十三世纪金元战争前后的蒲州城市景观变迁

中国古代历史名城——蒲州,自公元386年建城始,经历代不断经营和建设,至金元战争前已基本形成独具特色的城市景观体系,规模可观,成为黄河流域的名胜荟萃之地。其城市景观的构成内容大致可概括为10种类型:城垣、中潬、蒲津桥、衙署贡院、祠庙、寺观、建筑名胜、园林、渠堰堤坝、街市民居。十三世纪初的金元战争无疑是蒲州古城发展史上的一个分水岭,饱受战火蹂躏的蒲州古城一度残破不堪,走向了衰落期。此后在元明清时期虽有逐渐恢复,怎奈又遭遇严重自然灾害,终究难以挽回颓败之势,1959年最终被废弃。但蒲州古城遗留给今人的地上遗址和地下遗存的文化遗产价值是不可估量的。     

以匾研史 可得其髓

文化是一种历史现象。每一社会每一民族都有自己的文化。中华民族的文化伴随着经济的发展和社会的变迁,经历了几千年的继承、扬弃和发展,形成了独特的优秀传统,构建了辉煌灿烂的华夏文明,对于凝聚民族精神,推动社会进步有着不可替代的作用。 牌匾是中国传统文化中的一种特殊形式。城市街道、关隘堂馆、乡村农舍、寺观园林、商号店铺、旅游景点、革命纪念地,几乎凡有人群活动的地方场所,就有牌匾的存在。由于它把思想性、艺术性、实用性、装饰性、观赏性集于一身,历来受到人们的钟爱;由于它把辞赋诗文、书法镌刻、建筑艺术融为一体,其文辞之…     

山西牌匾艺术

中华民族具有悠久的历史和灿烂的化。其建筑上的奇葩——牌匾,数量之多,分布之广,几乎遍及城市街道,机关堂馆,乡村农舍,寺观园林,商店字号。牌匾这一艺术形式,把辞赋诗、书法镌刻融为一体,语言简练,采激扬,写意抒情,有极强的感染力。     

1937—1948年间上海城市民间信仰传播和分异研究

抗战爆发以后,受战争破坏严重省份的移民进入上海,并将其籍贯地的民间信仰带进上海,从而促使新的民间信仰种类向上海城市的传播。同时,由于"孤岛时期"上海租界相对安全的社会环境和租界当局对民间祠庙在经济上的资助,上海城市内部民间信仰的空间分布得以改变,开始向租界内聚集。并在此基础上,其空间布局受到移民分布的影响。     

从民间杂神到三皇五帝--论盘古庙重建过程中附祀神的转变

包括庙会在内的传统民间社会文化形式悄然复兴,是上世纪80年代以来中国社会文化领域一个引人注目的现象,此前已经有不少学者从不同的角度进行研究。然而,这种“传统的复兴”是否是民间传统的简单恢复?笔者在对豫南盘古山的盘古庙会的调查中注意到,80年代以来重建的盘古庙,其附祀神的设置与1949年以前的盘古庙相比有一定改变,其中尤为引人注目的是盘古大殿中附祀神的变化,     

中国古代建筑的历史环境——古建筑环境选择中的风水学

中国古代建筑,包括用砖、木、石等材料建造的各种宗教建筑、城市、宫殿、住宅、祠庙、桥梁、陵墓、园林、防御性建筑等,不仅在结构、平面布局、外观等方面形成了独特的风格,而且它的环境选择也为国内外从事建筑和古建筑研究保护的专家学者所关注。本文拟就中国古代建筑...     

论传统节日与神明崇拜的关系

根据当前的社会现实,以严肃的史实为依据,并以客观科学的态度,打破“迷信”的紧箍咒,论证传统节日与节日中的祀神祭祖的关系,让人们正确看待传统节日与祀神祭祖的存在价值与意义。让更多的人行动起来,重视、保护与弘扬祖国数千年流传下来的民族节日和崇神敬祖的风俗传统,守望好中华民族文化,继承好中华民族崇神敬宗的美德。     

《水经注》祠庙研究

本文从祠庙称谓、祠庙分布、石庙分布及庙前石像生和石兽的变化等四个方面 ,对《水经注》所载近二百个祠庙作了初步研究。对《古汉语常用字字典》的祠庙解释作了进一步的说明 ;指出和分析了庙前景观石兽的变化和祠庙发展的过渡性特征 ,对一些传统说法作了补充说明。最后 ,从地理因素考察了祠庙空间分布的特征和原因     

