The past decade has seen an increase in attention to Tangut, an extinct Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the rulers of the Western Xia xīxià 西夏 empire. The question of its classification has become a subject of discussion especially since the documentation of its closest relatives came to light recently. The present paper builds on the study of the Tangut verb template by Jacques (2011) to question the place of Tangut with regard to the Horpa languages (Beaudouin 2023b). By doing so, it identifies a phenomenon of attraction encompassing synchronic and diachronic analysis and proposes that verbal templatic morphology in West Gyalrongic is nuclear.

Maura Dykstra's 2022 monograph Uncertainty in the Empire of Routine: The Administrative Revolution of the Eighteenth-Century Qing State (Harvard Asia Center, 2022) has attracted controversy in the academic community. This paper analyses the book's use of documents from the Ba County Archive, held in the SIchuan Provincial Archive. While reviewing the monograph's arguments drawn from these materials, the paper also introduces the Ba Archives and the methodologies that may be employed to interpret them.

This article demonstrates that the Central Stau language (Horpa < Gyalrongic < Sino-Tibetan/Trans-Himalayan) possesses a binary egophoricity contrast in its copular system in affirmative clauses not described and analysed in detail before. It examines the functions of the egophoric copula ŋu and its non-egophoric counterpart ŋə. Of these, the former signals the relevant speech act participant’s personal involvement, epistemic authority or a portrayed stance of a close bond in the proposition. Despite the differences in their functions and differing prototypical domains of use, reflecting patterns of “canonical” egophoricity, the choice between the copulas shows great flexibility and frequently reflects how the speakers wish to encode their epistemic stance. In brief, situation-dependent discourse pragmatics, rather than grammatical person encoded by the copular subject, determines copular use in Stau. The article thus concurs with other recent research on egophoricity that highlights the versatility of this epistemic category.

In this article, we discuss the introduction and reception of the theology of natural and divine laws in late Ming China. Natural law and the twofold divine laws appear collectively as an object of discussion and exposition in a number of writings by Jesuit missionaries and Chinese Catholic converts of this time. We focus primarily on Michele Ruggieri’s Tianzhu shilu 天主實錄 (The True Record of the Lord of Heaven) and then consider additional texts by Yang Tingyun and Giulio Aleni, referring to other works in passing. While laying out in more detail than previous scholarship the scholastic basis of these discussions, we nonetheless emphasize that these texts do not reflect a fixed version of scholastic teaching but accommodate their discussions to Chinese cultural sensibilities and/or philosophical concepts. Our historical analysis serves as the basis for a comparative philosophical consideration of the relationship between the doctrine of natural law and the Chinese concept of liangzhi 良知 “innate moral knowledge”.

This brief article explores forms for the verb “melt” in Gyalrongic languages, demonstrating that they are cognates and not Tibetan loanwords. Clarification is made on a phonological rule in Japhug, where w- transforms to m- following a nasal, merging the nasal and w-. The article also suggests that the preinitial m- in Mazur Stau and Geshiza is a fossilized autive prefix, possibly resulting from independent changes or language contact. Additionally, Tangut, Bawang, and Puxi Stosde’s usage of a labial medial -w-/-v- for “melt” is hypothesized as an ancient labial causative infix.

This article adopts a social constructivist approach to reinvestigate the Song-Liao relations that were manifested in the handscroll Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute 胡茄十八拍. Instead of offering a visual analysis of each of the 18 scenes in succession, it will point out the shared cultural practices and connotations of identity in the contrasting depictions of Song urban life and the nomad encampment. It argues that the handscroll probably represents the conservative faction's benevolent attitude towards nomadic tribes in the late Northern Song period, which is also likely to have been associated with the rise of Neo-Confucianism.

This article investigates the rules that were put into the mouth of the Buddha by Indian Buddhist jurists in order to differentiate monks from non-Buddhist (particularly Jaina and Ājīvika) ascetics as observed in extant Vinaya literature. It demonstrates that the Buddhist jurists were fully aware of Jaina and Ājīvika modes of asceticism, and that they consciously used legislation as a tool to construct Buddhist identity, particularly through legally differentiating the physical appearance, customs, practices, and even social status of monks from those of their śramaṇic rivals. The Buddha’s prescription of a rule to make monks distinguishable from non-Buddhist ascetics often occurs as an immediate response to the laity’s criticism or misunderstanding. This arrangement indicates that the monastic jurists were concerned not only with differentiating Buddhist and non-Buddhist renunciants, but also with protecting the public image of the Buddhist monastic institution and ultimately with maintaining the laity’s trust and support.