Longquan judicial archives, the best preserved and the largest number of local judicial archives of the Republic of China, documented the development of Chinese legal system and judicial practice, which provide an excellent material for us to study the judicial practice in the period of the Republic of China. From the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, western laws began to be introduced to China. A new elite and professional judicial system was established as constitutional law. Although the constitutional law established the principle for national prosecution to prohibit criminal mediation, and although in 1929 Longquan court had already demonstrated some features of modernization in legislation and staffing, criminal mediation still occupied a fairly large proportion in criminal judicial practice. Based on the research of Longquan judicial archives, we found that the criminal mediation in the period of the Republic of China can be divided into three modes, i.e. official mediation, civil mediation and governmentapproved civil mediation. Official mediation can be further divided into prosecutor mediation and judge mediation. In the Republic of China, the judges still adhered to the traditional judicial mode. Since their focus was not totally placed on the rights and wrongs of a case but rather on social order, harmony and stability, they would use emotion and law to resolve disputes. The mediators of civil mediation usually involved relatives, friends, tithing men and both parties. This combination accounted for the largest proportion of criminal mediation. The governmentapproved civil mediation was a kind of criminal meditation in which civil power exercised its role as authorized by the lawofficer who finally examined the case．Criminal mediation in the period of the Republic of China mainly concentrated on the phases of public prosecution and trial. Accordingly, the examination and approval of client's application for case withdrawal was subjected to the prosecutor or to the judge according to the phase involved. Due to the different functions and status of the prosecutor and the judge, and their difference in law application and discretion as well, the client's application for withdrawal of criminal meditation met with different endings. There are three main reasons for the predomination of criminal mediation in the period of the Republic of China. First, judges were in lack of adequate human and material resources, so they preferred to use mediation to resolve criminal disputes in order to reduce the working pressure. Second, for the plaintiff, litigation was a special strategy, the purpose of which was to exert the deterrent effect of the law on the defendant. When the defendant met the request of the plaintiff, they tended to reach a settlement in the litigation. Third, dealing with minor criminal cases had little effect on the promotion of judges. Therefore, judges were willing to end a case through mediation for the sake of their own safety and career since the situation was unrest in the period of the Republic of China. 〖JP〗In short, on the surface, the practice of criminal mediation was rejected by the constitutional law in the period of the Republic of China, but the criminal mediation as a ″hidden rule″ survived tenaciously. This shows that the effect of law implementation in the period of the Republic of China was not that satisfactory despite the great achievements in legislation. Our country's legal construction is again in a transformation period. We must draw lessons from the legislation of the Republic of China. In the new era, we must put more emphasis on the investigation of our local traditions and practices, pay more attention to the integration of local resources and external system, insist on the autonomy of legal developments, and construct China's own criminal procedure system.
The Ji clan in Longquan county began to compile genealogies from the Jiaqing reign period, Qing Dynasty. The ''clan norms'' in the genealogies formulated the rules of li si (inheriting the identity to worship the ancestors). According to these norms, one person must get the identity of si zi first and then he had the right to inherit the clan property. By determining the identity of the heir, clan delineated the clan scope and established the clan's economy order. These clan rules were supported by the Qing law. The Succession Part of Civil Code was enacted in 1930 and the ancestral inheriting system was abandoned. This law change impacted the clan system's foundation. With the new found lawsuit archives and genealogies in Zhejiang Longquan, we explored how the local clans dealt with this challenge from the law reform in the Republic of China. The Ji clan rebuilt the genealogy and amend the clan norms between 1929 to 1932, which was a positive response to the change of the civil law. Ji clan held the clan council to discuss the controversial affairs in li si and formulate the new clan norms, including the court judgments in the previous heirs disputes. For example, in a legal dispute about li si, the court supported a child as an heir from another different surname. Regarding this dispute, the clan council had to admitted the court's decision, but only as a special case. On the contrary, the new clan norms emphasized that adopted son with different surname cannot inherit as si zi. By emphasizing the ''democratic procedures'' in clan council, the compilations of the Ji clan genealogy wished to give the new clan norms more legitimacy. Overall, the new norms had kept the ancestral inheriting system and the relationship between the li si and property inheritance. ''Clan norms'' is regarded to the supplement of the civil law. The contradiction between them was skillfully evaded in the former. Although the clan council tried to adjust the relationship between the clan norms and the new civil law, but the clan members still challenged the clan council resolutions. In 1933〖CD*2〗1934, Ji Liangwen, a clan member who was eager to inherit a distant ancestor, initiated legal proceeding against the clan leader because he had not been recognized as si zi in the new genealogy. But Ji Guanzhou, a council member and proficient lawyer, intentionally guided the proceeding to argue that the clan leader individual cannot represent the whole council and avoided discussing the descent problem itself. Since the civil law no longer had any regulations about li si, the clan council which actually advocated stricter rules of li si, or the clan member who claimed that he was qualified to inherit ethnic descent, were unable to get support from the civil law. Nevertheless, the council, based on the concept of the modern democracy, won more legitimacy for the new clan norms. The amendment of clan norms were a response to the reform of the civil law in 1930, and also an adaption to the daily disputes and proceedings among the clan members. The rules formed in disputes and court decisions affected the clan norm amendment by the clan council. In this sense, the relationship between clan norms and the civil law is not only the reflection of the relationship between the clan and the state, but also shows the relationship among the clan members. The clan transformation in modern China and the practice of the civil law were promoted in the participation and contention among clan elites and other clan members. The new rules were operated, confirmed and changed in the disputes, mediation and proceedings among clan members.