金代官卖寺观名额和僧道官政策探究

金代曾长期推行过官卖僧道度牒、紫衣师德号、寺观名额和僧道官职政策 ,这种挖肉补疮的办法造成了多种社会弊端 ,使原来属于宗教文化的度牒、紫衣师德号、寺观名额和僧官道职皆变成了特殊商品 ,从而使过去的学优则僧变成现实中的有钱则僧 ,使过去的解行高洁可得紫衣师号或举为僧道官 ,变成现实中的钱广谷多可买紫衣师德号或僧道官职 ,结果极大腐败了僧道众刻苦攻读经业和着意修行的良好风气 ,窳败了僧道徒队伍 ,其综合素质为之下降。     

金代长白山神庙遗址平面格局的初步研究

2014～2017年对长白山神庙遗址的考古勘探与发掘工作,已较为全面地揭露了遗址内的主要建筑基址,确认遗址主体为长方形外墙环绕的封闭单元,坐北朝南,墙内中部偏北为一处以"工"字殿为中心的回廊院落。其平面格局与《大金集礼》记载大体符合,应基本奠定于世宗大定年间创建祠庙之时。本文通过对比山西万荣后土庙、河南登封中岳庙、山东泰安岱庙、湖南衡阳南岳庙、陕西华阴西岳庙及河南济源济渎庙,认为长白山祠庙的平面格局部分源于宋以来的其他岳镇海渎祠庙,但建筑布局远逊于岳庙规制,表明金代对长白山祭祀的重视,实际更多地体现在祭祀礼仪、每年春秋两次致祭等方面,而不是体现在祠庙建筑的布局与规制之中。     

Telling small stories: spaces of knowledge and the practice of geography

This article examines how the practice of learning geography, and the arenas in which knowledge-making takes place, can be usefully positioned within changing histories of the discipline. It contends that networks of action – understood through the intersection of social sites, subjects and sources – present a conceptual framework and narrative focus for the re-consideration of specific episodes from geography's past. The interventions made here are informed and illustrated by a 'small story' about the doing of geography. Based on different personal accounts, the story revives a series of events, encounters, dialogues and images dating back to the winter of 1951 at Glenmore Lodge, Scotland. This educational institution in the Cairngorm mountains offered children from urban areas the opportunity to learn field studies and the skills of 'outdoor citizenship'. Initially, the focus falls on Margaret Jack, a 14-year-old field-course participant. Her learning experiences are traced through personal letters, a diary and a field journal dating from that time, and her recent recollections of this event. Margaret's account dovetails with the story of her field studies instructor, Robin Murray. Robin's role is traced through his learning experiences as a geography undergraduate at Aberdeen University, and the recent recollections of Catriona Murray, his wife.     

Das Wissen der Schulden. Recht,Kulturtechnik und Alltagserfahrung im liberalen Kapitalismus

The Knowledge of Debt: Law, Media Technique, and Everyday Experience in Liberal Capitalism. Performing an object such as ‘the economy’ hinges on practices of formatting knowledge. The article proposes to look at such instituting moments in connection with social conflicts over the legitimate rules of exchange. This is exemplified by way of recounting the story of the codification of Swiss bankruptcy law in 1889. In order to homogenize the legal procedures of debt collection and bankruptcy, two subject categories were instituted: ‘merchants’ and ‘non-merchants’. These different categories were thought to account for the diverging temporalities and spaces of credit exchange in everyday economic life. The introduction of the commercial register, a media-technical apparatus, enabled a formal distinction between ‘merchants’ and ‘non-merchants’. However, this boundary was contested and proved to be porose.     

Two radiocarbon dates for freshwater shells from hierakonpolis: Archaeological and geological interpretations

Shells of two species of freshwater bivalve (Unio willcocksi Bullen Newton and Etheria elliptica Lamarck) from the predynastic Gerzean (Nagada II) Decorated Tomb at Hierakonpolis, Egypt have given dates of 5000±90 bp for the tomb, and 12,900±120 bp for an episode of Nile terrace accumulation (correlated here with the Sahaba-Darau aggradation event). The archaeological and geological significance of these results is discussed, together with an outline of problems associated with radiocarbon dating of shell. Comparisons are made with the few other radiocarbon dates available for the Predynastic period in Egypt and possible reasons for the presence of shells in the tomb are considered.     

