Relief services for the aged in Hunan and Hubei during the Ming and Qing dynasties

Focused on the Hunan and Hubei areas during the Ming and Qing dynasties, this paper provides a discussion on the relief services for the aged. With an emphasis on the quota and object of the aged who needs to be relieved, the constructional scale of the relief houses and the operation patterns of the institutions, it reveals the gap between the ideal and the reality, the policies and the implementation, the philosophy of the philanthropy and the limit of the government budget. __________ Translated from Wuhan University Journal (Humanity and Social Science Edition), 2004: 3     

传统法治文化对当前地方法治政府建设之启发

中国传统法治文化是中华几千年国家治理的智慧结晶,在不同历史时期具有不同的文化特点,也存在自诞生之初就无法克服的不足之处,如强调人治、维护宗法、重刑轻民等。但是,传统法治文化有很多值得我们吸收改进的有益之处,尤其在教民、治吏与息诉这三点上,对当前地方法治政府建设有着重要的借鉴意义。本文结合包括福建本地的一些法治实例,阐述传统法治文化的特点和不足,以"从严治吏"为重点,对如何更好的建设地方法治政府提出几点个人思考和建议。     

《推定儿女法》与中古辨胎术

《推定儿女法》为俄藏黑水城出土金代占卜类写本文献,其文本来源于《孙子算经》,特殊性在于通过算术方法并结合阴阳五行思想卜算胎儿性别。以《推定儿女法》为代表的祈男辨胎思想和孕育信仰曾长期流行于中国古代社会,是研究古代社会民生与民间信仰的珍贵资料。在历史发展过程中,《推定儿女法》逐渐渗透到医学与命理学文本书写中,反映了阴阳五行思想主导下,中国古代数术、巫术与医学思想的相互影响与交流融合。     

Overview of Contributions in Geographical Analysis: Waldo Tobler

The academic contributions of Waldo Tobler are noteworthy and significant, spanning essentially all disciplines that involve the study of geographic phenomena. While much attention has been given to his observations of the first law of geography, there is much more substance to his larger body of research. It is especially fitting that this commemorative special issue is appearing in Geographical Analysis as Tobler published extensively in the journal, beginning in the first volume in 1969 up to volume 42 in 2010, making important contributions to quantitative theoretical geography. His research helped to build and sustain the journal, laying the foundation for what is the premier quantitative geography outlet today. This article reviews his publication activity in Geographical Analysis.     

Early history of Chinese domestic sheep indicated by ancient DNA analysis of Bronze Age individuals

China has a long history of sheep husbandry, and has several indigenous sheep breeds. However, the exact geographic origin of Chinese domestic sheep remains unclear. To provide valuable genetic information for origin of Chinese domestic sheep, we performed an ancient DNA study on 22 sheep excavated from four Bronze Age archaeological sites in Northern China. Two lineages (A and B) were observed in ancient Chinese sheep, of which lineage A was predominant reaching a frequency of 95.5%. Furthermore, phylogenetic network showed that the most frequent haplotype in ancient sheep was the founder of lineage A. These results suggest that Lineage A may hold the key to understanding the origin of Chinese domestic sheep. Sequence sharing and principal component analysis showed that the ancient Chinese sheep had a close affinity to modern Chinese sheep. However, there was no significant breed structure among three modern Chinese sheep groups, making it difficult to determine their relationship to ancient Chinese sheep. Lastly, our results imply that ancient DNA analysis could provide a new way to investigate prehistoric East-West contact.