''Non-appearance after repeated summons issuance'' refers to the circumstance under which summons have been issued for many times by theyamen(government office of feudal China) whereas the official staff fail to bring the corresponding litigant to theyamen . As shown in the Longquan Judicial Files, about 10 cases in the Late Qing Dynasty ended up with non-appearanceafter repeated summons issuance. Causes of such a circumstance include but are not limited to the favouritism, irregularities and dereliction of theyamenstaff. The whole process of ''non-appearance after repeated summons issuance'' is generally completed by the feudal official,yamenstaff and the parties of the case together, and its causes are closely related to the traditional Chinese idea about case-handling and the parties' abuse of the official case-handling mode. The part of Longquan Judicial Files recording the cases in the Late Qing Dynasty shows the special mode of case-handling called ''non-appearance after repeated summons issuance'': the county magistrate deems that there is dissemblance or breach of reason in the litigation and shows reluctance to accept and hear the case, but due to the insistence of the plaintiff, he accepts it and issues summon for interrogation and trial|however, he expresses a negative attitude in his reply to the plaintiff's indictment, which encourages theyamenstaff to regard the case as a non-urgent one or one from which benefit may be extorted, leading to their unscrupulous behavior and delay. The whole process consists of two aspects: on the one hand, the plaintiff should embrace adequate fortune, supporting himself to persuade the county magistrate to issue summons repeatedly|on the other hand, the accused should also be rich enough (both in fortune and social network) to bribe theyamenstaff, in order to keep a non-appearance state in the trial persistently. If no accident, such a circumstance may continue infinitely,till one of the parties fails to maintain this process with his finite financial resources and ends up as the looser of the case. Social order, in whatever civilization, is established with complexity, and there is no exception in China's litigation system. Among countless legal cases, an individual case handled according to legal rules solely without considering human nature and reason, or otherwise, is always not hard to be found. However, the basis of a judgment can never prevent the case-handlingprocess from being one of the traditional Chinese case-handling modes. Actually, plenty of social disputes end up unaccepted, or are solved through mediation out court, and we can even say that the traditional Chinese legal culture gives full play to the idea of ''the social order dispensing with law.'' Nevertheless, law and ''the social order dispensing with law'' both have their own limitations. A lot of social disputes cannot be solved through litigation, and they are shown as inevitable conflicts to which only power (such as financial and social resources) is the final way of solution. The circumstance of ''non-appearance after repeatedsummons issuance'' unfolds another possible mode of traditional litigation system, and this mode manifests that some disputes may develop, rather than be solved, through litigation. Here, it is not the basis of judgment (human nature, reason or law), but the judicial proceedings with high cost and malpractice that may exert certain influence on the dispute, which means that litigation is not a judicator of the dispute, rather, it's only a field in which the two parties can compete with each other for their own benefit.
