Chinese Chronicles Research Articles

About ancient political, administrative titles: shanyuy, tarkhan,buyuruk

The nomadic peoples and tribes of Central Asia created a political organization, the imperial confederation, which centralized their military power and kept the tribes united. At the grassroots level, the principles of tribal organization were used by the authority of local tribal leaders. The imperial over-tribal structure was supported by an exceptional monopoly on the management of foreign and military affairs. This structure had three main levels of organization. The imperial leadership belonged to the ruling tribe that founded the state. At the second level were governors (governors), appointed to control the local tribal leadership and command the regional armies. Associated with a kinship with the ruler, these imperial appointees served as key links between the central administration and the local tribal leaders. Local tribal leaders constituted the third level of organization. At the same time, the state of the nomads arose only there and only when they were forced to interact with more highly organized sedentary societies. However, herders did not “borrow” the state from their more civilized neighbors, but created their own original political system, designed to effectively adapt to larger and more socio-economically more developed neighbors. With the emergence of the Turkic Kaganate, the state of the Kyrgyz, the Uigurs in the historical arena, ancient Turkic titles and other terms began to be mentioned in significant numbers primarily in Chinese chronicles, sources in Greek, Armenian, Sogdian and Bactrian languages (last Chet. VI – 40s. VII century), And then the ancient Turkic steles and inscriptions, texts on Pahlavi, Tibetan documents and other sources (beginning of the VIII-IX centuries.). Types of social terminology (titles, ranks, positions) of the Turkic society of antiquity and the Middle Ages were strictly differentiated and performed various functions, denoting the place of a member of society in the political structure, administrative structure, his military rank, spiritual or civil dignity. Key words: Shanyuy, Tarkhan, Buyuruk, China, titles, Hunn (Huns), Syanbi, Turks

Viaje a la revolución: vitalismo y cultura política en las crónicas chinas de Bernardo Kordon

This article examines the Chinese chronicles of Argentine traveler, writer, and editor Bernardo Kordon (1915–2002), produced during his three decades of travels to the Popular Republic of China and as a reflection of a larger network of contact between both regions beginning in the late 1950s. An enthusiast of Chinese millenarian culture and the Maoist Revolution, Kordon, distancing himself from the Communist Party of Argentina and the aesthetics of social realism, saw in China an alternative model for intellectual commitment and revolutionary solidarity. I argue that, rather than falling back on the exoticism of sinology or professing a complete support of Maoist ideology, Kordon’s approach to China, especially to its urban planning program and millenarian theater, is permeated by a vitalist atmosphere and sensibility. Vitalism, a philosophical experience significant for thinkers such as Nietzsche and Bergson, saw a constructive revolutionary force in the energy and creative potential of human beings, especially youth. In my reading, Kordon acquires this vitalist sensibility through his participation in political and cultural associations with ties to the Student Reform Movement of 1918. Kordon’s chronicles allow us to examine sites of revolutionary cultural production in Argentina and Latin America beyond party lines or hegemonic discourses.

ШАРҚ МАНБАЛАРИДА УСТРУШОНА

This article contains description of works which give information about the ancient and medieval history of Usturshana such as Chinese chronicles , Soghd documents from the Mugh hill and also Arabian historian-geographers' works. It provides valuable information on the historical geographical location of Usturshana and traditions of the population , the struggle for Arab invasion and the genealogy of Afshins

ТУРК ХОҚОНЛИГИДА ҚЎЛЛАНИЛГАН ХАРБИЙ УНВОНЛАРГА ДОИР

The article analyzed the names of the Turkic Khaganate, as well as studied in detail the ancient Turkic bityktashi, Chinese Chronicles, Sogdian and Bactrian language documents, Armenian, Syrian, Arabic and Persian sources, as well as numismatic materials. In addition, the military ranks present in the Turkish khanate have been highlighted as a separate research obiacus of epithets related to the courage and virtue ofman

Российские путешественники о правовых отношениях в Джунгарском ханстве XVIII в.

