有關臺灣邊地的拓墾研究，往往傾向研究土地拓墾的過程與組織。其基本論述架構是漢墾戶向官方申請墾照後，官府將界外未墾的荒埔提供給漢人開墾，漢人如何自力或與官方合作經營的結果。這類的研究論述忽略了原來早已存在的非法拓墾行動一直沒有消失。拓墾的申請與其說是新的程序，不如說是一種合法化的過程。也正是這樣一種認知脈絡下，內山設隘開墾的組織就不是表面上所認識的是一批為官方守邊，或是因生番擾害而防番的一支武力組織。十九世紀初隘的設防已逐漸成為一種界外開墾的管道，清代官方檔案也提醒我們注意這些界外開墾的墾戶不僅沒有防番，可能還一直與生番有貿易來往關係。換言之，這些以防番為名的墾戶其實是假借防番為名，掩護越界開墾之實，其向官府強調「生番擾害」的原因只是為自己取得更大界外土地開墾的正當性。 / 道光年間以前這類非法開墾早已經存在，官方也早已發現界外越墾的問題，因此如何控制界外開墾乃成為官方邊地控制的一大課題。為了處理這些問題，官府不斷調整其政策與設定邊界，從乾隆到道光年以後，這些邊界的浮動，與其說是官方主動規畫計議的結果，不如說是漢人與熟番通過各種途徑越界開墾，建構地權主張、操弄挪移既有的邊界後，官府最終追認的結果。臺灣邊界的變動以及隘墾區的拓墾顯示清代官方政策的實踐是不斷在向地方社會的現實妥協中逐漸調整的，而地方社會也在官方政策的模糊空間中，藉由官方的名義與權威，尋求自己利益的伸張與庇護。這便是臺灣邊地所顯現的一幅國家與地方互動的景象。臺灣作為清王朝帝國的邊疆，其邊地社會的建構，除了幫助我們把握臺灣整體歷史進程的理解外，也提供我們從一側面掌握清帝國擴張的內在軌跡與多元族群統治下的彈性策略。 / Existing studies on land cultivation in Taiwan’s frontier have the focus on its process and organizations. The most popular narrative is that the Han Chinese cultivators were granted the right to the waste land from the government. What is missed out in the narrative is the fact that illegal cultivation that had lasted for so long had never disappeared; therefore the application for license was little more than a move of self-legitimating. In light of this, the organizations which set up forts and managed land cultivation should not be taken on surface value that their purpose was to safeguard the border for the government or defend against the harassment of the aborigines. The forts became a system of land cultivation beyond the border, and the official documents evidenced the fact that cultivators did not defend against the aborigines, rather, they kept doing businesses with them. In other words, the cultivators in the name of self-defending were actually to cover their illegal activities and to grabbing more land, and for that purpose they emphasized the "harassment of the raw aborigines". / Illegal activities had already existed before mid-Qing. The government was aware of this border control issues and had adjusted its cultivation and border policies. The line was not planned by the government; it was just government recognition of the new situation when the border was maneuvered by the Han Chinese so as to advance their economic interest and establish their land rights. What happened on Taiwan frontier demonstrates the interaction between the state and the local society. To be specific, on one hand, the official policy was adjusted to the ground realities and was thus implemented; on the other hand, the local society took advantage of the name and authority of the government to advance their own agenda. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / 傅寶玉. / Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2015. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 235-250). / Abstracts also in English. / Fu Baoyu.

The formation of state borders is often told through the history of war and diplomacy. What is neglected is the tale of how borders of seemingly peaceful and long-extant places were set. In drawing Egypt’s borders, nineteenth-century cartographers were drawing upon a well of knowledge that stretched back into antiquity. Relying on the works of Greco-Roman writers and the Bible itself, cartographers and explorers used the authority of these works to make sense of unfamiliar lands, regardless of any current circumstances. The border with Palestine was determined through the usage of the Old Testament, while classical scholars like Herodotus and Ptolemy set the southern border at the Cataracts. The ancient cartography of Rome was overlaid upon the Egypt of Muhammad Ali. Given the increasing importance Egypt had to the burgeoning British Empire of the nineteenth century, how did this mesh with the influences informing cartographical representations of Egypt? This study argues that the imagined spaces created by Western cartographers informed the trajectory of Britain’s eventual conquest of Egypt. While receding as geopolitical concerns took hold, the classical and biblical influences were nonetheless part of a larger trend of Orientalism that colored the way Westerners interacted with and treated the people of Egypt and the East. By examining the maps and the terminology employed by nineteenth century scholars on Egypt’s geography, a pattern emerges that highlights how much classical and biblical texts had on the Western imagination of Egypt as the modern terms eventually superseded them.

First, the fifty years history of the Lake Weishan dispute can be divided into three eras, in which Xieshang, Xietiao, and Weitiao have captured the political keywords in each phase. From 1953 to 1980, xieshang between regional governments had dominated the political process; from 1980 to 1990, xietiao by central government had switched to the prevailing tone, in which three Central Documents had been issued to resolve this dispute; from 1990 to 2003, weitiao has remained as the only rational procedure for resolving this enduring conflict. In fact, one common thread to needle this political trilogy is the governance model based on negotiation and compromise rather than coercion and obedience. / Second, the structural, procedural, and cultural factors are aligned to account for this governance model. In the structural dimension, a semi-corporatism model has characterized the dynamics of central-local relationship. Local government is not only the arms reached at the region from political central, but also the legitimate representative of its jurisdiction. In the procedural dimension, democratic centralism is a practical mechanism rather than an ideological propaganda in Chinese politics. In resolving the divisive conflicts inside the political system, democratic centralism is the central government's operational principle, which can be distinguished into democratic decision process and centralized implement process, thus contributing to the bounded democratic process. In cultural dimension, Chinese politics has a tradition emphasizing fairness, compromises and negotiation. / Third, the Chinese body politic has never been a garment without seams nor needles. Inside our gigantic political system, there are a great deal of divisions even conflicts among the joint place between tiao and kuai. Borrowing from the well-known metaphor proposed by Vivienne Shue, in the Lake Weishan case as the dispute inside the honeycomb, there are not only opportunities towards the regime transition, but the divisive logic of this system. In this sense, to strengthen the central government's integrating capacity is vital for the future state building. / This case study on Lake Weishan dispute is theoretically intermingled in the matrix of Chinese political studies. In some sense, the governance of Lake Weishan has revealed the Chinese State anatomy whether in the tiao sense or in the kuai sense. Through this case study, three research questions have been attended: first, in what process have the central government employed to resolve this political dispute; second, what factors can explain the choice of the above political mechanisms; third, in what sense could this case enrich our understanding of the Chinese body politic. / Totalitarianism and authoritarianism have long been the prevailing paradigms in the Chinese political studies. This kind of structural analysis, however, can never do justice to the overall dynamics of the central-local relationship and the diversified political process in PRC. Through a case study focused on the inter-provincial dispute for Lake Weishan, this research has two main goals, one is to memorize this half century historical story, and the other is to analyze the underlying political process and its operational mechanisms. / 田雷. / Adviser: Shaoguang Wang. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: 2234. / Thesis (doctoral)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 453-465). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Tian Lei.

謝曉輝. / 論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2007. / 參考文獻(p. 242-252). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Lun wen (zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2007. / Can kao wen xian (p. 242-252). / Xie Xiaohui.