The empirical research on the physical objects in classical Chinese poetry provides a unique and significant insight into ancient Chinese literature, which is quite different from the mainstream perspectives that scholars have employed in the traditional exegetical studies. Many objects were mentioned in classical poems, and each carries its primordial connotation as well as literary and cultural implications in specific poems. Meanwhile, they serve as carriers of the imagery in classical Chinese poetry and its literary environment. This study, focusing on the gold and silver ornaments that women wore at the time, aims to develop the research on the attributes of the objects from the following perspectives: First, the classification of various gold and silver ornaments. Many gold and silver ornaments were mentioned in the classical poems of the Tang and Five Dynasties, for example, tiaras, hair accessories, earrings, hand jewelries, clothing ornaments, etc. These are mainly sorted according to women's apparel. The classifications presented in the poems are sometimes similar to their classifications in actual life, but may sometimes differ. A comprehensive classification according to the main characters in the poems, especially the ''female'' as the center of the description, helps objectivise the artistic expression of poems. Second, the acoustic and colorful representations of the ornaments. ''Acoustic representation'' refers to the real sound while a ''colorful representation'' mirrors the real color. The techniques of representation of sound and colors may contribute to the artistic level of a poem. The description of the colors of the gold and silver ornaments in the poems of these dynasties is highly exquisite, highlighting the dynamicity of colors. Likewise, the depiction, representation and suggestion of the sound also contribute to the effect. The integration of color and sound brings us into a world of supreme beauty. Third, the imagery combination and expression of the ornaments. The gold and silver ornaments are the images of the poets' re-creation, a result of the poets' subjective or emotional involvement. In creating images, the poets connect goldand silver ware with animals, with ornaments, and with artifacts. And the main approaches of expressions are both deductive and inductive. The images embody a poets' aesthetic experience and tastes, and increase the expressive force of the poems. Finally, the poets' emotional involvement in the ornaments. An important characteristic of the poetry of the Tang and Five Dynasties is the embodiment of poets' emotions by means of image descriptions. The specific images like gold and silver ornaments are of typical significance in revealing the poets' emotions. The expression of emotions is mainly characterized by coupled patterns and shapes to reflect a protagonist's loneliness. With artistic skills, the poets molded physical objects into specific images to symbolize the character and his/her emotions. The paper highlights the elegant temperament and graceful bearing of the Tang people by unfolding their worship of gold and silver ornaments as reflected in the poems of the Tang and Five Dynasties. We hope to stress the importance of basic literary research by a thorough artistic analysis on the basis of comprehensive studies. At the same time, this article has the dual significance of expanding the scope of research both in space and in time. The expansion in space promotes the integration of the researches in literature, archaeology, and social and cultural history. The expansion in time connects the present research in the gold and silver ornaments in the poems of the Tang and Five Dynasties with those before the Tang Dynasty and after the Song Dynasty.
The studies in the 21st century of the history of ancient China show a number of trends. First, the publication of newly discovered materials has contributed to the steady development of the research on the history of ancient China. Against this new background of historical knowledge, research on the whole is going deeper. Second, interests have expanded from traditional to new areas of research. Third, research concepts and the development of research principles has become a new concern of the academia, including the treatment of the newly discovered materials, the definition of the social morphology of ancient China, and the furthering of the research on traditional disciplines. One consensus among scholars is the ''long-time'' and ''broad-space'' study of history beyond the restraints of divisions between dynasties and geographical regions. The past 12 years of research have brought us judgments of historical details which are closer to the truth. New clues have emerged as to unresolved topics like legal forms, taxation systems, possession of land, etc. In the meanwhile, with more academic interaction on the international level, the issues of domestic research, while preserving our local characteristics, have become more universal and pioneering, for example, issues of ecology and environment, sex, diseases and cures in history, etc. have been explored, which demonstrates the vitality of the research on ancient Chinese history. At present, the field of research has to face and tackle five major issues: firstly, research has been devoted more to the reconstruction of ancient history than to important theories. Theoretically, we have abandoned inaccurate generalizations of Chinese history, but we have failed to produce more persuasive formulations at the same time. Secondly, at various periods in Chinese history, the topics of research have been observed to be limited due to the lack of a questioning attitude. Thirdly, academic criticism and a healthy mechanism have long been lacking. Fourthly, the employment of newly discovered materials is sometimes biased, as is exemplified by the exaggeration of their value by researchers and the researcher's desire to aggressively occupy an advantageous position. Lastly, electronic technology highlights the urgency of upgrading the researcher's knowledge of history. Future research calls for a breakdown of the barriers between different areas of research, more cooperation among scholars of different disciplines, greater courage to develop academic awareness, discussion of issues at deeper levels and more attention to major issues in Chinese history. All these are vital to the qualitative leap forward in the study of ancient Chinese history.