The article analyzes notes of Russian travelers on legal development of the Dzungar Khanate in the early-to-mid 18th c. While South and Northeast Mongolia had been annexed to the Qing Empire, the Dzungar Khanate reached its golden age and began active policy of conquest subjugating the Kazakh Elder and Middle Hordes, Tashkent, Eastern Turkestan. Establishing a large state with nomadic and settled regions, the Dzungar Khanate became the last ‘Steppe Empire’ of Central Asia, and this was reflected in its legal policy. Scholars have analyzed different aspects of legal history of the Dzungar Khanate on the basis of surviving Oirat legal monuments, such as Ikh Tsaaz (‘The Great Code’) and edicts of Galdan Khan, as well as data contained in Chinese chronicles. But valuable information on Dzungar law is to be found in notes of Russian diplomats, intelligence officers and merchants who visited the Khanate during the considered period, observed and even participated in legal relations. The article provides an analysis of legal status of vassal states of the Dzungar Khanate: obligations of vassal rulers, supreme jurisdiction of Dzungar khans over the latter, combination of Turko-Mongol and Islamic laws applied to regulate their relations. Economic development of the Dzungar Khanate forced its rulers to regulate different directions of national economic activities including agriculture and industry, status of ‘foreign specialists’ (mostly captives and fugitives from Russia). Trade activities were reflected in special legislation on status of Dzungar and foreign merchants, protection of their interests even in the court. The Dzungar system of taxation was well regulated and included taxes in kind (cattle, armor, clothes, etc.), trade duties, tributes to be submitted by vassal states (in money and textiles), obligations to participate in military campaigns of Khans, support foreign diplomats, etc. There was an advanced system of punishments for crimes in the Khanate, especially if a subject of vassal state offended an ethnic Oirat. At that punishments of noblemen were, as a rule, less severe: they might be sentenced to exile or expropriation. But property crimes of Oirats against foreigners usually were examined by court for a long time and without results. Some notices on the family and succession law show the high status of Khans’ wives and priority of sons from legitimate wives before ones from concubines. So, one can state that notes of Russian travelers contain most valuable information on legal situation in the Dzungar Khanate and substantially differ from the above-mentioned legal monuments and Chinese chronicles. The analysis allows to draw a conclusion on a high level of law and legal relations in the Dzungar Khanate during the early-to-mid 18th c., and its active development (one could also say, ‘modernization’) was forcibly interrupted by the Qing conquest of the Oirat state.

History and culture of the early Türkic period: A review of archaeological monuments in the Russian Altai from the 4th–6th century AD

Establishing the lower limit of the Türkic period in the Altai region and the earliest archaeological monuments characteristic of this period presents a complex task for archaeological research. Radiocarbon dates obtained from Bulan-Koby and Kok-Pash type burials dating to the pre-Türkic period suggest an upper limit of around the middle of the 6th century AD. Around this time, or perhaps a little earlier, in the late 5th – early 6th centuries, square stone enclosures appear in the same region. The greatest difference in the grave goods of these different types of monument is that stirrups are found in stone enclosures, whereas none are recorded in Bulan-Koby type monuments. The next stage in the development of the material culture of the Türkic period from the second half of the 6th century, is marked by the distribution of ornaments made in heraldic style. Likewise, after the middle of the 6th century, Kudyrge type burials appear, which are similar to the Bulan-Koby type monuments inasmuch as the inventory of finds includes both stirrups and artistic heraldic ornaments. We know from Chinese chronicles that some historical events can be extrapolated to archaeological sites. In this case, it is important to mention the resettlement of ‘500 Ashina families’ to the Altai in 460 CE, where they formed the core of the Türkic community. We suggest that the use of stelae at square stone enclosures uncharacteristic of the preceding period are associated with this group. After the formation of the Türkic Khaganate, the practice of erecting enclosures with stelae, and human burials with horses in them became widespread throughout the Eurasian steppe testifying to the significance of the Altai population in the formation of the wider Türkic community.

