Several proposals for global legal governance of environmental migration have recently been published, almost exclusively by Western scholars. The present article denounces the geographical and intellectual disconnect between descriptive works on environmental migration as a phenomenon and the normative studies on the developments in law and governance. It suggests that this disconnect has resulted in a post-colonial approach towards tackling environmental migration, which could impede the protection of environmental migrants. While recalling that governance of environmental migration is most likely to succeed within a regional framework, this article pleads for a home-grown legal approach of environmental migration in the Asia-Pacific. Participating in a multilateral discussion is a unique opportunity for the rising countries of Asia and the Pacific to strengthen their growing diplomatic roles and to demonstrate their capacity in the development of liberal forms of transnational governance.

Perfumes have been known as utilizable but exclusive products sinceantiquity. Use of aromatic substances was first mentioned in archaic sourcesof the ancient world. The origin of such fragrant substances was mainlyvegetable and animal. Throughout history, the use of subtle perfumesincreased and some of the exotic materials became expensive and valuablecommodities. They were the source of wealth for cultures and rulers. Thecontribution of the Arabs to the distribution of new crops, knowledge,industrial techniques and substances is a well-known phenomenon. In ourarticle we intend to focus on the new perfumes that were distributedthroughout the world thanks to the Arab conquests and the knowledge of theirother uses, mainly medicinal, that was handed down along with the productsthemselves. About 20 common perfumes are known to have been used in themedieval world, though half of them were not mentioned in earliersources.

These phenomena will be dealt with and presented in a profile we built upfor four perfumes: agarwood, camphor, musk and ambergris. The theoreticaland practical uses of these perfumes that are presented in detail (based onvarious sources including traders’ documents, medical literature andpractical Genizah fragments, dealing mainly with medicine) will serve ascase studies for the understanding of new trends in the uses of perfumesafter the Muslim conquest. Arab perfumes can be divided into three groups,according to their level of importance:

A. New perfumes, mainly from the vast region named “India”;most of which (such as camphor, ambergris and sandalwood and a compound madeout of them known as nadd and ghāliya)were not known in the Middle East and the Mediterranean region until theMuslim conquests.

B. Perfumes that kept their popularity including: a variety ofcinnamon, costus, spikenard, frankincense, saffron and rose.

C. Perfumes that lost their worth like balsam and myrrh.

It seems that camphor was the best and most cherished perfume thatsubstituted balsam. Like balsam, the importance of myrrh that was importedfrom Arabia and East Africa also declined and it seems that its substitutewas musk. Transformations in perfume fashion were in fact only part of awider revolution of the Arabic material culture which the Middle East, theMediterranean region and even many European countries experienced due to theArab conquests.

This study traces the origins and development of the concept of Li 理 (Pattern) in early Chinese Cosmology, locating its foundation in the root metaphor derived from the natural lines or veins along which a block of jade can be split by a skilled artisan. From this relatively concrete image, li comes to eventually represent in Daoist cosmology the more abstract quality of the natural patterns or structures within the universe along which all phenomena move and interact with one another without the interference of human beings. After examining how early Confucian works emphasize the more abstract and derivative qualities of order and structure, we see that the likely Yangist authors in the Lüshi chunqiu return to the original metaphor of veins in jade but, instead, apply this to the veins through which the qi circulates through the human body.

We then see how this metaphor is expanded beyond the human body in the classical Daoist texts to come to represent the natural guidelines both within all phenomena and those that guide their movements within the cosmos. Within phenomena these include such varied things as the structures for the generation and expression of emotions within human beings as well as the natural lines along which the butcher's chopper passes in order to cleave oxen. In Daoist inner cultivation literature it is these patterns with which sages accord so that their spontaneous actions are completely in harmony with the greater forces of the cosmos. Only after long practice of the apophatic contemplative methods that include concentrating on one breathing and emptying out the normal contents of consciousness can the sage be able to accomplish this goal of “taking no action yet leaving nothing undone.” Thus the concept of li as these natural guidelines comes to serve as an explanation for why this classical Daoist dictum is effective in the world.

Finally, the Huainanzi contains the most sophisticated and sustained usages of the concept of li as the natural patterns and guidelines in the cosmos arguing that complying with them is the key to a genuinely contented life.

