Semi-Automating the Transformation of Chinese Historical Records Into Structured Biographical Data

2019 ◽  
pp. 228-246
Author(s):  
Lik Hang Tsui ◽  
Hongsu Wang
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Chinese Language ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
Important Process ◽  
Biographical Data ◽  
Chinese Studies ◽  
Latin Script ◽  
The Tang Dynasty

This chapter explores and analyzes the new methods that the China Biographical Database (CBDB) project team has developed and adopted to digitize reference works about Chinese history, which is part of the important process of turning them into structured biographical data. This workflow focuses on the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and has implications for the continued improvement in the technologies for digitization and research into historical biographies in the Chinese language. These explorations and outcomes also demonstrate attempts in the Chinese studies field to transform large amounts of texts in non-Latin script into structured biographical data in a semi-automated fashion, and are expected to benefit digital humanities research, especially initiatives focusing on the Asia-Pacific region.

scholarly journals Could phenological records from Chinese poems of the Tang and Song dynasties (618–1279 CE) be reliable evidence of past climate changes?

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 929-950
Author(s):  
Yachen Liu ◽  
Xiuqi Fang ◽  
Junhu Dai ◽  
Huanjiong Wang ◽  
Zexing Tao
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
Past Climate ◽  
Tang And Song Dynasties ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Past Climate Change ◽  
Phenological Records

Abstract. Phenological records in historical documents have been proven to be of unique value for reconstructing past climate changes. As a literary genre, poetry reached its peak in the Tang and Song dynasties (618–1279 CE) in China. Sources from this period could provide abundant phenological records in the absence of phenological observations. However, the reliability of phenological records from poems, as well as their processing methods, remains to be comprehensively summarized and discussed. In this paper, after introducing the certainties and uncertainties of phenological information in poems, the key processing steps and methods for deriving phenological records from poems and using them in past climate change studies are discussed: (1) two principles, namely the principle of conservatism and the principle of personal experience, should be followed to reduce uncertainties; (2) the phenological records in poems need to be filtered according to the types of poems, background information, rhetorical devices, spatial representations, and human influence; (3) animals and plants are identified at the species level according to their modern distributions and the sequences of different phenophases; (4) phenophases in poems are identified on the basis of modern observation criteria; (5) the dates and sites for the phenophases in poems are confirmed from background information and related studies. As a case study, 86 phenological records from poems of the Tang Dynasty in the Guanzhong region in China were extracted to reconstruct annual temperature anomalies in specific years in the period between 600 and 900 CE. Following this, the reconstruction from poems was compared with relevant reconstructions in published studies to demonstrate the validity and reliability of phenological records from poems in studies of past climate changes. This paper reveals that the phenological records from poems could be useful evidence of past climate changes after being scientifically processed. This could provide an important reference for future studies in this domain, in both principle and methodology, pursuant of extracting and applying phenological records from poems for larger areas and different periods in Chinese history.

The Other China Hunger: Part II

Worldview ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 43-48
Author(s):  
Miriam London ◽  
Ivan D. London
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
The Other ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Chinese Cities ◽  
The Tang Dynasty

It's nothing new in Chinese history to impress the foreigner for the sake of the country's face,” said a young escaper last year in Hong Kong, who by no means intended to denigrate his country. “When people from other countries came to the ancient capital of Ch'ang An in the Tang Dynasty, it was so gorgeously decorated, those foreigners were astounded….If the rulers today desire not to let foreigners see anyone wearing patched clothes, that can easily be arranged. And if they want to show foreigners trees in Peking with silk hanging from the branches, that is also possible.”Visitors from afar viewing today what B. Michael Frolic describes as “the peaceful blues and grays and whites of Chinese cities” would certainly smile at the thought of brocades waving in the breeze.

scholarly journals ORIGIN AND CULTURAL MEANING OF CHINESE CLASSICAL PAINTING

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyen Anh Thuc
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Language ◽  
Cultural Value ◽  
Chinese Art ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Cultural Meaning ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Chinese Studies ◽  
National University ◽  
The Relationship

Chinese classical art is an integral part of the course “An Introduction to Chinese Studies” for fourth-year students of the Faculty of Chinese Language and Culture, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. Therefore, in order to provide an overview and better understanding of Chinese history, people and culture in general as well as Chinese art in particular, this paper synthesizes and analyzes the relationship between Chinese classical art through all Chinese dynasties. Accordingly, the great cultural value of Chinese classical art will be highlighted. 

scholarly journals Interpreters and the Writing of History in China

2009 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Lung
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
Ancient China ◽  
Historical Texts ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Liang Dynasty ◽  
Historical Accounts ◽  
Made In

Abstract This article argues that interpreters are crucial figures in the recording of history. Evidence taken from historical texts in ancient China is used to verify the claim that interpreters’ notes might have been used as a reference in composing historical records. By documenting the Tang dynasty (AD 618-907) policy to have interpreters interview foreign envoys and submit the relevant accounts to the Bureau of Historiography, this article provides background for the link between interpreters’ interview notes and history compilation in China. Evidence is further drawn from the history of the Sui dynasty (AD 581-618), whereby an interpreter’s mediated account of the emperor’s conversation with a Japanese envoy was directly adapted. Most interestingly, pictorial and written documents of foreign peoples made in the mid-6th century during the Liang dynasty (AD 502-557) were found to be very similar to the written accounts about these foreign peoples in Liangshu, the history of the Liang dynasty, completed in the early 7th century. Apparently, there is a solid link between the interview accounts and historical accounts about foreign peoples in China. Thus, there is a strong possibility that interpreters’ notes, in the form of reports, provide important, if not primary, sources for history compilation in China.

