Assessing the evolution of oases in arid regions by reconstructing their historic spatio-temporal distribution: a case study of the Heihe River Basin, China

Environmental and social factors influencing the spatiotemporal variation of archaeological sites during the historical period in the Heihe River basin, northwest China

To clearly analyze the pharmacological actions of Moutan Radicis Cortex (MRC), we carried out literature review. We selected major herbal books of Qin (秦), Han (漢), Tang (唐), Song (宋), Jin (金), Yuan (元), Ming (明) and Qing (淸) dynasty, and analyzed the efficacy and the main treatments. In Qin and Han Dynasty, MRC was used to disperse blood stasis without application of the deficiency (虛) and excess (實). In Tang-Song Dynasty, although the range of application was expanded but application of the deficiency (虛) and excess (實) was the same as previous dynasty. By the Jin-Yuan Dynasty, the deficiency and excess were applicated but its pharmacological actions was not cleary established. Widely recognized mechanism of MRC for removing pathogenic heat from the blood (凉血) and dispersing blood stasis (散瘀) nowadays was deeply discussed from the Ming Dynasty and established in the Qing Dynasty.

This text is intended to analyze the theme of the understanding and discussion of the life and death of the adherents during the transition period of Ming and Qing Dynasties. For the adherents remained by the former Dynasty, the most realistic concerns might be their identity, which was the reason to understand and make decision on living style. Questioning about survival as ‘Who am I ?’ was just authentication for the identity of the adherents and also was being testified with their social and moral role in the atmosphere being ruled by an alien race. Therefore, discussion on the identity of private and adherents, survival style and the view of life and death in the period of dynastic transformation between Chinese and alien race, i.e., the change between Ming and Qing Dynasty, become an important issue. The dominant view of the life and death of the adherents in the period of change of Ming and Qing dynasty was the Righteousness of Kings and Ministers which attaches importance to monarch-subject relationship. The central idea is dying for the sake of honor as ‘downfall of the ruler and the downfall of the ministers.’ On the other hand, the phenomenon of adherents fleeing to Zen Buddhism is prevalent in the period of change of Qing and Ming Dynasty, which became one of major survival ways. With reference to ‘downfall of the ruler and the downfall of the ministers’, the adherents who selected to flee to Zen Buddhism became those ‘should die but not died’. Their survival was difficult to receive legal recognition socially. Then, such issues as that, is the Righteousness of Kings and Ministers could be the moral standards and absolute value which could determine the life and death and the living issues with the adherents, how the privates and adherents at the end of Ming dynasty understood the life and death, and how the value of death and living could be assessed, with what standards, and so on, would be subjected. With such understanding, this text will make an analysis on the view of life and death of the adherents in the period of change of Ming and Qing dynasty. The analysis will be made on the development of discussion of life and death, recognition whereof, and the meaning of the view of life and death, with the proposition as ‘Must die’, ‘Not must die and Confucian orthodoxy which were major arguments on life and death at the end of Ming dynasty, and with two axes as Death and Flee to Zen Buddhism set up. Through such analysis, that is to analyze the recognition and meaning on the life and death of the adherents facing the crisis of death, this text is desired to present a balanced understanding on the view of life and death in the period of change of Ming and Qing dynasty.

