Crossroads Journal
Crossroads – Studies on the History of Exchange Relations in the East Asian World (縱 横 – 東亞世界交流史研究/クロスロード – 東アジア世界の交流史研究 / 크로스로드 – 東아시아 世界의 交流史 研究) is designed as an international forum for contributions related to the history of exchange relations in the East Asian world.
The journal is being sponsored by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the German Research Council.
The Indian Ocean World (IOW) – The Making of the First Global Economy in the Context of Human-Environment Interaction
http://indianoceanworldcentre.com/Team_3
This project is being sponsored by the MCRI (Major Collaborative Research Initiative) sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. My sub-project is also supported by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Gent University, Belgium.
Emergence and Development of Maritime Commerce in the East Asian World (beginning and middle stage: 2010-2014)
China constituted one of the most important ‘core’ IOW economies, a ‘centre’ in the IOW. Whereas conventional studies do little justice to the complex trans-frontier, trans-IOW exchange of commodities, monies, technologies, ideas and people that characterized the pre-colonial era, our research concentrates on exchange relations in the East Asian World and beyond.
The time periods under investigation (c. 5th to 16th/17th centuries) attest to an increasing interest and activity in maritime commerce. Traded were in the beginning mainly luxury and religious items, which until the Southern Song (1127-1279) were brought to China by foreign, primarily Indian, Persian, and Arab or Southeast Asian merchants. While some attention has been paid to the early maritime trade in such luxury and religious items, knowledge in the fields of science and technology (mainly naval, military in general, cartographic, and medical) that crossed the borders as a part of this maritime commerce as well as the particular relationship between religion (primarily Buddhism) and commerce have so far received little attention. Also the characteristics of human movement and migrations have so far been rather neglected.
The aim of this part of the project, therefore, is to obtain a better picture of how the first global economy emerged in the East Asian world. Which roles played the Chinese state in the form of institutions, officials, and emperors (official)? Ho imortant were Chinese and foreign merchants trading in the East Asian world, that is the private sector, within this development? To what extent were either military/political (state) or religious interests (religion) conducive or obstructive to a further development of maritime trade. To what extent were official and private actors and elements (including smuggling) involved with each other?
As part of the project also aspects of science and technology that were conducive to the development of naval technology, navy supplies including medical care, and shipbuilding in China, a conditio sine qua non of maritime trade, shall be investigated. What kinds of naval, military in general and medical knowledge and products crossed the borders? Was it rather private merchants or official governments that were interested in related knowledge and commodities? Who transferred and transported these kinds of knowledge or products? Was the transfer of scientific knowledge or of particular commodities a side effect of state military or religious purposes or was it “traded” intentionally? Can we detect specific patterns of relationship between peripheries (nomadic or half nomadic societies and small countries) and empires (core regions like China) in relation to such foreign knowledge and commodities imported? In this context, the specific relation between official and private commercial interests as well as between state, individual and religion will also be examined.
Due to the much better archaeological evidence the main emphasis will be laid on the Wudai, Song, Yuan and Ming periods (9th/10th to 16th/17th centuries), but earlier time periods shall also receive attention. Comparing Chinese sources with written and/or archaeological evidence from other countries, we will also try to bring more light in a time period when maritime commerce experienced its first significant upswing in the course of the late 4th to early 6th centuries – which at the same time was a period when a Chinese peripheral state (not a centralized China) founded its first permanent standing navy.
Written sources shall be critically analyzed and compared with and complemented by archaeological sources, above all cargoes, commodities, and shipwrecks. New archaeological evidence and new possibilities in the field of written sources can greatly contribute to our research. In this context, shipwrecks recently found in the East or Southeast Asian and Indian Ocean waters constitute a very valuable source, which has so far received little attention. This research will enable to us to obtain a much better insight into the complex trans-regional and trans-frontier exchange networks that existed and into the qualitative characteristics of their development.
