Aspects of gift giving in Denmark in the sixteenth century and the case of the Rose Flower Cup

The concept of an ancient system of gift exchange gradually being replaced by a market economy during the middle ages and early modern period has been rightly challenged by many recent studies. As it will appear from this essay on gift giving at the Danish court of King Frederik II (1559–88), gifts and favours continued to play an important role in the organisation of power and society. Several examples from sixteenth-century Denmark are discussed, including Frederik II's patronage of the astronomer Tycho Brahe. Special emphasis is put on a gift from the Danish noble couple Hans Skovgaard and Anne Parsberg on the occasion of the baptism in 1577 of their godson, the eldest son of Frederik II. Donations at rites of passage like baptism were a convention at the time, yet the huge gilt silver cup known as the ‘Rose Flower’ was more than that. It was an elegant way of reciprocating an earlier, royal wedding gift. At the same time the cup and its symbolism hinted at the ideal of the generous lord, stressing the hospitality and accessibility expected from the king, an ideal as common to king and nobility at the renaissance court of the sixteenth century as it had been in the previous centuries. The more humble gifts mentioned in private account books of the time point to the fact that people did not necessarily give someone a gift to obtain something in return. Sometimes gifts were simply given to sustain the social order of which the donors were a part.     

新加坡中华总商会与1963年新加坡对日不合作运动

二战后英国出于冷战的考量和为了换取日本在其东南亚殖民地的财产,在旧金山媾和时放弃了其东南亚殖民地对日本的赔偿要求,使得1962年初因发现日本占领新加坡期间被屠杀的华人遗骸而引发的对日追讨血债的行动困难重重。新加坡中华总商会在日本政府一再拖延的情况下,发动了对日不合作运动,公布了14项实施办法。此运动的发动及其影响,使日方深切地感受到新加坡在其对外贸易中的重要性,并成为《日本国与新加坡共和国之间1967年9月21日协定》顺利签订的主要原因之一。     

PUBLIC‐PRIVATE SUPPORT OF THE ARTS AND GERMAN CULTURAL POLICY

This paper provides a historical context for thinking about Germany’s recent embrace of sponsorship and private donations as a means of supporting education and the arts. The paper notes that the chief architect of a new national cultural policy, Michael Naumann, has justified a turn to public‐private collaborative arts funding with the argument that a market‐driven model of private responsibility for the arts stimulates greater citizen involvement in civic life and thus greater democracy. Yet Naumann has not reconciled this argument with Germany’s own history, in particular the fact that Germany’s Golden Age of private support of the arts coincided with the authoritarian German Empire (1871–1918). My analysis of this historical constellation, presented as a case study of one of Germany’s most important museum directors, Wilhelm Bode (1845–1929), argues that private support of the arts formed part of a larger strategy designed to wrest control of arts institutions away from traditional elites. My essay seeks to show that the rise of more responsive public forums was intended to make the fruits of German imperialism and economic domination available to more Germans, particularly middle class Germans. On this basis, the essay suggests two things. First, German imperialist society was less hierarchical and more broadly participatory than is often assumed, complicating its ability to figure as a negative foil today. Second, the harnessing of market forces to German culture was expected to deepen popular appreciation for chauvinistic conceptions of German nationalism that today seem to conflict with what German democracy might ideally be. With these points in mind, I contend not that sponsorship and private donations are incapable of promoting greater public involvement in the arts. Rather, the private sector might yield more democratic outcomes when publicly funded democratic institutions retain a strong voice in the direction of culture.     

On Meng Sen’s teaching and lecture notes of Ming and Qing history at Peking University during the 1930s

ABSTRACT

While teaching the histories of the Ming and Qing dynasties, Meng Sen (1869–1937), developed three textbooks in the 1930s: Lecture Notes on the Ming History (明史讲义 Mingshi jiangyi), Lecture Notes on the Qing History (清史讲义 Qingshi jiangyi), and Lecture Notes on the History of the Founding of the Manchu State (满洲开国史讲义 Manzhou kaiguo shi jiangyi). In these book titles, the term “history” refers specifically to “standard history.” In tracing Meng Sen’s original intention in producing these textbooks, all three works suggest the author’s desire to write history. He wrote Lecture Notes on the Ming History to prepare a future revision of the History of the Ming (明史 Mingshi); similarly he wrote Lecture Notes on the Qing History and Lecture Notes on the History of the Founding of the Manchu State with the intention to revise the Draft History of the Qing (清史稿 Qingshi gao). Meng Sen summarized Sima Guang’s (司马光, 1019–86) view of history as “imitating the good and avoiding the bad,” which he believed represented the “essential meaning of history.” Meng followed Sima Guang’s model in compiling the Lecture Notes on the Ming History and Lecture Notes on the Qing History, as shown in their style and format. By comparison, his writing of the Lecture Notes on the History of the Founding of the Manchu State attempted to merge the traditional annals–biographic style with narrative history from the West, or to pour old wine into a new bottle. Meng Sen presented his innovative efforts at Peking University, introducing young scholars to standards for history writing, and doing his utmost to guide and encourage his students; some of whom became noted scholars in the study of Ming and Qing histories.     

