Identification of organic materials in icons of the Cretan School of iconography

The Cretan School of iconography is the last great flowering of the traditional Byzantine painting manner, which is however influenced by different schools and western art. Despite their historical significance, icons of the Cretan School have been rarely studied through modern chemical techniques and therefore very few information is available on the materials used by the Cretan painters. In the present investigation, the organic materials contained in several icons of the Cretan School of Iconography from the collection of the Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece, are analyzed and identified by High Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled to a Diode Array Detector (HPLC–DAD) and Gas Chromatography with Mass Spectrometry (GC–MS).The HPLC–DAD results provide support to a recently published report which showed that kermes used in “Cretan” icons of 15th century and early 16th century was replaced by cochineal which was used in icons dated after early 16th century. This trend is known for western art and it is now proved for Cretan icons, showing thus the influence of the Cretan painters by other European painting schools. Other dyes detected in the historical samples, extracted from Cretan icons are madder (possibly Rubia tinctorum L., according to HPLC profiles) and indigoid dyes. Oils, such as linseed and walnut oil, are identified in samples extracted from the seven icons tested by GC–MS. Egg yolk is identified in the extract of only one icon and animal glue, originated most likely from the gesso ground, is found in six samples. Other organic materials detected by GC–MS were wax, as well as synthetic resins, applied during conservation treatments.     

浅论国际社会如何应对非法移民问题

近年来,非法移民问题日趋严重,已成为当今国际社会面临的一大难题。非法移民给许多国家带来了严重后果,止非法移民是国际社会的当务之急。非法移民是一个综合性的难题,必须运用经济、政治、法律、外交等多种手段,诸如加强出入管理,加强打击非法移民的立法,加强国际合作,缩小南北差距等。     

芷兰斋书跋赵元方题识《宋艳》十二卷

辛卯年秋拍期间，有三家拍场公司同时出现赵元方旧藏之本，看来是同出一源者，赵元方旧藏吾本已备，然预展时前往翰海翻看原物时，见有光绪十七年蝶园刻本《宋艳》十二卷，一函六册，其中四册封面上有朱笔题识，鲜艳可喜，遂与众藏家逐鹿，是书以一万二起拍，最后以四万落槌归吾囊中。     

不丹在第二次英国侵藏战争中的角色探析

1903年底英印政府为了克服翻越喜马拉雅山给军需补给带来的巨大困难,急需修筑一条经过不丹领土直接进入西藏亚东的道路.而不丹作为清朝的藩属和中国西藏的传统盟友有可能在战争中支持西藏,从而对英军右翼构成威胁.为了解决上述问题,英印政府通过威胁停止支付不丹年度津贴等手段,对不丹进行了一系列威逼利诱,最终迫使不丹屈服.不丹政治领袖乌金旺秋等虽以调停之名随英军前往拉萨,但实际上沦为侵略者的帮凶.不丹的这种角色变化反映了藏、英双方在综合实力以及在喜马拉雅山地区影响力方面的差异,也反映了十三世达赖喇嘛等西藏上层既缺乏明确的作战思路,又缺乏创造有利的战争环境的手段.     

秦始皇时代佛教已传入中国考

佛教传入中国的时间,学术界多数认为是在汉明帝时,但是这种说法是不对的.<史记·秦始皇本纪>有"禁不得祠"的记载, "不得"当为佛陀之音译,佛祠者即佛寺.始皇下令禁止,足见佛教在当时社会的普及.因此,我们应把佛教传入的时间修正为秦始皇时代.考古资料也证明,秦成阳、汉长安地区与印、欧存在"先丝路"的交往,使佛教在秦始皇时代传入中国成为可能.     

清朝捐监制度及其影响

捐监就是捐出身,即平民或生员通过出资报捐取得最高学府--国子监肄业的文凭。虽然它不象捐纳实职那样直接得官,但是在清朝,要想捐纳官职,其前提就是必须具备贡、监生的资格,捐监就成为有钱有势的豪家子弟猎取功名富贵的起点和捷径。在它实行的二百多年的时间里,虽然它对解决清政府的财政危机、缓解士人进阶的压力方面起到了积极作用,但是对清朝的科举制度、社会风气都产生了消极的影响。     

CONSUMING THE TOURIST GAZE: IMAGINATIVE GEOGRAPHIES AND THE REPRODUCTION OF SEXUALITY IN LUGU LAKE

Imaginative geographies engage with the understanding and experiencing of place and place‐based social and cultural specificities through a process of re‐creation and reproduction. In this article, we explore the imaginative geographies of Lugu Lake, a tourist destination in China's Yunnan Province, and of the Mosuo people, the local minority which practices a unique marriage system. We investigate how Mosuo society has been imagined in popular discourses and representations through two cultural labels: matriarchy and free sex. We also discuss how the imaginative geographies of Lugu Lake have restructured the encounters between the local people, especially the young men, and the incoming tourists in the context of tourism development. We interrogate the complex processes of identity formation in which both the tourists and the indigenous people renegotiate and reconstruct their cultural identities within various inside–outside connections and interactions. Our central argument is that the sex encounters between tourists and the local Mosuo are conditioned by popular imaginative geographies of the sexual practices of the Mosuo. But the encounter in tourism between the gazer and the gazed also accommodates complex identity formations and the renegotiation of social relations. The empirical observations are twofold: first, the locality of Lugu Lake has been reproduced with folk and tourist imaginative geographies into an erotic frontier of free sex; second, we also argue that the geographical imagination in this case is a reciprocal process which involves the local Mosuo's renegotiation of place‐based identity, in a pursuit of imagined progress and modernity.     

已刊俄藏西夏文献《天盛改旧新定律令》的编号系统

上海古籍出版社出版的《俄藏黑水城文献》(8、9册)所收西夏法典《天盛改旧新定律令》实为百衲本,其所系底本编号并未能真实、准确地在已刊《天盛改旧新定律令》中呈现出来,对照克恰诺夫所整理的俄藏叙录和已刊出的实际情况可以看出,已刊布《天盛改旧新定律令》的各章内容并不是按照文献编号一一拍摄刊布,而是由不同编号拼接而成,编者也没有给出各编号的起止。基于已刊布文献的这些问题,本文将对《俄藏黑水城文献》(8、9册)中已刊布的《天盛改旧新定律令》各编号进行系统地梳理和划分,并对缺页、少页、遗漏编号、页码错乱、编号重复出现等情况进行了订正和说明。