As the five most fundamental interpersonal relationships in ancient China, ''Five Cardinal Relationships'' generalize and conceptualize the human relationship of the ancient Chinese society. Ruler-Subject, Brother-Brother and Friend-Friend are three sets of relationships among ''Five Cardinal Relationships.'' In the historical context in which The Book of Songs was compiled, these three sets of relationships seemed independent of each other but were actually closely-knit. According to historical documents, ''Three Jian Rebellion'' occurred after King Wu of the Zhou Kingdom overthrew the Shang Dynasty. The duke of Zhou crushed the rebellion and began to implement the system of enfeoffment, which exerted a profound effect on the human relationship at that historical period. The system established the status of the king of Zhou and the hierarchical order of political and economic rights through carrying out the economic management by granting fiefs to nobles and collecting taxes and tributes from them. Under such an enfeoffment system, the fiefs were normally bestowed on the ruler's kinsmen, as is pointed out in Zuozhuan, ''They all invested their full brothers with the rule of States.'' Therefore, according to historical documents, it is most likely that the king's brothers became the king's subjects by means of enfeoffment. Furthermore, Bronze Inscriptions provide direct proof of the parallel relation between Ruler-Subject and Brother-Brother in the Zhou's family. By counting the word frequency of you (friend) in phrases such as peng you (friend), liang peng (good friend), you (friend), you sheng (friend-student) and you jun zi (noble friend) in The Book of Songs, it can be found that you appears most frequently in Ya. (Minor Odes of the Kingdom and Greater Odes of the Kingdom) The analysis of ''Ka loh,'' ''Ke tsuy'' and ''Yih,'' three Odes from Greater Odes of the Kingdom indicates that Friend-Friend relationship in these odes implies a Ruler-Subject relationship. Both bronze inscriptions and historical documents provide the evidence that as an ethical norm, you served as the behavior code of brothers so that the relationship of Friend-Friend comprised Brother-Brother relationship at that time and thereby Ruler-Subject was tied to Friend-Friend through Brother-Brother. Initially you was used as a norm to regulate the Brother-Brother relationship. Since Ruler-Subject and Friend-Friend turned out to be interchangeable in some odes in The Book of Songs, you evolved into you ji (friend) to regulate the Ruler-Subject relationship. The trace of you ji is detectable in subsequent works such as The Analects of Confucius which equate the Ruler-Subject relationship with the Friend-Friend relationship. The essence of you ji in The Book of Songs can be summarized as follows: The ruler should do good to his friend and the subject should assist the ruler to ''behave with reverent mien.'' Such behavior codes also impacted on the Subject-Subject relationship.
As a strategic advantage and a kind of intangible assets, reputation has been a cornerstone for the existence and development of the Not-for-profit (NFP) Organization, an entity that is committed to facilitating the social benefits. During the social transition period, while developing rapidly, NFPs in China have been confronted with an increasingly serious reputation crisis. Therefore a probe into the crisis origin and remodeling path of NFP's reputation in the Chinese social transition period will be of significance to the healthy development of nonprofit sector and the construction of modern social organization system in China in the future. The theoretical connotation and localized understanding of NFPs' reputation. Compared with the for-profit organizations, the reputation of NFPs has three classic features: the extensiveness of social embeddedness|the diffusion of value in the society|the complexity of management. Meanwhile, for NFPs, the reputation has five positive functions: (1)the reforging function of organizational image; (2)regulating function of opportunistic behavior|(3)the assessment function of service quality|(4)the strengthening function of organizational capability|(5)the distinguishing function of organizational identity. Besides, from the point-view of system management, the article indicates that, as the system input, country system, social climate and organization management in the Chinese social transition period which NFPs are confronted with, have directly influenced the features and values of organizational reputation as an output of intangible assets. The crisis origin of NFP's reputation in the Chinese social transition period. The article points out that the crisis origin of NFP's reputation in the Chinese social transition period lies in the failure of five key reputation mechanisms. First, the reputation investment mechanism. The deficiency of responsible parties and the blur of target direction which resulted from the special property system of NFPs in China, have slacked down the investment incentives of NFPs' leaders. Second, the reputation information dissemination mechanism. The indirectness of service and the assessment difficulties of output for NFPs have led to the obstacles of information dissemination related to the organizational reputation. Third, the incentive and restraint mechanism. Normally, there exist two roles that employees in nonprofit play, namely the role as the individual in pursuit of their own benefits and the role as the representative of the public benefits. However, it is due to the blur of these two roles that the working staff in NFPs might bring about harm to the organization reputation. Fourth, the reputation punishment mechanism. The monopoly of service provision in nonprofit sector in China brought about the defect of nonprofit market structure, which has directly done harm to the construction of the reputation punishment mechanism for NFPs. Fifth, the reputation social monitoring mechanism. Due to the special organization features as well as the deficiency of management system, the stakeholders of NFPs could not effectively possess and monitor the NFPs' operational information, which has led to the noticeable expectation of short-term behavior of NFPs. The remodeling path of Chinese NFP's reputation. On one hand, the subjective enforcement of reputation remodeling. As a kind of self-enforcement, this is a direct reputation remodeling path of ″Autonomy,″ and is carried out on the basis of individual employee level as well as the organization level. On the other hand, the objective enforcement of reputation remodeling. This is an indirect reputation remodeling path of ″Heteronomy,″ in which the NFP is confronted to the reputation modeling by the society and governments. Until now, great achievements have been made in the researches related to organizational reputation home and abroad. However, the literatures are mainly focused on the for-profit organizations, and there exists a fierce lack of research on the reputation of NFPs, especially the localized research in China, though NFPs are committed to the facilitation of social benefits, therefore resulting in higher demands of organizational reputation. This article could be a meaningful try at the theoretical level. The innovation point of the article is that the research represents a combination of modern reputation theory and NFP, and the theoretical analysis of NFPs' reputation is put in the background of the Chinese social transition period, and thus a theoretical analysis framework of crisis origin and remodeling path of Chinese NFP's reputation is constructed.
