China provides an interesting case study of civil conflict because of her long history and rich records. Using a unique dynastic panel dataset for north China during 25–1911 ce, this study finds that severe famines and dynastic age were positively correlated with peasant uprisings, whereas government disaster relief as a proxy for state capacity played a significant mitigating role. Negative climate shocks (e.g. severe drought, locust plagues) affected peasant uprisings primarily through the channel of severe famines. The effects of population density, temperature and other climate shocks (e.g. flood, levee breaches, snow disasters) were either not robust or insignificant.
Similar to the mankind, civilizations also occur and develop by certain life cycle. In the process of rationality growth, the Indian and Chinese civilizations melt the outside experience material continuously with their profoud spriritual potential and gave rise to two great "philosophical breakthrough", thus renewing the original net of meaning. Just as Upanisad rules that Buddhism concerns how to set soul free, classical statecraft culture also rules that Chinese thinkers pay close attention to political order. With the emergence of their great spiritual masters, the two civilization grew up from the childhood and obtained their adult forms—Buddhism and Confucianism. Mahayana Buddhism as the crystal of the Indian "philosophical breakthrough" spread toward faraway east along the"Silk Road" and collided with the Chinese civilization which also experienced the similar"philosophical breakthrough" , as the result, the latter's gene was changed forever. Keywords: philosophical break through, cultural gene, Buddhism, Confucianism, Mahayana Buddhism, statecraft culture, Neo-Confucianism Résumé Les grandes civilisations, comme le développement de l'humanité, ont leur propre cycle vital de la naissance au vieillissement. Dans le processus de développement rationnel, les civilisations indienne et chinoise constituent deux grandes « percées philosophiques » dans l'histoire de la pensée grâce à leur renouvellement constant avec le temps. De même que Upanisad définit l'attention que le bouddhisme prête à la délivrance de l'âme de l'individu, la culture royale et officielle décide aussi la poursuite de l'ordre politique parfait par les différentes écoles de pensées de l'époque pré-Qin. Ces deux grandes civilisations ont réussi à accomplir leur développement spirituel et atteint l'état de maturité—le bouddhisme et le confucianisme. Le bouddhisme de grand Cheng hautement philosophique, en tant que la cristallisation du développement rationnel de la civilisation, a été diffusé vers l'Est lointain le long de la Route de la Soie et assimilé par la civilisation chinoise qui avait connu elle-même une percée philosophique, et a modifié ainsi à jamais le gène intérieur de la civilisation de la Chine. Mots-clés: percée philosophique, gène culturel, bouddhisme, confucianisme, bouddhisme de grand Cheng, culture royale et officielle, philosophie néo-confucianiste des dynasties Song et Ming 摘 要 各大文明也和人類一樣有著發生發育以至衰老的生命週期。在理性發育的過程中印度文明和中國文明以其深刻而豐富的意蘊不斷融化經驗材料,更新其原有的意義之網,從而形成思想史上兩次偉大的"哲學突破"。正如《奧義書》規定了佛學對個人靈魂解脫的關注,王官文化也規定了諸子百家對完美的政治秩序的追求。兩大文明在其偉大的精神導師那裏順利地完成了心智發育,從而獲得了自己的成年形態――佛教與儒教。高度哲理化的大乘佛學作為印度文明理性發育之結晶則沿著"絲綢之路"傳向遙遠的東方,為同樣發生過"哲學突破"的中國文明所消化,從而永遠地改變了後者的內在基因。關鍵詞:哲學突破;文化基因;佛教;儒教;大乘佛學;王官文化;宋明理學
AbstractThe rise of the Household Responsibility System has been widely viewed as a significant contribution to China's agricultural growth. However, this empirical conclusion is rested upon a convenient but doubtful presumption that the process of institutional change, also known as decollectivization, is exogenous. We contribute to this literature by explicitly recognizing the endogeneity of institutional changes, and exploit exogenous variations in lagged weather shocks and initial fixed assets for consistent estimation. With improved data on irrigation, mechanization, weather and institutional changes in a provincial panel data during 1970–1987, the results of panel instrumental estimations reveal that the Household Responsibility System had a significantly positive effect on China's agricultural growth, which was larger than indicated by OLS estimates that suffer from adverse selection and attenuation biases.
This book explores new frontiers in the research of economic growth and industrial reconstruction, analyzing economic growth and transitions in industrial structure in East Asia with a variety of data. First, the effects of demographic change on trade openness is analyzed empirically using the panel data of APEC countries. Second, the determinant of wage and housing costs are estimated using survey data collected from peasant workers in China. Third, the determinants of conquests among nomads in or near China and dynasties from world history are analyzed empirically using data regarding dynasties. Fourth, critiques on Emmanuel's unequal exchange theory are investigated based on the profit data in the world. This book is highly recommended for readers who would like to obtain a new idea about economic development in terms of industrial structure.--
Widespread misinformation about COVID-19 poses a significant threat to citizens long-term health and the combating of the disease. To fight the spread of misinformation, Chinese governments have used official social media accounts to participate in fact-checking activities. This study aims to investigate why citizens share fact-checks about COVID-19 and how to promote this activity. Based on the elaboration likelihood model, we explore the effects of peripheral cues (social media capital, social media strategy, media richness, and source credibility) and central cues (content theme and content importance) on the number of shares of fact-checks posted by official Chinese Government social media accounts. In total, 820 COVID-19 fact-checks from 413 Chinese Government Sina Weibo accounts were obtained and evaluated. Results show that both peripheral and central cues play important roles in the sharing of fact-checks. For peripheral cues, social media capital and media richness significantly promote the number of shares. Compared with the push strategy, both the pull strategy and networking strategy facilitate greater fact-check sharing. Fact-checks posted by Central Government social media accounts receive more shares than local government accounts. For central cues, content importance positively predicts the number of shares. In comparison to fact-checks about the latest COVID-19 news, government actions received fewer shares, while social conditions received more shares.
