Dynastic History Research Articles

Genomic dynamics of the Lower Yellow River Valley since the Early Neolithic

The Yellow River Delta played a vital role in the development of the Neolithic civilization of China. However, the population history of this region from the Neolithic transitions to the present remains poorly understood due to the lack of ancient human genomes. This especially holds for key Neolithic transitions and tumultuous turnovers of dynastic history. Here, we report genome-wide data from 69 individuals dating to 5,410-1,345 years before present (BP) at 0.008 to 2.49× coverages, along with 325 present-day individuals collected from 16 cities across Shandong. During the Middle to Late Dawenkou period, we observed a significant influx of ancestry from Neolithic Yellow River farmers in central China and some southern Chinese ancestry that mixed with local hunter-gatherers in Shandong. The genetic heritage of the Shandong Longshan people was found to be most closely linked to the Dawenkou culture. During the Shang to Zhou Dynasties, there was evidence of genetic admixture of local Longshan populations with migrants from the Central Plain. After the Qin to Han Dynasties, the genetic composition of the region began to resemble that of modern Shandong populations. Our genetic findings suggest that the middle Yellow River Basin farmers played a role in shaping the genetic affinity of neighboring populations in northern China during the Middle to Late Neolithic period. Additionally, our findings indicate that the genetic diversity in the Shandong region during the Zhou Dynasty may be linked with their complex ethnicities.

Persuading the emperors: a quantitative historical analysis of political rhetoric in traditional China

The study of rhetoric has a long history in the Western intellectual tradition. However, only minimal efforts have been made to rigorously examine the cultural evolution of various rhetorical strategies in argumentation over time. In this study, we harness the power of fully digitized Chinese dynastic history to systematically analyze how different rhetorical strategies were used to persuade superiors throughout the past two millennia. By leveraging existing literature on Chinese rhetoric and argumentation styles, as well as engaging in extensive consultation with historians of ancient China, we identify and classify rhetorical strategies into distinct categories. We then examine their recorded success in persuasion and any temporal changes in frequency. Our findings point to a cumulative payoff-biased cultural evolution where later dynasties tend to demonstrate higher recorded persuasion success, with the notable exception of the Ming dynasty. Additionally, we detect a temporal decline in the frequency of rhetorical strategies associated with persuasion failures, such as analogy and the use of auspicious/inauspicious signs.

Interplays and Interactions on the Maritime and Overland Silk Roads in the First Millennium ce

This article concerns the contacts and interactions that took place on the Maritime Silk Road during the first millennium ce. The term ‘Maritime Silk Road’, like the ‘Silk Road’ itself, can be quite vague. It has come to mean any trade or travel from Japan and Korea across the sea routes of East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, to the Mediterranean and Europe. The focus here, however, follows the subject of the October 2021 ‘China, India and Iran’ conference in Cambridge, where the article was first delivered, and is confined to China, Southeast Asia, India and Persia. It first explains how my interest in this topic came about. Then it highlights some of the ways in which these interconnections manifested themselves during the first millennium by analysing examples from the Chinese dynastic histories and the travel accounts of Buddhist pilgrims. Finally, it discusses two sets of examples of these phenomena mentioned in Rong Xinjiang’s 榮新江, Sichou zhilu yu dong-xi wenhua jiaoliu 絲綢之路與東西文化交流. One of these examples concerns China’s relations with the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258 ce) during the Tang period (618–907), and the other concerns the overland and maritime movement of Persian nobles and merchants to China after the fall of the Sasanian Empire (224–651 ce), and their integration into Chinese society.