Since the industrial revolution, technology has contributed to rapid socioeconomic development, but has also caused a sharp deterioration of the ecological environment. Thus, corporate green innovation strategy has been rising at the right time to cope with the current deteriorating ecological environment. It is an urgent task nowadays to strengthen the guidance and control of enterprises, and to make enterprises shift to green production. Although the previous literature abroad has explored the influencing factors of green innovation strategy, researchers are constrained to their specific subject areas so there is no one theoretical framework that is widely accepted among scholars by far. Furthermore, the research findings before are also in dispute, sometimes even contradictory, especially lacking in-depth study of the mechanism of factors influencing the green innovation strategy. From the micro perspective, this paper probes into the key elements that affect the implementation of green innovation strategy and their impacting mechanisms, and multiple case studies in grounded theory has been employed to explore the drivers of green innovation strategy, which has used a dozen of typical enterprises in heavy polluting industries as objects. Through in-depth interviews, open coding, axial coding and selective coding processes, we have identified the core areas of green innovation strategy drivers as well as the expected economic benefits, redundant resources and stakeholder pressure to be the three main areas, based on which a driving factor model of green innovation strategy has been proposed. According to the results of case studies, expected economic benefits, redundant resources and stakeholder pressure are three major factors affecting green innovation strategies. The results show that expected economic benefits, redundant resources and stakeholder pressure all have significant effects on green innovation strategy. The expected economic benefits is an inner driver of green innovation strategy, influencing corporate behavior through managers' assessment of the benefits of green innovation strategy|redundant resources is an internal situational condition of implementing green innovation strategy, being the factor that relates to the ability of the starting and operating of green innovation strategy|stakeholder pressure is the external situational factor and strengthening factor that has an impact on the implementation of green innovation strategy, reflecting the external norms imposed on the corporate green innovation strategy. In addition, this two situational variables, redundant resources and stakeholder pressure, affect the intensity and direction of the relationship between expected economic benefits and green innovation strategy. When the situational variables are weak, green innovation strategy is mainly affected by the expected economic benefits|when the impact of situational factors is very significant, it is more likely that green innovation strategy will be adopted. This study provides policy thinking and implementation for the government to develop regulatory policies of promoting green innovation strategy. The government can urge enterprises to adopt green innovation strategy by raising the awareness of green innovation, rational use of the role of stakeholders as well as reducing the cost of implementing green innovation strategy.
How to eliminate ''the explanatory gap''between human's conscious experiences and his brain's physiology? This is the hard problem in the area of the mind-body relationship as well as the central issue of contemporary philosophy of mind. The irreducibility of conscious experiences and qualia originates from their subjectivity, which means that they could be experienced only from the first-person perspective instead of the third-person perspective. It is the neglect of the subjectivity of conscious experiences that causes the failing of Functionalism and Representationalism. Subjectivity is the key to eliminate the mystery of consciousness. Whereas the object of my perceptual experience is intersubjectively accessible, my perceptual experience itself is only given directly to me. It is this first-personal givenness of the experience that makes it subjective. Consciousness is self-luminous. It is characterized by intentionality. Being intentionally aware of objects is simultaneously self-aware through and in itself. Its self-awareness is not due to a secondary act or reflex but is a constitutive moment of experience itself. Despite his criticism of the reflection theory, Brentano continues to speak of consciousness, taking itself as its own object, and self-awareness as a secondary object-awareness. Husserl does not deny the existence of a tacit self-awareness. But he does deny that this self-awareness can provide us with more than awareness. The actual life and lived-experiencing is of course always conscious, but it is not therefore always thematically experienced and known. According to Heidegger, any worldly experiencing is characterized by the fact that ''I am always somehow acquainted with myself''and this basic familiarity with oneself does not take the form of a reflective self-perception or a thematic self-observation, nor does it involve any kind of self-objectification. For Sartre, the conscious givenness of the experience is not simply a quality added to experience, but the very mode of being of the experience. Just as an extended object can only exist three dimensionally, an experience can only exist as self-aware.
