Functions of Karez to Xinjiang Agriculture in the Qing Dynasty from the Perspective of Historical Documents

Desertification is increasingly serious in Xinjiang,and the construction of water conservancy is a precondition for the development of agriculture.The main project for the development of agriculture and water conservancy in Xinjiang is to build Karez,which played a vital role in the development of Xinjiang agriculture in the Qing Dynasty.It has been recorded many times in historical documents of the Qing Dynasty,such as Lin Zexu s Diary,Tao Baolian s Diary,Xinjiang Atlas and Zuo Zongtang s Memorial to the Emperor,etc.,which recorded the situation and historical origin of Karez.Karez made a significant contribution to the development of agriculture in the Qing Dynasty.It increased the cultivated land in Xinjiang at that time,and increased the types and yields of crops.It is conducive to the stability and development of Xinjiang s economy.Until today,Karez is still an important water source for agricultural irrigation in Xinjiang.

Zhang Heng's Seismoscope( 2):Historical Materials and Investigation

Historical data regarding Zhang Heng's seismoscope is not singular proof. Actually,the four earliest historical documents,i. e.,Continuation of Historiography of Han Dynasty, Historiography of the Later Han,Book of the Later Han and Ding Record all have relevant records of its structure,size,principle,response to earthquake and actual applications. These five aspects are supported by archaeological research,unearthed cultural relics, historical earthquakes and modern seismological study. These historical materials contain a great deal of specific information about this ancient seismoscope. In conclusion, the authenticity and reliability of Zhang Heng's seismoscope are verified.

Variations in the Summer Monsoon Rainbands Across Eastern China over the Past 300 Years

Based on reconstructions of precipitation events from the rain and snowfall archives of the Qing Dynasty （1736-1911）, the drought/flood index data mainly derived from Chinese local gazettes from 1736-2000, and the observational data gathered since 1951, the spatial patterns of monsoon rainbands are analyzed at different time scales. Findings indicate that monsoon rainfall in northern China and the middle-lower reaches of the Yangtze River have significant inter-annual （e.g., 5-7-yr and 2-4-yr） as well as inter-decadal （e.g., 20-30-yr and quasi-10-yr） fluctuation signals. The spatial patterns in these areas also show significant cycles, such as on a 60-80-yr time scale, a reversal phase predominates the entire period from 1736-2000; on a quasi-30-yr time scale, a consistent phase was prevalent from 1736 to 2000; and on a 20-yr time scale, the summer monsoon rains show different spatial patterns before and after 1870.

An Integrated Analysis of Dry-Wet Variability in Western China for the Last 4-5 Centuries

The dry-wet variability in western China and its spatiotemporal structure during the last 4-5 centuries was examined using 24 climate proxies from sediments, ice cores, historical documents, and tree rings. Spatial patterns and temporal evolutions of dryness and wetness were not only extracted from the proxy data using rotated empirical orthogonal function （REOF） analysis for the last 4 centuries, but also for instrumental data in the last 40 years. The leading five REOF modes indicate that 5 dry-wet variation centers exist in western China. Moreover, long-term variability in dryness and wetness is seen on long （centennial） to short （inter-decadal） timescales. An out-of-phase relationship for the inter-decadal variation was observed between the Hetao-upper Yangtze River region and north Xinjiang, indicating influences on dry-wet variations of the East Asian summer monsoon and the westerly winds over the two regions, respectively. A particularly long dry spell was found in the central Tibetan Plateau in the 19th century. A predominance of wet decades in the last 4 centuries was found in the arid and Hetao regions. Three regional dry-wet series with annual resolution in north Xinjiang, the upper Yellow River valley, and the Hetao area were constructed for analyses of the last 500 years. Dry-wet oscillations with periodicities of 16, 50, and 150 years in north Xinjiang, 50 years in the upper Yellow River valley, and 70-80 years in the Hetao region were identified by wavelet analysis. In general, these periods correspond to large-scale oscillations found in the climate system, are mainly related to ocean-atmosphere interaction.

Study on the extremely cold winter of 1670 over the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River

The snow-cover days over the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River （MLRYR） in the winter of 1670 were extracted from Chinese historical documents. By these records, the winter temperature anomalies （compared to the mean of 1961-1990） recorded at seven meteorological stations and the regional mean winter temperature were estimated. The results show that： （1） There was an average of about 30 snow-cover days over the MLRYR region in 1670, ranging from 11-20 days in Shanghai and eastern Zhejiang to 5140 days in eastern Hunan Province. The snow-cover days averaged about 40 days in Anqing and Nan- cheng, and ranged from 30 to 40 days in Quzhou, Jingdezhen, and Nanchang; and （2） the regional mean winter temperature in 1670 was estimated to be approximately 4.0 ℃ lower than that of 1961-1990. The maximum negative anomaly of 5.6℃ occurred in Nanchang and the minimum anomaly of-2.8 ℃ was detected in Quzhou. Both of these were lower than that of the coldest winter during the instrumental observation period of 1951-2010. This research could not only provide a method to es- timate historical climate extremes, but also provide a background to understand the recent instrumentally climate extremes.

