“FUTURE PAST”: TIME AND TELEOLOGY IN (ANCIENT) HISTORIOGRAPHY

The historian's account of the past is strongly shaped by the future of the events narrated. The telos, that is, the vantage point from which the past is envisaged, influences the selection of the material as well as its arrangement. Although the telos is past for historians and readers, it is future for historical agents. The term “future past,” coined by Reinhart Koselleck to highlight the fact that the future was seen differently before the Sattelzeit, also lends itself to capturing this asymmetry and elucidating its ramifications for the writing of history. The first part of the essay elaborates on the notion of “future past”: besides considering its significance and pitfalls, I offset it against the perspectivity of historical knowledge and the concept of narrative “closure” (I). Then the works of two ancient historians, Polybius and Sallust, serve as test cases that illustrate the intricacies of “future past.” Neither has received much credit for intellectual sophistication in scholarship, and yet the different narrative strategies Polybius and Sallust deploy reveal profound reflections on the temporal dynamics of writing history (II). Although the issue of “future past” is particularly pertinent to the strongly narrative historiography of antiquity, the controversy about the end of the Roman Republic demonstrates that it also applies to the works of modern historians (III). Finally, I will argue that “future past” alerts us to an aspect of how we relate to the past that is in danger of being obliterated in the current debate on “presence” and history. The past is present in customs, relics, and rituals, but the historiographical construction of the past is predicated on a complex hermeneutical operation that involves the choice of a telos. The concept of “future past” also differs from post‐structuralist theories through its emphasis on time. Retrospect calms the flow of time, but is unable to arrest it fully, as the openness of the past survives in the form of “future past” (IV).     

ENTANGLED MEMORY: TOWARD A THIRD WAVE IN MEMORY STUDIES

This essay takes up the call for a “third phase” in memory studies and makes theoretical and methodological suggestions for its further development. Starting from an understanding of memory that centers on memory's temporality, its relation to language, and its quality as a social action, the essay puts forward the concept of “entangled memory.” On a theoretical level, it brings to the fore the entangledness of acts of remembering. In a synchronic perspective, memory's entangledness is presented as twofold. Every act of remembering inscribes an individual in multiple social frames. This polyphony entails the simultaneous existence of concurrent interpretations of the past. In a diachronic perspective, memory is entangled in the dynamic relation between single acts of remembering and changing mnemonic patterns. Memory scholars therefore uncover boundless cross‐referential configurations. Wishing to enhance the dialogue between the theoretical and the empirical parts of memory studies, we propose four devices that serve as a heuristic in the study of memory's entanglement: chronology against time, conflict, generations, and self‐reflexivity. Current debates on European memory permit us to explore the possible benefits that the concept of entangled memory carries for memory studies.     

Intellectual History and the History of Philosophy

Summary

The issue which I wish to address in this paper is the widespread tendency in Anglophone philosophy to insist on a separation between the history of philosophy and the history of ideas or intellectual history. This separation reflects an anxiety on the part of philosophers lest the special character of philosophy will be dissolved into something else in the hands of historians. And it is borne of a fundamental tension between those who think of philosophy's past as a source of ideas and arguments of interest to the present, and those who hold that the philosophy of the past should be studied on its own terms, in relation to its immediate context, without reference to the present. The challenge, then, is to re-historicise the history of philosophy, and to keep the philosophers onside.     

The Street Corps of Changsha around 1920

The Changsha Street Corps originated in the local militia during the period of the Taiping Rebellion, and it played an important part in Changsha’s urban social management at the grassroots level. However, the role and influence of the street corps underwent changes during the process of modernization and the building of the modern nation–state. By 1920, although the street corps of Changsha still worked as the agent of the state at the grassroots level, its autonomy had been curtailed, and its social influence weakened. In the new social environment, even the maintenance of neighborhood interests became a challenge for the street corps. This article illustrates the readjustments in geopolitical and industrial relations during the process of urban modernization. It also illustrates how a new form of state power, namely the police, infiltrated the social management system, affected the traditional social structure, and complicated the interaction between modern state and society.     