“The East Asian ‘Mediterranean’, c. 1500-1800:
A New Quality in the Development of its Neighbouring Countries”
Research project has been sponsored by the VW-Foundation, May 2002 – July 2009
The project, carried out at the Department for Asian Studies at Munich University (LMU), Germany, between May 2002 and July 2009, brought together scholars and PhD students working the field of East Asia’s manifold historical exchange relations. Whereas previous research had, with few exceptions, basically documented the history of a specific region or the trade relations between two areas, this project – on the basis of written and archaeological sources of all integrated regions and countries, above all China, Japan, Korea, and the Ryukyus – analyzed supra-regional and international socio-economic, commercial, and cultural exchange relations and interaction within the macro-region of greater East Asia. The concept of an East Asian “Mediterranean” as a medium of exchange has been borrowed from Fernand Braudel’s work on the European Mediterranean, “la Méditerranée” (Ch. dizhonghai 地中海). Although by far not all conceptual elements of Braudel’s model can and should be “transferred” to the Far Eastern context, the concept can be applied in order to underline different forms of political, commercial and cultural interaction between China, Taiwan, the Ryūkyū Islands, Japan, and Korea, in order to put the emphasis of analysis on the history of exchange relations rather than that of more or less isolated (nation) states or countries. Braudel’s concept can also be used to enlarge our view on a macro-region that was only superficially characterized by a strict antagonism between a “centre” (China) and “peripheries” in East Asia.
Frontiers of History in China
www.springer.com/east/home/humanities/history?
SGWID=5-40402-70-91531262-detailsPage=journal
This is an English journal called “Frontiers of History in China: Selected Publications from Chinese Universities”, which is co-published by the Spring Company in Germany and the Higher Education Press in China. We select high quality articles from Chinese universities written in Chinese and translate them into English in order to make them acessible to a wider readership worldwide.
The Importance of Stone Inscriptions for the Study of Tomb Inscriptions (muzhiming 墓誌銘)
This research was part of an interdisciplinary research project based at Tōkyō University,
Faculty of Humanities (人文社會系研究科), Japan (Prof. Dr. Kojima Tsuyoshi 小島毅):
“Higashi Ajia no kaiiku kōryū to Nihon dentō bunka no keisei
東アジアの海域 交流と日本傳統文化の形成”, and focused on late Tang, Wudai, and Song inscriptions.
Muzhiming are written sources. As stone inscriptions in the form of text (i.e. as a rule biographies of varying length) they were placed into the tomb of deceased, as a rule at the head or foot end of the coffin. These these “buried” tomb inscriptions have to be considered valuable authentical source material. This is because studying tomb inscriptions one has to distinguish between these buried, archaeological sources and “paper”-versions circulating among the living. Tomb inscriptions were for example composed by famous scholar-officials and literati and consequently entered their Collected Works (wenji 文集). But they could also be included in other source collections and, above all, survived in the form of rubbings. Such “paper versions” of the inscriptions must not necessarily have been carved in stone. Above all, however, paper versions can differ from the original “buried” inscription stone. A comparison between both stone and paper versions can lead to interesting conclusions about the motivation and interests of their composers. The results of this sub-project have been published in two articles:
1. “Bohimei kankyū ni okeru shiseki no zhūyōsei 墓誌銘研究における石刻の重要性”, in Hiseki wa kataru 碑石は語る. (Tōkyō: Bensei shuppansha, 2006), pp. 82–93. アジア遊学 Intriguing Asia, no 91.
2. “A Buried Past: The Tomb Inscription (muzhiming) and Official Biographies of Wang Chuzhi 王處直 (863–923)”, JESHO 52:1 (2009), pp. 15–56.
Journal of Marine and Island Cultures (JMIC)
Editor-in-Chief: Seok-Joon HONG (Mokpo National University, Korea), Gloria PUNGETTI (University of Cambridge, UK)
Associate Editors-in-Chief: Sun-Kee HONG (MIC, Mokpo National University, Korea), Takakazu YUMOTO (Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Japan), Singgih Tri SULISTIYONO (Indonesia), Jala MAKHZOUMI (American University of Beirut, Lebanon), Oliver RACKHAM (University of Cambridge, UK), Angela SCHOTTENHAMMER (Gent University, Belgium)
Goals
Historically, islands, seas and oceans have possessed a certain dualistic nature that can be characterized by the notions of communication and isolation. Oceans in particular were initially regarded as a subject of adventure and challenge. They were perceived at once as a path toward the unknown world, and as a feared space from which unwanted changes emanated. For their part, islands were perceived as communication spaces connected together by oceans, but also as spaces isolated from one another by these same oceans. This dualistic nature of islands and oceans contributed to the creation of unique and varied marine and island cultures, and also ensured that they played a role in not only cultural change, but cultural preservation as well.