As one of the most important perspectives to understand the world, metaphor interpretation has long been concerned by researchers in cognitive fields. The development of advanced neuroimaging technologies, such as fMRI and ERP, which facilitate observing the process of metaphor comprehension in the brain, have all the more pushed this research forward. However, the conflicting conclusions drawn by different researchers confuse our view about the brain areas involving metaphor processing. Currently, there are three prevailing views, namely, the right brain theory, the left brain theory and the whole brain theory, which arouse our reflection. We have found out that there is something in each conclusion while there do exist contradictions between these conclusions. The reasons for the contradictions lie in the following two aspects: (1) There are some drawbacks in the researchers' view that metaphor processing simply involves some particular area in the brain|(2) There are still some vulnerabilities in their experimental designs. It should be noted that metaphor comprehension, i.e. the input, extraction, processing and integration of metaphorical information, is a quite complicated process, which is affected by many factors, including the characteristics of metaphor, the difference of individual processing, the way of information integration in the brain, and so on. That is why we cannot take it for granted that we have seen the whole picture of metaphor processing in the brain while we have only found out some of the aspects of the processing. Metaphor comprehension is such a complicated process that it cannot be completed by a single brain area. As an external stimulus, the novelty, visualization and multi-modality of metaphor itself may have influence on the processing. And the difference between individuals, including their intelligence and their familiarity with a given metaphor may also have effect on the processing. Besides, the way our brain integrates the metaphor information likewise presents the versatility and complexity of metaphor processing from input, extraction, processing and integration. Based on the experimental results of the previous researchers, it is concluded in the paper that the brain processing of metaphorical language has its own special features but it also shares the common features of general language processing. As far as a normal individual is concerned, the classical brain areas of language processing are situated in the left hemisphere but the right hemisphere will be involved in the processing of metaphorical language. The involvement of the right hemisphere in the metaphor processing is determined by the novelty and visuality of a metaphor, that is, the more novel and more visual a metaphor is, the more probably the right brain participates in the processing. On the contrary, the more conventionalized a metaphor is, the less involved the right brain is. The familiarity with metaphor is the norm for the individual to identify whether it is a novel or a conventional metaphor being processed in the brain. To the individual, the more unfamiliar he/she is with the metaphor, the more novel it is. On the contrary, the more familiar he/she is with the metaphor, the more conventional it is. However, to those groups of people as young children whose brains are under development, old people whose brains are degenerated, or patients whose brain is injured, it is more difficult for them to understand a metaphor and then it is most likely for them to consume more cognitive resources, which leads to a larger scale of activation. The multi-model input of metaphor and the way of information integration in the brain also determine that the metaphor processing cannot be completed by a single brain area. Instead, it should be done from the input of metaphorical information through different sensory channels, to the extraction and processing by corresponding functional brain areas, and then to the integration in the whole brain network. Therefore, metaphor comprehension is such a complicated process that it involves the cooperation of the related brain areas, including the processing of corresponding functional brain areas and the blending of related brain areas in the neural network. Although some brain area or areas takes a more active role in a certain cognitive task, the processing still needs the cooperation with other areas involved in the whole brain network to guarantee the prompt and correct processing of metaphorical information.
Ethics, the primary endogenous relationship as well as the eternal-universal relationship in Chinese tradition, has always been a unique ontological relationship. Originated endogenously, it is thereby distinguished from other social relationships, including legal relationship which derived from the primary relationship and act as the functional relationship. Usually, ethical and legal relationships coexist peacefully. Occasionally, they may collide and contradict with each other, leaving the subjects of duty and their relatives and friends in a dilemma. Such a dilemma may even affect or threaten public order, good customs or people's morals. To deal with the dilemma, Chinese Ethical Jurisprudence came to establish an exemption system. Depending on the emergency and importance of the matter and the person's capacity, a person who is caught between a rock and a hard place may have his legal obligations reduced, exempted, transferred to others, or postponed. Such solutions were proposed in order to provide the person with a leeway or privilege. One may perform his/her ethical roles first, and then fulfill his/her legal obligations, thus resolving the ethical crisis. Furthermore, such solutions may help perform legal obligations, maintain legal relationship, and establish social order. Therefore, ethics and legal relationships become compatible, preserving social order, good customs and morals. The evolving process described above contains great wisdom. Ethics exemption originated from ethical relationship. It provides a concrete system to guarantee the justice of law and to prevent ethical vacuum on legal grounds. Ethics exemption is based on humanity. It protects humanity, maintains legal relationship and guards against irrational behaviors. Ethics exemption respects humanity and all human possibilities, including one's instinct to love their loved ones. It avoids coercive and intrusive demands, and thus protects humanity and all its variations, and prevents dehumanizing and overly-legalizing behaviors. Ethics exemption empathizes with human feelings. Human feelings may be general and universal, or inappropriate. Ethics exemption empathizes with and conforms to universal human feelings, but regulates inappropriate ones. It prevents human nature from endangering ethical relationship, humanity, social order and individual rights.