论华中抗日根据地的优抚工作

华中抗日根据地十分注重对退伍、伤残军人和抗属的优抚工作:制定优抚法律、政策,设立社会保障机构,开展优抚政策的宣传教育,组织拜年和节日慰问活动,帮助抗属解决生产生活问题,减轻各种税费,抚恤烈士,安置伤残、退伍军人。优抚经费既包括政府拨款,也包括民间筹集。华中抗日根据地优抚工作的特点是:物质与精神保障相结合;适度保障,维持基本生活;对国民党军队一视同仁;把保障与鼓励自力更生相结合。优抚工作对于动员民众参军参战,密切党政军民关系,配合统一战线的开展等方面都具有重要的意义。     

北斗星是古人心目中的历书和钟表

年、月、日、时,是人类生活、生产,生存最重要的时间概念。五、六千年以前科学推算的历法和钟表还没有产生以前,我国先民依靠对日月星辰运行规律的观测来确定年月日时等时间概念。北斗七星则是一部摆在天空的历书和时钟。凭着对北斗柄指向变化的观测,人们便可以精确得知春夏秋冬四季及其月、日和一日的具体时间。     

再析金毓黻《中国史学史》撰写中的影响因素

金毓黻的<中国史学史>在撰写过程中受到了梁启超和朱希祖的影响,但金毓黻并非只是简单地采纳、承袭他们的观点;而梁、朱二人对金氏<中国史学史>撰写中的影响因素,也从另一个方面反映了金毓黻史学思想的某些进程.     

The mead-hall community

The paper provides background context to the Anglo-Saxon concept of the ‘mead-hall’, the role of conspicuous consumption in early medieval society and the use of commensality to strengthen horizontal and vertical social bonds. Taking as its primary starting point the evidence of the Old English verse tradition, supported by linguistic and archaeological evidence and contemporary comparative material, the paper draws together contemporaneous and modern insights into the nature of feasting as a social medium. The roles of the ‘lord’ and ‘lady’ as community leaders are examined, with particular regard to their position at the epicentre of radiating social relationships. Finally, the inverse importance of the mead-hall as a declining social institution and a developing literary construct is addressed.     

Watery masculinities: fly-fishing and the angling male in the South West of England

This article examines the masculinities evident through fly fishing for salmon and trout in the South West of England. It identifies the way that many accounts of rural masculinities focus on particularly macho traits such as strength, resilience and domination and particular relationships with nature and the environment. Such macho traits are evident in the masculinities of angling – the angler regularly discusses issues of competition and duelling with nature. The trophies of such encounters become significant as they are used to summon life to stories and become crucial in narrating masculinity. However alongside these macho traits are numerous additional masculinities which are in tension with the more macho elements. These ‘additional masculinities’ become evident in the watery landscapes of angling; as such these waterscapes can be considered as liminal spaces as they enable masculinities to slip and reform. Therefore what emerges is a cadence to masculinity with different subject positions becoming significant in different spaces.     

由新民主主义向社会主义的提前过渡与优先发展重工业的战略抉择

何时由新民主主义向社会主义过渡,是与中国工业化选择什么样的发展战略紧密相关的问题。中华人民共和国成立后,中国共产党之所以决定提前向社会主义过渡,根本原因是编制五年计划时选择了优先发展重工业的战略,并得到了苏联在技术和设备制造上给予全面援助的承诺。而实际过渡时之所以又被提前,主要原因也在于要使农业和资本主义工商业尽快适应优先发展重工业的需要。优先发展重工业的战略虽然存在一定历史局限性,向社会主义的过渡中也出现了一些弊端,但总体看,正是优先发展重工业的战略抉择和向社会主义的提前过渡,使中国抓住了当时的历史机遇,大大加快了中国工业化的进程,为今天建设中国特色社会主义提供了前提条件。