Guanfu Salt Farm and Hong Kong in the Song Dynasty (960-1279)

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecile Kung
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Keyword Search ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
Documentary Sources ◽  
History Of ◽  
Systematic Compilation ◽  
Different Sources

Purpose This paper aims to collect and compile the historical data of Guanfu Salt Farm, officially built by the Song Dynasty (960–1279) within modern Hong Kong territories, to reconstruct its history for the reflection of Hong Kong society of the time. Design/methodology/approach This paper is largely based on identification and analysis of historical documents, including keyword search on electronic databases and verification with the original sources, with reference to archaeological findings when necessary. Findings This paper reconstructs the history of Guanfu Salt Farm based on documentary sources with reference to archaeological findings. English translation of Chinese sources is also provided when necessary. Originality/value There has been an absence of systematic compilation of historical data of Hong Kong during the Song Dynasty, which are limited in quantity and scattered across different sources. This paper seeks to fill the vacuum of knowledge about pre-colonial Hong Kong, with a more comprehensive reconstruction of the history of Guanfu Salt Farm.

scholarly journals Silent Accord: Qi 契 as a Metaphor for Enlightenment and Transmission in Chan Buddhist Discourse

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 279
Author(s):  
Aleksi Järvelä ◽  
Tero Tähtinen
Keyword(s):  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
History Of

In this paper, we explore the historical background and the semantic underpinnings of a central, if marginally treated, metaphor of enlightenment and transmission in Chan discourse, “silent accord” 默契. It features centrally in Essentials of the Transmission of Mind 傳心法要, a text that gathers the teachings of Chan master Huangbo Xiyun (d. ca. 850), a major Tang dynasty figure. “Silent accord” is related to the concept of mind-to-mind transmission, which lies at the very core of Chan Buddhist self-understanding. However, Chan historiography has shown that this self-understanding was partially a product of the Song dynasty lineage records, historically retroactive syncretic constructs produced by monks and literati as efforts towards doctrinal and political recognition and orthodoxy. There are thus lacunae in the history of Chan thought opened up by the retrospective fictions of Song dynasty, and a lack of reliable, dateable documents from the preceding Tang dynasty era, possibly fraught with later additions. We situate the metaphor “silent accord” in the history of Chan thought by searching for its origins, mapping its functions in Chan literature, arguing for its influence and thereby its role in helping to bridge the 9th century gap.

Political radicalization and fragmentation of the democratic blocs and the legislative council elections in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 372-384
Author(s):  
Chung Fun Steven Hung
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Special Administrative Region ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Legislative Council ◽  
Administrative Region ◽  
Two Systems ◽  
History Of ◽  
One Country Two Systems ◽  
Historical Comparative

Purpose After direct elections were instituted in Hong Kong and the sovereignty was transferred from Britain to China, politicization inevitably followed democratization. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the pro-democratic political parties’ politics in Hong Kong in recent history. Design/methodology/approach The research was conducted through a historical comparative analysis, within the context of Hong Kong after the sovereignty handover and the interim period of crucial democratization. Findings With the implementation of “One country, Two systems,” political democratization was hindered in Hong Kong’s transformation. The democratic forces have no alternative but to seek more radicalized politics, which has caused a decisive and ineluctable fragmentation of the local political parties. Originality/value This paper explores and evaluates the political history of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region under “One country, Two systems” and the ways in which the limited democratization hinders the progress of Hong Kong’s transformation.

History of Luminescence from Ancient to Modern Times

2015 ◽  
Vol 361 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hardev Singh Virk
Keyword(s):  
Solid State ◽  
Chinese Text ◽  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Luminescent Material ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Aurora Borealis ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
History Of

Luminescent phenomena have fascinated mankind since the earliest times. The light from the aurora borealis, glow worms, luminescent wood, rotting fish and meat are all examples of naturally occurring luminescence. E. Newton Harvey’s 770 page volume “A History of Luminescence: From the Earliest Times until 1900” is a classic which narrates interesting stories from ancient cultures to modern times. The earliest written account of a solid state luminescent material comes from a Chinese text published in the Song dynasty (960–1279 A.D.). The Buddhist sacred jewel, called "hashi-no-tama" in Japan, is alleged to be self-luminous and to shed a brilliant light on its surroundings. In the Svetasvatara Upanishad, probably recorded at some time before the sixth century BC, we find a mention of fire-flies as one of the manifestations of Brahma.

