People Called Asiatic or Nubian in Middle Kingdom Written Sources: A Comparison

The Enigma of the Hyksos, Volume 1: ASOR Conference Boston 2017—ICAANE Conference Munich 2018—Collected Papers

Preface: A Regional and Global Symbolic Proclamation Foreword: Holding Up More Than Half the Asian Sky 1. Introduction: Marketing 'Brand China': Maintaining the Momentum - 'The Middle Kingdom' Resurgent and Resplendent Part One: Chinese Motives: Realism, Rivalries and 'Reassertion' 2. People's Daily: An Evolutionary Narrative on Asia in Its Coverage of the Asian Games 3. The Pursuit of Regional Geopolitical Aspirations: China's Bids for the Asian Games and the Asian Winter Games since the 1980s 4. Strict Compliance!: Chinese Careful Conformity and the Guangzhou Bid for the Asian Games 5. 'Glittering Guangzhou': The 2010 Asian Games - Local Rivalries, National Motives, Geopolitical Gestures 6. Chinese Desires? Olympism and Dominance, Guangzhou and Missed Opportunity, Major Leagues and Isolation on the Pacific Rim Part Two: Pacific Rim Reactions and Responses 7. Guangzhou 2010: Eastern Orwellian Echoes - Yang Shu-chun and a Taiwanese Patriotic Media Offensive 8. From Honeymoon to Divorce: Fragmenting Relations between China and South Korea in Politics, Economics - and Sport 9. Rivalries: China, Japan and South Korea - Memory, Modernity, Politics, Geopolitics - and Sport 10. Guangzhou 2010: Singapore at a Global Crossroads 11. Guangzhou: The Asian Games and the Chinese 'Gold-Fest' - Geopolitical Issues for Australia Part Three: The Pacific Rim and Beyond: Confrontation and Cooperation 12. The Asian Games and Diplomacy in Asia: Korea - China - Russia

The purpose of this article is to explore ‚Security’ as a policy tool in the Republic of China. Defense policy of the ‚Middle Kingdom’ [China] is an inseparable element of China’s foreign policy. Increased spending on militarization raises questions about the intentions of China’s foreign policy. It is worth noting that the ‚Middle Kingdom’ belongs to the group of world powers military, but China’s foreign policy largely determines its political and military force in the world and in the macro-region of the state of China. The limited communications and lack of mutual understanding of reality between Beijing and the United States cause unreasonable security concerns. On the basis of the content analyzed herein, one can conclude that the ‚Middle Kingdom’ strives to to become a superpower while increasing its army. The ambition for further militarization stems from a desire to gain greater prestige in the international arena and to ensure internal security and economic development.

Although mummification is assumed to have been a common practice during the mid-late Middle Kingdom, there are no confirmed examples of so-called “embalming deposits” – intentional deposits of waste created during the mummification process – from cemeteries of this period. The only Middle Kingdom deposits of this type date to the early Middle Kingdom and come from the Theban necropolis. This paper examines the archaeology of a hitherto overlooked group of intentional cemetery deposits from the mid-late Middle Kingdom and explores the possibility that the deposits might represent an alternative tradition of embalming or deposition of embalming waste.

A small corpus of Gebel el-Girgawi inscriptions dated to the Middle Kingdom shows that the beginnings of the Daybook tradition may be placed as early as the First Intermediate Period. Grammatical constructions pertaining to the Daybook style are evidenced in expeditionary and military inscriptions as well as in other types of record keeping, and the presence of such constructions in these seemingly short and insignificant private rock inscriptions may in fact reflect the monumentalization of the diaries of private individuals. Examination of these Gebel el-Girgawi inscriptions also add to the study of benediction/malediction formulae in personal inscriptions outside of the mortuary realm. The use of malediction formula in these inscriptions provides important evidence for the evolution of the malediction/benediction formulae in a non-mortuary context: from its first applications in military and expeditionary graffiti, to its incorporation in royal boundary stelae of the Middle and New Kingdoms.

