Confessional disputes in the republic of letters: Susan Du Verger and Margaret Cavendish

The starting point of this article is an understudied piece of critical exegesis from 1657 titled Humble Reflections Upon Some Passages of the Right Honorable the Lady Marchionesse of Newcastles Olio. An obscure Englishwoman named Susan Du Verger composed this 164-page tract to refute a three-page essay on “A Monastical life” by the prolific poet, playwright, and philosopher, Margaret Cavendish. While there is now a substantial body of work on nuns and convents, this research largely overlooks how early modern women engaged with these topics in a scholarly manner. Along with elucidating the gamut of relevant patristic and ecclesiastical histories that were available in the English and French vernaculars, Humble Reflections provides a prompt for investigating Cavendish’s ideas on ecclesiastical order, ceremonies, and toleration. I propose that Cavendish refused to grace Du Verger with a direct response because her polemic disregarded the unofficial codes of conduct — friendship, transnational community, and inter-confessional co-existence — that were supposed to maintain peace within the Republic of Letters. In conclusion, this essay displays that Cavendish was actually a great admirer of monasticism, though not so much for its role in the spread of Christianity as for its place in the development of natural philosophy.     

The Jacob Story: Between Oral and Written Modes

In this article I examine the relations between Jacob’s putative oral story and the pre-Priestly narrative. I argue that Hosea’s prophecy presents the version of Jacob's oral story related in his time and antedated by many years the composition of the story-cycle in its written form. Comparison of Hosea’s prophecy and Jacob’s narrative indicates the thorough way in which the exilic author worked the oral story he received in order to fit it to his ideological messages and religious concepts. To further examine the relations between the oral and written modes, I discuss the episode of the treaty between Laban and Jacob (Gen 31,45–54) in light of a Mari letter (A.3592). Comparison of the two episodes indicates that part of the biblical narrative rests on the oral story and other part was written by the late author. Evidently, the long process of oral transmission, the growth of the narratives in its course, and the creative reworking of the author make it impossible to either isolate the early oral layer within the present story-cycle or to date the stages of its growth in the oral process of transmission.     

The historical narrative of the Wanli Korean campaign in the Qing Official Ming History

Abstract

The Ming History (明史 Mingshi) by Qing official historians took more than 90 years to complete, and Wan Sitong's 萬斯同 Draft Ming History (明史稿 Mingshi gao), Wang Hongxu's 王鴻緒 Draft Ming History, and the Ming History palace edition overseen by Zhang Tingyu 張廷玉 were the most important histories of the Ming over its different stages of compilation. Wan Sitong gave much attention to the writing of history in the biographies from the Wanli Korea Campaign, Wang Hongxu did not give them much attention, and Zhang Tingyu repudiated and even negated them. In Zhang Tingyu's Ming History, the Annals of Shenzong (神宗本紀 Shenzong benji) set the tone of repudiating the Korea campaign. Due to their clan, the Bozhou Campaign (播州之役 Bozhou zhiyi), or the Liaodong Incident (遼東事變 Liaodong shibian), nearly none of the Ming generals from the eastern expedition to Korea were given biographies due to their participation in the Korean War. The History of the Choson (朝鮮傳 Chaoxian zhuan) gives a negative evaluation that denies or undervalues relevant people and battles. On the one hand, this was due to the influence of historical sources. Due to Yang Gao’s 楊鎬 responsibility for defeat in the Battle of Saerhu 薩 爾 滸 之 役, the compilers of the Veritable Records of Ming Shenzong (明神宗實錄 Ming Shenzong shilu) followed the account of Ding Yingtai 丁應泰 in their records and denied the accomplishments of Yang Gao and the Ming army in Korea. On the other hand, due to real political needs, as the commanders of the eastern expedition to Korea later became the military rival of the Later Jin in Liaodong, an attitude of denial had to be adopted against them to create legitimacy for the Qing dynasty. These were the two main factors that determined the way in which the Qing official Ming History wrote the history of the Wanli Korean War.     

Before Columbia: The FWP and American Oral History Research

This article compares and contrasts the approaches of the NewDeal Federal Writers' Project and the Columbia Oral HistoryProgram in an effort to reconsider the paradoxical history oforal history research in the United States and its relationshipto how many oral historians today look at their work and thehistory of their field. As it turns out, the theoretical andsocial concerns of the FWP projects are closer to current theoreticalconcerns of oral historians than the work Allan Nevins conductedin the early years of the Columbia project. The article alsoshows how awareness of the history of the intellectual and culturalcurrents that affect oral history projects in general, and theFWP's work in particular—interviews with former slaves,tenant farmers, industrial workers, and members of ethnic minorities—canhelp us analyze and use those materials. It argues that an awarenessof continuity and discontinuity in the history of oral historymakes it possible for today's oral historians to have a productivedialogue with their predecessors in the field.     

