Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
289
result(s) for
"Navigation China History."
Sort by:
Tracing the geopolitical influences on the morphological and functional transformation in Guangdong merchant ships: Knowledge mining from the Ming and Qing maritime archives
Although the institutional history of ancient Chinese maritime trade has been extensively documented, the functional evolution of maritime vessels and their underlying drivers remains underexplored. Recent studies have moved beyond political explanations to explore the interplay of economic and technological dynamics. Using KH Coder for text mining, this study applies word frequency analysis and co-occurrence network modeling to investigate the geopolitical factors shaping the morphological evolution of Guangdong merchant ships in the Ming and Qing dynasties. A visual-comparative analysis further assesses the functional attributes of three representative ship types. Findings reveal that economic and military imperatives were the primary determinants of ship design, with political and geographic factors exerting secondary but supportive influence. For instance, increased piracy threats in the South China Sea prompted structural reinforcements for defensive purposes, while policy shifts under the Canton System encouraged hull designs optimized for high-capacity, long-distance trade. Guangdong’s maritime development was shaped largely by its strategic location and shipbuilding technologies. Ming-era vessels, constructed from teak and cedar, featured brightly painted, flat-bottomed hulls with elevated, streamlined prows. Qing-era ships employed lightweight alloys, muted color schemes, and reinforced double-planked hulls to enhance seaworthiness, while bow structures evolved into sharper and more angular forms. As Guangdong’s maritime trade transitioned from coastal routes to long-distance transoceanic networks—particularly with Europe—its ship design shifted progressively from broad and bulky to agile and eventually more durable configurations. These morphological transformations reflected not only external pressures, such as maritime security concerns and trade expansion, but also internal drivers, including institutional reforms and policy realignments that significantly influenced vessel design. This study contributes to the technical dimension of maritime historiography by emphasizing the merchant ship as an analytical nexus of institutional logic, technological systems, and geopolitical conditions. It offers both theoretical insight and methodological innovation for understanding the mechanisms behind ship design evolution and the spatial organization of premodern Chinese maritime networks.
Journal Article
Spatial-temporal characteristics and causes of changes to the county-level administrative toponyms cultural landscape in the eastern plains of China
As part of the cultural landscape, administrative toponyms do not only reflect natural and sociocultural phenomena, but also help with related management and naming work. Historically, county-level administrative districts have been stable and basic administrative regions in China, playing a role in the country's management. We explore the spatio-temporal evolutionary characteristics of the county-level administrative toponyms cultural landscape in China's eastern plains areas. A Geographical Information System (GIS) analysis, Geo-Informatic Tupu, Kernel Density Estimation, and correlation coefficients were conducted. We constructed a GIS database of county-level administrative toponyms from the Sui dynasty onward using the Northeast China, North China, and Yangtze Plains as examples. We then summarized the spatio-temporal evolutionary characteristics of the county-level administrative toponyms cultural landscape in China's eastern plains areas. The results indicate that (1) the number of toponyms has roughly increased over time; (2) toponym densities on the three plains are higher than the national average in the corresponding timeframe since the Sui; and (3) county-level administrative toponyms related to mountains and hydrological features accounted for more than 30% of the total in 2010. However, the percentage of county-level administrative toponyms related to natural factors on the three plains has decreased since the Sui. To explore the factors influencing this spatio-temporal evolution, we analyzed the correlations between the toponyms and natural factors and human/social factors. The correlation degree between toponym density and population density is the highest, and that between toponym density and Digital Elevation Model (DEM) the lowest. Temperature changes were important in toponym changes, and population changes have influenced toponym changes over the last 400 years in China.
Journal Article
Maritime Links Between China, Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, and Buddhist Monasteries in India (c. 11th–12th Centuries) in the Light of Two Fragmentary Inscribed Strips of Copper from Muara Jambi
This article explores the maritime connections relating to Buddhism and diplomacy between polities in Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, the Indian subcontinent, and China from the beginning of the 11th century up to the 12th century CE. It focuses on new epigraphic evidence from Muara Jambi in the form of two inscribed strips of copper mentioning the Cūḍāmaṇivarmavihāra, a monastery funded by the king of Śrīvijaya in Nagapattinam (South India), and the Bālādityavihāra, probably located in Nālandā (Northeastern India). These new findings are compared to archaeological and textual materials from elsewhere in the Buddhist world that cast light on the web of transregional connections between Nusantara, China, and India in the early centuries of the second millennium.