The Rise of Empress Wu Ze-tian (624–705) Relatives as Reflected in the Dynastic Histories “Old Book of Tang” and “New Book of Tang”

This article is devoted to the analysis of actions undertaken by Wu Ze-tian 武則天 (624–705), the first and only woman in Chinese history, who was bequeathed the title of august emperor and founded the Great Zhou state (Da Zhou 大周； 690–705) to raise the status of the Wu 武 family, as they were represented in the main sources of study for this period – the normative histories Old Book of Tang and New Book of Tang. Career advancement steps of the three most well-known relatives (Wu Cheng-si 武承嗣 (649–698), Wu San-si 武三思 (?–707) and Wu You-ning 武攸宁 (? –705) are examined. Special attention is given to the main stages in the rise of the Empress’s ancestors, including her father Wu Shi-huo, who made the posthumous journey from a guo-gong 國公 to August Emperor (huang-di 皇帝). A conclusion is reached that Wu’s consistent actions in this direction allowed her to replace the royal Tang dynasty with the Wu family in the ideological structure of China for an entire decade. Nevertheless, in the final period of her reign, Wu Ze-tian was forced to give up the hope of installing the Wu family as rulers of China.

An overview of the research of the Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) in South Korea over the past forty years (1971–2010)

The Shiji (史記 Records of the Grand Historian) is a pathbreaking monument of Chinese history. Its author Sima Qian 司馬遷 created a genre of biography centered around individuals that was continually used in dynastic histories from the Han dynasty onward. Sima Qian's composition of the Shiji not only respected historical facts and directly portrayed them as they occurred, but also paid attention to featuring polished language and beautiful writing. He organically integrated different styles of narrative, expressions, and reasoning and achieved a high degree of uniformity of thought and art, providing a model for later generations of literature and history. The Shiji was not only a pioneer in the genre of Chinese biographical history, but also had a far-reaching impact on later prose, fiction, and drama. It was also soon transmitted overseas and had a large effect on countries in the Chinese cultural sphere. With the introduction of the Shiji to Korea, Korean intellectuals particularly showed interest in and reverence for the work, and it was highly valued in the Korean academic world. By the mid-1960s, with the development of the national economy, all of South Korean society entered a new period of history that not only saw fundamental changes in the nation's appearance, but also saw academic and cultural affairs return to the right track, and at that time South Korean academics renewed their high degree of interest in learning about and researching Chinese academics and culture. It was on this foundation that South Korean intellectuals made great advances in translating and studying the Shiji and made positive contributions to its transmission, spread, and popularization. After briefly reviewing the transmission of the Shiji in Korea, this paper reviews the state of translation and study of the Shiji in South Korea from the nearly four decades from 1971 to 2010 and offers an objective evaluation of some shortcomings and gaps in this research.

Золотая Орда глазами современников и очевидцев

The purpose of the study: To show how the Golden Horde was seen – its population, its way of life, appearances, occupations – by representatives of the European (Catholic) and Eastern (Muslim) worlds. Their impressions, set out in the corresponding narratives, not only created the image of this state, but also influenced later ideas about the peoples who inhabited the eastern steppes – “Tartaria”. Research materials: The main source on the history of the Golden Horde/Ulus of Jochi are the narrative works of medieval European and Arab-Persian authors. Most eastern narrativist writers had never visited the territory of this state. They drew their information either from the stories of traveling merchants and envoys, or from the writings of their predecessors in compilations. In this regard, the narratives created by Europeans, from the point of view of source studies, differ favorably from the Arab-Persian ones not only in their information content, but also in the directness of its transmission. Research results and scientific novelty: Almost all the narratives known to us related to the Golden Horde were created for political purposes. Accordingly, their content reflects precisely the political, military and dynastic history of this state. Those few authors who had the opportunity to observe the life of the Golden Horde with their own eyes and from the inside – Plano Carpini, Guillaume (Willem) Rubruk, Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta – recorded approximately the same things in their notes, namely that “Tatars” were nomads who fed on the products of cattle breeding and hunting, were unpretentious in everyday life, unpretentious in clothing, formally Muslims but in fact dual-religionists since they preserved pagan remnant traditions of nomads. It is almost impossible to establish the scale of urbanization of the Golden Horde from these narratives. Thus, from the point of view of historical source study, the available material objectively forms three main empirical directions in the study of the Golden Horde, each of which has its own subject, without intersecting and practically without interacting with each other: the archeology of the Golden Horde nomads, the archeology of settlements (cities), and socio-political history. Therefore, the modern presentation of the history of the Golden Horde has the character of essays which will evidently persist for quite a long time.