Oases are the core carriers of societal development in arid regions, and their spatial patterns have changed significantly, driven by climate change and anthropogenic activities. This study integrates historical documents, archeological materials, maps, and remote sensing data. The changes in the temperature, precipitation, settlements, war frequency, and oasis area were identified by combining quantitative and qualitative methods, and the partial least squares path model (PLS-PM) was utilized to quantify the natural and human driving factors. The results show that the oasis development in the Tarim and Heihe River Basins exhibits distinct spatio-temporal variability and phased characteristics and is comprehensively shaped by both natural and anthropogenic drivers. The Tarim Basin’s natural oases demonstrate a “fluctuating recovery” pattern. The cultivated oases gradually expanded. The natural oases within the Heihe River Basin have persistently decreased, and cultivated oases show a “U”-shaped evolution pattern. This reflects the strong intervention of human reclamation in the cultivated oases. The introverted social ecosystem has endowed the Tarim River Basin with the ability to self-repair and achieve a periodic recovery. The Heihe River Basin serves as a strategic corridor for national external engagement, relying on regime stability. A regime collapse led to its lack of a stable recovery period. The PLS-PM reveals that the Tarim River Basin oasis evolution is predominantly driven by climate fluctuations. The path coefficient of natural factors for artificial oases is 0.63, and extreme drought leads to natural oasis contraction. The human influence dominates the Heihe River Basin, with a −0.93 path coefficient linking the cultivated oasis area to human factors. The frequency of wars (load 0.74) and changes in settlements (load −0.92) are the key factors. This study provides a powerful case for the analysis of the evolution and driving mechanism of future oases in drylands.

Managing stakeholders' conflicts for water reallocation from agriculture to industry in the Heihe River Basin in Northwest China

This research explores the spatial distribution patterns of water engineering facilities along the Grand Canal during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It employs the entropy method to assess the social development status of prefectures during these periods and uses the Tobit model to examine the primary indicators influencing the distribution of water engineering facilities. The results show that the spatial distribution pattern of water engineering facilities was characterized by aggregation during the Ming and Qing dynasties. In contrast, the Qing dynasty’s distribution was more dispersed, with a shift in the construction focus of water engineering facilities towards the south. The spatial distribution pattern of water engineering facilities in the Ming Dynasty centered around the hotspot areas of Shuntian Prefecture, Yanzhou Prefecture, and Yangzhou Prefecture. During continuous improvements, these facilities exhibited a multi-point-regional aggregation phenomenon.The influence of commercial development indicator on the spatial distribution of water engineering facilities is positively correlated in both the Ming and Qing dynasties. However, the impacts of the indicator on different types of water engineering facilities vary between the two dynasties. During the Ming Dynasty, the indicators of transportation accessibility and cultural prosperity facilitated the construction of regional water engineering facilities, whereas in the Qing Dynasty, they significantly influenced several types of water engineering facilities. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, neither the agricultural development indicator nor the population size indicator significantly affected the distribution of water engineering facilities. However, there was a negative correlation between the population size indicator and the distribution of water distribution facilities in the Ming Dynasty. This study enhances the importance of environmental protection in historical societies and provides a valuable reference for other international studies of linear cultural and material heritage.

An integrative socio-hydrological resilience assessment and management implications for oasis sustainability in arid regions, Northwest China

Exploration of the Relationship between Geographical Environment and Human Diseases in Ancient China

The water resources of inland watershed in arid region are formed in the mountainous area,the upper reaches,utilized and consumed mostly in the oasis for agricultural irrigation in the middle reaches,and exhausted in the desert area for the natural river and terminal lake ecosystem sustaining in the lower reaches.Due to the characteristics of the hydrological cycle in the watershed,the water regime can be divided into water-yield area,water-consume area and water-formed area in the upper,middle and lower reaches,respectively.These basic natural features determined and controlled the water regime process in the inland watershed in temporal-spatial scale.The water regime process and its driving mechanism on the varied temporal-spatial scales in the mountain area of upstream,oasis of middle stream and desert area of down stream in the Heihe river basin,which was the representative inland watershed in the arid regions in northwest China,was studied and summarized based on many scholars' works of the last decades.By comparing to the varied proxies of the ancient environmental changes,the result showed that the water regime process presented similar trend in the special period on large scales in the upstream and downstream area,while the temporal-spatial heterogeneity on small scales.To the driving mechanisms,the effects of the climate change and human activity on the water regime process in the upper,middle and lower reaches of the Heihe river was in different weightiness.And the two factors presented the coupling model in different temporal scales.In the nearest future,it needs more works in the water regime process on basin scale as follow:(1)to reconstruct the water regime process in the water-yield area systematically by the ice core and tree-ring record,especially in the area in the west upper branch of the Heihe river due to its water contributions to the lower reaches before 1940's.(2)to pay more attention to the oasis evolution in the middle reaches that was driven by the government policies,population changes,agricultural technique development and its related population capacity changes of the water resources and climate changes.(3)to understand deeply the relationships between the water resources and the natural oasis changes based on the study of the environment changes in the period of the last 500 years and recent 50 years which was the increasing and maximum periods of the human activities.

