上博楚竹书(四)《曹沫之陈》“连”释义

本文对《上海博物馆藏战国楚竹书》(四)《曹沫之陈》第32号简"悳连"进行了重新考释,认为"悳连"当读为"輚辇",指服务于军事活动的运输工具。简文中供"輚辇"役使的"白徒",为获罪没身服劳役的罪隶。     

论《管子·禁藏》篇

本文对《管子·禁藏》篇错简复原作了三点补充论述。并认为全篇有一个主题思想,即提倡君主心中保持自我克制的思想;表现在治国理念上,又有三条思想线索,即以法治国、以时施政、以利劝民。最后指出《侈靡》篇与本篇思想上的联系最为密切,既有很大差别,又一脉相承。     

罗马共和国时期的道路建设

罗马共和国时期的道路建设在罗马社会中占有重要地位,也是罗马国家生活中的重要内容之一。罗马道路建设的根本原因在于军事扩张的需要,政治和经济方面的考虑并不多。共和国时期的道路建设主要在意大利本土进行,并呈现出鲜明的特色。这一时期的道路建设对罗马的政治、经济和文化方面都产生了重要的影响,对它进行研究有助于我们从另一角度考察罗马社会。     

殷周“冢宰”辅相说与宰官源流考

先秦典籍屡见"冢宰"类于后世宰相为君主最高辅相的记载。近代以来,学者中虽有力主冢宰辅相说可信者,然终以否定论为主流。究其实际,宰本是上古贵族家内职役,多与饮食有关,殷商时已成为职官,至周代演变为各级贵族的家务总管,掌财用为其常职,进而发展为君主的最高辅相。春秋以降,随着权力结构的变迁,文献彝铭中的宰官职权在王室和各诸侯国中呈现出复杂有别的面貌,但冢宰或太宰在殷周曾为君王最高辅相的历史之迹依然有端倪可寻。伊尹、周公以宰职摄政之故典和上古封建政体所决定的周代家国同构的王朝政权组织应是宰职演变为君主最高辅相的根因,亦是中国古代将宰相名号制度溯源至"冢宰"的缘由所在。     

Challenging the ‘Slave-Driving Employers’: Understanding Victoria's 1896 Minimum Wage through a World-History Approach

In 1896 the colony of Victoria introduced the world's first legal minimum wage that also extended to adult men. It was much discussed around the world by commentators who saw its significance in terms of its radical break with the past. Traditionally conceptualised as an outcome of a domestic anti-sweating movement that focused on the exploitation of women and children in the clothing industry, I suggest that the radical innovation of the minimum wage is best explained if we adopt a world-history approach that recognises the potency of anti-slavery discourse in the nineteenth century, the encounter of British and Chinese workers in the context of urban manufacturing in 1890s Melbourne, and the ways in which the minimum wage, later theorised as a living wage, made the humanity of workers central to modern definitions of labour.     

On the Removal and Relaying of Roman Tesselated Floors

An excavation on the southern side of London Road, Staines, in 1999 revealed a dense concentration of ancient features surviving amidst the concrete foundations of a recently demolished office building. These features included a number of Bronze Age pits, many of which were intercut; pits, ditches and a well of late Roman origin; and the remains of approximately thirty inhumation burials, most or all of which were of late Saxon or early Norman origin. The majority, if not all, of the burials were of execution victims. Some of the bodies were face down within the grave, others had been decapitated, and some were in graves containing two or three bodies.

The cemetery shares various characteristics with other excavated execution sites and the evidence from Staines is placed within a regional and national context. The site is one of few execution cemeteries dated by radiocarbon with a chronology spanning at least the eighth to the twelfth century. This longevity adds weight to the case for a centrally organized judicial system during the growth period of the major Early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.