How and why was imperial power made visually and physically manifest in two similar, contemporaneous megastates - the Roman Principate and Qin-Han China? Framing the Chinese and Roman material within such a question breaks it free from the web of expectations and assumptions in which conventional scholarship almost always situates it. It also builds upon the limited but promising work recently undertaken to study these two empires together in a comparative context. The purpose of this thesis is not to discover similarities and differences for their own sake; but, by discovering similarities and differences, to learn about the nature of imperial authority and prestige in each state. The comparative method compels us to appreciate the contingent - and sometimes frankly curious - nature of visual and artefactual phenomena that have traditionally been taken for granted; and both challenges and empowers us to access higher tier explanations and narratives. Roman expressions of power in visual terms are more public, more historical- biographical, and more political, while Qin-Han images and objects related to imperial authority are generally more private, generic and ritual in their nature. The Roman material emphasizes the notional complicity of large groups of people - the imperial subjects who viewed, crafted and often commissioned these works - in maintaining and defining the emperor's power. If the Han emperor's power was the product of complicity, it was the complicity of a small group of family members and courtiers - and of Heaven. These contrasting sets of power relationships connect to a concerted thematic focus, in the case of Rome, on the individual of the princeps; that is, the individual personage and particular achievements - especially military achievements - of the emperor. This focus is almost always taken for granted in Roman studies, but contrasts profoundly with the thematic disposition of Han artefacts of power: these reflect a concentrated disinterest in imperial personality altogether, emphasizing instead the imperial position; that is, both the office of emperor and a cosmic centrality. While this thesis reveals some arresting contrasts, it also harnesses the dichotomous orientations of Roman and Chinese archaeology to reveal that the conventional understanding of much of this material can be misleading or problematic. Many of the differences in the ways such images are usually interpreted have as much to do with the idiosyncrasies and path dependency of two fields - in short as much to do with the modern viewer - as they do with the images themselves and the traditions that produced them.

This thesis is a multi-disciplinary survey of the Central Jordan Valley during the Late Bronze Age (1500-1200 BC) illustrated with an abundant use of maps and tables. The purpose is to determine how the Jordan Valley functioned as an economic unit during the Late Bronze Age. This thesis surveys the geographical, historical and archaeological records related to the Jordan Valley during the Late Bronze Age. A chapter is devoted to each field, geography (physical and human), history (Egyptian and Hebrew Bible) and archaeology. The data from each discipline is used to individually answer two questions: 1) was the Jordan Valley a single geographic/economic unit in the Late Bronze Age? 2) to what extent was the Jordan Valley integrated/interacting with the east-west highlands and the larger region in the Late Bronze Age? The primary objectives are to 1) explore and model a historical geographic hermeneutic for understanding the human experience of the Ancient Near East; and 2) lay a foundation for understanding the role of the Jordan Valley in affecting the Biblical periods of the Israelite monarchy to the Roman period.The answers from each chapter are then synthesized into a single geographic historical archaeological picture of the Central Jordan Valley during the Late Bronze Age. The Central Jordan Valley was divided into two sections: a fertile, populated, well connected north-central section and an isolated, sparsely populated southern section with limited agricultural zones. Trade with and between the eastern and western highlands is well represented by artifactual parallels in and through the Jordan Valley, the north-central section on a regional and international scale and the southern section on a more local scale. The thesis concludes that there are more artifactual points of connection between the Jordan Valley and the eastern highlands than with the western highlands. An ‘early conquest’ model of the Hebrew Bible is plausible within the historical records of the Egyptian 18th and 19th Dynasties and the geographical and archaeological records of the Jordan Valley during the Late Bronze Age. / Old Testament & Ancient Near Eastern Studies

This thesis looks into the development of Songjiang School in the context of mutual interaction and networking among painters. It focuses on two phenomena. Firstly, it studies the interaction between Songjiang School painters and artists from various Jiangnan art centres. Secondly, it explores the artistic genealogy within the Songjiang School. It investigates the activities of individual Songjian School painters in particular, and the rise and decline of the entire Songjiang School in general. / Under the famous master literati Dong Qichang, Songjiang School painters broke new path in landscape painting, valuing moist ink tones at the expense of brush and ink. But even before Dong, Gu Zhenyi and Mo Shilong were already well known for their efforts in exploring new styles. Supported by brilliant art talent such as Chen Jiru, Zhao Zuo and Shen Shicong, Dong Qichang brought the Songjiang School to its zenith. However, it was also Dong Qichang who dug the grave for the School. As Dong's followers were mostly professional painters, they could not stand as equals to Literati connoisseurs. Some became Dong Qichang's ghost-painters at the expense of their artistic individuality, whereas others were trapped in the lower end of the art market. Consequently, the Songjiang School lost its vigor and prestige in the Qing dynasty. Only Dong Qichang, the leading master of the School, could dominate the literati painting scene. / With its economy revived after the suppression of the wako invasion in late Jiajing period (1522-1566), Songjiang quickly reassumed its dominant position in the art scene. Songjiang School painters became very self-conscious and proud of their own hometown. They succeeded in networking with connoisseurs in Zhejiang and Huizhou, and learning valuable lessons from the works of their Suzhou counterparts. Consequently, although both the Wu (Suzhou) and Songjiang Schools were descendents of the same literati painting tradition, the Songjiang School loomed large throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The social prestige of some Songjiang literati certainly enhanced the success of the School. / 徐麗莎. / 呈交日期: 2005年8月. / 論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2005. / 參考文獻(p. i-x (2nd group)). / Cheng jiao ri qi: 2005 nian 8 yue. / Advisers: Jao Tsung-i; Harold Mok Kar-leung. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2355. / 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. / Lun wen (zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2005. / Can kao wen xian (p. i-x (2nd group)). / Xu Lisha.

This thesis is a multi-disciplinary survey of the Central Jordan Valley during the Late Bronze Age (1500-1200 BC) illustrated with an abundant use of maps and tables. The purpose is to determine how the Jordan Valley functioned as an economic unit during the Late Bronze Age. This thesis surveys the geographical, historical and archaeological records related to the Jordan Valley during the Late Bronze Age. A chapter is devoted to each field, geography (physical and human), history (Egyptian and Hebrew Bible) and archaeology. The data from each discipline is used to individually answer two questions: 1) was the Jordan Valley a single geographic/economic unit in the Late Bronze Age? 2) to what extent was the Jordan Valley integrated/interacting with the east-west highlands and the larger region in the Late Bronze Age? The primary objectives are to 1) explore and model a historical geographic hermeneutic for understanding the human experience of the Ancient Near East; and 2) lay a foundation for understanding the role of the Jordan Valley in affecting the Biblical periods of the Israelite monarchy to the Roman period.The answers from each chapter are then synthesized into a single geographic historical archaeological picture of the Central Jordan Valley during the Late Bronze Age. The Central Jordan Valley was divided into two sections: a fertile, populated, well connected north-central section and an isolated, sparsely populated southern section with limited agricultural zones. Trade with and between the eastern and western highlands is well represented by artifactual parallels in and through the Jordan Valley, the north-central section on a regional and international scale and the southern section on a more local scale. The thesis concludes that there are more artifactual points of connection between the Jordan Valley and the eastern highlands than with the western highlands. An ‘early conquest’ model of the Hebrew Bible is plausible within the historical records of the Egyptian 18th and 19th Dynasties and the geographical and archaeological records of the Jordan Valley during the Late Bronze Age. / Biblical and Ancient Studies