The Little Ice Age (LIA) during the Ming and Qing dynasties was the most abnormal climate event in China for nearly 2,000 years. During this period, the climate was relatively cold and various natural disasters frequently took place. By locating and compiling related historical documents, we aimed to quantitatively and systematically analyze the spatial–temporal variations in the natural disasters in the ancient Huizhou region (hereinafter referred to as Huizhou region or Huizhou) during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368–1911; all dates are in AD, unless otherwise mentioned). The results show that (1) flood and drought disasters, the major types of disasters in this area during the Ming and Qing dynasties, occurred 422 times, accounting for 79.6% of the natural disasters, (2) there was a significant correlation of occurrence frequency of flood plus drought disasters and the total natural disasters on a certain time scale. In addition to flood and drought disasters, other disasters (hailstorms, windstorms, frosts, and earthquakes) occurred more frequently in the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) than in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). The occurrence frequency of natural disasters had a fluctuant variation pattern over time, with peaks emerging about once a century. The peaks of natural disasters were mainly concentrated at 1471–1490, 1571–1590, 1671–1690, 1751–1770, and 1851–1870, which is supported by the wavelet analysis, (3) the most frequent natural disasters took place in Wuyuan, followed by Jixi, Shexian, Xiuning, Qimen, and Yixian. More droughts occurred in Jixi and Yixian, while more floods occurred in Wuyuan, Shexian, and Qimen, more hailstorms occurred in Wuyuan and Jixi, more frost disasters occurred in Wuyuan, Jixi, and Qimen, and more earthquakes occurred in Wuyuan and Jixi. The occurrence frequency of wind disasters was not high in any of the counties, (4) flood and drought disasters in the Huizhou region exhibited obvious stage characteristics during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and they changed gradually from droughts to floods, among which the transition from slight drought to slight flooding was the most obvious during 1811–1911, and (5) overall, slight flooding and slight drought situations accounted for the largest percentage of drought and flood disasters in this area during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Among these, slight flooding mainly occurred in Shexian and Qimen; severe flooding mainly occurred in Wuyuan; slight drought mainly occurred in Yixian; and severe drought mainly occurred in Jixi.

Understanding the oasis evolution process is one of the most important theses in arid regions, which could provide correlative theories for oasis exploitation. Currently, the researches implemented by a single method of document analysis with invisible results restricted the vision. By integrating and synthesizing records from historical documents, satellite images, local chronicles and maps, the spatial-temporal variability of oasification for nearly 600 years (1368–1949 AD) in the middle-Heihe River basin in western China was reconstructed. The conclusions are as follows: first, the oasis area in the five main periods, namely, the Early Ming, the Late Ming, the Early Qing, the Late Qing, and the Republic of China were 964, 840, 1205, 932 and 1917 km2, respectively. Second, the oasis expanded during the Early Ming and Early Qing Dynasties as well as the Republic of China, whereas the intervenient periods namely, the Late Ming and Late Qing Dynasties shrunk. Third, the cultivated oasis sprawled out from the existing settlements established in the early Ming to surroundings, and the main sprawling period occurred in the early Qing in the downstream of the Taolai River, whereas the other oasis expansion appeared in the intermediate area of existing oases. It is indicated that the oasis distribution was restricted by the distribution of water resources and the oasification process is the result of climate change, political situation and policy as well as changes of population. The oasification process shows the active and adverse effects. The results describe a range of oasis conditions from 1368 to 1949 and provide a historical framework for measuring associated changes in ecosystems, which can be used to guide restoration where feasible and desirable.