This chapter looks at three individuals who underwent apotheosis during the Middle Kingdom: Heqaib, Isi, and Wahka. Heqaib, Isi, and Wahka were venerated because they were remembered for the deeds they performed during life—such as Heqaib's reputation as a great warrior, or Isi's and Wahka's roles as local dignitaries and leaders. Thus, Middle Kingdom apotheosis can be generalized, on the basis of current evidence, as occurring uniquely in the provinces and typically (but not exclusively) numerous generations after the death of the deified dead in question. This delay, followed by a fully materialized display of divine status, was likely a reflex of the fact that the local temples became the primary locus of political display in the First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom. The deified dead of the Old Kingdom participated in Old Kingdom systems of power. Deified dead of the Middle Kingdom participated in Middle Kingdom hierarchies of power, which were situated in the local temples. Their articulation as gods, then, was much more explicit.

The present study centers on a largely unnoticed seventeenth century Chinese map entitled Tianxia jiubian fenye renji lucheng quantu 天下九邊分野人跡路程全圖 (Complete Map of the Allotted Fields, Human Traces, and Routes within and without the Nine Borders under Heaven, 1644). Printed by a lesser-known scholar Cao Junyi 曹君義, this map carried remarkable features that mixed a number of concepts and techniques from both Chinese and European cartographic traditions. It borrowed some information, including the oval layout, lines of longitude, and names of foreign places, from a few widely circulated Jesuit world maps, especially the one made by Matteo Ricci in 1602. Meanwhile, the map continued to represent a Sinocentric world order and the stereotyped concept of Chinese-Barbarian distinction. While the ‘Middle Kingdom’ remains at the center and occupies the largest area, regions such as Europe, Africa, and America are reduced disproportionally in size and put near the borders of China. By converging two very different cartographic traditions, Cao made a conscious effort to re-locate China in the newly known greater world. In-depth analysis of this particular map suggests that the seventeenth century encounter of Chinese and European cartographies should not be treated with a simplistic characterization of acceptance versus resistance, or, advancement versus backwardness. It was instead a complex process of negotiation and appropriation conditioned by various factors across scientific, ideological, cultural, and religious boundaries.

The ' Middle Kingdom ' and General Gordon

1. Prologue: 'Middle Kingdom' Resurgent! Sports Dominance as Soft Power Politics on the Pacific Rim - Reflections on Rim Realpolitik J. A. Mangan China Post-Beijing 2008: Reflections from inside and Outside 2. Politics and the Olympic Transaction: Measuring China's Accomplishments Victor D. Cha 3. Chinese State Sports Policy: Pre- and Post-Beijing 2008 Fan Wei, Fan Hong and Lu Zhouxiang 4. Post-Beijing 2008 and Confucian Outreach in a New Game: China's Next Move Kevin Caffrey 5. Asia Pride, China Fear, Tokyo Anxiety: Japan Looks Back at Beijing 2008 and Forward to London 2012 and Tokyo 2016 William W. Kelly Post-Beijing 2008: Eastern Pacific Perspectives 6. Beijing 2008: Symbolic Hegemonic Assertion? South Korean Media Reactions and Responses to the Chinese Olympics J. A. Mangan and Gwang Ok 7. Bigger than Beijing 2008: Politics, Propaganda and Physical Culture in Pyongyang Udo Merkel 8. Post-Beijing 2008: Generating Indonesia's Self-Esteem Rusli Lutan 9. Reading American Readings of Beijing 2008 Mark Dyreson 10. The Geopolitical Balance of the Asia-Pacific Region Post-Beijing 2008: An Australian Perspective Peter Horton Post-Beijing 2008: Western Pacific Rim Responses 11. Too Far and Too Remote! European Indifference to the Impact of Beijing 2008 on the Pacific Rim Thierry Terret 12. After Beijing 2008: The Need for Sports to Foster Cooperation as well as Competition in an Increasingly Global World Roberta J. Park 13. One World, Real World, Memory and Dream: Shadows of the Past and Images of the Future in Contemporary Asian Sports Internationalisms John D. Kelly 14. Epilogue: Branding China: The Beijing Olympics and Beyond Fan Hong

