Yangjiao or the ��Other��? Christianity and Chinese society in the second half of the nineteenth century

This article explores the relationship between Christianity and Chinese society in the second half of the nineteenth century by re-examining the primary sources of anti-Christian movements. The first part shows how Christian churches broke the dominance of the Qing government over local society. Conflicts between Christianity and Chinese religion were often transformed into political confrontations between churches and the Qing bureaucracy. The second part analyzes how Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism interpreted Christianity, with an emphasis on how to understand the perception of Christianity in Chinese society. Exploring broader societal perceptions of Christianity—and not just those expressed in the writings of the Confucian literati—allows for a more nuanced understanding of Chinese interpretations of Christianity. The third part studies the relationship between churches and Chinese religious sects. On the one hand, in the language of anti-Christian movements such as those of the Zaili and Cai sects, Christianity was the hateful “Other.” On the other hand, in the process of preaching Christianity, churches themselves experienced a period of transmutation: they recruited into the church not only non-religious civilians but also the followers of popular religions. For a long period, Christianity was called yangjiao, the “foreign religion,” making it the “Other.” Missionaries started to feel an urgency to reject their identity as the “Other” after the harrowing experience of the Boxer Movement.     

明末关宁军性质的再讨论——以“祖家将”为核心的观察视角

通过对“祖家将”这一关宁军中较为重要的武将集团在关宁军中地位之演变可知,天启年间“祖家将”在关宁军中的地位较低。袁崇焕督师辽东期间,祖大寿因战功擢升为总兵,在大凌河之战后,祖大寿的地位得以稳固,随即发展个人势力。但应看到,“祖家将”在关宁军中始终没有占据绝对主导地位,明廷对关宁军控制较深。因此,“家军”、“将门”的方式,不能完全用来揭示关宁军的性质,不能将关宁军简单界定为独立于明廷的军阀武装。     

历史文本创作的微观过程：以“杨士奇举三事”故事衍生史为例

清朝官修《明史·仁宗诚孝张皇后传》所载的“杨士奇举三事”故事,实源于民间道听途说,后从私修野史辗转进入官修正史。不可否认的是,它作为一种历史文本长期存在,当有其流行之合理性。根据《野记》所载故事内容,可以考证出其创作时间的下限为天顺五年。故事产生、流传之初,恰逢天顺朝面临着是否仿效永乐朝施行“革除”的问题。明代中后期,故事作为一个“事件”与其他真实发生过的历史事件结合,甚至发生文本互动,并在《名山藏》中建立起事件进展的基本链条。清代官修正史的过程中,明史馆馆臣又在事件链条的基础上对故事的若干破绽进行了修补弥缝。“杨士奇举三事”故事之衍生史,可为今人对历史文本形成的微观过程的反思提供典型案例与思想资源。     

论顾颉刚的中华民族共同体思想:以民族史编撰为中心

清末民初以来,面对国家危亡的局势,许多知识分子通过“中华民族”话语和历史书写,推动民众民族意识的觉醒。其中,顾颉刚的民族史编撰思想尤其具有典型意义。顾颉刚最初只希望做与实用和政治无关的学问,其古史辨致力于打破中国“民族出于一元”的神话,这无疑与当时已兴起的中华民族话语相抵牾;在“九一八”事变后的民族危亡之际,他自觉地转向救亡图存和民族边疆现实问题的研究,并在反思其疑古立场的基础上,结合中国的历史与现实,提出了“中华民族是一个”的理论,强调以此理论为核心编撰中国通史和民族史,纠正古史材料“言分化有余,言团结不足”的偏颇,以历史教育培育中华民族共同体意识。尽管顾颉刚的中国通史和民族史编撰事业并未完成,但其民族史编撰思想及理论自觉意识,对新时代加强中华民族共同体历史研究和铸牢中华民族共同体意识仍有着重要的启示意义。     

回归以来澳门中小学的国情教育:发展与经验

回归以来,澳门特区政府高度重视对中小学生的国情教育,为特区开展国情教育奠定了法制基础;构筑课堂上的“三位一体”,即设置课程“底线”、教材建设和教师培训,从而保证了国情教育的教学质量;在课堂外持续开展多元化的教育活动。在澳门中小学开展国情教育的经验主要有:大幅度增加教育投入;注重整体规划和制度配套;尊重教育规律,将国情教育潜移默化地融入中小学生日常学习和生活中;建立多元合作、协调统一的工作机制。     