Satellite-Aided Analysis of the Position of the Sun Temples and the Dynastic History of the Vth Egyptian Dynasty

The Sun Temples of the Vth dynasty are the most elusive Egyptian monuments of the Old Kingdom. Textual sources seem to refer to a different temple for each different pharaoh of the dynasty, but only two have been discovered at Abu Gurab, a few hundred meters north of the dynastic necropolis of Abusir. Previously, the author has proposed a cognitive–topographical framework that strongly supports the idea, originally formulated by Stadelmann, that only these two already known temples actually existed, while the others—with the possible exception of the last one—mentioned in the sources refer to renovations carried out by subsequent pharaohs on existing monuments. This paper aims to give a complete reassessment of this question using satellite imagery. Together with recently disclosed archaeological excavations at Abu Gurab, which have direct relevance for the history of the Sun Temples, the analysis provided here adds new, surprising aspects to the dynastic scenario, bringing in the meantime, further support to the above-mentioned framework. A proposal for the location of the last temple is also highlighted in the same analysis.

The Battles of the Umayyads. Remembering War from West to East

Abstract The memory of war – and the use of this – is a constant in the Middle Ages and beyond. Within all this war memory, the remembrance of great battles is, perhaps, the most recurrent phenomenon. The pitched battle had an extraordinary impact on the people of the time, which made its remembrance remain alive and dynamic in the collective memory, as moments when the balance of power was seen to have tipped, or when aspects of collective identity were shaped. The battles became places of memory. This paper studies the memory circulating in Umayyad al-Andalus about the battles of their ancestors, the eastern Umayyads. Focusing on Ḥunayn and Marj Rāhiṭ, the two “eastern” battles most remembered in Umayyad al-Andalus and both with important implications for their dynastic history, this paper analyzes how this memory is presented, how these battles are “memorialized” and “commemorated” through texts and rituals, in what contexts of memory production they appear, and for what purposes.

Побежденные перед судом победителей: процессы над мятежниками в период кризиса Монгольской империи (2-я половина XIII в.)

Introduction. The aim of the paper is a study of the evolution of legal relations on the territory of the Mongol Empire in the second half of the 13th century. The subjects of analysis are trials over the members of the ruling imperial family who were defeated during their rebellions and intestine wars. Methods and materials. The sources of the study are medieval oriental sources, including Persian chronicles (by Rashid ad-Din, Mu’in ad-Din Natanzi, Mirza Ulugbek), Chinese dynastic history (“Yuan Shih”), etc. The methods used in the paper are critical analysis of textual sources, historical legal study, formal legal approach, and comparative historical analysis. Analysis. Four judicial processes are analyzed: the trial of Arigh Buqa, defeated by his brother Kubilai in 1264; the trial of Chinggisids over Boraq, head of Chaghatai Ulus, in 1269; the trial of Khubilai over prince Nayan in 1287; and the trial of Ilkhan Gazan over usurper Baydu in 1295. Information from the sources gives a reason to state that trials of defeated nobles reflected the process of decline of the imperial state system and misuse of principles established by Chinggis Khan and his proximate successors. Results. The analyzed information contains valuable additions to our idea of the judicial process in the Mongol Empire, specifically in cases of mutineers compared to other types of cases judged in the Empire and Chinggisid states. It also highlights the evolution of this process during the crisis of imperial power and its differences with the Chinggisid imperial law’s declared observance in the Empire and its uluses.

