榆林25窟一佛八菩萨图研究

在吐蕃统治敦煌时期所开凿的洞窟中,榆林25窟是相对较特殊的一个,窟内南北两壁的观无量寿经变与弥勒经变延续了盛唐洞窟中经变画的构图、风格,而正壁残存的一佛八菩萨图在造像样式上与窟内其他图像则有一定的差别。从正壁残存的主尊、菩萨名号题记中可以发现,唐代不空译《八大菩萨曼荼罗经》能够与之相对应,但是该经对八大菩萨身形的描述与榆林25窟的图像有一定差别。此图像与藏经洞中的部分绢画具有类似的风格特征,其中一部分有藏文题记,表明它们与居住在敦煌的吐蕃信众有密切的关系,而藏经洞中发现的藏文抄写的《八大菩萨曼拏罗经》可以证明此地的吐蕃信众确实信奉这一经典。一佛八菩萨的图像在吐蕃本土拉萨及青海地区屡有发现,其中西藏昌都与青海玉树的两处摩崖石刻由高僧益西央开凿,年代均在九世纪初,这些遗迹说明一佛八菩萨图像在吐蕃本土的流传情况。在这几处图像与榆林25窟的一佛八菩萨的比较中可以发现,吐蕃流行的八大菩萨图样并不十分固定,但其构图和风格是基本接近的,而榆林25窟所采用的图像可能来源于吐蕃地区。     

论“朝鲜中华主义”的实与虚

朝鲜后期,北伐论激起朝鲜士大夫小中华意识高度发展,因此有学者将其称为"朝鲜中华主义"。然而从事实来看,朝鲜士大夫虽然有很强的文化自尊意识,但是这种自尊意识是建立在春秋大一统之上的,小中华意识的发展反而使一元的天下观进一步强化,将中华秩序理想化。所以,朝鲜后期小中华意识的发展并不表示朝鲜士大夫以朝鲜为中华之正统或中国之正统,反而继续承认朝鲜为小中华,而在事实上更不证明朝鲜为当时东亚的文化中心国家,所以我们在使用"朝鲜中华主义"概念时尚需仔细斟酌。     

重读安菩墓

参互安菩墓志和两《唐书·安金藏传》所载,本文重新辨识了安菩一家的袄教信仰。文章认为,安金藏在为其父母举行的合葬仪中使用了犬视,并对袄教战神牡鹿和司水女神兼丰饶之神阿娜希塔致祭奉祀。其中,对前二者分别使用了现实中的动物,即犬和鹿,这就是《唐书·安金藏传》所载犬鹿相狎和原上旧无水,忽有涌泉自出的真实内容。这一葬仪不仅符合袄教教义,而且也与安菩定远将军的身份相符。安菩墓的特殊建制也体现了这一点。     

也谈义县奉国寺大雄殿大木尺度设计方法——与温玉清先生讨论

在近期公布的中国文化遗产研究院等单位关于辽宁义县奉国寺实测数据和研究成果的基础上,结合笔者对该寺木结构几何解析关系的认识和调研,本文尝试从斗栱设计、屋架结构设计和材分与营造尺配合等方面进行反思,逆向寻求和推算原始设计的方法。     

美国第三次三K党运动的大众传媒方略

美国学术界一般认为,从三K党组织成立肇始,共经历三次连续的运动。第三次三K党运动开始于二战结束,持续至今。为了更加有效地迷惑民众,这一时期三K党采取的手段之一就是革新了该组织的宣传方略,不遗余力地利用美国当代大众传媒来宣传和标榜自己,并完成了由印刷媒体到电子媒体的转变。由于大众传媒和大众文化的密切关系,这种大众传媒方略直接影响到美国大众文化的变异,导致美国当代大众文化掺杂着三K党所宣扬的以白人种族主义为核心的消极成分,致使美国社会与文化的重构与异化。美国民众尤其是青年群体,深受此种文化理念和认知的麻痹与毒害:美国当代社会种族主义思潮的泛滥、白人至上主义运动持续、仇恨犯罪率的提升、暴力文化形式的盛行等现象便是例证。第三次三K党运动的大众传媒方略以及大众文化异化极具隐蔽性,由此导致的危害亦不容低估。     

