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The reconstruction of Confucianism during the Song dynasty is an important issue in the history of Chinese thought. Song scholar-officials not only introduced ideological innovations and founded the new type of Confucianist "School of Universal Principle" known as "Neo-Confucianism," but also, in their reconstruction of Confucianism, attended to the specific rituals and introduced the concepts and values of the school into people's daily life and habits. The observance of ritual privately at home – using ritual to "instruct" and "admonish" the family – became the way for scholar-officials to embody Confucian values effectively in daily life. Song family rituals developed differences from previous eras with respect to text, structure, and meaning. However, as rituals that comprehensively arranged the order of Confucian daily life, they were not merely a static Neo-Confucian text and system. Rather, scholar-officials' ritual activities were always the concrete, dynamic aspect of the Confucian revival movement. Therefore, we must begin the discussion of family rituals from a wider perspective, first by exploring the motivation and goals of scholar-officials' rituals. We will then discover how frustrated and compromised scholar-officials of the period felt when the pattern of daily life they had created proved difficult to accommodate to the real world. We will finally take note of the value system that this pattern was meant to demonstrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the Wei-Jin through Tang-Song periods, social structures and customs in China underwent great change. In the case of sitting positions, these periods saw a shift from the "floor-sitting era" prior to the Qin to the "era of raised sitting" following the Tang and Song dynasties. In the interim, there was a period where the seated squat (juzuo 踞坐) made an appearance. This position is depicted in the "Man seated on foreign stool" detail of the scroll painting, Bei Qi jiaoshu tu 北齊校 書圖. During the Liu Song dynasty, monks at the Qihuan Temple ate in a seated squat and were vehemently lambasted by scholar-officials led by Fan Tai, instigating political debate around the sitting position. From a Confucian point of view, sitting positions are divided into two categories based on whether the calves or the bottoms of one's feet touch the ground: the first includes kneeling, the sitting kneel, and the lotus positions, while the second includes squatting, sitting with legs outstretched, and the seated squat positions. Shifts in sitting positions reflect not only subtle changes taking place across various aspects of Chinese social customs and daily life, but also structural change on a systemic level. On the ideological front, obscure learning of the Wei and Jin dynasties exposed abuses of Confucian ethics. Compounded with the onslaught of foreign cultural influences such as Buddhism, it is no wonder, in this context of great historical upheaval, that efforts to preserve Confucianism would end in failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to records in the Jinshi , Wanyan Aguda established the Jin dynasty and proclaimed himself emperor in the year 1115. He selected the dynastic name Da Jin and the era name Shouguo. Liu Pujiang's publications, however, have raised serious doubts about the Jinshi version of the Jin dynasty's founding narrative and sparked a scholarly debate on the matter. On the basis of Liu Pujiang's research and by careful analysis of records on the founding of the Jin state in Song and Yuan dynasties documents and stone inscriptions, this article manages to restore a rough picture of the real history of the early Jin. On advice by his counsellor Yang Pu, Aguda established the Jin dynasty and declared himself emperor in the seventh year (1117) of the Tianqing period of the Liao. He proclaimed the dynastic name Da Jin and the era name Tianfu. The founding history of the Jin dynasty as described in the Jinshi should be considered the product of historical revision that occurred during the rewriting process of the Taizu shilu. The era name Shouguo was only created retrospectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term shi-shi 詩史 [poet historian/poem history] was first employed by Meng Qi 孟啟 in his book Poetry of Capabilities , a collection of stories about poets from the late Tang dynasty, to describe Du Fu and his poems. They were reflections of the political and scholarly climate in the Mid-to-Late Tang dynasty. During that time, Yuan Zhen 元稹 and Bai Juyi 白居易 studied Du's poems and acknowledged the historiographical attributes contained in Du's poems through depictions of social and political upheavals during the An Lushan Rebellion. Although Yuan and Bai had different opinions than Meng because of divergent political stances, they all agreed on the realistic quality of Du's poems. Building on the works of Yuan and Bai, the "Biography of Du Fu" in New Book of the Tang from the Song dynasty defined shi-shi from a perspective of contemporary affairs, which further broadened the word's connotation. Since then, shi-shi not only can refer to the narrative and realistic characteristics of Du's poems but also to the ethical and political ideologies involved: from narrating one's own fate to the fate of an era. Du's poem series such as "Three Officials" and "Three Farewells" have also been included as examples of shi-shi. Such is what constitutes our general understanding of the word shi-shi today, which constitutes a scholarly inheritance that combines the political, pedagogical and poetic traditions of Du Fu and