High-resolution reconstruction of April-September precipitation and major extreme droughts in China over the past∼530 years

Extreme drought events have increased,causing serious losses and damage to the social economy under current warming conditions.However,short-term meteorological data limit our understanding and projection of these extremes.With the accumulation of proxy data,especially tree-ring data,large-scale precipitation field reconstruction has provided opportunities to explore underlying mechanisms further.Using point-by-point regression,we reconstructed the April-September precipitation field in China for the past~530 years on the basis of 590 proxy records,including 470 tree-ring width chronologies and 120 drought/flood indices.Our regression models explained average 50%of the variance in precipitation.In the statistical test on calibration and verification,our models passed the significance level that assured reconstruction quality.The reconstruction data performed well,showing consistency and better quality than previously reported reconstructions.The first three leading modes of variability in the reconstruction revealed the main distribution modes of precipitation over China.Wet/drought and extremely wet/drought years accounted for 12.81%/10.92%(68 years/58 years)and 1.69%/3.20%(9 years/17 years)of the past~530 years in China,respectively.Major extreme drought events can be identified explicitly in our reconstruction.The detailed features of the Chongzhen Great Drought(1637-1643),the Wanli Great Drought(1585-1590),and the Ding-Wu Great Famine(1874-1879),indicated the existence of potentially different underlying mechanisms that need further exploration.Although further improvements can be made for remote uninhabited areas and large deserts,our gridded reconstruction of April-September precipitation in China over the past~530 years can provide a solid database for studies on the attribution of climate change and the mechanism of extreme drought events.

Seventeenth-century Seville houses:a survey by the Alarife Juan De Legarra(1637)

Despite the wealth of preserved information,research on the domestic architecture of Seville has been limited.Much of this historical data is available in survey books that were formally compiled in Seville from the Modern Age onwards.These books had detailed descriptions and sometimes illustrations provided by surveyors who were commissioned by owners or tenants.The intention of this study is to illustrate that the information contained in building surveys goes beyond simple descriptions or measurements often accompanied by drawings.They are a comprehensive account that,even centuries later,help reconstruct the architecture,material culture and everyday life that no longer exist.Our research contributes to the understanding of the domestic architectural history of Seville by focusing on one specific survey(a collection of drawings and a written description)extracted from the Hospital de las Cinco Llagas Collection,which is found in the Seville Provincial Council Archive.At least one of the drawings and the written survey can be attributed to the Alarife(architect or master builder)Juan de Legarra,who signed them in 1637.This research explores the architectural development of the city,offering fresh insights into its architecture,heritage,and history.It supplements existing historical,visual,and written records derived from prior studies with a meticulously curated bibliography.Additionally,it uses visualisation techniques to reconstruct buildings,augmenting the research.This endeavour has yielded anticipated benefits,particularly in facilitating visual analysis.The surveys have proven to be invaluable for historical inquiry,yielding unexpected insights through the thorough analysis of both written and graphic sources which serve as a basis for hypothetical construction plans due to their detailed descriptions.Furthermore,this study has contributed to enriching both historical and architectural terminology.The incorporation of digital technologies into this architectural context allows us to expand our knowledge through the exhaustive compilation of building records.It also facilitates in-depth analysis of architecture,which could result in an up-to-date architectural catalogue that would stimulate interest in preserving a legacy that,until recently,was at risk of being lost.

Reconstruction of cropland spatial patterns and its spatiotemporal changes over the 20th century on the Songnen Plain, Northeast China

We initially estimated the cropland area at county level using local historical documents for the Songnen Plain （SNP） in the 1910s and 1930s. We then allocated this cropland area to grid cells with a size of 1 km ×1 km, using a range of cultivation possibilities from high to low; this was based on topography and minimum distances to rivers, settlements, and traffic lines. Cropland areas for the 1950s were obtained from the Land Use Map of Northeast China, and map vectorization was performed with ArcGIS technology. Cropland areas for the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s were retrieved from Landsat images. We found that the cropland areas were 4.92 ×10^4 km^2 and 7.60 ×10^4 km^2, accounting for 22.8% and 35.2% of the total area of the SNP in the 1910s and 1930s, respectively, which increased to 13.14 × 10^4 km^2, accounting for 60.9% in the 2010s. The cropland increased at a rate of 1.18 ×10^4 km^2 per decade from the 1910s to 1970s while it was merely 0.285 ×10^4 km^2 per decade from the 1970s to 2010s. From the 1910s to 1930s, new cultivation mainly occurred in the central SNP while, from the 1930s to 1970s, it was mainly over the western and northern parts. This spatially explicit reconstruction could be offered as primary data for studying the effects of changes in human-induced land cover based on climate change over the last century.

Reconstructing provincial cropland area in eastern China during the early Yuan Dynasty(AD1271–1294)

Reconstructing historical land use and land cover change(LUCC) at the regional scale is an important component of global environmental change studies and of improving global historical land use datasets. By analyzing data in historical documents, including military-oriented cropland(hereafter M-cropland) area, the number of households engaged in M-cropland(hereafter M-household) reclamation, cropland area, and the number of households, we propose a conversion relationship between M-cropland area and cropland area reclaimed by each household. A provincial cropland area estimation method for the Yuan Dynasty is described and used to reconstruct the provincial cropland area for AD1290. Major findings are as follows.(1) Both the M-cropland and cropland areas of each household were high in the north and low in the south during the Yuan Dynasty, which resulted from different natural conditions and planting practices. Based on this observation, the government-allocated M-cropland reclamation area to each household was based on the cropland area reclaimed by each household.(2) The conversion relationship between M-cropland and cropland areas per household showed conversion coefficients of 1.23 and 0.65 for the south and north, respectively.(3) The cropland area in the entire study area in AD1290 was 535.4×106 mu(Chinese area unit, 1 mu=666.7 m^2), 57.8% in the north and 42.2% in the south. The fractional cropland areas for the entire study area, north, and south were 6.8%, 6.6%, and 7.1%, respectively and the per capita cropland areas for the whole study area, north, and south were 6.7, 15.6, and 4.1 mu, respectively.(4) Cropland was mainly distributed in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River(including the Fuli area), Huaihe River Basin(including Henan Province), and middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River(including Jiangzhe, Jiangxi, and Huguang provinces).