Women in Japanese Religions by Barbara R. Ambros

Reviewed by: Women in Japanese Religions by Barbara R. Ambros Levi McLaughlin (bio) Women in Japanese Religions. By Barbara R. Ambros. New York University Press, New York, 2015. x, 237 pages. $89.00, cloth; $17.00, paper. Those of us who teach courses on religion in Japan share a constant frustration: depressingly few of the English-language readings we can assign to undergraduates discuss women. In fact, given the primary sources in translation and accessible secondary scholarship that make up most course syllabi, it is possible for a student to proceed through the entirety of Japan’s religious history and barely notice women at all. A course may mention [End Page 160] a few female deities and monarchs recorded in the Nara period (710–94), brush past women courtiers in the Heian era (794–1185), and then miss out on women altogether until it reaches the Meiji era (1868–1912) and beyond. And, until recently, even treatments of modern Japanese religion have often resorted to what I have come to think of sacrilegiously as the “parade of bald guys” approach, namely the pernicious scholarly tendency to equate religious history with sectarian history and to then reduce sectarian history to the writings and biographies of male institutional founders. It is therefore likely that a student may leave a course with the impression that Japanese religion has always centered on male leaders and that women have contributed very little to it. Thanks to Barbara Ambros, this pedagogical approach is no longer excusable. Novice students and experienced researchers alike will benefit from Women in Japanese Religions. Through economical yet compelling prose, Ambros guides the reader through the entirety of Japan’s religious history, from the earliest antiquity to the present. In lieu of rehearsing well-known overviews of Japanese history, she relays detailed accounts of the lives of women religious practitioners—clerical and lay, elite and nonelite—who constructed religious communities. Ambros troubles established narratives and easy readings by resisting a common understanding that, in Japan’s prehistory, women reigned only to be dethroned by centuries of patriarchy that have seen partial redress in the last century. This narrative, Ambros cautions, fails to take into account ways women have succeeded in realizing themselves as agents who effect sociopolitical change through religious engagement—even as they participate in, and even promote, misogynistic practices. Complexities abound as Ambros moves beyond sect- and founder-oriented perspectives to reveal Japan as a land defined by women who have contested Japan’s persistent gender gap into the present. Chapter 1 begins with the earliest evidence of prehistoric human habitation of the Japanese archipelago, which includes female stone and clay figurines that suggest reverence for fecundity at the core of fertility rituals. However, the earliest textual evidence about Japan recorded in Chinese chronicles runs counter to biological determinism, Ambros notes, as these sources indicate that both women and men were understood to possess spiritual and political power. Chapter 2 takes us into the Kojiki (712) and Nihon shoki (720), government-sponsored chronicles that relay origin myths which challenge nativist understandings, as ideal images of women in these stories were clearly influenced by continental concepts of yin-yang cosmology, immortality cults, sericulture, and Confucian morality. Here and throughout the rest of the book, Ambros explores the extent to which the Confucian ideal of female deferral to men shaped, and at times ran counter to, Japanese social mores. Women in ancient Japan appear to have held property and exercised political authority on a routine basis; the practice of moving the [End Page 161] imperial capital until the Nara era (710–94), for example, was motivated as much by seeking proximity to the emperor’s maternal line as it was driven by fear of a deceased sovereign’s angry spirit. Chapter 3 covers the introduction of Buddhism to Japan in the sixth century, a familiar tale that Ambros reframes through accounts of nuns and female lay devotion. Women were central to the transfer of Buddhism from Paekche, as the first monastics ordained in Japan were women—an initiative that reflects important positions held by female shamans. There were six female monarchs within the first two hundred years of Japanese Buddhism, and three...

Кыргызы кангорая (к вопросу о правопис ании и соотношении этнонимов «хягяс» и «кыргыз»)

The article provided the historical and graphical analysis of the studied problem in the contents of orthography and comparison of “Khyagas” and “Kyrgyz” ethnonyms. The author tried to define the data of Chinese chronicles on the aristocratic clan of Yenisei Kyrgyz that narrates: “Khagyas is not the great clan”. The author compared and analyzed the data of Chinese chronicles on the Khagyas State, “Khagyas Dynasty”, and the aristocratic clan “Khagyas” with the information about Kyrgyz, given by the Persian historian Gardezi who characterized them like six formation ethnos. The author tried to explain the historical sources contradictions in peculiarities of the nomad political system. The problems of ethnogeny and ethno genetic associations of Yenisei Kyrgyz and Minusin Tatars were studied. The author tried to prove that Yenisei Kyrgyz were named as Kangorai Kyrgyz bygone.