The private equity industry in China has been developing rapidly in recent years. It is interesting to note that most private equity investors would distance themselves from the target firms' daily operations, and watch firms with ″gambling agreement″ instead. When the firm performs better, they would invest more|when it fails to meet its financial target, they usually exercise the right to mandatory conversion to control the target firm, or exercise the right to redemption and quit the investment. In such cases, the related contract clause is considered a ″valuation adjustment mechanism.″ In practice,information asymmetry and valuation gap make it difficult to assess the real value of the target firm, and contribute to the emergence of clauses relating to valuation adjustment. Moreover, China's underdeveloped legal infrastructure and inefficient capital market combine to force the investors to adopt valuation adjustment mechanism as a protective measure for their investment in the country. The valuation adjustment mechanism has been running for a long time without explicit consent of the legislature. Most valuation adjustment clauses in general are based on preferred shares. However, the Chinese Company Law does not clearly state the legitimacy of preferred shares in limited liability companies. As a result, a number of private equity investors choose the offshore investment model to avoid Chinese regulations. In addition, in order to reduce moral hazard of shareholders and managers, private equity investors are more willing to impose contractual liability on shareholders, managers and the firm at the same time. The Supreme People's Court of P.R.China has ruled on Haifu v.Diya, that the target firm is prohibited from signing a contract including provisions of valuation compensation. For the sake of better protection and interests equilibrium, we suggest that a better institutionalized environment should be built for the valuation adjustment mechanism in China. As to the Company Law, theoretical and practical obstacles of preferred shares in limited liability companies have already been removed, therefore it is time to revise the Company Law to legalize the adoption of preferred shares in limited liability companies. As to the judicial enforcement of the valuation adjustment contract, judges should familiarize themselves with the complicated business world, balance the interests of different stakeholders and minimize the moral hazard through proper allocation of rights and responsibilities. Furthermore, the State could instruct the private equity industry associations to draft model documents, to clarify the relevant legal issues and to allow customized provisions in the valuation adjustment mechanism contract as well.
As the world's most populous country of old people, China became one of the countries with an aging population society in 2000. Demographic transitions influenced by population aging have caused many economic and social problems and been attracting increasing attention throughout China, and are emerging as an important issue in most developing countries. However, as the issue of population aging only began to unfold at the beginning of the 21st century for developing countries, the existing studies on the relationship between demographic transition and economic growth mainly focus on developed countries. Therefore, there are only a few studies on the impact of demographic transition on economic growth in developing countries. The population aging and the phenomenon of labor shortage since the beginning of the 21st century indicate that the demographic dividend due to the low labor cost may have diminished in the near future, which may have a negative impact on China's sustainable growth. Demographic transition is a long-term tendency, whose influence on China's economy may be felt some time later, impacting its macroeconomic environment. This paper tries to quantify the economic effects in the context of demographic transition using the recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. The shock of demographic changes in the simulation includes such basic scenarios as population aging, gender shifts, urbanization and human capital structure that contribute to real economic development. A comparative scenario with demographic change simulation other than population aging is adopted for capturing the real impact of population aging. In order to quantify the economic and social effect of government demographic-related policies, another five scenarios are designed to test the impact of different policy measures on the economic growth. The results from the CGE model reveal that population aging does gradually slow down China's economic growth to 5.513% from 2025 to 2030. All the demographic-related policies may help to offset the negative effect of population aging. Among those policies, the rise of the education level, the improvement of the human capital accumulation, and the increase of the number of high-tech workers will turn out to be the most effective measures for keeping the sustainable growth of China. The extension of the retirement age is only an expedient measure, and urbanization without full citizenization is the least effective. Therefore, it is suggested that the government take such measures as effective population policies, increased spending on education for human capital accumulation and higher labor productivity, and the cultivation of innovative talents to stimulate the second demographic dividend. In addition, relevant measures to address urbanization, such as ensuring migrant's citizenship, improving the educational system, and enhancing social security and medical security may be helpful for offsetting the negative effect by population aging.
