Mingshi名士, the local elite which formed the ruling class from the late Han to the Three Kingdoms period, tended to evaluate people as visible expressions of their own autonomous order. Such methods for evaluating people autonomous from the bureaucratic order supported by kingship was arbitrary, subjective and unstable. In order to overcome these weaknesses, a debate called "caixing shibenlun" 才性四本論 developed and a biographical work, Renwuzhi 人物志, was written, but the instability was not eliminated, as zhuang状, (writings) continued their instability in defining the rank of xiangpin郷品 within the bureaucratic order. The standpoint of the "Chunqiulue" 春秋略 that history as the record of the emperors possesses unassailable authority was weakened by the relativization of values in the form of Confucianism. In addition, with the diffusion of paper, the increase in written works and the compilation of biographies based on zhuang created a milieu enabling histories written out of personal concerns. Histories were used for political purposes and became works arguing the superior and inferior aspects of each region and tauting factionalism. What became the basis of such histories were "beich-uan" 別伝 (accounts other than official chronicles) depicting individual figures. Pei Songzhi 裴松之, who annotated the Sanguozhi HSS, criticized the annotators of the Shiji史記 and Hanshu 漢書 for limiting themselves to the readings and definitions of words and phrases without any attempt to verify or ascertain historical fact It was in this way that history (shi史) came to differ from the methodology of Confucianism. Pei's criticism of beichua became linked to genealogy attempting to establish the pedigrees of aristocratic families. It was in this way that shi史 became cultural evaluation for the purpose of maintaining the autonomous order of the aristocracy. Within the social background of the Jingjizhi経籍志 section of the Suishu piU setting up a separate category for "history" (shi史) and creating four subcategories lay textual criticism of the dominance exerted by beichau, which distorted the facts, and "history" according to the aristocracy as the dominant form of cultural evaluation. The compilation of official history during the Tangperiod became focussed on the realm of cultural evaluation, one of which was shi as one way for maintaining the autonomy of the aristocracy.

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There is little research to date available on northern China under Jurchen and Mongol rule, especially the aspects of local society. This situation contrasts markedly with the large body of literature concerning Jiangnan and Fujian. Despite the long history of research dealing with the local administration, political affairs, the military system, etc. of the Jin and Yuan dynasties, some fundamental problems remained unstudied : for example, how did the "barbarian" conquest of northern China and their subsequent rule over the region by the Jurchen and Mongols influence local society ; and how did local society in northern China actually change as a result? In this article, the author concentrates on Xin忻 Prefecture, Dingxiang定襄 Country, Shanxi山西, for which there is ample source materials (mainly epigraphy in the form of epitaphs), and its local elite to examine the circumstances surrounding local society with respect to the influence of war and Jurchen and Mongol rule. As a result, it becomes clear that the history of Dingxiang Country during the Jin-Yuan period can be divided into two distinct periods : one of Jurchen rule marking continuity from the Song Dynasty, and one of Mongol rule, during which the local order began to be reorganized. In addition, it was a period during which not a few families not only survived, but also retained their power despite prolonged wars and the rise and fall of dynasties, by means of passing civil service examinations under the Jurchens and promptly surrendering to the Mongols and adapting to the new Mongol system of registration. Although Dingxiang County constitutes only a very small part of northern China, after a careful comparison with other localities, the author concludes that it provides a very interesting base from which to further clarify the situation in north China under Jurchen and Mongol rule.

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This article intends to analyze the religious policy of the Japanese Navy, which occupied Micronesia in 1914, in relation to the international situation at that time. At the beginning of its occupation, the Navy permitted German missionaries to inhabit the Islands and educate the natives out of "respect for civil rights". However, after schools were established in the Islands by the Japanese, the missionaries were sent into exile from the Islands. Their absence caused difficulties in ruling over the native people, so the Navy decided to introduce Japanese priests into the Islands. After the Germans were exiled from the territory occupied by the Allies, the Japanese Navy commanded the German missionaries to leave the Islands in June 1919. The introduction of Japanese missionaries was determined by the Japanese cabinet out of fear that American missionaries would flood the Islands. Because their activities were remarkable in the movement for the independence in Korea beginning on March 1, 1919. To banish missionaries of American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions from the Islands, the Navy, first, negotiated with the Japanese Congregational Church, but the Treaty of Versailles obliged the Navy to assign Catholic missionaries to Catholic Churches. So the Navy also began negotiations with the Vatican. Consequently, Japanese missionaries of the Japanese Congregational Church and Roman Catholic Spanish missionaries were introduced into the Islands. The author concludes that the Japanese Navy became interested in introducing missionaries into Micronesia, not simply because ruling the natives would have been difficult without religion, but because the international situation in those days compelled the Navy to introduce missionaries into the Islands, with extreme subtlety and minute attention.

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