The construction of war texts in the Chinese chronicle literature “Liad Kok”

The construction of war texts in the Chinese chronicle literature “Liad Kok”

Why Did Hayashi-Gahō Read the Twenty-One Major Chinese Chronicles?

Why Did Hayashi-Gahō Read the Twenty-One Major Chinese Chronicles?

Records of sunspot and aurora during CE 960–1279 in the Chinese chronicle of the Sòng dynasty

Records of sunspots and aurora observations in pre-telescopic historical documents can provide useful information about solar activity in the past. This is also true for extreme space weather events, as they may have been recorded as large sunspots observed by the naked eye or as low-latitude auroras. In this paper, we present the results of a comprehensive survey of records of sunspots and auroras in the Songshi, a Chinese formal chronicle spanning the tenth to the thirteenth century. This chronicle contains a record of continuous observations with well-formatted reports conducted as a policy of the government. A brief comparison of the frequency of observations of sunspots and auroras and the observations of radioisotopes as an indicator of the solar activity during corresponding periods is provided. This paper is the first step of our project in which we survey and compile the records of sunspots and aurora in historical documents from various locations and languages, ultimately providing it to the science community as online data.

Super solar particle event around AD775 was found

A rapid radiocarbon 14C increase of 120/00 in AD774–775 has been reported in cedar and oak tree rings. So far, the origin of the 14C increase is still uncertain and the possible origin is either supernova or solar particle event. The most possible origin of 14C increase is strong solar flares and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) with strong particles emission. Comprehensive approaches to identify the strong historical solar particle events based on the rapid 14C/10Be increase in tree/coral rings and ice cores, long duration strong auroras and geomagnetic storms are introduced. Evidence of the super auroras in AD775 was first found in a Chinese Chronicles Jiutangshu and it supports the views that the rapid 14C increase and strong auroras around AD775 are most possibly caused by strong solar storms with intense particles emission. It was identified that the solar event around AD775 would be the strongest solar particle event in the past 11400 years. The discovery is significant for the research on the history of solar activities, space weather and forecast, radiation of solar energetic particles and protection.

On the Portraits of the Samarqandian Kings on Sogdian Bronze Coins

This paper examines several bronze coins of the Samarqandian kings issued in the last third of the sixth-first third of the seventh century AD. Using limited information provided by the Chinese chronicle and by the coins themselves, the authors offer an identification of two kings portrayed on these coins, and the tentative date of their reign. The reading of the names of these kings is proposed as “Turanin” and “Qutluqchiq”.

Paleoasians in the Ethnogenesis of the Yakuts (on Mythology Data of the Yakut Ethnical Community of the Khoro)

The article is devoted to the results of the study of an old but not solved up to now problem in the Yakut ethnography concerning the origin of a big ethnical group Khoro which is one of the main units in the ethnical composition of the Yakuts living in the North of Siberia. The problem is urgent for its being unsolved does not make it possible to create an integral picture of the formation of the Yakut people. Most researchers think that the original motherland of the Khorolors (the plural of “Khoro”) was on the western side of the Baikal in Bargujin-Tokum1, where they were a part of a Buryat tribal community of the Khori living now in Transbaikalia. In 1207 during the conquest of Bargujin-Tokum by Chinggis-khan’s troops a part of the Khori tribe escaping from the Mongols fled to the Middle Lena and never came back to the Baikal. When identifying both the groups only the resemblance of the names Khoro and Khori was taken into account which could not provide an exact result. Meanwhile the Khorolors cults of the Raven and the Eagle and associated with them “raven” and “eagle” myths and the same, typologically similar myths about the totemic forefathers mentioned above among the Paleoasians of the North-East Asia and North-American Indians make it clear that the Khorolors of Yakutia are of paleoasian origin. The Khorolors belonged to the southern branch of the Paleoasians and they resided in the lower Amur where there was their motherland Khoro sire. In a number of early Chinese and Korean chronicles this locality is called Kori. It is just there that one can find the sources for the ethnogenesis of the Koreans in which the northern Paleoasian component took a noticeable part. Supposedly at the end of the I millennium A.D., the Khorolors from the Lower Amur migrated to the North and permanently settled in the land of Yakutia. This is an evidence of the fact that in the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts the Paleoasian ethnical layer played a considerable part in addition to the ancient Tiurk substratum.