"That Food of the Memory which Gives the Clue to Profitable Research": Oral history as a source for local, regional, and family history in the nineteenth and early twentieth century

Numerous local, regional and family historians in the nineteenthand early twentieth century collected oral narrations and conductedinterviews as a form to document information that otherwisemight have never been preserved. Family historians, in particular,not only practiced interviewing relatives for family histories,but also encouraged the practice in how-to-do manuals amongtheir peers. While advocating the practice, family historiansalso reflected about the value of "traditionary evidence" collectedthrough interviews and other means. These reflections by familyhistorians mirrored the discussions about the value of traditionsand memories as historical sources among several professionalhistorians at the time. These reflections were shaped by a modernizedunderstanding of tradition, which combined a reverential approachto the authoritarian element of tradition with a critical approachquestioning the validity of tradition. In this context, oralhistory was both a tool to negotiate the value of traditionand a mirror to the contemporary understanding of tradition.     

Method and Memory in the Midwestern "Lincoln Inquiry": Oral Testimony and Abraham Lincoln Studies, 1865 1938

This article narrates the role of oral testimony in the fieldof Abraham Lincoln studies from 1865 through the 1930s. Collectedin the form of letters, affidavits, and face-to-face interviews,this mounting body of "eyewitness evidence" dominated the discoursefor two generations and reflective, public practice culminatedin the organization of a "Lincoln Inquiry" in the Midwest duringthe 1920s and 1930s. For a time, practitioners successfullydefended themselves against increasing positivist assaults onthe credibility of oral testimony. Their interests and effortsresonate with later oral history practice and theory about method,authorship, performance, and memory, and their story highlightsthe contingency inherent in the development of oral historicalpractice in America.     

论博物馆核心竞争力的建设

博物馆作为公共文化设施是当地社区的精神缩影和文明的窗口。作为一个公共产品,面临着市场经济的冲击,全国的各个级别的博物馆都在探索着自己的出路和发展的方向。在发展过程中也出现了一系列的问题,在调和经济效益和社会效益之间,在处理自身发展和观众的要求之间,在保护收藏和展示之间都出现了或多或少的问题。党中央在"两会"上一直提倡发展文化产业和创意产业,要求又好又快地发展,为构建和谐社会而努力。在这样的形势下,也要求我们的博物馆与时俱进,在科学发展观的指导下增强博物馆的核心竞争力。     

文物防震措施研究初探

台北故宫博物院珍藏中国历代名瓷和玉器其数量和种类居全世界博物馆之冠,目前陈列柜内瓷器及玉器的防震措施仍有改善的空间,因此运用现代科学方法和仪器研究文物防震措施,更突显其重要性和迫切性。本研究使用的方法为传统文物防震措施(使用微晶蜡固定、铁弗龙、橡胶垫和防震塑料垫衬底)、柜内型隔震台减震和电磁铁固定陈列柜功能性测试;运用台湾地震工程研究中心的人工地震台执行上述不同方法之实验。实验结果,传统方法抗震优劣顺序为:微晶蜡>铁弗龙>塑料垫>橡胶垫;柜内型隔震台消能减震功效可达60％;至于电磁铁固定陈列柜防震在加速度超过800gal时,才显现摇摆现象,未装电磁铁的陈列柜,加速度超过300gal时,即有自震现象。然而在瓷器、玉器陈列柜内实务执行防震措施的层面,宜使用微晶蜡固定最为经济有效,柜内型隔震台亦可使用,但需考量柜内可滑动空间是否充裕的实际状况执行。     

明清西北筑城碑记的形成、特征及历史地理学价值

据不完全统计,明清西北筑城碑记大约存有269篇,其中原碑尚存于世者32方,是研究明清西北城池史宝贵的一手资料。甘、宁、青三省现存明代碑记最有特色,有大量卫所营堡的筑城碑保留。州县碑记大多有若干时段连续的拓城记,连缀起来就是城池形态扩展的整体叙事。明清西北筑城碑记所反映的城镇类型也多种多样,州县城镇最多,卫所营堡占有一定比例,其他如驿城、巡检司城、厅城、寨城、关城都有一部分存留,非常难得。这些碑记作为第一手资料,详述了筑城过程、工程耗时、销银数量、捐资人户,对于考证原委、制度复原、社会阶层以及城镇职能与形态扩张都有极重要的史料价值。     

日本泉屋博古馆所见先秦私文书——商青铜私文书的兴起

日本泉屋博古馆收藏并展示的我国早年流散到海外的部分先秦青铜器,是中国先秦文化不可缺少的重要内容之一。商青铜私文书只是先秦私文书的一部分,并非是我国最早的私文书。“九五”期间国家重大科研课题“夏商周断代工程”的某些研究成果表明,商以前就已有文书记录产生,如再加以考古出土实物印证,夏就有可能是先秦私文书的起源时期,为此,笔者将商只作为中国青铜私文书的兴起阶段。