1. HOU Jianxin, “In Memory of Professor Qi Shirong: Professor QI and the Journal of Economic and Social History Review”.
2.LIN Yun, “Lei: The Oldest Agricultural Tool of East Asia”.
The existing archaeological relics indicate that Lei is a kind of forked spade for soil scarifying, which was first appeared in the Yellow River Valley around 3000 B.C. Lei could be easily inserted into the land and turned up the clods, which is a powerful tool for both farming and digging. Lei had been spread to Korean Peninsula through northeast China during the Warring State Period, and to Honshu Island of Japan during the 1st century B.C. In both areas, it had been used until the 5th century. Lei is the oldest agricultural tool that commonly be used in East Asia.
3.YANG Dongliang, “Transformations of Japanese Civilization in Modern Times”.
Japanese traditional civilization which originally considered China as a model transformed three times in succession in modern times, which was “break away from Asia to join Europe”, “break away from Europe to return to Japan” and “break away from Japan to join America”. Although each transformation had some meaning of qualitative change, the establishment of a new civilization did not imply the vanishing of traditional civilization. When Japan making achievements in joining Europe or America, it tended to the beginning of rediscovering its tradition and even resuming its dross so as to remodel new civilization in Japan style. Transformations of Japanese civilization tell us that, when in adversity circumstances the latecomer should first be humiliated himself and then be brave, adjust and renew the backward concepts with the times, spare no effort to catch up; when in prosperity one should neither conceited nor rash, look upon oneself and others rationally, make the state and nation eternal.
4.FENG Tianyu, “Some Reflection on the Sino-Japanese Wars from the Perspective of Cultural History”.
In ancient times, Chinese culture provided a model for Japan, but in modern times the position was converse. Japanese traditional culture has both advantages and disadvantages. Since World War II, Japan has refused to apologize for its war crimes not only because of the shortcomings of its traditional culture and the surrounding political environment, but also because of the impacts of US occupation policy and its practical diplomacy. Since Japan became an economic power, the domestic right-wing forces have been trying to shake off the peace constitution and to make Japan step towards a political and military power, which are opposed by the peace-loving Japanese people. In the Asia strategy of the USA, Japan has always played an important role. In all warfare between China and Japan since modern time, China was always in the weak position while its economy was about to take off. Facing the economic growth of China over the last 30 years, the Japanese right-wing forces blatantly claimed “China Threat Theory”. In order to maintain peace and to eliminate barriers in the future Sino-Japanese relationship, we should always keep alert.
5.Bas van Bavel, “History as a Laboratory to Better Understand the Formation of Institutions”.
A main instrument for better understanding the formation of institutions, and explaining the differences in their long-run development between periods and societies, would be to use history as a laboratory, allowing us to test the hypotheses developed in the social sciences. This paper discusses the study by Douglas Allen, The Institutional Revolution, in that context, in order to identify some of the pitfalls in the current attempts by economists to use historical analysis. Next, the paper places his English case into a comparative perspective, helped by the recent insights gained by economic and social history, to see how these pitfalls can be avoided. Based on this, I argue for comparisons at the regional, national and global levels, and for a multidimensional view which includes social contextualization, combined with an open eye for discontinuity in long-run patterns, in order to avoid one-dimensional and teleological approaches to institutional change.
6.BIAN Yao, “The Decision-making Mechanism under the New Monarchy of England”.
As a type of interim monarchy, “New Monarchy” appeared around the time during social transition in the Western European history. By this phase, monarchy transformed itself from feudal monarchy belonging to the Middle Ages to modern constitutional monarchy; the crown became a deputy of the newborn Nation-state. As a system of historical theory, “New Monarchy” was composed by Pollard, and centered on the concept of New Monarchy in order to explain the social transformation happened during the 15- 17th century. New Monarchy Theory of Pollard emphasizes modernity of this era and is found suitable for referring to the monarchy established during social transition. This article argues that it is necessary to highlight the context of new monarchy, and the full concept should be “New Monarchy under and for Nation-state.” Under such monarchy, decision-making mechanism of government changed fundamentally and intensely; the forming and developing of Privy Council is the most important part of the change. There are three phases of changes occurred to the Privy Council, founding period of itself, institutions and principles construction within the Privy Council, and the mature period. And through these changes, Privy Council created a system of collective responsibility, occupied the center of decision-making system; and in form of establishing an alliance with parliament, it even restricted the crown from being arbitrary; it took on most part of the responsibility of ruling the realm, paved the way to the “Glorious Revolution” and the establishing of cabinet system.