抗战期间中加军事关系评析

当中国开始抗击日本侵略之际,加拿大推行绥靖政策,同时采取一定的战备措施。直到抗战初期,中加两国关系处于低层次水平上。加拿大参战之后,随着中加公使级外交关系的建立,两国的军事合作关系亦得到确立。加方对国民党军队的评价不高,但坚持军事合作,向中国提供对日作战的情报和作战物资援助。中加军事关系与政治关系密切相关,其发展相互对应;军事合作关系的建立和发展,有助于世界反法西斯战争的进行;合作的主要形式和内容是加拿大向中国提供军援;欧德澜的个人作用相当突出;但中加军事合作的影响较为有限。     

Shell Middens, Ships and Seeds: Exploring Coastal Subsistence, Maritime Trade and the Dispersal of Domesticates in and Around the Ancient Arabian Peninsula

The Arabian Peninsula occupies a critical position at the intersect of several major Old World landmasses. Inland aridity and a major coastal perimeter have long made maritime activities critical to Arabia’s cultural trajectory. A wealth of recent studies, not previously synthesised, suggest not only that the peninsular littoral offered a rich resource base for thousands of years of human occupation in the region, but also that Arabia witnessed some of the world’s earliest seafaring and maritime exchange activities, and played a role in Bronze Age maritime trade that has often been underestimated. Maritime activities were closely linked to developments in agriculture, which not only fuelled trade and exchange, but were also impacted on by the dispersal of domesticates along early maritime corridors. While regional specialisation has to some degree prevented consideration of the maritime prehistory of the peninsula as a whole, it is clear that there are interesting parallels, as well as important differences, between cultural trajectories in different parts of the peninsula.     

Historic preservation in Nazi Germany: place, memory, and nationalism

While numerous studies have examined the post-war contestation surrounding commemorative sites associated with the legacy of Nazi Germany, relatively little attention has been dedicated to the ways in which the Nazi regime itself sought to create places of memory congruent with the movement's political and cultural goals. Indeed, party leaders sponsored a variety of disparate, and at times contradictory, programs to re-orientate some of Germany's most prominent historic places to better serve the needs of the regime. To expand our understanding of this process, this article examines the practice and rhetoric of historic preservation in Bavaria during the Nazi period with a focus on the preservationist program sponsored by Bavarian President Ludwig Siebert. Nazi propaganda promised to rejuvenate and protect Germany's architectural heritage for the public good, but the regime's actual priorities and policies led to widespread confiscation, damage, and eventually destruction.     

Rice fields and modes of rice cultivation between 5000 and 2500 BC in east China

Recently, rice fields dated between 5000 and 2500 BC were found at the Tianluoshan sit in east China. The early rice fields dated between 5000 and 4500 BC are the oldest rice fields known. The discovery has provided data of recovering reclamation, cultivation, and the ecological system of rice fields in the Neolithic age. People opened up marshes of dense reeds with fire and wooden or bone spades, in order to create rice fields. In the rice fields, there was not only rice, but a lot of weeds as well. The excavations proved that little or even no weeding or irrigation was adopted. However, tilling soil by wooden and bone tools was evidenced. The average yields are estimated to have been about 830 kg for the early period and 950 kg per hectare for the later period. The cultivation system was low-level. Although the Tianluoshan people cultivated rice, they still obtained a great deal of food by gathering and hunting.     

Producing liminal space: gender,age and class in northern Ontario's tree planting industry

Drawing upon qualitative data, this article examines how tree planters in northern Ontario, Canada engage with liminality in terms of gender, class, age and space. In doing so, it provides insight into concepts of gender liminality and the variegated experiences of males and females in liminal space. The article focuses on four aspects of the liminal engagement. First, the spaces of tree planting are liminal as they are marked by homelife and worklife, but dominated by neither. Second, gender performances are liminal, as males perform masculinities seldom necessary or appropriate – yet often valorized – in their permanent communities, while females (who make up nearly half of the workforce) are offered opportunities to work and succeed in a traditionally male industry. However, success often requires that they adopt certain masculine traits. Third, most tree planters are in the interstitial age of ‘youth’, somewhere between adolescence and adulthood. Finally, tree planters are generally members of affluent urban middle-classes, yet the work they perform is more readily associated with rural or peripheral working-classes.