The archaeoastronomy of Tikal: A reanalysis

AbstractAt the great city of Tikal, the ancient Maya placed and oriented their ceremonial architecture and monuments in accordance with cosmological principles. Its earliest ceremonial plaza, the Mundo Perdido, is one of the oldest pre‐Classic E‐Groups of the Petén, the astronomical utility of which has been a topic of debate by archeologists and archaeoastronomers alike over the past century. In 1988, Aveni and Hartung surveyed the great temples of Tikal and revealed the relationship between their astronomical and dynastic aspects. Yet, over the intervening decades breakthroughs in the decipherment of the Maya glyphs have greatly increased our understanding of Tikal's dynastic history while interpretations in the field of archaeoastronomy have become more rigorous. For instance, more recent surveys and interpretations by Ŝprajc (2021a, 2021b) have demonstrated the importance of the Maya ritual calendar in the placement and orientation of ceremonial public architecture. The aim of this paper is to reassess this earlier fieldwork in archaeoastronomy, provide recent corroborative measurements of the orientation of key buildings, and provide a cohesive summation of the cosmological principles found in the design and construction of the city of Tikal.

Fateful Fashions

In the early medieval period, a number of mantic texts were produced which discussed the issue of portents expressed through fashions in clothing. It was the contention of these authors that changing fashions served to predict the decline of dynasties, the deaths of emperors, and foreign invasions. This article explores this tradition in the context of apophenia, which occurs when individuals over-interpret random pieces of information, seeking to establish patterns that do not in fact exist. Such fateful fashions (fuyao) provide a clear example of the way in which apophenia was crucial for shaping omenological literature, in particular the “Wuxing zhi” (Treatises of the Five Phases) chapters of the dynastic histories.

Study on Secular Change of the Earth’s Rotation Rate Based on Solar Eclipse Observation Records on October 13, 443 BC

ABSTRACT An observation of a solar eclipse that occurred on October 13, 443 BC during the reign of the Duke Ligong of Qin was recorded in the Twenty-Four Histories (China’s dynastic histories from remote antiquity till the Ming Dynasty). With modern astronomical planetary ephemeris, the observation records were studied. The results showed that the eclipse probably occurred around sunset in Yongcheng, the capital of Qin, where the sunset time was exactly between the first contact stage (partial eclipse begins) and the fourth contact stage (partial eclipse ends) of the eclipse. Furthermore, secular change of the earth’s rotation rate at that time is investigated in this work.

The “Black sheep” of the early Daoxue community: the making of Xing Shu's historical image

AbstractBy focusing on a controversial figure in Northern Song China (960–1127), namely Xing Shu 邢恕, this paper traces the historiographical construction of particular scholar-officials in Chinese historical accounts. Xing Shu, one of the best students of the Daoxue 道學 master Cheng Yi 程頤 (1033–1107), was depicted in most historical writings as a betrayer of his teacher and a political opportunist, including in his biography in the official Song dynastic history. This article demonstrates how the testimonies of Xing Shu's contemporaries offered rich materials for the construction of his treacherous character in later written records. Through a careful examination of these testimonies, the article reveals various historiographical operations through which contemporary testimonies were modified and transformed into seemingly reliable documents of historical figures and thus passed to later generations.

From the Great Wall to the Great Firewall: A Historical Analysis of Surveillance

This article delves into the historical development of surveillance practices in China, tracing their roots from the construction of the Great Wall to the contemporary cyber surveillance system known as the Great Firewall. The study explores the strategic importance of the Great Wall as an early warning system and its significance in shaping China's modern national security strategies. Additionally, the article examines the evolution of surveillance techniques throughout China's dynastic history, the impact of Western influences, and the emergence of a modern surveillance state under the People's Republic of China. The analysis then shifts its focus to the development, implementation, and objectives of the Great Firewall, highlighting its role in both domestic control and international cyber warfare. Lastly, the article addresses the ethical debates surrounding surveillance and privacy in China, along with the future implications of emerging technologies and trends in the country's national security strategy. Through this historical lens, the article aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of China's long-standing relationship with surveillance and its crucial role in national security, while also shedding light on potential future developments and global implications. Keywords: Chinese national security, Cyber surveillance, Cyber surveillance, Great Wall of China, History of surveillance in China. Jel Codes: F50, H56, H56, P25, P37.