scholarly journals The Position of the Futian Calendar on the History of East-West Intercourse of Astronomy

1987 ◽  
Vol 91 ◽  
pp. 135-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shigeru Nakayama
Keyword(s):  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Chinese Scholar ◽  
Buddhist Monk ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
Fundamental Understanding ◽  
History Of ◽  
East West

It is proved that the Futian calendar, a non-official one compiled in the Jianzhong reign period (780-783) in China, was brought to Japan in 957 by a Buddhist monk and was employed as the basis of horoscopes by the Buddhist school of astrology (Memo 1964). It was also used in competition with the official Chinese xuanming calendar for the usual functions demanded of a Chinese type lunisolar ephemerides, such as eclipse predictions. According to the view of the Song Dynasty Chinese scholar Wang Yinglin that the Futian calendar was “originally an Indian method of astronomical calculation” but Kiyosi Yabuuti has commented that Wang Yinglin’s appraisal of the Futian calendar is solely based on a resemblance in form as it copied the trivial point of taking its epoch as the Jiuzhi calendar according to Indian astronomical methods and does not display a fundamental understanding of the Indian calendar (Yabuuti 1944).

Commercializing Medicine or Benefiting the People – The First Public Pharmacy in China

2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asaf Goldschmidt
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Chinese Medicine ◽  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Drug Markets ◽  
Relative Ease ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
Medicinal Drug

ArgumentIn this article I describe the establishment and early development of an institution that is unique to the history of Chinese medicine – the Imperial Pharmacy (惠 民 藥 局). Established in 1076 during the great reforms of the Song dynasty, the Imperial Pharmacy was a remarkable institution that played different political, social, economic, and medical roles over the years of its existence. Initially it was an economic institution designed to curb the power of plutocrats who were manipulating medicinal drug markets in their favor. A few decades later, I claim, the Imperial Pharmacy became a public-health-oriented institution focusing on selling readymade prescriptions in addition to simples. Various records, including local gazetteers and local maps, indicate that the Imperial Pharmacy expanded about a century after it was established to include dozens of branches throughout the empire. The Pharmacy's impact on the practices of physicians during these years is somewhat vague. It seems, however, to have posed an unwelcome addition to the medical scene, since it enabled uninitiated practitioners who relied on the Pharmacy's formulary to fit patients' symptoms to their own prescriptions and dispense medications with relative ease.

Beyond the “Great Man” narrative: scandals, cumulative reforms and the trajectory of anti-corruption efforts in colonial Hong Kong before MacLehose years

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ray Yep
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Path Dependence ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Path Creation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Colonial Governance ◽  
Post War ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Colonial Government

Purpose This paper aims to uncover the trajectory of the anti-corruption effort of the Hong Kong colonial Government by identifying its general approach of denial in the pre-War years. It highlights the path-dependence nature, as well as the path-creation logic of the policy process of anti-corruption reform and the anxiety of the colonial administration in maintaining trust of the local population in the post-War years. These insights should enhance the general understanding of the nature of colonial governance. Design/methodology/approach This paper is primarily based on archival materials available at the British National Archives and Hong Kong Public Records Office. Findings The paper intends to go before the “Great Man narrative” in explaining the success of the anti-corruption effort in colonial Hong Kong. Whilst the colonial government was fully aware of the endemic of corruption and the substantial involvement of European officers, she was still cocooned with the misguided belief that the core of the administration was mostly “incorruptible”. The Air Raid Precaution Department scandal in 1941 was, however, a powerful wake-up that rendered the denial and self-illusion no longer defensible. The policy ideas of the 1940s did shape the Prevention of Corruption Ordinance 1948 and other related reforms, yet they were not immediately translated into fundamental changes in the institutional set-up of the anti-graft campaign. The limitations of these half-hearted measures were fully exposed in the coming decades. The cumulative effects of the piecemeal anti-graft efforts of the colonial government over the first century of rule, however, did path the way for the “revolutionary” changes in the 1970s under Murray MacLehose. Originality/value This is a highly original piece based on under-explored archival materials. The findings should have a major contribution to the scholarship on the nature of colonial governance and the history of anti-corruption efforts of Hong Kong.