Confucianism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When it comes to the favorite food of the outlaws of Mount Liang, beef is the undisputed champion. The 120-chapter edition of Water Margin has nearly 50 scenes that depict the heroes feasting heartily on beef. The next most frequently evoked type of meat is mutton, but the number of times it is mentioned is only half that of beef and the relevant scenes are depicted with far less detail. Because cattle slaughter and the sale of beef were strictly forbidden during the Song dynasty, an expanding community of researchers considers this choice of food as a subtle reflection of the bandits' defiance of law and order. However, this school of thought has yet to sufficiently take into account several elements, including the extent to which this law was enforced during the Song dynasty, when the adventures of Song Jiang and his sworn brothers took place; society's attitude toward beef consumption during this same period; the compilation of the novel in the Ming dynasty and the author's awareness of historical facts; and the limited presence of beef in the Song-Yuan antecedents of the novel. Taking these points into consideration, this article reexamines the motif of beef consumption in Water Margin and the development of this theme through a historical lens. To do so, it first focuses on the legal issues pertaining to cattle slaughter and the sale of beef during the Song dynasty. Particular attention is paid to the enforcement of relevant laws and the circulation and popularity of black-market beef during this period. Then, it highlights the discrepancies between the way in which beef consumption is presented in the Ming novel and historical facts, followed by a discussion of the portrayal of meat consumption in Yuan dramas featuring Song Jiang and his gang of outlaws. In the end, by thoroughly considering the presentation of food in the developmental history of Water Margin , from Yuan dramas to the Ming novel, this article sheds light on the importance of this subject as a literary motif in medieval Chinese literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding rites and rituals is one of the most important keys to understanding ancient China. Zhang Shishan explores the complex relationship between I li i and I su i in Chinese society, with the two sometimes at odds and sometimes influencing each other and growing in tandem. In the end, Chinese society adopted the use of chairs and tables as opposed to the traditional custom of sitting on mats, which demonstrates the flexibility of China's I li i . [Extracted from the article]

Naitō Konan's hypothesis on the "Tang-Song transition" was first expressed in lecture notes from his 1909 class on modern Chinese history at Kyoto University and, then, expounded in subsequent works such as "A General View of the Tang and Song Dynasties" and "Modern Chinese History." The theory systematically outlines that an evolutionary medieval to modern transition occurred in Chinese society during the period between the Tang and the Song dynasties, focusing in particular on the areas of politics/government, the economy, and culture. Political change is regarded as the core metric, demonstrated in concentrated form by the government's transformation from an aristocratic to a monarchical autocratic system alongside a rise in the status and position of the common people. The "Tang-Song transition theory," underpinned theoretically by a cultural-historical perspective, advocates for a periodization of Chinese history based on the stages and characteristics of China's cultural development, which is also attributed to cultural shifts, downward to the commoner class from a culture monopolized by the aristocracy during the period between the Tang and Song, with concomitant changes in society. For over a century since it was first proposed, the "Tang-Song transition theory" has had far-reaching influence in Chinese, Japanese, and Western academic circles, continuing to be lively and vigorous even now. We might be able to find the cause in its originality and liberality, which leave significant room for later thinkers' continued adherence and development or criticism and falsification and continue to inspire new questions. Naitō's proposal was also intimately connected to his observations of China's circumstances in the late Qing dynasty and early Republican period, which also provided a "sample of the era" regarding realistic approaches to historical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, Naitō Konan's "theory on modernity since the Song" (Tang-Song transformation theory) did not elicit widespread academic interest until the twenty-first century. The following article provides a comprehensive analysis of the reception to Naitō's theory by Chinese historians and the implications for Chinese Song studies. The author discusses the Naitō hypothesis from six different perspectives: the theoretical basis and political background of Naitō's work, historical development patterns in China and the West, Chinese history as the history of a multiethnic country, international scholarship on the periodization of Chinese history, and the contributions by Chinese scholars. The author concludes that Chinese Tang and Song historians should turn the page and move on from Naitō Konan's modernity theory (transformation theory). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theory of Tang and Song reform proposed by Naitō Torajirō, commonly known as Naitō Konan at the beginning of the twentieth century, not only is a perspective on the differences between the Tang and Song institutions but, to a large extent, also formed the research model on the history of the Song-dynasty system in Japanese research on the history of political institutions. Since the 1990s, the topic of Tang and Song reform was introduced to China, but it did not bring any new ideas to the study of Chinese history, nor did it promote reflection on previous research ideas or methods. The historical transformation in the Tang and Song dynasties is, indeed, worthy of attention from historians, but it needs to be done by combining the discussion of Tang and Song reform with the study of political institutional history, avoiding the various existing paradigms in theories on Tang and Song reforms. We must expand the research horizon, placing importance on the restoration of historical reality and referring to the perspectives of "change" and "continuity" rationally, thus allowing for a true breakthrough in Tang and Song historical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Administrative statutes in the Tang clearly recognized that the fields of commoners could be held through private ownership. Field ownership structures in the recently restored Tang Statutes , while seeming to support ideas of land nationalization, did not actually change the private landowning practices that had been in place since the Qin and the Han dynasties. Numerous tenancy contracts unearthed in Dunhuang and Turfan dating back to the Tang and Five Dynasties show ample evidence that, prior to the establishment of the double-tax system in 780, a highly developed system of contract tenancy was already in place. Tenancy was clearly the leading form of agricultural production outside subsistence farming. This proves that the labor force during the Sui and Tang dynasties consisted not of "slaves and tenant farmers" or "agricultural dependents and serfs" but of commoners who were legally free. The Sui, Tang, and Five Dynasties, as described by Japanese historian Naitō Konan, bear no resemblance to the historical reality of this period. In many instances, Naitō's arguments have distorted the history of these dynasties in an effort to make China's history fit neatly into the framework of medieval European history. Consequently, his premises, arguments, and his central conclusion are all wrong. It is crucial that we dispel the myth of Naitō's "Tang-Song transition theory" and return to historical reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's ancient tributary system not only served the vanity of the dynasty but had multiple political implications, closely tied to the dynasty's national security. The Song dynasty's [960-1279] notion of security followed an overall policy of guarding the dynasty against external threats, surrounding barbarian nations, and maintaining domestic order. The stability and eventual collapse of the tributary system were closely tied to the domestic security of the Song dynasty and to the security of all the countries that participated in the system. The system constituted a dynamic and interactive security community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's ancient tributary system not only served the vanity of the dynasty but had multiple political implications, closely tied to the dynasty's national security. The Song dynasty's [960-1279] notion of security followed an overall policy of guarding the dynasty against external threats, surrounding barbarian nations, and maintaining domestic order. The stability and eventual collapse of the tributary system were closely tied to the domestic security of the Song dynasty and to the security of all the countries that participated in the system. The system constituted a dynamic and interactive security community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

They demonstrate the complexity of issues concerning the history of China's northern kingdoms, and open up new questions for further research. This special issue contains five articles researching the founding history of four northern dynasties: the Liao (907-1125), Jin (1115-1234), Yuan (1206-1368), and Qing (1616-1911). [Extracted from the article]

This paper examines the imperial feng 封 and shan 禪 ritual at Mount Tai in 1008 and its connection with popular pilgrimages among the Mount Tai cult. It aims to demonstrate how ritual can be used as a tool of the imperial state in communicating its political and cultural agenda. Placing the imperial pilgrimage within its historical context at the turn of the eleventh century, it can be understood as an effort to secure mass identification with the state and its authority. More importantly, it could be used to establish ownership of Chinese civilization by the Song dynasty (960-1279) in its competition with the Khitan, who had long adopted Chinese institutions and ideology. Various strategies were deployed by the throne to communicate the imperial symbolism of the mountain. The mountain, therefore, had become valuable symbolic capital. Through the composition of temple inscriptions, the literati were able to redefine the popular ritual practices of the Mount Tai cult and brought them into a hegemonic discourse on the mountain. This facilitated the construction of an imperial cultural identity accessible to all social groups and allowed an abstract concept of Chinese culture to be communicated through the fabric of society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles within the issue on topics including the hypothesis of Naitō Konan on the Tang-Song transition theory, failure of the theory to advance the study of Tang-Song history, and the shortcomings of the theory from the political history perspective.