唐代前期都督府探讨

有鉴于前人对唐代都督府认识的分歧,本文从文献的角度论证了今人观念下的都督府自唐代建立至安史之乱的不同职能,即军政职能、民政职能、监察职能。并重点阐述了前两种职能所依据的社会背景,二者之间的相互转化,以及三种职能下都督府与常州之关系,力图解决困扰都督府研究的一些问题。     

马克思、恩格斯文明理论与中国"早期文明"

在中国文明发展史上,夏、商、西周文明是一个特殊阶段,这个阶段的文明,从国家形态的角度看,与西方文明具有明显的不同。     

Real‐time quadrupole mass spectrometer analysis of gas in borehole fluid samples acquired using the U‐tube sampling methodology

Sampling of fluids in deep boreholes is challenging because of the necessity of minimizing external contamination and maintaining sample integrity during recovery. The U‐tube sampling methodology was developed to collect large volume, multiphase samples at in situ pressures. As a permanent or semi‐permanent installation, the U‐tube can be used for rapidly acquiring multiple samples or it may be installed for long‐term monitoring applications. The U‐tube was first deployed in Liberty County, TX to monitor crosswell CO₂ injection as part of the Frio CO₂ sequestration experiment. Analysis of gases (dissolved or separate phase) was performed in the field using a quadrupole mass spectrometer, which served as the basis for determining the arrival of the CO₂ plume. The presence of oxygen and argon in elevated concentrations, along with reduced methane concentration, indicates sample alteration caused by the introduction of surface fluids during borehole completion. Despite producing the well to eliminate non‐native fluids, measurements demonstrate that contamination persists until the immiscible CO₂ injection swept formation fluid into the observation wellbore.     

从桃花山唐墓出土的青瓷俑看唐初的服饰和音乐制度

本通过对湖南桃花山唐墓出土的54件青瓷俑的分析,结合已有考古发掘成果与历史献相互印证,反映了唐代初年在民族大融合的前提下,各种化兼收并蓄,社会习俗发生了急剧变化,服饰和音乐制度亦在承袭前代基础上得到空前发展,形成了唐初特有的开放浪漫风格：衣着开放,胡服盛行,女着男装,并出现汉胡服饰相互结合的新的服饰款式一窄袖短襦下束宽大博广的长裙,农服上开始以钮扣装饰;汉胡乐器在乐队中同时出现,且数量上相互抗衡。墓中出土的伎乐俑是一支演奏“龟兹乐”的官府乐队俑,属坐部伎范畴,是唐代初年“燕乐”发展与繁荣的实物见证。     

严复留英期间的几个问题

1研至1879年留英期间,严复起初倾心于西方自然科学,后对外交感兴趣.他对顽固思想有所批判,大体相当于洋务派的思想水平.他之所以没有进入外交界,是因为得罪了李凤苞和曾纪泽.     

GIS Methods in Time-Geographic Research: Geocomputation and Geovisualization of Human Activity Patterns

Over the past 40 years or so, human activities and movements in space‐time have attracted considerable research interest in geography. One of the earliest analytical perspectives for the analysis of human activity patterns and movements in space‐time is time geography. Despite the usefulness of time geography in many areas of geographical research, there are very few studies that actually implemented its constructs as analytical methods up to the mid‐1990s. With increasing availability of geo‐referenced individual‐level data and improvement in the geo‐computational capabilities of Geographical Information Systems (GIS), it is now more feasible than ever before to operationalize and implement time‐geographic constructs. This paper discusses recent applications of GIS‐based geo‐computation and three‐dimensional (3‐D) geo‐visualization methods in time‐geographic research. The usefulness of these methods is illustrated through examples drawn from the author's recent studies. The paper attempts to show that GIS provides an effective environment for implementing time‐geographic constructs and for the future development of operational methods in time‐geographic research.