The multiplicity of manoeuvres that characterise modern China's geopolitical ascendancy and ambition illustrate political ingenuity used calculatedly with the clear intention of becoming invulnerable. Past recent humiliations are not to reoccur. In addition, ‘The Middle Kingdom’ is to be reincarnated: invincible imperialism pursued. The strategic plurality employed in complex compositional patterns is both imperial and historic in nature: the past is to be projected into the present and the future. The once ‘Great Game’ is now ‘The Great East Asia Game’! In the light of the Guangzhou Asian Games Triumphalism, there could be a ‘double entendre’ employed here of sizable significance. This essay considers the possibility.

It would be many decades before Westerners gained a foothold in China, and centuries before they began to affect Chinese life decisively, but a historical process had now been set in motion that Ho Ching-ming and his friends would have found not only appalling, but literally unthinkable. It was this very unthinkability that lay at the heart of what would become the culminating dilemma for traditional Chinese civilization. What the West brought to China was a challenge not simply to its economic or military supremacy but to its centrality, its position as the 'middle kingdom'. The relative poverty of Ho Ching-ming's world stands in striking contrast to the affluent commercial society of the southern wen-jen and their patrons. There should also be little surprise in the persistence of cultural structures and habits in China from Ho Ching-ming's day to our own. Keywords: China; cultural structures; Ho Ching-ming; Westerners

To the Editor: Leishmaniasis is a disease caused by parasites of the genus Leishmania. The infection is transmitted to humans through the bites of female sandflies and manifests mainly in 3 forms: visceral, cutaneous, and mucocutaneous. Visceral leishmaniasis or kala-azar, the often fatal form of the disease, is caused by species of the Leishmania donovani complex. These parasites were responsible for severe recent outbreaks in Sudan and other countries and are thought to originate in East Africa (1–4). In this report, we describe the successful amplification of L. donovani DNA in ancient Egyptian and Christian Nubian mummies dating back 4,000 years. Besides the first proof for visceral leishmaniasis in paleopathology, we provide evidence that leishmaniasis was present in Nubia in the early Christian period and that the organism also infected ancient Egyptians, probably because of close trading contacts to Nubia, during the Middle Kingdom. We analyzed 91 bone tissue samples from ancient Egyptian mummies and skeletons and 70 bone marrow samples from naturally mummified human remains from Upper Nubia. The Egyptian material derived from the Pre- to Early Dynastic site of Abydos (n = 7; 3500–2800 BC), a Middle Kingdom tomb in Thebes West (42; 2050–1650 BC), and different tomb complexes in Thebes West, which were built and used between the Middle and New Kingdom until the Late Period (42; c. 2050–500 BC). The Nubian samples were taken before the flooding caused by the Aswan Dam from 2 early Christian burial sites at Kulubnarti, between the second and third cataracts of the Nile River in northern Sudan. One site was on an island in the Nile and dated from 550 to 750 AD. The other was on the western bank of the Nile and was in use from c.750 to 1500 AD. All samples were tested for Leishmania spp. DNA and further characterized by direct sequencing. In 4 of the 91 Egyptian and 9 of the 70 Nubian samples, a 120-bp fragment of a conserved region of the minicircle molecule of kinetoplastid mitochondrial DNA of the parasite (5,6) could be successfully amplified and, with the first primer pair, unambiguously related to L. donovani species after sequencing (Figure). The positive samples from ancient Egypt exclusively originated from the Middle Kingdom tomb, while no molecular evidence for ancient Leishmania DNA was found in the Pre- to Early Dynastic and the New Kingdom to Late Period specimens. Figure PCR amplification of a 120-bp fragment of kinetoplastid mitochondrial DNA of Leishmania spp. in Egyptian and Nubian mummies. Lane 1, 50-bp ladder lanes 2–8, mummy samples; lanes 9,10, extraction controls; lane 11, PCR controls. Lane 6 provides ... In the Middle Kingdom, the Egyptians extended trade relationships and military expeditions to Nubia, the modern Sudan, with particular interest in the gold resources of the country and in obtaining slaves to serve as servants or soldiers in the pharaoh’s army. Today, the Sudan is one of the highly endemic countries for visceral leishmaniasis or kala-azar, which is thought to have originated in East Africa and later spread to the Indian subcontinent and the New World (4). Therefore, the high incidence of Leishmania DNA in the Middle Kingdom samples (4 [9.5%] of 42) and the lack of findings in earlier or later time periods, may indicate that leishmaniasis was introduced into Egypt at this time. Leishmaniasis did not likely become endemic in the Egyptian Nile Valley because the disease is closely linked to its vector, the phlebotomine sandfly, and the distribution of Acacia-Balanites woodland (7). That ancient Egyptians became infected because of close trade contacts and associated travel with Nubia during the Middle Kingdom seems more plausible. The high frequency of Leishmania DNA–positive samples in the Nubian mummies (12.9%) suggests that leishmaniasis was endemic in Nubia during the Early Christian period and, in light of the data on the ancient Egyptian mummies, probably already several thousand years before. Taken together, our results support the theory that Sudan could have been indeed the original focus of visceral leishmaniasis (4). Our study shows a completely new aspect of molecular paleopathology. The detection of ancient pathogen DNA is not only used to identify a certain disease and gain information on its frequency and evolutionary origin but also to trace back cultural contacts and their role in the transmission and spread of infectious diseases.

