Difference Between the Self and the Heathen. European Imperial Culture in Dutch Missionary Exhibitions, 1909–1957

‘Imperial culture’ is a concept coined by British historiography to describe the influence of imperialism on metropolitan British culture. Although it is now used in other national historiographies as well, it would appear that we have not yet realised the concept's full potential. This article, drawing on recent scholarship emphasising the transnational connections in European imperial cultures, investigates the implications of seeing imperial culture as a European phenomenon and as a European mentality. For this purpose, this article uses the narrative that was propagated at a specific national practice where empire met a metropolitan European society as a case study: missionary exhibitions in the Netherlands in the first half of the twentieth century. Here, Catholic and Protestant missionaries displayed objects from the indigenous, colonised populations who they were trying to convert and hereby legitimised and underpinned imperialism in Dutch culture. However, their significance went deeper than that. This article argues that the missionaries’ narrative transcended the national level and promoted ideas of Christianity as a European religion and civilisation as a European trait. A European community based on religious, cultural, and racial traits was set against a generic non-European heathen world. However, national and denominational frames of reference also remained in place. With this case study, the article explores the possibilities and difficulties that arise from studying imperial culture as a European mentality.     

Free Trade Empire to Commonwealth of Nations: India,Britain and Imperial Preference, 1903–1932

This article examines the dialogue between British tariff reformers and Indian nationalists over the application of imperial trade preference in India from Joseph Chamberlain's 1903 Birmingham address to the 1932 Imperial Economic Conference. For both groups, this issue was a focal point to assess India's constitutional status and national participation within an emerging British Commonwealth and international system after the First World War. Specifically, it marked a comprehensive challenge to the orthodoxy of free trade and liberal empire seen increasingly as a determent to reconciling national prosperity and imperial unity. It is argued that prominent tariff reformers’ well-studied criticism of an ‘unpatriotic’ cosmopolitan free trade made them also sympathetic to longstanding Indian grievances that this fiscal policy exacerbated economic exploitation and racial discrimination. After 1919, Indian nationalists, including ‘historical economists’, utilized metropolitan advocacy for imperial preference to demand fiscal and political autonomy from Britain and national, as well as racial, equality in collective imperial decision. At the 1932 conference in Ottawa, India's voluntary and negotiated acceptance of preferential trade with Britain, beside the white self-governing Dominions, helped transform the British Commonwealth into an egalitarian organization recognizable after 1947.     

"天高皇帝近":一个重要的中国思想史命题——雷戈《秦汉之际的政治思想与皇权主义》评介

雷戈所著《秦汉之际的政治思想与皇权主义》一书,认为从秦朝到汉初的思想史发展阶段是中国思想史上皇权主义意识形态的生成和确立时期,并将其概括为"后战国时代";采用独特的"历史-思想"研究法,从政治制度、官场规则和官吏的政治生活中,挖掘特定时期的政治思想共识,为政治思想史研究开辟了新的路径,并扩大了思想史的资料范围;认为秦汉时期生成的皇权主义秩序,把"天高皇帝远"的制度现实变为"天高皇帝近"的观念实存,实现了对人们思想的可控性,从此,思想成为皇权可以控制和规范的领域,达到了有效的思想专制。这是秦汉以降中国思想史发展的基本特征。该书在研究方法的创新和思想深度的开掘上,都做出了独到的贡献。     

《钦定宪法大纲》与清末政治博弈

《钦定宪法大纲》是清末一个重要的宪法性文件,是各方政治势力博弈的结果。大纲的产生自有其合理的一面。虽然大纲带有浓厚的封建性,但诸多条文仍不乏合理性、进步性和民主性。大纲在中国宪政史上确立了根本法的地位,确立了二元制君主立宪政体,初步确立了分权模式,初步确立了权利义务观念,与西方宪政初步实现了形式上的对接。     

Elemental Characterization by EDXRF of Imperial Longquan Celadon Porcelain Excavated from Fengdongyan Kiln,Dayao County