From the Great Wall to the Great Firewall: A Historical Analysis of Surveillance

This article delves into the historical development of surveillance practices in China, tracing their roots from the construction of the Great Wall to the contemporary cyber surveillance system known as the Great Firewall. The study explores the strategic importance of the Great Wall as an early warning system and its significance in shaping China's modern national security strategies. Additionally, the article examines the evolution of surveillance techniques throughout China's dynastic history, the impact of Western influences, and the emergence of a modern surveillance state under the People's Republic of China. The analysis then shifts its focus to the development, implementation, and objectives of the Great Firewall, highlighting its role in both domestic control and international cyber warfare. Lastly, the article addresses the ethical debates surrounding surveillance and privacy in China, along with the future implications of emerging technologies and trends in the country's national security strategy. Through this historical lens, the article aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of China's long-standing relationship with surveillance and its crucial role in national security, while also shedding light on potential future developments and global implications. Keywords: Chinese national security, Cyber surveillance, Cyber surveillance, Great Wall of China, History of surveillance in China.

The psychology and social dynamics of fetal sex prognostication in China: Evidence from historical data

AbstractFetal sex prognostication has been a common practice in many human societies, yet most of the prognosticative methods do not perform better than chance. Why do these ineffective prognostication practices recur across societies and persist for long periods of time? In this article, we use historical texts of four different genres in traditional China (oracle bone inscriptions, dynastic history, encyclopedia, and local gazetteers) to examine the social and cognitive factors that lead to the overestimation of the predictive accuracy of sex prognostication and place fetal sex prognostication into a more general framework to understand the persistence of ineffective cultural practices. In particular, we present a detailed historical analysis showing that individuals often entertain considerable uncertainty regarding the accuracy of sex prognostication and quantitative data demonstrating a significant bias toward selectively reporting successes in (fictionalized) historical texts. We conclude by discussing how such reporting bias combined with humans’ imperfect information processing may help explain the persistence of ineffective technologies, such as divination, and magic in general.

Family portraits from the lost Gaddi gallery

Abstract This article presents ‘prolegomena’ to a deeper study of picture collecting and portraiture in Florence through the lens of Niccolò Gaddi’s commissions between 1560 and 1591. Originating in the lost gallery in Casa dell’Orto, fifteen portraits are isolated here, for the first time, as having formed the nucleus of the collection that belonged to Niccolò. Partly comprising hitherto unpublished paintings, they allow for an analysis of provenances and the subjects’ dynastic history that sheds light on the commissions of Niccolò and his family members. This represents a first step in the reconstruction of one of the most important private collections in Florence associated with the court of Francesco I and Ferdinando I de’ Medici. Moreover, the micro-case of Gaddi’s ‘quadreria familiare’ may lead to a better understanding of portrait painting in the circle of the ‘Pittori dello Studiolo’, greatly beloved by this ‘gentilhuomo privato con ambizioni da qualsivoglia principe’.

Treatise “Discourses on the Migration of Barbarians” as a Source of Information on the Migration Crisis of the Western Jin Era (265–317 AD)