A History of Chinese Immigration in the United States and Canada

The 2005 Québec novel by Nicolas Dickner (English publication, 2008) presents intertextual effects that become a reflection on writing. The novel is a voyage of self-discovery while offering connections to Melville, Joseph Conrad, the German “bildungsroman,” nineteenth century classic novels, twentieth century French existentialist essays, Anglo-Saxon seafaring sagas, Central and South American imaginative tales, “cric-crac” stories of Québécois “raconteurs,” subversive Canadian novels, adventure stories, detective narratives, comic books and computer-generated discourse. This complex mise en abyme of writing through interlacing genres stands as a metaphor for diversity and rootlessness in North American society.     

Representations of the Chudes in Norwegian and Russian Folklore

Abstract

The objectives of this article are (1) to reveal the meaning (semantics) of the word “Chude” in Norwegian and Russian cultures; (2) to analyze Russian and Norwegian legends about the Chudes in order to define the main plot-constructing elements. When writing this article the authors used a synchronous and diachronous methods of analysis of material that was written down in a period that exceeds one and a half centuries. In etymological sense the word “Chude” (tsjude or Cud) can be derivative form from old Slavic form *tjudjo (strange, foreign) that can in its turn be borrowing from a Gothic or a German word that got the meaning “a nation” (folk). With the Sami the word “tshudde”/ “shutte” means an enemy, an adversary. The image of the Chudes has been preserved in Russian and Norwegian narrative traditions. Oral stories in Norway are called sagn. In Russian folkoristic narratives about the Chudes are traditionally called “predanie”.

The ethnonym “Chude” has a collective meaning in Russian and Norwegian folklore. In Norwegian culture it means plunderers of different ethnical belonging who came from the East to plunder the local population in the Northern Norway. As the undertaken research has shown, this name could have been applicable to Russian, Finns, Karelians, Kvens and peoples speaking Nordic languages (Swedes). In the Russian cultural tradition the name “Chude” was used to name different Finno-Ugric peoples living in the North-West Russia before the Russians came there and who later assimilated with the Russians. The Kola Sami called Swedes and Norwegians who came to them from the west to plunder the Chudes. The existence of a people in the same name in the old times is not excluded. The research carried out by place name scientists reveals that this people could be related to the Baltic-Finnish group of peoples.

The word Chude has historical and mythological aspects. Folk legends about the Chudes have “preserved” memories about the historical past of the northern region. Additionally this ethnonym contains conceptions of the world's binary character that are typical for archaic consciousness. Folk legends about the Chudes are widespread in the European North of Russia while plots about militant and plundering Chudes are localized in traditional Sami regions of Russia and Norway. In folk legends and sagn, the Russians and the Sami belong to one's “own” world, while the Chudes are associated with the concepts of the “strangers”. This nomination acquired the meaning “a stranger”, “a robber”.     

Narratives and Their Contexts: A Critique of Greger Andersson with Respect to Narrative Autonomy

Greger Andersson's 2001 monograph represents a significant contribution to current thinking regarding the book of Judges because it contains what may be the first systematic critique of the synchronic approach that has dominated Judges studies in recent years. Unfortunately, the two main theses upon which Andersson based his critique, namely, that narratives are autonomous and that they are resistant to reworking, may not in themselves be sustainable. For not only are there counter-examples to dispute the claim that narratives are resistant to reworking, it also appears that Andersson has overreached in his attempt to impose an overly restrictive view of non-referentiality and narrative autonomy on all narratives.     

A Rejection of the Aramaic Origin of the Chinese Word for Monastery

Christopher Beckwith has recently devoted two publications concerning the origin of the word for “monastery” in East Asia. The proposed Aramaic origin has met with criticism from two eminent authorities, Laurent Sagart and Alexander Vovin. While the present article is not interested in the debate per se, here renamed the “Beckwith Controversy,” it is important to discuss in more detail Beckwith’s view about the Chinese word si 寺 (monastery), its origin, and its reconstruction. It is concluded that, although very imaginative in its conclusions, Beckwith’s argument is methodologically opaque and, therefore, should be definitely abandoned in favour of more plausible solutions.