Characterizations of palace lantern tassels preserved in The Palace Museum,Beijing, by UPLC-ESI-Q-TOF

Palace lanterns were important and highly visible decorations in the imperial palace in Beijing, China, during the Qing dynasty (1636–1912). Most lanterns had colourful tassels made of fibres. The study performed a comprehensive investigation of the materials and dyes used for palace lantern tassels preserved in The Palace Museum, Beijing. Eight samples with different colours, including yellow, green and red, from five palace lanterns were analysed. By using ultra-performance liquid chromatography combined with time-of-flight mass spectrometry, the compositions of the dyes were identified quickly, and thus the dyes' origins were explored. A X-ray fluorescence spectrometer assisted in the detection of whether a mordant was used during the dyeing process. As a result, the tassels were all made of silk, discovered through the use of microscopic observation and micro-Fourier transform infrared spectrometry analysis. Different dyeing techniques were found in these tassels: yellow tassels were dyed by cork tree or turmeric by a direct dyeing method; greens were dyed by pagoda bud with an iron mordant, or by the combination of cork tree and indigo using multi-dyeing method; and red tassels were coloured with different acid red industrial dyes. These results provide valuable data for the conservation of ancient textile tassels and contribute to the investigation of other hanging tags.     

Reviews

THE GLASS CURTAIN BETWEEN ASIA AND EUROPE. Raghavan Iyer (ed.). London, Oxford University Press, 1965. Pp. 356. Australian price 64/6d.

NEO‐COLONIALISM: THE LAST STAGE OF IMPERIALISM. Kwame Nkrumah. London, Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1965. Pp. xx + 280. Australian price 66/‐.

THE ELEPHANTS AND THE GRASS. Cecil V. Crabb. New York, Frederick A. Praeger, 1965. Pp. xiii + 237. Australian price 62/‐.

CHINA AND THE BOMB. Morton Halperin. London, Pall Mall Press, 1965. Pp. 166, $5.10.

ON ESCALATION: METAPHORS AND SCENARIOS. Herman Kahn. London, Pall Mall Press, 1965. Pp. 308. $6.60.

NUCLEAR DISPERSAL IN ASIA AND THE INDO‐PACIFIC REGION. A. L. Burns, Nina Heathcote and G. P. King. Canberra, The Australian institute of International Affairs and The Australian National University, 1965. Pp. ii + 101. $1.50 Australian.

THE SECURITY OF SOUTHERN ASIA. D. E. Kennedy. For The Institute for Strategic Studies. London, Chatto and Windus, 1965. Pp. xi + 101. $5.80 Australian.

ISLAM IN THE MODERN NATIONAL STATE. E. I. J. Rosenthal. London. Cambridge University Press, 1965. Pp. xxi + 416. 55/‐ stg.

ISLAM AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. J. Horris Proctor (ed.). London, Pall Mall Press, 1965. Pp. viii + 221. $7 Australian.

LIVING WITH ASIA. J. F. Cairns. Melbourne, Lansdowne Press, 1965. Pp. 179. $2.50 Australian.

BARBARIAN BEDS. THE ORIGIN OF THE CHAIR IN CHINA. C. P. Fiiz‐Gerald. Canberra, The Australian National University; London, The Cresset Press, 1965. Pp. xvii + 85. Australian price £5/5/‐.

THE CHINESE MODEL. Werner Klatt (ed.). Hong Kong University Press, 1965. Pp. xix + 233. Australian price 34/6d.

CHINESE COMMUNIST EDUCATION. RECORDS OF THE FIRST DECADE. Stewart Fraser (ed.). Nashville, Vanderbilt University Press, 1965. Pp. xvi + 542. U.S. $10.

THE UNITED STATES AND JAPAN. Herbert Passin (ed.). For the American Assembly, Columbia University. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice Hall, Inc., 1966. Pp. ix + 169. $U.S. 3.95.

DEMOCRACY IN PAKISTAN. G. W. Choudhury. Vancouver, University of British Columbia, 1964. Pp. xix + 309. $6.00 Canadian.

THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA. J. S. Dickey (ed.). New York, The American Assembly, Columbia University, 1964. Pp. 184. $U.S. 3.95.     

Obedient Passion—Passionate Obedience: Ashraf Ali Thanawi's Sermons on the Love of the Prophet

Ashraf Ali Thanawi (1863–1943) was one of the most influential South Asian preachers and authors of the twentieth century. His sermons range from Friday sermons in Arabic to those held before select disciples or at mass rallies in Urdu, and they were printed ever since his lifetime in great number and consistency. This article is particularly interested in the emotional roles allotted to preacher and audience and the overlap between religious and emotional dimensions of the communication process. Against the background of the changing roles of emotions in colonial India and the turn of preaching to print, this contribution focuses on sermons that concern the celebration of the birthday of the Prophet (mīlādu ‘n‐nabī), a practice that was central for an emotionalised piety directed towards the person of Muhammad and was highly contested. Thanawi elaborates on the necessity, limits, and cultivation of the love towards the Prophet and discusses the evocation and expression, intentionality, and temporality of the Muslims’ ideal emotional practices. Maintaining limits of devotion serves as the basis for an even more passionate love. Obedience, in preaching as an emotional practice as much as in the religious feelings towards the Prophet, is central to develop and communicate feelings that are all‐pervading, continuous, and unimpaired.     

La Fabrique de l’infini Phénoménologie du désordre et genèse sensible de l’idée d’infini chez Diderot

Against the classical point of view, for which the idea of the infinite is the expression of God’s in the human being, Diderot proposes a concept of the infinite that considers it as an immediate production of the body. Removing the infinite from its former divine origin, Diderot’s idea of the sentient body contests the classical concepts, particularly the one of order, which bound epistemology to theology. Thus, disorder acquires a new value, even in its pathological forms, which now can be considered as modes of an immanent and fundamentally creative process.