A mass of Longquan porcelain shards carved with ‘Guan’ or the dragon patterns were unearthed in the early Ming Dynasty layer of the Fengdongyan kiln site at Dayao County. These celadon shards were fired in the Hongwu and Yongle eras of the Ming Dynasty. In order to research the raw materials and firing technology of the imperial porcelain, 85 typical shards were analysed by energy‐dispersive X‐ray fluorescence (EDXRF). The results indicate that the contents of TiO₂ and Fe₂O₃ in the body vary in the Hongwu and Yongle eras. Compared with Longquan glazes in the Southern Song Dynasty, the average values of K₂O, Fe₂O₃ and TiO₂ are higher, but that of CaO is lower in early Ming imperial porcelain glazes. Principal components analysis (PCA) shows that different degrees of elutriation of the same raw materials are the main reason for this difference in the Hongwu and Yongle periods. However, the raw materials of imperial porcelain glazes show no obvious changes and have inherited the earlier tradition. The production and firing technology of imperial porcelain reached a higher level and had not declined in the Early Ming Dynasty.     

历史语境中的王朝中国疆域概念辨析--以天下、四海、中国、疆域、版图为例

作为国家理念的体现,疆域概念产生于具体的历史语境。由于古今中国国家性质不同,王朝中国的疆域概念与现代中国主权、领土不能用简单的继承或对接来解释。在王权泛化或王权至上观念的影响下,王朝中国的疆域话语尽管受到地理知识限制,但仍坚持认为在可知范围内,王朝中国天子有权实行统治。这种深受王朝国家理念影响的疆域话语对古代疆域概念产生了很大影响。以常见的5个古代中国疆域概念为例,“天下”有广狭二义,一是普天之下,一是华夏诸国;“四海”即四方,有时包括四夷,有时不包括;“中国”概念迭加变化整合,各朝“中国”范围不尽相同;“疆域”是一国统治范围的宣示;“版图”则是王朝国家行政地区。本文通过追溯原本词义,认为上述概念原意与后世借用,因语境变化,语义发生差异;进而提出,学术用语与习惯说法应有区别,这不仅是运用概念准确与否的问题,而且也涉及研究价值的取向。     

《古今图书集成》版本考

《古今图书集成》编制过程留世档案很少,所以许多细节问题多有待考证,另外由于卷帙浩繁,出版印刷时间较长,各图书馆在著录版本和出版印刷时问等细节上,也常有错误之处。特别是最近国内外《古今图书集成》零本的高价拍卖,使了解此书版本情况的读者日益增多。本文经过多方考察并且对照各版次实物进行了详细的考证。纠正了许多常见的错误。     

宋代南外宗正司入闽及其影响

南外宗正司是宋代管理外居宗室的机构。宋金交战,为躲避战乱,它辗转迁入福建泉州。南外宗正司的机构非常健全,宗室在闽蓬勃发展。南外宗正司的入闽,对提高泉州乃至福建的历史地位以及促进福建经济文化的繁荣均有深远的影响。     

The value of empire: tenth-century Bulgaria between Magyars,Pechenegs and Byzantium

The article seeks to explain the connection between the migration of the Magyars and Pechenegs in central and south-east Europe, in the late ninth and early tenth century, and the conflict between Byzantium and Bulgaria during the same period. Through reference to anthropologists discussing the relations between nomadic and sedentary societies (Khazanov, Barfield), and historians studying medieval rituals (Buc, Althoff, Koziol), the article interprets the aggressive policy of the Bulgarian tsar Symeon as a consistent effort to displace Byzantium as major partner of the nomadic polities in the area. By subverting the principles of Byzantine diplomacy and political culture, Symeon turned his own kingdom into a society-structuring factor in the nomadic world. The article evaluates the very meaning of imperial claims not so much in legal terms, as an effort to guarantee Bulgaria’s sovereignty in a Byzantium-centred world, but in the real-time capacity of a ruler to make use of imperial symbols and act upon the dynamically changing conjuncture.     

论10～11世纪德意志的帝国教会体制

10~11世纪,德意志存在一种帝国教会体制,其实质是王权主导下的王权与教会间的共生共存关系。在这一体制下,教会机构成为国王的政治机器,教会首脑成为国王官吏,同时国王则全力维护教会的特权和利益。在萨克森王朝统治时期,帝国教会体制成为德意志强大王权的一根重要支柱。但从长远来看,这一体制也存在严重隐忧。“主教授职权之争”以后,帝国教会体制瓦解,王权开始面临严峻的挑战。