The relevance of the issues raised in the article is due to the fact that the analysis of the content of the treatise of the dignitary Jiang Tong (unknown – 310 AD) will allow us to reconstruct the features of the early stages of the evolution of the approaches of the Chinese bureaucracy to the problem of the overgrown “barbarian” enclaves. The novelty of the study is in in-depth analysis of the cause-and-effect relationships of the general historical events of the Western Jin era in the context of studying the migration policy of the central and regional Jin authorities in relation to barbarian peoples. The purpose of the article is to identify the peculiarities of the approach to the problem of the overgrown “barbarian enclaves” in the all-Chinese Western Jin empire, reflected in the work of the dignitary Jiang Tong “Xi rong lun” (“Discourses on the resettlement of barbarians”). This treatise has survived to this day as part of the official dynastic history of the Jin Shu (collective biographical chapter 56). Three complex, important and little-studied problems related to the Jin migration crisis and the historical and political process of the Troubled Western Jin era are briefly reviewed and analyzed. First, it is a problem of the fragmentation of the historical and cultural aspects of the general outline of the historical events of the Western Jin era, which is characteristic of the troubled periods of history. Second, it is a problem of the historical and geographical reconstruction of the area of residence of ethnical minorities of the Northern China. Third, it is a problem of reconstructing the Jin methods of weakening and Sinification of the ethnical minorities of the Northern China and adjacent territories. We draw a conclusion that the view on the problem of ethnic enclaves presented in the treatise was distinguished by a detailed analysis of the history of the issue, as well as detailed calculations of the proposed resettlement of “barbarian” peoples.

A study on the variant characters in the stele inscriptions in the Later Lê Dynasty in Vietnam

The study of the variant characters in the stele inscriptions in the Later Lê Dynasty (1428 CE–1789 CE) is not only a study of the dynastic history of the inheritance and variation of Sino-annamite characters, but also an essential part of the study of their spreading and history. Chinese characters in the stele inscriptions were very rich in figure. They contained many variant characters inherited from Chinese literature and those modified with Vietnamese regional characteristics. This article systematically sorts out these variant characters from a diachronic perspective to investigate their structure categories and time distribution. It also reveals the historical track of the inheritance and variation of Chinese characters at that time. Summarizing the characteristics of these variant characters is conducive to comprehensively sorting out the historical context of inheritance and variation of Chinese characters in Vietnam, showing the far-reaching influence of ancient Chinese culture on Vietnam, and systematically build all the information of the stele inscriptions in Vietnam into a searchable database for easy query and research the stele inscriptions in Vietnam.

Издан сборник научных статей «Золотые соты» к юбилею профессора Историко-архивного института РГГУ Е. В. Пчелова

The article is a review of the collection of articles "Golden Honeycombs," published in 2022 to celebrate the anniversary of professor of the Russian State University for the Humanities, specialist in the field of auxiliary historical disciplines E.V. Pchelov, author of more than 900 published works, member of national and foreign societies, including the Historical and Genealogical Society in Moscow, the Russian Genealogical Society, the Russian Historical Society, the Russian Association of Antiquarians, the International Historical Society "Catherine the Great" (Zerbst, Germany), and others. The collection has been prepared by his friends, colleagues and students; it can be divided into three parts. The first part is devoted to scientific, pedagogical, and educational activities of Evgeny Vladimirovich and characterizes his extensive scientific activities, showing his connection with scientific and pedagogical school of the History and Archives Institute. The range of Evgeny Vladimirovich’s scientific interests is extensive, covering issues of ancient Russian history, genealogy of ancient Russian princes, genealogical and dynastic history of the Rurikovs and the Romanovs, history of science and art, semiotic research on the history of Russian state symbols, various problems in the field of onomastics, historical chronology, bibliography, sphragistics, numismatics, and other auxiliary historical disciplines. The second part of the collection includes articles written by E.V. Pchelov’s colleagues and friends. The publications analyze various sources covering the period from the Early Middle Ages to Modern times and touching upon problems of the history of science and everyday life, archival studies, source studies, sphragistics, genealogy, chronology, emblematics, heraldry. The most relevant historiography is demonstrated, articles are accompanied by colorful and helpful illustrations. The third section contains materials on E.V. Pchelov’s biography and work and includes a biographical reference and a list of published works from 1993 to 2021. The bibliography of published works includes monographs, textbooks and manuals, articles, abstracts, reviews of educational and methodological materials, reference publications, amounting to 939 titles. The collection can be considered a comprehensive and relevant scientific publication, expanding modern scientific knowledge on national and foreign history and auxiliary historical disciplines and contributing to expansion of the historiography of scientific areas covered in the collection.