Solar Eclipses in the First Half of the Chunqiu Period

In the Chinese chronicle Chunqiu, which describes a partial (722 BC–481 BC) history of the Chunqiu Period (770 BC–403 BC), there are recorded 37 solar eclipse observations, starting in 720 BC and ending in 481 BC. Among these, there are 10 eclipse records that lack either the cyclic day number or a statement of ‘the new moon’, or both. Three explanatory books Zuoshi-Zhuan, Guliang-Zhuan, and Gongyang-Zhuan written in the Zhanguo Period (403 BC–221 BC) have different interpretations concerning these records. Zuoshi-Zhuan simply says that royal astronomers forgot to record these data. On the other hand, Guliang-Zhuan says that these eclipses were observed on the last day of the month or during the night. Gongyang-Zhuan says that these were mainly observed on the second day of the month. A famous astronomer, Liuxin in the Han Dynasty, argued close to the idea of Gongyang-Zhuan. These discussions are related to the problem of establishing a precise calendar system in the Chunqiu Period. Controversial arguments continue until today. A Japanese astronomer, Toshio Watanabe (1958), conjectured that these eclipses may have been observed at sunrise or sunset. In the present report, we intend to confirm Watanabe’s conjecture, and after confirming this we use this property to accurately determine the range of $\Delta T$ (see section 1 for definition) in this period. We have obtained new $\Delta T$ ranges in seconds from five eclipses which accompanied deep contemporaneous solar eclipses: 20153 $\leq \Delta T \leq$ 21094 at around 720 BC February 22,18526 $\leq \Delta T \leq$ 20686 at around 676 BC April 15,19409 $\leq \Delta T \leq$ 20402 at around 648 BC April 6if the site is Paros,or18353 $\leq \Delta T \leq$ 19235 at around 648 BC April 6if the site is Thasos,19172 $\leq \Delta T \leq$ 20910 at around 599 BC March 6,16134 $\leq \Delta T \leq$ 19101 at around 558 BC May 31.

Gongs, Bells, and Cymbals: The Archaeological Record in Maritime Asia from the Ninth to the Seventeenth Centuries

The growth and expansion of maritime trade in the first millennium CE altered the musical landscape of Asia, from earlier Austronesian and Austroasiatic migrations, to the early contacts with India, China, Arabia, and the continuing navigation towards the Pacific and Oceania. Much later in the tenth century, Chinese chronicles describe that peoples from the south called Luzoes (Luzon, Philippines) had invaded its southern shores, while Indian histories record the voyages of sailors from western Indonesia. By the eighth century, Austronesian languages from Borneo had spread towards Madagascar. A trade centred on beads, tin, copper, pottery, ceramics, natural products, and food also carried musical instruments and musicians bearing new ideas in music making and ritual life.

Himiko and Japan's elusive chiefdom of Yamatai: archaeology, history, and mythology

The third-century Chinese chronicle Wei zhi (Record of Wei) is responsible for Japan's most enduring ancient mystery. This early history tells of a group of islands off the China coast that were dominated by a female shaman named Himiko. Himiko ruled for more than half a century as head of the largest chiefdom, traditionally known as Yamatai, until her death in 248. Yet no such person appears in the old Japanese literature. Who was Himiko and where was the Yamatai she governed? In this, the most comprehensive treatment in English to date, a senior scholar of early Japan turns to three sources - historical, archaeological, and mythological - to provide a multifaceted study of Himiko and ancient Japanese society.

