Confucian education and enlightenment for the masses in the manner of Guwen guanzhi

The topic of this study is the most renowned anthology of essays written in Literary Chinese, Guwen guanzhi, compiled and edited by Wu Chengquan (Chucai) and Wu Dazhi (Diaohou), and first published during the Qing dynasty, in 1695. Because of the low social standing of the compilers, their anthology remained outside the recommended study materials produced by members of the established literati and used for preparing students in the imperial civil-service examinations. However, since the end of the imperial era, Guwen guanzhi has risen to a position as the classical anthology par excellence. Today it is widely used as required or supplementary reading material of Literary Chinese in middle-schools both in Mainland China and on Taiwan. The goal of this study is to explain the persistent longevity of the anthology. So far, Guwen guanzhi has not been a topic of any published academic study, and the opinions expressed on it in various sources are widely discrepant. Through a comparative study with a dozen classical Chinese anthologies in use during the early Qing dynasty, this study reveals the extent to which the compilers of Guwen guanzhi modelled their work after other selections. Altogether 86 % of the texts in Guwen guanzhi originate from another Qing era anthology, Guwen xiyi, often copied character by character. However, the notes and commentaries are all different. Concentrating on the special characteristics unique to Guwen guanzhi—the commentaries and certain peculiarities in the selection of texts—this study then discusses the possible reasons for the popularity of Guwen guanzhi over the competing readers during the Qing era. Most remarkably, Guwen guanzhi put in practise the equalitarian, educational ideals of the Ming philosopher Wang Shouren (Yangming). Thus Guwen guanzhi suited the self-enlightenment needs of the ”subordinate classes”, in particular the rising middle-class comprised mainly of merchants. The lack of moral teleology, together with the compact size, relative comprehensiveness of the selection and good notes and comments, have made Guwen guanzhi well suited for the new society since the abolition of the imperial examination system. Through a content analysis, based on a sample of the texts, this study measures the relative emphasis on centralism and localism (both in concrete and spiritual terms) expressed in the texts of Guwen guanzhi. The analysis shows that the texts manifest some bias towards emphasising innate virtue on the expense of state-defined moral. This may reflect hidden critique towards intellectual oppression by the centralised imperial rule. During the early decades of the Qing era, such critique was often linked to Ming-loyalism. Finally, this study concludes that the kind of ”spiritual localism” that Guwen guanzhi manifests gives it the potential to undermine monolithic orthodoxy even in today’s Chinese societies. This study has progressed hand in hand with the translation of a selection of texts from Guwen guanzhi into Finnish, published by Gaudeamus Helsinki University Press: Jadekasvot – Valittuja tarinoita Kiinan muinaisajoilta (2005), Jadelähde – Valittuja kirjoituksia Kiinan keskiajalta (2007) and Jadepeili – Valittuja kirjoituksia keisarillisen Kiinan kulta-ajoilta (2008). All translations are critical editions, complete with extensive notation. The trilogy is the first comprehensive translation based on Guwen guanzhi in a European language.

Tree mortality and deadwood dynamics in late-successional boreal forests

Here I aimed at quantifying the main components of deadwood dynamics, i.e. tree mortality, deadwood pools, and their decomposition, in late-successional boreal forests. I focused on standing dead trees in three stand types dominated by Picea mariana and Abies balsamea in eastern Canada, and on standing and down dead trees in Picea abies-dominated stands in three areas in Northern Europe. Dead and living trees were measured on five sample plots of 1.6-ha size in each study area and stand type. Stem disks from dead trees were sampled to determine wood density and year of death, using dendrochronological methods. The results were applied to reconstruct past tree mortality and to model deadwood decay class dynamics. Site productivity, stand developmental stage, and the occurrence of episodic tree mortality influenced deadwood volume and quality. In all study areas tree mortality was continuous, leading to continuity in deadwood decay stage distribution. Episodic tree mortality due to either autogenic or allogenic causes influenced deadwood volume and quality in all but one study area. However, regardless of productivity and disturbance history deadwood was abundant, accounting for 20 53% of total wood volume in European study areas, and 15 27% of total standing volume in eastern Canada. Deadwood was a persistent structural component, since its expected residence time in early- and midstages of decay was 18 yr even in the area with the most rapid decomposition. The results indicated that in the absence of episodic tree mortality, stands may eventually develop to a steady state, in which deadwood volume fluctuates around an equilibrium state. However, in many forests deadwood is naturally variable, due to recurrent moderate-severity disturbances. This variability, the continuous tree mortality, and variation in rates of wood decomposition determine the dynamics and availability of deadwood as a habitat and carbon storage medium in boreal coniferous forest ecosystems.

Alignment of the ALICE Inner Tracking System with cosmic-ray tracks

ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) experiment devoted to investigating the strongly interacting matter created in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC energies. The ALICE ITS, Inner Tracking System, consists of six cylindrical layers of silicon detectors with three different technologies; in the outward direction: two layers of pixel detectors, two layers each of drift, and strip detectors. The number of parameters to be determined in the spatial alignment of the 2198 sensor modules of the ITS is about 13,000. The target alignment precision is well below 10 micron in some cases (pixels). The sources of alignment information include survey measurements, and the reconstructed tracks from cosmic rays and from proton-proton collisions. The main track-based alignment method uses the Millepede global approach. An iterative local method was developed and used as well. We present the results obtained for the ITS alignment using about 10^5 charged tracks from cosmic rays that have been collected during summer 2008, with the ALICE solenoidal magnet switched off.