7.ZHANG Jiasheng, “Realization and Restriction of City Freedom in Late Medieval England”.
Since the 13th century, most of the cities of England have achieved the self-governing privilege and become free cities. The self-governing city privilege was given by the king as well as the lords both secular and ecclesiastical, therefore their liberties were restricted by the king or the church at times. The liberties of citizens were mainly obtained by redemption, and before the Black Death, many serfs in England had opportunities to achieve freedom. Guild members were the main groups who have achieved freedom. In late medieval England, the realization of citizen freedom was restricted by the elements such as property, guild, gender, time and so on; while the qualifications of ransom and individual property were elevated up, the English cities could not liberate serfs quite well.
8.CHEN Rihua, “The Local Autonomy during the Formation of British and French Nation States”.
British and French nation states gradually formed since 15th and 16th century. During British and French nation states’ formation, there are tensions between nation state and new local autonomy for the influence of feudal system. Thus the local autonomy community becomes the important factor of the development of British and French nation states. Nation states become gradually a larger community of destiny and rights during the interaction between the nation state and local autonomy. Britain and France are the typical nation states, on which we study to help understand the rise of Western European nation states.
9.SHEN Qi, “On the Transport Efficiency of the Medieval England”.
After the mid-twelfth century, the transport condition of medieval England was improved obviously, and the transport efficiency was greatly improved, such as the horse hauling instead of ox, the cart being the main transport tool, the reasonable transport cost, and the specialization of transport service. The land transport efficiency had made a significant progress in the power, tools, costs and services. The complementary and improvement of water and land transport was not only able to meet the needs of social and economic development, but also provided the premise and basis for the social and economic transformation. Although the transport efficiency of medieval England was still far from the early modern England, it was actually the basis and starting point of the latter.
10.ZHOU Qiuguang, “Inheritance and Transformation in the Development of Chinese Charity”.
Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism and Legalism all contain abundant thoughts of charity. The Buddhistical culture which was introduced into China after the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Islamic culture which was introduced into China from Tang and Song Dynasties to Yuan Dynasty, and the Christian culture which has spread into China during Ming and Qing Dynasties are all important sources of charity. From ancient times to Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Chinese traditional charity has taken on a synthetic pattern which is consist of the government charity, the clan charity, the religious charity and the social charity, meanwhile, it has experienced two transformations: the first occurred in period of Guang Xu Emperor, which was marked by the civil character; the second occurred in contemporary, taken the Wenchuan Earthquake as the background, it was marked by the emergence of “national charity”. The reasonable setting of Chinese charity is civilian-run with governmental assistance. The operation of charitable organization should take the means of privatization, legalization, systematization, specialization and universalization.
11.LI Qiang, “From Papyrus to Paper: Evolution of the Writing Materials in the Byzantine Empire”.
The Byzantine Empire played an influential role in the European and even in the world history. The present huge treasure of the Classical-Byzantine literature, saved and handed down with the help of the advanced Byzantine historiography and its various writing materials, become the important evidence for discovering the Classical-Byzantine history and its significance. This paper intends, through showing how the Byzantine writing materials went through the transformation from papyrus to parchment then to paper, to reveal the effect of different writing materials on the storage and spreading of the Classical-Byzantine literature.
12.ZHANG Jian, “On the Change of Diet Structure of Humanity”.
Human’s diet is consisted of two great kinds, namely plant and animal. Primitive humanity first obtained food by fishing, hunting and gathering. About 10,000 year ago, the primitive husbandry and agriculture budded slowly. Since the natural reasons, the distribution of plants which are convenient to domesticate and cultivate is different, as well as the distribution of animals, therefore, the specific crops and animals that domesticate and cultivate are different among regions. This not only made human’s diet structure get distinctions but also pushed the distinctions further and further. The Great Geographical Discovery initiated the great exchanges of the whole world, including great exchanges of agriculture. Various American crops spread into the old continent, the crops, livestock and poultry of the old continent also spread into America, and the ones of new and old continents introduced into Oceania discovered newly later. Thereupon, the differences of human’s diet structure began to reduce slowly and trended to consistency gradually.
13.SHU Xiaoyun, “An Economic History Research from Multi-perspectives: An Interview with Takeshi Hamashita”.
14.Paulos Huang, “The First Letter from Martin Luther to Erasmus of Rotterdam”.