Some chronological implications of a fossil molluscan assemblage from a neolithic site at Brook,Kent, England

The later post-glacial history of a valley in the chalk escarpment near Brook, Kent, is described, based on molluscan stratigraphy, archaeological evidence and radio-carbon dating. Differences in size and colour banding, respectively, of fossil and living representatives of two species of land snails, Pomatias elegans (Müller) and Cepaea nemoralis (L.), are correlated with climatic change during the post-glacial period. The problems of the use of fossil shells of these species as samples for radiocarbon dating are discussed.     

China's Dynamic Industrial Sector: The Internet Industry

A Singapore-based economic geographer explores and analyzes the spatially uneven evolution of the Internet industry in China, arguing that the country's immense regional disparity in the provision of Internet services is best explained by the interplay of place- and path-dependence. The author demonstrates how the highly uneven regional endowments in relevant industrial and entrepreneurial resources have led to the substantial and persistent regional imbalance within China's emerging "new economy." His initial survey of the country's 100 leading Internet content providers (firms), identified from a listing of ca. 11,700 commercial websites, is selectively augmented to reflect an increase of over 70 million Internet users in 2007, reaching a total of 253 million in June 2008, and thus overtaking the United States as the world's largest Internet market. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: L10, L86, O30. 6 figures, 1 table, 53 references.     

The 1911 International Exposition in Rome: architecture, archaeology, and national identity

This paper discusses the 1911 International Exposition in Rome and illustrates how this patriotic celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Italian Sate utilized symbolic landscapes of architecture and archaeology to promote nationalist sentiments of italianità and romanità centered on the young capital of Rome. Through modern art exhibitions at the Valle Giulia, scientific conferences at the Castel Sant’Angelo, archaeological exhibits on the Roman Empire in the Baths of Diocletian, and regional Italian pavilions in the Piazza d’Armi, exposition officials offered a complex representation of Italian national identity that was modern yet ancient, cosmopolitan yet bucolic, European yet regional, and imperial yet developing.     

The Rise and Fall of Alexander the Great – The Need for Medical Analysis: Reply to Commentaries

Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C. from an unknown cause. By elucidating the nature of his death, we can better interpret various aspects of Alexandrian history. Alexander’s death may have ensued from the sequelae of a congenital scoliotic syndrome. It would therefore be of significance to note that one of the greatest leaders in history who conquered much of the then known world may have been suffering from a physical disability.     

Hospital Drama: Visual Theatres of the Medical Rendezvous from Asylum to Hospital with Reference to Specific Works by Anna Furse

Abstract

This paper is informed by Furse’s practice as a theatre maker in two fields of output that are connected by two factors: first, the presence of the woman patient — hysteric/subfertile respectively — within the clinical gaze; second, the significance of the womb to each pathology. In the treatment of each (explored in Furse’s theatre), lens based technologies play their part, whilst the cultural and medical can be seen to have overlapped to produce specific meaning with regard to Her body and its spectacularity. The article presents an overview of some of the key issues in precisely how the woman’s body becomes spectacular within this prosthetic medical gaze and how the medical — and theatrically designed spaces to represent these — become meaningful and potent proxemics that in turn inform medical/ theatrical spectatorship. Overarching nineteenth-century protocols at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris (where Furse’s Augustine (Big Hysteria) is set) to contemporary imaging technologies used in the treatment of subfertility with Assisted Reproduction Technologies (the topic of her Art of A.R.T. projects), it examines the way in which photography develops through cinema to X-Ray, ultrasound and then 3D/4D ultrasound to ‘capture’ the woman’s body in ways by which she becomes muted and exposed. These occular technologies that extend the gaze, first to an exterior subject and then, eventually, traversing the flesh without knife, lend specific performativity to the ‘patient’ women, within the context of hysterias and reproductive impairments respectively. Finally, issues of suspension of disbelief are addressed. The spectator’s faith in the screen-based image of Her spectacular body is interrupted in Furse’s work, which is also keenly interested in the effect of such imagery on the woman’s sense of Self. The historical and cultural leaps in this article argue that there is indeed a trajectory through the history of medical imaging since the first application of photography to anatomy to the more advanced scoping technologies of medical imaging today, and that in each era, the production of these images remain fraught with cultural implications.     

The Death of Alexander the Great – A Spinal Twist of Fate

Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C. from an unknown cause. Physical depictions of this historical figure reveal the likelihood of a cervical scoliotic deformity. This is substantiated with the medical history and is correlated with his untimely death. For the first time, it is concluded that Alexander’s death may have ensued from the sequelae of a congenital scoliotic syndrome.