Chemical studies of Chinese coinage II: from Qin to Yuan (221 BCE–1368 CE)

AbstractThis paper surveys of the chemical composition of the copper alloy coinage in China from the Qin Dynasty to the end of the Yuan Dynasty (221 BCE–1368 CE). It shows a dramatic change in the alloying practice used to cast these coins from the Qin unification (after 221 BCE), compared to that practiced in the pre-Qin. There are a number of shifts in the quality of the coinage from dynasty to dynasty, such as the obvious debasement of the Southern Song coinage (1127–1279 CE) when compared to that of the previous Northern Song dynasty (960–1127 CE). Particular attention is paid to the low levels of zinc in the coinage over the period. Although not as obvious as the switch to brass coinage in the Ming, certain periods do show occasional values of zinc up to 2–4%, which we suggest could reflect the sporadic input of recycled brass (Cu–Zn alloy) into the raw material melt. There were several major suppressions of Buddhism during this period, when Buddhist brass statuary was recycled into the coinage, providing a plausible mechanism for the injection of small quantities of zinc into the coinage alloy. A diachronic study of the amounts of iron in the metal, taken to indicate changes to the manufacturing process of copper, also show changes over time. The median levels of iron jump from the Qin (221–206 BCE) to the Western Han (206 BCE–9 CE), possibly reflecting the adoption of slagging processes in the production of the copper, followed by a gradual decline to the Northern Song (960–1127 CE), and a rapid increase during the Southern Song (1127–1279 CE). Finally, a study of changes in the content of silver over time reveals differences in the sources of lead, or changes in lead and silver extraction technologies, over the period.

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Stages of Decline

The Medieval History Journal ◽

10.1177/0971945814545007 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 17 (2) ◽

pp. 337-378

Author(s):

Ari Daniel Levine

Keyword(s):

Cultural Memory ◽

Song Dynasty ◽

The Past ◽

Southern Song ◽

Counter Narratives ◽

Social Trauma ◽

Imperial Court ◽

Northern Song ◽

Historical Fact ◽

The City

After the fall of the Northern Song [Formula: see text] (960–1127) capital of Kaifeng [Formula: see text] to Jurchen invaders in 1127, diasporic literati of the Southern Song dynasty [Formula: see text] (1127–1279) recreated and revisited its lost sites through textual commemoration, especially in memorabilia literature (biji [Formula: see text], lit. ‘brush notes’). As knowledge of the city passed from communicative memory into cultural memory, its decline and destruction became the focus of nostalgia and indignation for Yue Ke [Formula: see text] (1183–1234), the author of the Pillar Histories (Ting shi [Formula: see text]), a collection of counter-narratives of Northern Song history that expressed the shared experience of social trauma induced by dynastic collapse. Disconnected from their spatial context and even from historical fact, the city’s memory sites became stages for amoralistic declension narrative, in which the city’s destruction and occupation was assumed to have been instigated by the decadence of the imperial court of the passive Emperor Huizong [Formula: see text] (r. 1100–26) and his ‘nefarious ministers’. The most colourful elements of Yue’s ludic and fantastical narratives became the focus of his indignation, which encouraged his readers to denounce the traitors who had betrayed the empire by inviting the Jurchen invasion. In the Pillar Histories, Yue deployed textual imaginaries of nostalgia as forms of resistance by re-contesting the past events that led to dynastic collapse. By reconstructing the city in the cultural memory of his fellow diasporic literati, Yue was creating a vision of an ideal political, cultural and moral community that once existed at the dynasty’s inception, and might be reconstituted in the future, if and when Song subjects recaptured their lost homeland.