한국, 일본, 중국의 역사 기록에 나오는 별똥만발 기록의 새로 고친 목록

한국, 일본, 중국의 옛 역사 기록에 나오는 벌똥만발 기록(meteor outbursts즉, 강한 별똥비 및 별똥 소나기 기록) 가운데 신뢰할 만한 것을 모은 목록을 새로 고쳐 만들었다. 이 고친 목록에서는 지구의 세차운동과 근일점이동에 의한 영향을 받지 않고 별찌흐름(meteor stream)의 공간적 위치를 연구하기 위해 별똥만발이 나타난 시각을 나타내는데 새로운 시간 좌표계를 도입하였다. 즉 임의로 지구의 2000년 근일점을 기준으로 각 기록의 관측 시각이 항성년 단위로 끊을 때 나머지가 며칠인지를 가지고 시간 좌표계를 정의하여 사용하였다. 또한 개별 별똥 기록으로 취급되어 별똥비 항목에서 누락되었던 중국 기록 19개를 찾아내서 목록에 추가했다. 우리는 새로 개정된 별똥만발 목록에서 지난 2천년 동안 별똥만발 현상을 일으킨 별찌흐름들은 물병자리 에타 별찌흐름, 오리온자리 별찌흐름, 페르세우스자리 별찌흐름, 사자자리 별찌흐름임을 확인하였다. 세 나라의 옛 별똥만발 기록만을 대상으로 할 때, 각 별똥만발들의 가장 오랜 기록들을 약간 수정하였다. 우리는 이러한 별똥만발 현상들을 일으키는 어미혜성이 핼리형 혜성(Halley-type comet)임에 주목하고 논의하였다. We made a revised catalogue for reliable records of meteor outbursts that were recorded in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese chronicles. In order to avoid the effects of both Earth's precession and perihelion shift, we introduced a new time-coordinate of records, or the number of days elapsed within the sidereal year of the record for a given origin of time or the perihelion passage time of the you 2000. We added nineteen new records of meteor showers that are wrongly classified i, individual meteors in a Chinese archive. We found that the <TEX>${\eta}-Aquarids,$</TEX> the Perseids, the Orionids, and the Leonids have been active during the last two millennia. Due to the change of time-coordinate, the oldest record of each long-lasting meteor shower has been slightly corrected. We discuss that these long-lasting meteor showers belong to the Halley-type comets.

한국, 일본, 중국의 역사 기록에 나오는 별똥비 및 별똥 소나기 목록

We made a robust catalogue of reliable records of meteor showers and storms recorded in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese chronicles. In our new catalogue, there are 35 Korean records, 29 Japanese records, and 93 Chinese records. The temporal frequency distribution of records shows two broad peaks around the 10th and the 16th centuries. We observed that the peak in the 10th century is mainly contributed by the Perseids, while the peak in the 16th century was mainly contributed by the Leonids. We found that the , the Perseids, the Orionids, and the Leonids have been active during the last two millennia. The oldest record of the is that of BC 687 in China, and the oldest record of the Perseids is that of 36 AD. Contrary to previous investigations, there has been no nodal shift of the and the Orionids, whose mother comet is the Halley`s comet. The oldest record of the Leonids is probably that of 288 AD, instead of 902 AD. We also find some evidence on the existence of a possible shower a-Draconids. We note that our catalogue will be useful to investigate meteor showers.

Units of Time in Ancient China and Japan

The time systems employed in ancient China and Japan are discussed. It is well known that both in ancient China and Japan 1 day was divided into 12 double hours, and the first double hour began at 23 hr local time. However, it is confirmed in this paper that in the Chinese Song dynasty the first double hour began at 0 hr local time. One day was also divided into 100 equal parts, called ke, and ke was subdivided by a time unit called fen. The number of fen in 1 ke varied from dynasty to dynasty. These numbers were clarified by analyzing the tables of daytime duration given in the official Chinese chronicles. In ancient Japan, the time units ke and fen were also used, but the lengths of both of them varied depending on the era. It has been found that all of the daytime and nighttime, the times of sunrise and sunset, and the lengths of shadows given in the official Chinese chronicles refer to a particular latitude of about ${34\rlap {.}{}^{\mathrm {\circ }}5}$, and that the Japanese system adopted this Chinese tradition. Symmetry of the data in tables with respect to certain dates was also investigated in detail in order to examine how the dates of 24 qis were determined.