Professor Benn examines one significant way in which tea, a relatively new beverage in Tang-dynasty China, was first consumed and understood, alongside other decoctions intended to promote health and wellness.
The Global Side of Medieval at the Getty Centre: Traversing the Globe Through Illuminated Manuscripts
March 26, 2016 By
Los Angeles correspondent, Danielle Trynoski takes through the, ‘Traversing the Globe Through Illuminated Manuscripts’ exhibut at the Getty Museum.
Great Wonders: The Great Walls of China
January 16, 2016 By
This talk will examine these Great Chinese Walls from the perspectives of their contemporary and later observers, foreign and Chinese, advocates and critics.
Medievality and the Chinese Sense of History
December 20, 2015 By
The approach taken in this article is to ask whether the Chinese, prior to the twentieth century, developed a sense of history capable of qualitatively discriminating between present and past in the way, or to the degree, that allowed Europeans to ’discover’ their medieval period?
Chinese translation of De re metallica discovered
October 21, 2015 By
Scholars from the University of Tübingen have discovered a 17th century Chinese translation of large parts of De re metallica or On the Nature of Metals, a mining handbook written by Georgius Agricola in 1556.
Rapid Invention, Slow Industrialization, and the Absent Entrepreneur in Medieval China
September 27, 2015 By
For some sixteen centuries, about eight times the length of the period since the onset of England’s Industrial Revolution, China was the source of an astonishing outpouring of inventions that included a vast variety of prospectively valuable novelties as diverse as printing, the blast furnace, the spinning wheel, the wheelbarrow, and playing cards, in addition to the more widely recognized gunpowder and compass.
The First Great Divergence?
July 18, 2015 By
The ‘Papal Revolution’ in late eleventh and early twelfth century western Europe and the unsuccessful campaign by Wang An Shi and his followers to reform the imperial administration of Song China at just the same time are regarded as critical turning points in their respective histories.
Hellenes and Romans in Ancient China (240 BC – 1398 AD)
July 3, 2015 By
In this article I have assembled elements from historical texts, archaeological discoveries and research from other scholars in order to establish the links between these civilizations.
How the Jin Loyalists Made a New Home in the South
June 24, 2015 By
The events of the transition from the Western Jin (265-316) to Eastern Jin dynasties (317-420) at the turn of the fourth century affected not only the people and history of that era, but also the development of China and Chinese culture today.
Comparing China and India in the 9th century
May 3, 2015 By
A ninth-century Arabic text offers insights into daily life in medieval China and India.
The Pre-History of Gunpowder
February 15, 2015 By
There is a Chinese tradition that a cook carrying a bowl of saltpetre slipped and dropped it onto a charcoal fire. That would certainly create a considerable conflagration but, as the ingredients were not mixed, hardly an explosion.
Small Talk: A New Reading of Marco Polo’s Il milione
December 12, 2014 By
It is perhaps not that surprising that we find the narrative pattern reflected in Il milione conforms nicely to the expectations of the Chinese genre of small talk.
Maritime Southeast Asia: The View from Tang-Song China
October 16, 2014 By
The following are annotated, critical translations of monographs from the Older and Newer Tang Histories concerning the foreign peoples and kingdoms of Maritime Southeast Asia.
Which Chinese Emperor Are You?
October 11, 2014 By
Take this quiz to see which Ming or Qing emperor you are most similar to.
A First Escape from Poverty in Late Medieval Japan: Evidence from Real Wages in Kyoto (1360-1860)
September 26, 2014 By
This paper offers a first investigation of long-term trends in Japanese living standards from the mid-14th to the mid-19th century using urban daily wages and price data for a number of basic commodities.
Odorico from Pordenone and his encounter with China (1318-1330)
September 18, 2014 By
Odorico from Pordenone was a Franciscan Friar, who made a journey from Venice to Peking in the first half of the fourteenth century
Marvels and Allies in the East. India as Heterotopia of Latin Europe in the 12th Century
January 18, 2014 By
It has long been said that Latin Europe lost its connection to the East, specifically to Asia, in the early Middle Ages. But this is only part of the truth. From late Antiquity on, there were Christians in many places between the Mediterranean Sea and China.
Tremors in the Web of Trade: Complexity, Connectivity and Criticality in the Mid-Eighth Century Eurasian World
December 7, 2013 By
Events within a fifteen-year period in mid-eighth century Eurasia included the Abbasid revolution, An Lu-shan’s Rebellion in Tang China, and the collapse or emergence of empires from Frankish Europe to Tibet to the kingdom of Srivajaya.
The Forbidden City comes to Toronto
October 14, 2013 By
The Royal Ontario Museum will be hosting the exhibition ‘The Forbidden City: Inside the Court of China’s Emperors’ beginning on March 8, 2014.
Islamic Astronomy in Medieval China
September 15, 2013 By
In 1271, Kublai Khan founded the Bureau of Islamic Astronomy in Peking, which operated alongside the long-established Chinese Astronomical Bureau.
Inter-religious Debate at the Court of the Early Tang: An Introduction to Daoxuan’s Ji gujin Fo Dao lunheng
August 22, 2013 By
During Six dynasties, Daoists as well as Buddhists gained access to the highest levels of society and to the imperial court in the south and in the north of China.
Western Turks and Byzantine gold coins found in China
August 14, 2013 By
In general, before the 1980′s, most scholars treated these finds as evidences for the frequent connection between Byzantine and China, which could be further associated with the seven-times visits of Fulin (Rum) emissaries recorded in Tang literature. However, after the 1980′s, more and more researchers tended to take these gold coins as a result of prosperous international trade along silk road.
The Trebuchet
January 13, 2013 By
Recent reconstructions and computer simulations reveal the operating principles of the most powerful weapon of its time
Dark ages and dark areas: global deforestation in the deep past
January 1, 2013 By
The ‘darkness’ that envelopes the ages and areas of the forest of the past consists broadly of two elements. First, there are the problems intrinsic to forests as living ecosystems or entities. Many of these are still more or less uncertain and murky. Second, there are the difficulties of knowing what human activity took place.
Why the Scientific Revolution Did Not Take Place in China – or Didn’t It?
November 11, 2012 By
Why, between the first century BC and the fifteenth century AD, Chinese civilization was much more efficient than occidental in applying human natural knowledge to practical human needs
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