In the field of the pictorial decoration of Chinese architecture, the decor of the period of the Ming and Qing dynasties is considered the most outstanding since, at that time, the technique was perfect, and the methods of decoration were rich in their diversity, which was not possible in previous eras. The polychrome painting of official buildings during the Ming and Qing dynasties’ reign is quite different from the Song dynasty’s polychrome painting. The transition from the Song dynasty’s polychrome painting to the Ming and Qing dynasties’ polychrome painting was completed during the Yuan dynasty’s reign. Due to the decrease of dougong in size in the Ming dynasty, polychrome painting began to be placed on beams. Xuanzi polychrome painting, which originated from painting beams under the Yuan dynasty, became the primary type. By the Qing dynasty, Hexi polychrome painting and Suzhou polychrome painting, which evolved from the folk polychrome painting of the Jiangnan region of the Ming dynasty, appeared. The Xuanzi type was one of the three main polychrome painting types in the Qing dynasty. It was fully developed compared to the Hexi type as it was used more widely. The article explains the development of the artistic features of the various decorative parts of Xuanzi polychrome painting during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the characteristics of each gradation, and the method of distinguishing it, as well as its place of application.

Human settlement and its influencing factors during the historical period in an oasis-desert transition zone of Dunhuang, Hexi Corridor, northwest China

Originated from the Han dynasties, local Chronicles writing experienced a long process of development from geography books and maps to fang local Chronicles in Song and Yuan dynasties. The classic of the Ming and Qing dynasties has become a place that covers many aspects of regional politics, economy and culture. When studying local Chronicles of Fuxian County in Ming and Qing dynasties, the customs and historical materials in local Chronicles of Ming and Qing dynasties are quite remarkable. From the perspective of folkloric literature, the folkloric data in local Chronicles are complicated and complicated, and on the whole, there are different versions of local Chronicles in the same region, which are unable to reconstruct the origin of folk customs. From the perspective of the view of customs, the historical documents of customs in the local records of Ming and Qing dynasties should not only be limited to the local records of customs, but also should be studied on the records of art and literature, characters, etc., so as to comprehensively grasp the customs of the local records of Ming and Qing dynasties.

As a way of finding out how the scholars in Ming and Ching Dynasties evaluated the poems made in Han Dynasty, 4 collection books of ancient poems such as "Gosigi","Chaesukdanggosiseon","Gisiwon" and "Gosisangseok" were selected for the comparative analysis of the poems made in Han Dynasty. These 4 collection books are something in common as they are the books of the old poems complied by the type of poems and that they have the same selection range. As for the ratio of poems made in Han Dynasty among the total poems collected in 4 collection books, the poems made in Han Dynasty take up about 5.4% in Gosigi, and about 18% in Gosiwon. They take up as high as 15% in Gosisangseok, thus showing that the poems made in Han Dynasty were highly evaluated. As for the layout, in case of Chaesukdanggosiseon, the poems made in Han Dynasty are put in the front section of the collection books, unlike the layout made in other 3 collection books. The poems made in Han Dynasty in 4 collection books of ancient poems were made in the list and, based on them, the characteristics of the poems made in Han Dynasty can be summarized as follows. First, in Gosigi, Gosiwon and Gosisangseok, the poems whose authors are known are put in front section of the books, followed by the poems made by minganakbu and those whose authors are unknown while in Chaesukdanggosiseon, the poems made by minganakbu were put in the front section of the books. Second, as for the ratio of minganakbu among the poems made in Han Dynasty in each collection books, it was high with 40.3% for Gosigi and 46.3% for Gosisangseok while it was the lowest with 36% in Gosiwon, thus showing the different evaluation for minganakbu. In addition, as for the type of minganakbu, there was no jipgayosa in Chaesukdanggosiseon, thus showing that there have been the different perspectives over the type of minganakbu. Third, the fact that 65 poems which were made in Han Dynasty as acquired from the joint list of 4 collection books show that they are still highly appreciated even in the collection of books of poems made in Ming and Ching Dynasties.