古帝国衰亡对蒙古社会发展的影响

成吉思汗建立了蒙古帝国,以千户制巩固了统治,国土横跨欧亚。至忽必烈在中原大地建立了蒙元王朝。１３６８年元朝灭亡后,众多蒙古人返回蒙古本土,与当地统治者发生权力斗争。蒙古本土也因无法为骤然增多的人口提供给养而导致经济崩溃。蒙古人不断侵扰明朝边境,迫使永乐皇帝率兵亲征,更加剧了蒙古困难局面。重建蒙古强力政权的努力一再破产。直至达延可汗,蒙古再现生机。     

《大汶口续集》中北辛文化的分期问题

1974年至 1 978年由山东省文物考古研究所主持 ,对山东省汶上县大汶口遗址的西北部 ,紧靠汶河北岸的卫家庄村南一带进行了第二、三次发掘 ,发掘成果收入《大汶口续集》 (以下简称《续集》) ① 。这两次发掘 ,发现了一批内涵丰富的大汶口早期墓葬和所谓“北辛文化”的遗迹、遗物。报告对这批材料进行了整理和分期 ,但我们通过对报告所列材料重新梳理并结合新出考古材料进行分析比较 ,所得“北辛文化”的分期结果与《续集》不同 ,此问题关系到对整个北辛文化面貌及分期的认识 ,故有必要对此处遗址进行重新分期讨论。一、典型遗迹单位分析根据…     

《西域土地人物略》的最早、最好版本

本文认为 ,《西域土地人物略》是现存少数记述明代西域史地的历史文献之一 ,其所证地域最广 ,可信程度甚高 ,并反映了当时西域与中原的联系及其相互影响。但目前两种通行本不仅文字讹误歧异处甚多 ,而且体例亦不相同 ,学者不知所从。得其祖本嘉靖《陕西通志》本 ,通行本中的讹误歧异即可厘清。至其作者 ,当非汉人或穆斯林 ;作时当在宣德十年 ( 14 35)甚至成化十年 ( 14 74 )之后。     

试论元朝中央政府对畏兀儿地区的统治

章依据元代畏兀儿书及汉史籍探索元朝政府治理畏兀儿地区的措施,考述其在畏兀儿地区的行政建设以及亦都护地方政权的性质与职掌。认为蒙元政府对其所统辖的畏兀儿社会的间接军事行政统治,乃是通过自上而下的蒙古制度与自下而上的当地制度之间相互交叉渗透的结合而实现的。     

Alexander the Great,the Dahlia,and the Tortoise

Some of the problems of establishing the cause of the death of Alexander the Great are like the attempts to find causes other than hysteria for Anna O.’s symptoms. The more general problem of using plausibility as a criterion of the truth of such reconstructions are illustrated by the arguments embedded in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia.     

Alexander the Great, the dahlia, and the tortoise

Some of the problems of establishing the cause of the death of Alexander the Great are like the attempts to find causes other than hysteria for Anna O.'s symptoms. The more general problem of using plausibility as a criterion of the truth of such reconstructions are illustrated by the arguments embedded in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia.     

Situating the Asia Pacific in the age of the Anthropocene

ABSTRACT

The unprecedented and unsustainable impact of human activities on the biosphere threatens the survival of the Earth's inhabitants, including the human species. Several solutions have been presented to mitigate, or possibly undo, this looming global catastrophe. The dominant discourse, however, has a monolithic and Western-centric articulation of the causes, solutions, and challenges arising from the events of the Anthropocene which may differ from the other epistemes and geographies of the world. Drawing on the International Relations (IR) critical engagement with the Anthropocene, this paper situates the Asia-Pacific region in the Anthropocene discourse. The region’s historical and socio-ecological characteristics reveal greater vulnerability to the challenges of the Anthropocene compared to other regions while its major economies have contributed recently to the symptoms of the Anthropocene. On the other hand, the region’s ecocentric philosophies and practices could inform strategies of living in the Anthropocene. This contextualised analysis aims to offer an Asia-Pacific perspective as well as insights into the development of IR in the age of the Anthropocene.     

