A Top-down Reformation: Land Ownership Establishment of German Peasants

HOU Jianxin

Compare with the bottom-up and original land ownership establishment in England, the government-led and top-down land ownership establishment in Germany is unique. Because of Prussia’s special historical status in territorial states of Germany in modern times, and because of its composite characteristics which originated from multi-cultural traditions, this article starts from Prussia’s origin and change, points out the intrinsic connection with the important historical phenomena of modern Germany, such as “Junker” and the “neo-serfdom”, and how Prussia imprinted a deep mark on the land ownership of German peasants. With Prussia as the guide, the territorial states of Germany started their land reforms in the early 19^th century. After more than half a century, peasants generally possessed their own land, while the implementation of the principle of economic compensation, to a greater extent reduced and avoided social unrest, reduced the cost of reform, and promoted the reform developing orderly. The land reformation released social vitality, and Prussia rose rapidly and established a unified “German Empire”. However, it should be noted that some successful institutional changes did not imply the changes in perceptions or deep-seated rights relations, which was also the “fatal flaw” of Prussian model.

Crisis and Self-help of Common Law Courts in Tudor Dynasty

SHAO Zhengda

As the predecessor and foundation of Anglo-American Law System, English common law was founded in the 12^th century. By the 13^th century, the common law courts were the most important branch in the British judicial system. Since the 15^th century, the procedures of common law have fallen into rigidity. With the development of equity from the Lord Chancellor and the rise of Roman law from continental Europe, the common law courts had been plunged into internal and external crisis. With the court of King’s Bench as the guide, the common law courts had gradually reversed their decline by simplifying judicial procedures, adopting legal fiction and creating substantive remedies available, actively expanding jurisdiction and improving the internal organizational system. In parallel, the Equitable Court, driven by the Lawyer-Chancellor, gradually regularized and interacted with the common law court. The Catholic court, the feudal manor court and the local customary court inherited from the Middle Ages declined rapidly, and the Admiralty court also gradually declined after the brief expansion of jurisdiction. Thus, the judicial mode of “Dual Interaction” between the common law court and the equity court in modern England was initially formed. Under this model, the Common Law Courts uphold justice with its procedural and formalism, while the Equity Courts make up for the shortcomings of common law with their morality and flexibility.

Margery Paston’s Marriage: The Construction and Identification of the Gentry

Identity

GAO Junfeng

Margery Paston was a young lady of a gentry family in Norfolk, England, in the 15^th century. She and Richard Calle, who was the bailiff of the family, were married in love, but their marriage was opposed by other members of the family. By analyzing the reasons for opposition and the marriage of Paston family members, it can be found that marriage had an important influence on the identification of their gentry identity in the concept of the family members. This concept was very common in the emerging families such as the Pastons in late medieval England.

The Mass Movement after the KMD’s Party Purge

XU Xiuli

It was generally believed among historians that the Fourth Plenary Session of the KMD’s Second Central Committee held in February 1928 adopted a resolution on the “suspension of the mass movement”. However, if we delve into the historical materials carefully, we can assume that this is a misrepresentation which “happened for a good reason, but investigation revealed no evidence”. In fact, after the Party purge, the KMD Central Committee never explicitly stopped the mass movement. However, although there was no explicit order, the vigorous mass movement during the Northern Expedition did gradually cease after the establishment of the Nanjing National Government. The KMD could neither completely separate the mass movement from the Communist Party, nor did it dare openly abandon the mass movement. Supported and advocated it on the surface, prevented and suppressed it in reality, which caused a serious disconnect between the state and society, led to ideology greatly departures from actual governance, and to a considerable extent, eroded the foundation of its own political legitimacy.

An Analysis on the Budget Data of the Northern Warlords Government of China

DU Peihong and XU Hetao

One of the most common historical materials used to investigate the early finance of the Republic of China is the national budget schedule. Some scholars used this information, either because they believed that there was only one budget in a year, so they confused different versions of the budget, or they considered the national budget as the total budget of all levels of government budget or the central government budget. The financial system in the early period of the Republic of China had its specific scope. In order to get closer to the facts more accurately, the study of the finance of this early period must know the formation process of the national budget, and interpret these data in the institutional environment at that time.

German Troops Employed by Britain during the American Revolutionary War

XU Erbin

During the American Revolutionary War, about one-third of the British troops in North America came from the territorial states of Germany. Case analysis of four soldiers showed that some of them had joined voluntarily; that some had followed orders to the Americas, but they initially joined the force voluntarily; and some of those forced to join had aspirations for military life during their service. As a whole, the German troops were mercenaries in nature and belonged to a type of mercenaries leased by the government. The German troops in the American Revolutionary War sparked a heated debate in Europe, which led to a decline of a major type of European mercenaries.

The Recognition of “Hysteria” in Early Modern England

ZHAO Xiurong

From Ancient Greece to the 17^th century, hysteria was thought to be associated with the womb, so it had been considered as a disease specific to women. In early modern England, hysteria was intertwined with witchcraft. In 1602, the puritan family girl Mary Gloves appeared to have hysteric symptoms, and her neighbor, Elizabeth Jackson, was accused of witchcraft. Although the result of the case was that Elizabeth was convicted of witchcraft, doctors represented by Edward Jorden believed that the hysteria symptoms were caused by disease and were not demonic possession. From this case we can draw a conclusion that, in early modern England the recognition of hysteria was still in the transition period from demonic possession to physical disease. Hysteria had not yet become a separate category of diseases, and doctors had been trying to medicalize it and peeling off its coat of supernaturalism.

Plague Prevention and Control in Modern Japan

SUN Zhipeng and LI Sijia

In 1899, the first case of native plague occurred in Kobe City, Japan, followed by an outbreak of plague centered on the Kansai Hanshin region, and there were no more plague cases in Japan after 1926. In the course of 27 years of prevention and control, the Japanese government had taken measures such as isolating patients, cleaning and disinfection, blocking traffic, catching and killing rats, quarantine of vehicles and ships, management of specific items, preventive and injection, etc., these measures have both gains and losses in the result. At the same time, the Japanese government adopted the strategy of differentiation and stigmatization to the social poor, searched for and controlled plague patients by means of household registration survey, health diagnosis, doctor reporting, public disclosure, etc., which demonstrated the power of the health police. Then, through the shaping of the national consciousness of integration to offset the sense of oppression in the power performance, the Japanese government set up a set of measures of social control by using the public health system. Epidemic prevention had become a kind of politics of everyday life.