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Redefining Good Government: Shifting Paradigms in Song Dynasty (960-1279) Discourse on "Fengjian"

T oung Pao ◽

10.1163/156853211x604125 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 97 (4-5) ◽

pp. 301-343 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Jaeyoon Song

Keyword(s):

Song Dynasty ◽

The Song Dynasty ◽

Southern Song ◽

Good Government ◽

Northern Song ◽

Constitutional Discourse

AbstractThis article describes changing political visions of the Chinese literati during the two halves of the Song dynasty, as reflected in their discourse on the fengjian (classical enfeoffment) system of antiquity. In the aftermath of the An Lushan rebellion (755-763), a group of political thinkers criticized that system as an ungrounded historical anachronism. This idea gained currency among a majority of the Northern Song statesmen and literati who supported the centralization project of the founding emperors. With the fall of the Northern Song, the ancient fengjian doctrine resurfaced as a sustained constitutional discourse on government. Contesting the imperial vision of centralization and interventionism, Southern Song literati redefined good government for their time.

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Medieval Chinese rules of writing and their relevance today

Australian Review of Applied Linguistics ◽

10.1075/aral.27.1.01kir ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 1-14

Author(s):

Andy Kirkpatrick

Keyword(s):

International Students ◽

Academic Writing ◽

Song Dynasty ◽

Rhetoric And Composition ◽

Systematic Account ◽

Rhetorical Devices ◽

Southern Song ◽

Chinese Rhetoric ◽

Chinese Scholars ◽

Over Time

Abstract Chen Kui was a scholar-official of the Southern Song dynasty. He published the Wen Ze (here translated as The Rules of Writing) in 1170. This book is commonly described by Chinese scholars as China’s first systematic account of Chinese rhetoric. The book comprises ten chapters, covering aspects of rhetoric and composition, including the use of rhetorical devices, the functions and methods of citation, and the importance of using everyday language. Despite its acknowledged importance by Chinese scholars, The Rules of Writing’ remains comparatively unknown, even within China. This article will focus on three topics discussed by Chen Kui that I hope will be of interest to applied linguists and to teachers of academic writing, especially those involved in the teaching of academic discourse to international students of Chinese background. The three topics are: the appropriate use of language; the sequencing of argument when writing discursive texts; and the methods and uses of citation. It will be argued that writing styles are a product of the age in which they develop, and that these styles change significantly over time, no matter in which culture they may be set. Principles of Chinese rhetoric as discussed here have their counterparts in other rhetorics. They are not uniquely Chinese.

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General Overview: The Influence of ‘the Ancestors’ Instructions’ on Song Dynasty Politics—From the Middle of the Northern Song to the Late Southern Song

10.1163/9789004473270_008 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 505-620

Keyword(s):

Song Dynasty ◽

General Overview ◽

Southern Song ◽

Northern Song

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Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Course of History Since Middle Antiquity

Journal of Chinese Humanities ◽

10.1163/23521341-01010006 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 88-119

Author(s):

Li Zhi’an

Keyword(s):

Song Dynasty ◽

Tang Dynasty ◽

Chinese History ◽

Southern Song ◽

The North ◽

Before And After ◽

The Tang Dynasty ◽

The Yuan Dynasty ◽

Southern Dynasties ◽

Southern Institutions

Abstract Two periods in Chinese history can be characterized as constituting a North/South polarization: the period commonly known as the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420ad-589ad), and the Southern Song, Jin, and Yuan Dynasties (1115ad-1368ad). Both of these periods exhibited sharp contrasts between the North and South that can be seen in their respective political and economic institutions. The North/South parity in both of these periods had a great impact on the course of Chinese history. Both before and after the much studied Tang-Song transformation, Chinese history evolved as a conjoining of previously separate North/South institutions. Once the country achieved unification under the Sui Dynasty and early part of the Tang, the trend was to carry on the Northern institutions in the form of political and economic administration. Later in the Tang Dynasty the Northern institutions and practices gave way to the increasing implementation of the Southern institutions across the country. During the Song Dynasty, the Song court initially inherited this “Southernization” trend while the minority kingdoms of Liao, Xia, Jin, and Yuan primarily inherited the Northern practices. After coexisting for a time, the Yuan Dynasty and early Ming saw the eventual dominance of the Southern institutions, while in middle to late Ming the Northern practices reasserted themselves and became the norm. An analysis of these two periods of North/South disparity will demonstrate how these differences came about and how this constant divergence-convergence influenced Chinese history.

