A central challenge for scholars of party politics is to explain parties' electoral success or failure. Campaign strategies, candidate personalities, electoral systems, parties' issue emphasis and policy positions all receive extensive coverage in the literature. One variable that has been neglected is the role of nomination systems in election results. This is surprising considering how politicians often blame candidate selection failures for disappointing electoral outcomes and then reform nomination mechanisms in the hope of improving future election prospects. In this study I examine the relationship between nomination systems and electoral results in Taiwan before and after the change in electoral systems. I show that candidate selection methods have played an important role in shaping Taiwan's party system under the old and new electoral systems.

Among the 190 articles in the so-called “Answers to questions about the Qin Laws/Statutes” (Falü dawen 法律答問) written on bamboo strips excavated from a tomb at Shuihudi in Yunmeng County, Hubei Province, the one concerning Qin's citizenship particularly attracts my attention. It says: “What is the meaning of a ‘Xia child’? (A child born of a) father from a vassal state, and a Qin mother.” (可 [何] 謂夏子? 臣邦父、秦母 謂也). In this paper, I argue that this article, which is perhaps surprising in regard to the patriarchal mentality dominating the Chinese world, can be explained by the historical, political and military context of the Qin state in the 3rd Century B.C.E. and by its global strategy of infiltrating and “nibbling at” its protectorates.

The following interview with Li Xueqin took place at his home in the Tsinghua University campus on June 5, 2012. In the early 1980s, I was a graduate student at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and I first became acquainted with Li when he was on a visit to SOAS. My interview began with questions about Li's experiences travelling to the West soon after China first opened up and his contributions towards building a bridge between the Chinese and Western academic communities and his.

The International Law Commission recently completed its work on the controversial issue of the effects of armed conflicts on treaties, culminating in the adoption of a set of eighteen draft articles and an annex. The Commission's efforts are nothing short of commendable, but this article argues that insufficient attention has been paid to the role of supervening impossibility of performance and fundamental change of circumstances in determining the effects of armed conflicts on treaties. Although both doctrines may in fact appropriately apply in the context of armed conflicts, the mere referencing of them in the adopted draft articles gives rise to several problems. In particular, the two doctrines were codified by the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties without their application to armed conflicts in mind. Some changes to the draft articles are proposed to address these difficulties.

This paper reconsiders the dating of the Houma covenant texts in light of new findings from the Wenxian covenant texts. Dating of the Houma covenants has focused on matching certain names found in the Houma covenants to names and events in historical texts. These include the name of the sanctioning spirit invoked in the covenants, and that of the covenant lord overseeing the covenants. I argue that the sanctioning spirit is not, as is often proposed, a former lord of Jin, but a mountain spirit called Lord Yue, and, as such, has no bearing on the dating of the texts. I further argue that the use of the personal name of a Han lineage leader in the Wenxian covenants strongly supports the identification of the figure referred to as jia 嘉 in the Houma texts as the historical Zhao Jia (Zhao Huan Zi). I suggest that the mention of Zhao Jia in the recently published Chu-slips Xinian implies that Zhao Jia came to the leadership of the Zhao lineage around 442 B.C.E., well before 424 B.C.E., the date of his single-year reign reported in the Shi ji. I conclude that the Houma covenants include materials that may be linked to the Zhao Wu incident of the early fifth-century B.C.E., but that those materials in which Zhao Jia is named as the covenant lord probably date to sometime between 442 and 424 B.C.E.

This essay introduces the newly published Qin documents from levels 5, 6, and 8 of Well no. 1, Liye, Hunan province, the ancient Qianling County of the Qin dynasty, as presented in two 2012 works, Liye Qin jian (yi) 里耶秦簡 (壹) and Liye Qin jiandu jiaoshi (di yi juan) 里耶秦簡牘校釋 (第一卷), ed. Chen Wei 陳偉, together with some of the documents on display in the Liye Qin jian bowuguan (Liye Museum of Qin Slips). It discusses some of the problems in those two publications, the nature of the documents; dating issues; military logistics; the Qin legal system as revealed in the documents, especially those relating to fines and punishments, rewards, rations for convicts, status distinctions and the purchase of rank, forms for writing up documents, and Qin ordinances (ling 令); and materials relating to the religious activities of local officials in Qianling County. It concludes by offering a speculation on why the documents were thrown into the well as the Qin dynasty began to crumble.

The recent discovery of an unusual ninth century B.C.E. bronze inscription dedicated to Yu as a founder deity has reopened discussions regarding the historicity of legendary figures. This article examines the occult role of this figure in Zhou society and suggests that the inscription be read as a song used in a harvest ceremony of thanksgiving to Yu. The author suggests that Yu once functioned along the same lines as Houji, as both ancestral founder and earth deity, but was eventually suppressed in favor of Houji.

In Japan, there are many kinds of dōs. The term has diverseand profound meanings, making it a challenge to define. Simply speaking, dō is a way for people to train the spirit by followingspecific practices, with the purpose of mastering life. Prominent examplesof dōs include chadō / sadō (〔 茶 道 〕so-called “tea ceremony”), kadō (〔 華 道 〕 so-called “flowerarrangement”), shodō (calligraphy), and bushidō (the ethical code of the samurai). There arealso sport practices such as jūdō (judo), kendō (kendo) and aikidō (aikido), allof which are also connected with the culture of dō.