China’s regional policy is mainly centred on its efforts to forge a friendly, stable and prosperous neighbourhood. To achieve this end, China has developed an approach combining both partnership bilateralism and tailored regional multilateralism. By and large, China does not consider its neighbourhood as a whole and has been very cautious and hesitant to engage in overarching ‘region-building’. China has relied mostly on soft (attractive) use of power, particularly economic power, supported by cultural and assurance diplomacy, even though diplomatic and economic coercion have been exercised occasionally. China has once again become the biggest economy in Asia. Yet, neither the new power configuration in Asia nor China’s own ambitions point to a return to the old ‘Middle Kingdom’ with China holding a dominant position in its neighbourhood. China will most probably continue to see itself as a self-restrained regional power in the foreseeable future.

Book review: The Asian Games: Modern Metaphor for ‘The Middle Kingdom’ Reborn – Political Statement, Cultural Assertion, Social Symbol

An in-depth look at the changing status of American artists in the 18th and early 19th century The Middle Kingdom (ca. 2030-1700 B.C.), the second great era of ancient Egyptian culture, was a transformational period during which the artistic conventions, cultural principles, religious beliefs, and political systems formed during earlier dynasties were developed and reimagined. This comprehensive volume presents a detailed picture of the art and culture of the Middle Kingdom, arguably the least known of Egypt's three kingdoms yet a time of remarkable prosperity and unprecedented change. International specialists present new insights into how Middle Kingdom artists refined existing forms and iconography to make strikingly original architecture, statuary, tomb and temple relief decoration, and stele. Thematic sections explore art produced for different strata of Egyptian society, including the pharaoh, royal women, the elite, and the family, while other chapters provide insight into Egypt's expanding relations with foreign lands and the themes of Middle Kingdom literature. More than 250 objects from major collections around the world are sumptuously illustrated, many with new photography undertaken specifically for this catalogue. This fascinating publication is a much-needed contribution to understanding ancient Egypt's art and culture, and shows how the Middle Kingdom served as the bridge between the monumentality of the pre-vious centuries and the opulent splendor of later years.