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Retinal Thickness Changes Over Time in a Murine AD Model APPNL-F/NL-F

Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnagi.2020.625642 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Elena Salobrar-García ◽

Inés López-Cuenca ◽

Lídia Sánchez-Puebla ◽

Rosa de Hoz ◽

José A. Fernández-Albarral ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Retinal Thickness ◽

Global Analysis ◽

Wild Type ◽

Fiber Layer ◽

Rnfl Thickness ◽

Diachronic Study ◽

The Mean ◽

Changes Over Time ◽

Over Time ◽

Sd Oct

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) may present retinal changes before brain pathology, suggesting the retina as an accessible biomarker of AD. The present work is a diachronic study using spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) to determine the total retinal thickness and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness in an APPNL−F/NL−F mouse model of AD at 6, 9, 12, 15, 17, and 20 months old compared to wild type (WT) animals.Methods: Total retinal thickness and RNFL thickness were determined. The mean total retinal thickness was analyzed following the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study sectors. RNFL was measured in six sectors of axonal ring scans around the optic nerve.Results: In the APPNL−F/NL−F group compared to WT animals, the total retinal thickness changes observed were the following: (i) At 6-months-old, a significant thinning in the outer temporal sector was observed; (ii) at 15-months-old a significant thinning in the inner temporal and in the inner and outer inferior retinal sectors was noticed; (iii) at 17-months-old, a significant thickening in the inferior and nasal sectors was found in both inner and outer rings; and (iv) at 20-months-old, a significant thinning in the inner ring of nasal, temporal, and inferior retina and in the outer ring of superior and temporal retina was seen. In RNFL thickness, there was significant thinning in the global analysis and in nasal and inner-temporal sectors at 6 months old. Thinning was also found in the supero-temporal and nasal sectors and global value at 20 months old.Conclusions: In the APPNL−F/NL−F AD model, the retinal thickness showed thinning, possibly produced by neurodegeneration alternating with thickening caused by deposits and neuroinflammation in some areas of the retina. These changes over time are similar to those observed in the human retina and could be a biomarker for AD. The APPNL−F/NL−F AD model may help us better understand the different retinal changes during the progression of AD.

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Comparison of two devices for measuring exercise transcutaneous oxygen pressures in patients with claudication

VASA ◽

10.1024/0301-1526/a000454 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 44 (5) ◽

pp. 355-362 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Marie Urban ◽

Alban Fouasson-Chailloux ◽

Isabelle Signolet ◽

Christophe Colas Ribas ◽

Mathieu Feuilloy ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Oxygen Pressure ◽

Optical Sensors ◽

Chemical Sensors ◽

Transcutaneous Oxygen ◽

Starting Values ◽

Two Systems ◽

Transcutaneous Oxygen Pressure ◽

New Sensors ◽

Changes Over Time ◽

Over Time

Abstract. Summary: Background: We aimed at estimating the agreement between the Medicap® (photo-optical) and Radiometer® (electro-chemical) sensors during exercise transcutaneous oxygen pressure (tcpO2) tests. Our hypothesis was that although absolute starting values (tcpO2rest: mean over 2 minutes) might be different, tcpO2-changes over time and the minimal value of the decrease from rest of oxygen pressure (DROPmin) results at exercise shall be concordant between the two systems. Patients and methods: Forty seven patients with arterial claudication (65 + / - 7 years) performed a treadmill test with 5 probes each of the electro-chemical and photo-optical devices simultaneously, one of each system on the chest, on each buttock and on each calf. Results: Seventeen Medicap® probes disconnected during the tests. tcpO2rest and DROPmin values were higher with Medicap® than with Radiometer®, by 13.7 + / - 17.1 mm Hg and 3.4 + / - 11.7 mm Hg, respectively. Despite the differences in absolute starting values, changes over time were similar between the two systems. The concordance between the two systems was approximately 70 % for classification of test results from DROPmin. Conclusions: Photo-optical sensors are promising alternatives to electro-chemical sensors for exercise oximetry, provided that miniaturisation and weight reduction of the new sensors are possible.

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