On the Diversion of the Vychegda and Pechora Rivers to the Basin of the Volga

The author of an economic geography of the Komi ASSR (1959) attempts to show that the present plan for the diversion of the Vychegda and Pechora rivers to the Volga basin would have an adverse effect on the economy of the Komi ASSR, particularly by flooding the limited amount of agricultural land available in the northern republic. Fisheries and shipping on the Pechora River would also suffer, in the opinion of the author. He proposes certain changes in the engineering aspects of the project to safeguard the northern economy. The changes would admittedly double the cost of the project.     

从晚清汉学区域之发展看汉宋调和

汉宋调和是晚清儒学内部重要的学术思潮,对其时学术格局的转化亦发生重要作用.这一思潮由微趋盛,从学术自身的发展过程来看,与汉学新兴区域在晚清的迅速扩展有着不容忽视的关系.汉学在晚清的发展不再以苏、皖、京师为限,浙江、广东等省成为新的学术重镇.这些汉学新兴发展区域由于特定的学术背景与学术渊源,学者们基本上都提倡汉宋调和,从而对晚清汉宋调和思潮的盛行起了极大推动作用.     

On the association between the QBO and the extratropical stratosphere

Although diagnostic studies and mechanistic model experiments have found that, on average, the polar vortex in northern winter is stronger and colder in the west than in the east years of the equatorial Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO), we show with an expanded data base that the results are not statistically significant. The reason for the insignificance is that in 36% of the winters (13 out of 36) the vortex was warm and weak in the west, and cold and strong in the east years. Only at low activity in the 11-yr solar cycle did the difference between the west (cold) and the east (warm) years become statistically significant. At high solar activity the west years had a warm and the east years a cold polar vortex in the mean. We show this association with the 11-yr solar cycle also in terms of the geostrophic wind.     

清末民初北京地区的社会变迁与慈善组织的转型

北京地区的传统慈善组织在清末民初发生重大变化:数量上呈现较大幅度的增长趋势;救助功能方面普遍地由施养向教养转化;操作管理方式逐渐走上联合统一的道路。这些变化与北京地区在近代所具有的典型社会特征有着密切联系,因此一定程度上本文是对慈善事业研究的一种区域性探索。     

On the Causes of the Extinction of Some Animals at the end of the Pleistocene

A mathematical theory is developed to demonstrate the disputed hypothesis that hunting tribes of the Upper Paleolithic in Europe did play a decisive role in bringing about the extinction of the mammoth and other large herbivorous animals at the end of the Pleistocene. Formulas for the periods of time during which hunting did not greatly affect animal numbers and during which the numbers declined to zero are used to show that mammoth numbers remained relatively stable during most of the Upper Paleolithic (a period of 10,000 to 25,000 years) and then dropped rapidly within a few centuries to complete extinction. The theory is used to explain why only the largest animals became extinct and why elephants continued to survive in tropical areas while the mammoth vanished in the north.     

Fichte and the German Idiom: the Metaphysics of the Addresses to the German Nation

This article argues against the dominant Anglophone and Francophone interpretation of Fichte, which reads him as advancing either a form of ethnic or cultural nationalism. It claims that what is missing from the current reception of Fichte is the essentially philosophical and cosmopolitan character of his nationalism – the fact that the Addresses to the German Nation uses non‐empirical and cosmopolitical concepts to develop and articulate its nationalistic viewpoint. It therefore claims that the notion of a national philosophical idiom that the Addresses present, far from being a screen for its nationalism, is its driving engine. It does this by considering the problems of translating the German locution ist unsers Geschlechts. Consequently, it is claimed that the cosmo‐nationalism of Fichte is not reducible to a set of claims regarding ethnicity or even the empirical world, even if a discourse on the organismic, on what counts as life, irreducibly haunts the Addresses.     

Losing the Forest but not the Stories in the Trees

In 1922, F.E. Williams began his first assignment as the Australian Territory of Papua's assistant government anthropologist in the Purari Delta. During this eight-month trip, Williams obtained information on daily life, social relations, material culture, as well as religious beliefs and practices. He collected ethnographic specimens, made sketches and took some 96 photographs and used 29 of these photographs in his 1924 monograph The Natives of the Purari Delta, a publication that subsequently came to define the area for Europeans. However, Williams obscured the culturally specific ways in which Purari histories were locally reproduced and understood. This essay highlights a long-term ethnographic trend by which communities of the Purari have been portrayed as without ‘history’ or as having only a rudimentary historical consciousness and suggests that, despite this ‘particular bundle of silences’, the Purari is not without ‘important stories’.