The importance of islands, seas and oceans has continuously expanded amidst the growing awareness that these serve as alternative spaces within which solutions to some of the most serious problems faced by mankind such as climate change and resources depletion may potentially be garnered. The solutions to some of the keys to the very survival of mankind, including the achievement of harmony and coexistence in terms of biodiversity and cultural diversity, as well as sustainability, can also be found in islands, seas and oceans. These can be regarded as the reasons why international cooperation is desperately required where oceans, seas and islands are concerned.
While open waters are absolute spaces that account for two-thirds of the earth’s surface, the planet’s landmasses can be likened to a couple of huge islands that are effectively surrounded by these waters. In this regard, islands and open waters are integral not only to our planet earth, but also to us humans that inhabit it. While islands, seas and oceans have served as the causes of conflicts and lose-lose relationships, they are also inherently endowed with the potential to foster coexistence and joint prosperity. To this end, it is necessary to combine islands, seas and oceans into one overarching category so as to facilitate the conduct of multidisciplinary and multifunctional comparative studies whose scope go well beyond that of local studies. It is also necessary to conduct the basic research needed to forge the foundation required to establish policy in the future.
The Institution for Marine and Island Cultures (MIC) at Mokpo National University has for the most part focused on research related to the oceans and islands of Korea. However, as part of its efforts to expand the scope of study to the global level, the Institution has increased the scale of its research to include multi-disciplines, and sought to establish networks with related research institutes. The time has come to construct a new field that can be referred to as island oceanography. Focused on island and ocean-related issues that affect mankind, this new field could be created by establishing a multidisciplinary research system and global network system.
A partner of this network is CCLP, the Cambridge Centre for Landscape and People at the University of Cambridge, UK, whose academics have carried out in the last two decades outstanding research on European and Mediterranean islands and seas. Their cooperation with academia, governments, NGOs and organizations for natural and cultural heritage conservation in all continents has created another large network of experts in islands and seas.
It is as part of the effort to widen the scope globally, that prestigious island, sea and ocean related research institutes and researchers in the world have come together to launch the SEOM & BADA: Journal of Marine and Island Cultures.
Originality of the aims and scope
The SEOM & BADA: Journal of Marine and Island Cultures, an international journal, is the official journal of the Institution for Marine and Island Cultures, Republic of Korea. The SEOM & BADA: Journal of Marine and Island Cultures publishes peer-reviewed, original research papers, reviews, reports, and comments covering all aspects of the humanities and cultural issues pertaining to the marine and island environment. In addition, the journal publishes articles that present integrative research conducted across inter-disciplinary boundaries, including studies examining the sustainability of the living environment, nature-ecological resources, and the socio-economic systems of islands and islanders. The journal particularly encourages the submission of papers relating to marine and island cultures in the Asia-Pacific Region as well as in the American, European and Mediterranean Regions.
Societal /institutional links and possible synergy
Funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), the Institution for Marine and Island Cultures (MIC) is the only research institute of its kind in Korea. It has conducted interdisciplinary studies that have brought together such diverse fields of research as the humanities, socioeconomics, natural science, history, folklore, and policy development. The Institution for Marine and Island Cultures (MIC) has over the past 30 years published a Korean language academic journal entitled Island Culture. Based on this experience, the Institution now seeks to promote the further development of pertinent studies by establishing a marine and island culture related international academic journal.
The Institution has also conducted various academic exchanges with academic organizations and university research institutes in Korea involved in such research fields on marine and island cultures. It has also, based on the reaching of academic exchange agreements with foreign organizations such as the University of California, Ocean University of China, National Taiwan Ocean University, and the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RHIN), Research Center for Pacific Islands (RCPI) at Kagoshima University, and Ryukyu University in Japan, sought to establish international networks of like-minded individuals. Among these is the new cooperation with the Cambridge Centre for Landscape and People (CCLP) in UK, which covers European and Mediterranean islands and seas. In addition, the Institution’s editorial board consists of researchers who are world-renowned in their respective fields.
The Institution has also pursued close cooperation with many organizations. Examples of bodies with which the Institution has worked include international organizations such as UNESCO and IUCN, renowned international ecological organizations such as INTECOL, EAFES and IALE, as well as national and international island related societies in Asia-Pacific Region, and in the European and Mediterranean Regions.