Journal Article
Formative Period Tracing and Driving Factors Analysis of the Lashagou Landslide Group in Jishishan County, China
The continuous downward movement exhibited by the Lashagou landslide group in recent years poses a significant threat to the safety of both vehicles and pedestrians traversing the highway G310. By integrating geomorphological interpretation using multi-temporal optical images, interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) measurements, and continuous global navigation satellite system (GNSS) observations, this paper traced the formation period of the Lashagou landslide group, and explored its kinematic behavior under external drivers such as rainfall and snowmelt. The results indicate that the formation period can be specifically categorized into three periods: before, during, and after the construction of highway G310. The construction of highway G310 is the direct cause and prerequisite for the formation of the Lashagou landslide group, whereas summer precipitation and spring snowmelt are the external driving factors contributing to its continuous downward movement. Additionally, both the long-term seasonal downslope movement and transient acceleration events are strongly controlled by rainfall, and there is a time lag of approximately 1–2 days between the transient acceleration and heavy rainfall events. This study highlights the benefits of leveraging multi-source remote sensing data to investigate slow-moving landslides, which is advantageous for the implementation of effective control and engineering intervention to mitigate potential landslide disasters.
Journal Article
Bio-logging, new technologies to study conservation physiology on the move: a case study on annual survival of Himalayan vultures
Bio-logging, the on-animal deployment of miniaturised electronic data recorders, allows for the study of location, body position, and physiology of individuals throughout their ontogeny. For terrestrial animals, 1 Hz GPS-position, 3D-body acceleration, and ambient temperature provide standard data to link to the physiology of life histories. Environmental context is added at ever finer scales using remote sensing earth observation data. Here we showcase the use of such bio-logging approaches in a conservation physiology study on endangered Himalayan vultures (
Gyps himalayensis
). We determine environmental, behavioural, and physiological causes of survival in immature birds that roam from wintering sites in India, Bhutan, and Nepal towards summer areas in Tibet and Mongolia. Five of 18 immature griffons died during one year. Individuals that died had failed to migrate sufficiently far northward (>1500 km) in spring. Individuals likely died if they flew against headwinds from the north or were less able to find thermal updrafts. Surviving individuals migrated to cold and dry areas with low population density. We highlight flight experience, long distance movements, and remote places with low human population as factors critical for the survival of Himalayan vultures. High-resolution bio-logging studies can advance conservation management by pinpointing where and why migratory animals have problems and die.
Journal Article
Scoliosis in China： History and Present Status
Scoliosis is a three-dimensional （3D） spinal deformity involving one or more spine curvatures with vertebral rotation. In the past 30 years, Chinese spine surgeons adopted international advanced technology and concepts, took advantage of abundant Chinese patient resources with severe deformity, and developed novel ideas and techniques, which promoted the development of the diagnosis and treatment for scoliosis.
Journal Article
Landscape dynamics and driving forces of wetlands in the Tumen River Basin of China over the past 50 years
Human activity together with climatic changes have resulted in the substantial loss of wetlands in the Tumen River Basin of China in the past five decades. In this study, the landscape dynamics of wetlands upstream, midstream and downstream of the Tumen River Basin from 1960 to 2009 were investigated using remote sensing and geographic information systems. Analytical methods, such as dynamic degree, transfer matrix and indices, e.g., patch number (NP), area percentage of landscape patches, mean patch size, patch density, Shannon’s diversity index (SHDI), and Shannon’s evenness index (SHEI), were utilized to describe the landscape dynamics. The results showed that over the past 50 years, human-made wetlands, including paddy fields and reservoirs, increased, whereas natural wetlands, including marshes, lakes and rivers, decreased. In the study period, a large number of natural wetlands were converted by humans into other types of wetlands and non-wetlands. For wetland landscape changes, the NP, landscape fragmentation index, and SHEI increased, whereas the average patch area and SHDI decreased. In addition, we found that human factors were the main driving forces for the reduction of natural wetlands in this area, among which agricultural activities had the strongest impact. Great losses of natural wetlands have led to ecological problems in the region, such as a decline in biodiversity and soil degradation.
Journal Article
EAST SEA POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE CONTEXT OF THE US-CHINA COMPETITION
The East Sea has a vital position for maritime powers worldwide and is a crucial point of strategic competition for significant countries. Currently, the East Sea is where many fierce disputes over sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction occur between coastal countries because the views and interests of each side are far apart, and they need help finding a consensus on how to solve the problem. The US interests in the East Sea include diverse interests in freedom of navigation, economics, politics, military, and security. The article aims to systematically analyze and explain the US policy towards the East Sea issue since the US Administration announced the Pivot to Asia-Pacific strategy. The US foreign policy towards the East Sea has changed in the direction of increased US involvement in response to rising tensions over disputes, especially towards increased interests of China in this region. Although the United States does not take sides in sovereignty claims, it nevertheless increases its involvement in the issue, focusing on peaceful control of claims and resolving disputes through peaceful negotiation measures.
Journal Article