Since 2003, Chinese outward foreign direct investment（OFDI） location choice has focused on three groups of host countries or regions, namely: countries or regions rich in natural resources but with high risk, developing countries or regions with abundant cheap labor, and highly developed countries or regions with plentiful sophisticated technologies. In order to realize the two national strategic goals-resource security and industrial structure adjustment, the Chinese government resorts to the twisted domestic financing system to grant preferential loan to the OFDI industries seeking SOEs（state-owned enterprises） to increase their investment capability in those countries or regions where economic risk is relatively high. Also, the Chinese government has actively promoted the establishment of foreign economic and trade cooperation zones in both Asian and African developing countries, improved the local supporting industries, and facilitated traditional Chinese manufacturing enterprises in their search of cheap labor in Asian-African countries to exert their industrial agglomeration advantages. Furthermore, the Chinese government has issued export-oriented policies and the foreign investment policies to increase the internationalization experience of Chinese firms and to promote their investment capability in the host countries or regions. The above-mentioned are the mechanism of how ″country-specific advantage″ influences Chinese OFDI location choice. This paper examines Chinese OFDI location choice from 2003 to 2010, and finds that Chinese OFDI does prefer countries or regions which have plenty of natural resources, cheap labor and/or strategic resources. In addition, with country-specific advantages, Chinese OFDI which seeks natural resources has stronger preference for countries or regions with high economic risk|for the OFDI which seeks cheap labor has less preference for host countries or regions of close geographic distance|and the internationalization experience becomes the key attraction for Chinese OFDI seeking strategic capital. The highlights of this paper lie in three aspects. Firstly, for the empirical model, this paper turns Buckley's generalized FDI model into one that can explain different OFDI location choices by integrating the factors affecting investment motivation with the factors affecting investment capability. Secondly, to explain where the ownership advantage of Chinese OFDI firms comes from, this paper embeds Chinese OFDI into China's macro-economic development background, relying on country-specific advantages to distinguish three different types of ownership advantage. Thirdly, to discover the unique Chinese OFDI location preferences, this paper finds that Chinese OFDIs prefer to invest in high-risk countries such as Iran or Iraq, that driven by the search for both natural resources and cheap labor, Chinese OFDI to Africa has surged, and that Chinese OFDI which seeks strategic resources tends to invest in countries or regions where China has had internationalization experience before, such as Japan and South Korea.
In the process of economic growth, the rich-poor gap and the urban-rural gap are gradually being widened. China has to be confronted with the double threats of the ″poverty trap″ and ″middle-income trap,″ which exert serious threats on the economic and social development. Social conflicts, represented by mass incidents, are increasingly becoming the focus of the present society.. This paper attempts to explain the mechanism of conflicts and the solution to them from the perspective of modern economics within the framework of a story, and to bring the conflict between the elite and the public into an analytical framework based on the game theory, in order to provide suggestions for social stability and harmony. We have found that when the protection of property rights is improved, the elite conflict input remains unchanged while social public investment is reduced. In brief, the public will reduce the protection inputs if the government provides more comprehensive protection of property rights. Besides, if the target product is higher, the two sides will put more resources into conflict. In other words, the lack of protection of property rights which leads to the increase of competing products is the important reason for social conflict. When the elite enhance efficiency in the social public conflicts, the income distribution will deteriorate, which is a fact. On the other hand, when their conflict ability becomes stronger compared with the public, they will not be afraid of the increasing conflict efficiency of the public because of the low income distribution, neither will they be willing to allow other social elite to share their ″achievements.″ We have also found that when the income distribution deteriorates, the gap between both sides' social capitals will be widened, resulting in more conflict input, that is, the conflict becomes more intense. However, the social capital gap has only limited effect on the conflict inputs as long as the income is sufficiently distributed. This shows that when the income is relatively poorly distributed, it is more difficult for the public to tolerate the occupation property of social capital, and that when income distribution becomes improved, the public are no longer sensitive to the impact of social capital, because they can expect to get the same social capital from the ″next term.″ Although the income distribution is determined by the elite, the public's income will not be reduced to a minimum when the elite gains the maximum income|in other words, the elite can improve the income situation for both sides when they try to achieve pareto improvement, through enhancing income distribution within certain limits. On the other hand, if the elites' income will be reduced by the further improvement of the total public income, the elite have no incentive to improve the income of the public once they are out of this range. Therefore, it is somewhat complicated for the elite to increase their incentive to improve income distribution.
· CNKI · Wamfangdata