scholarly journals The Representation of Military Troops in Pingcheng Tombs and the Private Household Institution of Buqu in Practice

Asian Studies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-243
Author(s):  
Chin-Yin Tseng
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Institution ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Life After Death ◽  
Point Of Interest ◽  
Mural Paintings ◽  
Archaeological Materials ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Northern Wei

In Northern Wei tombs of the Pingcheng period (398–494 CE), we notice a recurrence of the depiction of armed men in both mural paintings and tomb figurines, not in combat but positioned in formation. Consisting of infantry soldiers alongside light and heavy cavalry accompanied by flag bearers, such a military scene presents itself as a point of interest amidst the rest of the funerary setting. Is this supposed to be an indication that the tomb occupant had indeed commanded such an impressive set of troops in life? Or had the families commissioned this theme as part of the tomb repertoire simply in hopes of providing protection over the deceased in their life after death? If we set the examination of this type of image against textual history, the household institution of buqu retainers that began as early as the Xin (“New”) Dynasty (9–23 CE) and was codified in the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE), serving as private retainer corps of armed men to powerful families, appears to be the type of social institution reified in the archaeological materials mentioned above. The large-scale appearance of these military troops inside Pingcheng period tombs might even suggest that with the “tribal policy” in place, the Han Chinese practice of keeping buqu retainers became a convenient method for the Tuoba to manage recently conquered tribal confederations, shifting clan loyalty based on bloodline to household loyalty based on the buqu institution, one with a long social tradition in Chinese history.  

scholarly journals Apologeticism in Chinese Nestorian Documents from the Tang Dynasty: Notes on Some Early Traces of Aristotelianism in China

Asian Studies ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-70
Author(s):  
Jan VRHOVSKI
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Chinese Language ◽  
Early Period ◽  
The Other ◽  
Christianity In China ◽  
Concurrent Transmission ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
The One

Founded on the fact of otherwise deep connections of Nestorianism to the Aristotelian philosophy, this article hopes to shed some light on the possibility of a concurrent transmission of Aristotelianism (with Nestorianism) to China. This writing proposes that the transmission already took place during the early period of the presence of this form of Christianity in China. Taking a brief look into some representative writings about the Nestorian doctrine written in the Chinese language, this writing hopes to establish some modest, though still relevant, connections between Aristotelian concepts on the one hand, and some fragments of the mentioned Chinese writings on the other.    

Translation officials of the Tang central government in medieval China

Interpreting ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Lung
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
The Past ◽  
Medieval China ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Job Duties

The article documents and differentiates two kinds of translation officials in the central government of the Tang dynasty (618–906 AD) in medieval China: translators in the Court of Diplomatic Reception (Yiyu 譯語) and translators in the Secretariat (Fanshu Yiyu 蕃書譯語). The distinction between them is essential because they are often mentioned in the scholarly literature indiscriminately. Given the scarcity of historical records and the absence of focused discussions about translators in Tang times, their differences were usually either toned down as minimal or misinterpreted by modern scholarship over the past decade. Although some researchers have recently made reference to the two translator titles and agreed that their translation and interpreting duties were somewhat different, the nature of these differences has not been clearly established. Analysis of standard historical records suggests that, in fact, these two types of translators had distinct job duties. Translators in the Court of Diplomatic Reception interpreted primarily for foreign envoys, while the Secretariat’s translators chiefly translated state letters from foreign envoys. This article presents evidence to substantiate this observation and explain why such an apparently straightforward categorization has not been put forward thus far.

The Baima Tibetans and the Di People of Chinese Historical Records: Challenging the Link

2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-174
Author(s):  
Katia Chirkova
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Chinese Character ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
Western Sichuan ◽  
Loan Words ◽  
Historical Texts ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
Popular View ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
The Ancient Chinese

This paper addresses a long-standing controversy surrounding the ethnicity of the Baima Tibetans, a Tibeto-Burman people in Western Sichuan Province whose ethnic and linguistic origins are yet to be satisfactorily ascertained. It focuses on one popular view, which attempts to link the present-day Baima Tibetans with the Di, an ancient Tibeto-Burman group documented in the Chinese historical records who inhabited roughly the same area until their gradual assimilation into the Han and the Tibetans during the Tang Dynasty. The paper examines and refutes all three types of evidence proffered in the literature in support of making such a link: geographical distribution, cultures and customs, and language. Focusing on the linguistic evidence, including autonyms and certain names of the Di contained in the historical texts, and two alleged Di loan words recorded in the ancient Chinese character dictionary 《說文解字》 , the paper makes use of first-hand fieldwork material to bear on the issue. It concludes that it is immature to say anything definite about the identity of the mysterious Di language or languages, let alone to directly link them with the speech of the modern Baima people, which is predominantly a Bodic language.

scholarly journals Tang Dynasty Aesthetic Criteria: Zhang Huaiguan’s Shuduan

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 148-169
Author(s):  
Yolaine Escande
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Aesthetic Theory ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
European Tradition ◽  
The Tang Dynasty

The Shuduan 《書斷》 (Judgments on Calligraphers) by Zhang Huaiguan of the Tang dynasty comprises classifications of calligraphy that Chinese theoreticians still refer to. This article aims at considering the functioning and efficacy of such evaluations through a study comparing this work to other treatises and, when relevant, to the European tradition. Its main objective is to examine how Chinese aesthetic theory responded to new evaluative needs that appeared during this crucial period in Chinese history. Thus, it seeks to clarify the nature of the criteria adopted by Zhang Huaiguan for his gradings: are they material, ideological, aesthetic, or of another nature?

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

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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