Since the second half of the 1990s, the Chinese government has made an intensive effort to control ongoing natural resource losses. In order to curb the loss of arable land and the environmental... Show moreSince the second half of the 1990s, the Chinese government has made an intensive effort to control ongoing natural resource losses. In order to curb the loss of arable land and the environmental destruction caused by air and water pollution, central level leadership amended existing legislation, making it stricter and more specific. In addition, the centre organized enforcement campaigns to overcome local resistance against the implementation of the amended laws. In an effort to understand the effects these changes had at the local level, this book details how they influenced compliance with natural resource legislation at Lake Dianchi in Yunnan province. This book combines local case studies with theories about lawmaking, compliance, and enforcement, derived from Western and non-Western contexts. Doing so, it offers a unique body of empirical and theoretical knowledge for those interested in how law functions in China, as well as those interested in the workings of regulatory lawmaking, compliance, and enforcement in a comparative perspective Show less
This case study of the tea trade of the Dutch East India Company with China deals with its most profitable phase, when a direct shipping link was established between Canton and the Dutch Republic... Show moreThis case study of the tea trade of the Dutch East India Company with China deals with its most profitable phase, when a direct shipping link was established between Canton and the Dutch Republic in the second half of the eighteenth century. It focuses on the questions why and how the tea trade was taken out of the hands of the High Government in Batavia in 1757 and put under the supervision of the newly established China Committee in Amsterdam, and explains in detail what factors contributed to the phenomenal rise of this trade and its sudden decline in the 1780s. Show less
The Wenzi is a Chinese philosophical text that is traditionally ascribed to a disciple of Laozi, the alleged founder of Daoism. The text was read, discussed, quoted and admired by the lettered... Show moreThe Wenzi is a Chinese philosophical text that is traditionally ascribed to a disciple of Laozi, the alleged founder of Daoism. The text was read, discussed, quoted and admired by the lettered class in imperial China for centuries, until the Northern Song dynasty. From the Southern Song dynasty, however, the Wenzi was branded a forgery and consigned to near oblivion. The recent discovery of an age-old Wenzi manuscript, inked on bamboo strips, refueled interest in the text. In this combined study of the bamboo manuscript and received text, Van Els argues that the Wenzi was written in the early Former Han dynasty and thoroughly revised after the Latter Han dynasty. He also maintains that, given the drastic revision, the two Wenzi’s should be seen as distinct texts, not as different versions of one text, and he subsequently studies the date, authorship and philosophy of each Wenzi. The study is concluded with an analysis of the reception history of the revised text, with an emphasis on the dramatic change in its evaluation: from an admired authentic work to a worthless forgery. This analysis sheds light on changing views on authorship, originality, authenticity and forgery in Chinese history, both past and present. Show less