Connecting with the Local, or Not: The Song Emperor’s Terrace

2020 ◽  
pp. 89-119
Author(s):  
Helena Y.W. Wu
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Filial Piety ◽  
Cultural Icon ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
Imperial China ◽  
Late Nineteenth

By taking the Song Emperor’s Terrace as the main object of analysis, Chapter 4 takes a step into history. The Terrace was once a popular cultural icon, for that it was valorized as a rock that stood witness to the royal visit paid to Hong Kong by the last two Song emperors at the end of the Song Dynasty in the thirteenth century—because of this event, the terrace became an oft-cited chanting object among the émigré-literati who fled China to Hong Kong during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. To vent frustration at the loss of their home(land), nostalgia for ancient (Imperial) China and adherence to virtues such as loyalty and filial piety, the Terrace became a place of gathering for these literati in everyday life and an object that frequently appeared in their creative works, ranging from verses, calligraphy to paintings. With an eye to the special bond between the émigré-literati and the rock and David Der-wei Wang’s notion of “post-loyalism”, this chapter challenges the presumed collectivity of this literati community by unfolding their varying political aspirations, worldviews and connections to “Hong Kong” through the relationships they constructed with the rock.

Women Rulers in Imperial China

NAN Nü ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith McMahon
Keyword(s):  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Extreme Case ◽  
Han Dynasty ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
Women Rulers ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Imperial China

“Women Rulers in Imperial China”is about the history and characteristics of rule by women in China from the Han dynasty to the Qing, especially focusing on the Tang dynasty ruler Wu Zetian (625-705) and the Song dynasty Empress Liu. The usual reason that allowed a woman to rule was the illness, incapacity, or death of her emperor-husband and the extreme youth of his son the successor. In such situations, the precedent was for a woman to govern temporarily as regent and, when the heir apparent became old enough, hand power to him. But many women ruled without being recognized as regent, and many did not hand power to the son once he was old enough, or even if they did, still continued to exert power. In the most extreme case, Wu Zetian declared herself emperor of her own dynasty. She was the climax of the long history of women rulers. Women after her avoided being compared to her but retained many of her methods of legitimization, such as the patronage of art and religion, the use of cosmic titles and vocabulary, and occasional gestures of impersonating a male emperor. When women ruled, it was an in-between time when notions and language about something that was not supposed to be nevertheless took shape and tested the limits of what could be made acceptable.

scholarly journals The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 571-603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Gütschow ◽  
M. Louise Jeffery ◽  
Robert Gieseke ◽  
Ronja Gebel ◽  
David Stevens ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Time Series ◽  
Growth Rates ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Additional Time ◽  
Country Level ◽  
History Of ◽  
Different Sources

Abstract. To assess the history of greenhouse gas emissions and individual countries' contributions to emissions and climate change, detailed historical data are needed. We combine several published datasets to create a comprehensive set of emissions pathways for each country and Kyoto gas, covering the years 1850 to 2014 with yearly values, for all UNFCCC member states and most non-UNFCCC territories. The sectoral resolution is that of the main IPCC 1996 categories. Additional time series of CO2 are available for energy and industry subsectors. Country-resolved data are combined from different sources and supplemented using year-to-year growth rates from regionally resolved sources and numerical extrapolations to complete the dataset. Regional deforestation emissions are downscaled to country level using estimates of the deforested area obtained from potential vegetation and simulations of agricultural land. In this paper, we discuss the data sources and methods used and present the resulting dataset, including its limitations and uncertainties. The dataset is available from doi:10.5880/PIK.2016.003 and can be viewed on the website accompanying this paper (http://www.pik-potsdam.de/primap-live/primap-hist/).

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