Agarwood (especially 〔 沉 香 〕 Chinese chen xiang / 〔 沈 香 〕Japanese jinkō), among other subspecies differentiated inEast Asian languages, has caught international perfumery attention inconspicuous dimensions in the past years. It belongs to the most soughtafter perfumery raw materials in the world. The lucrative image of itsbusiness makes international businessmen, foreign scientists, perfumers,global industry representatives, as well as locals eager to participate inits international distribution and to improve its artificial masscultivation and synthetic production. Moreover, efforts transgress mereeconomic activities in Eastern Asia when perfumery devotees engage inhistorical research and perfumery experiments, or when they publish on theirexperiences, as well as when they establish networks with like-mindedpeople.

Aromatics derived from animals have played a very important role in thehistory of perfumery. The most well-known of these materials are musk fromthe preputial glands of the musk deer, ambergris produced in the stomach ofthe sperm whale, and civet from the anal glands of the civet cat. Two othernotable materials are castoreum from the beaver, and hyraceum from thesolidified urine of the African hyrax. The material that I will call ‘sweethoof’ in this article, also called blattes de Byzance and unguis odoratus, is another fragrant material derivedfrom an animal, consisting of the opercula of certain marine snails. Withits marine origins ‘sweet hoof’ is intrinsically linked to the ocean and totrade, and it has also long been of importance all the way from theMediterranean to China and Japan. Indeed, it is probably the most ancientanimal derived aromatic to have an extensive global use, being mentioned inancient Babylonian incense recipes. Yet, quite probably owing to its verylow profile in more commonly studied genres of Sanskrit texts, the SouthAsian chapter of the history of ‘sweet hoof’ has yet to be written.

As readers of this Journal will appreciate, our remit is broad; both inregard to time (from before the Common Era to the closing decades of thetwentieth century) and as far as place (from Baghdad to Beijing and beyond)is concerned. This gives us the opportunity to publish research on thoseelements of human activity that bind or separate cultures on the macro levelboth historically and geographically. Languages, for example, gather ordivide populations. The challenges experienced by Asian languagecommunities, engaged on the task of adopting the Roman script, were examinedby a group of linguists in Vol. 20 (January 2010). Religion and kingship areother phenomena that make or break barriers and in Vol. 22 (January 2012) wepublished a series of complementary articles that looked at the Paramaradynasty, their religious involvements with Jainism, the Śaiva tradition ofHindusim and Buddhism in its initial homeland, North India.

This paper is a preliminary attempt at a history of the western world's interest in Chinese currency and numismatics. It focuses on Western language publications of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and pays particular attention to the backgrounds of the authors of those publications on the grounds that they were the first people to shape the field in Europe and the USA.

Amber has been known since antiquity in Europe, made into pendants, and usedfor perfume containers in large quantities since the first millennium bce. It is a naturally occurring fossilized tree (a certain kindof northern pine) resin, composed primarily of carbon-hydrogen-oxygen (C10H16O). It is rather soft (Mohs hardness2.0–2.5), hence easy to carve, and possesses a resinous luster whenpolished. Its colours range from transparent to translucent deep orange-redto brown and sometimes a more opaque yellow. Solid amber has no smell, butwhen powdered it gives off an agreeable aroma. When warmed or burned it hasa characteristic pinewood fragrance. It softens at about 150°C and, ifheated above 200°C, it will break down to give an “oil of amber” and a blackresidue. In his Historia naturalis (XXXVII), Pliny theElder considers its scent when heated to be the most reliable proof of realamber.

The burning of candles and incense is common in religious ceremoniesworldwide. Analysis of incense smoke has shown the presence of particulatematter, volatile organic compounds, aldehydes and polycyclic aromatichydrocarbons that are hazardous to health. Long-term exposure to smokeformed during combustion can cause airway dysfunction, allergic reactionsand dermatological effects and is a risk factor implicated in thedevelopment of other serious diseases. In this paper the effect of thesestudies are reviewed and simple precautions suggested to avoid toxic effectsof incense smoke.

Chinese perfumery arts have a history of two or three thousand years. Theart however, was never specifically separated from medicine, personalgrooming or food culture; many aromatic materials were used for all of thesepurposes. In comparison to western traditions it is notable that Chineseperfumery was local in character. The aromatic raw materials employed wereoften native to Chinese lands, or imported from nearby. Moreover, Chineseperfumery differs from the western tradition in regard to the way in which afew outstanding aromatics have been employed.

Sweet smelling plant materials have attracted human attention since ancienttimes. It was realised that some plant materials have a better aroma whenplaced on burning firewood, which is how rituals all over the world came toinclude both plants and incense. The ceremonial feeding of the perpetualfire in Zoroastrian fire temples, performed five times in 24 hours, iscalled būy (aroma). The ancient Iranian scriptures – theAvesta and scriptures written in Pahlavi – all mention aromatics and severalkinds of incense.

Since the 1970s scholars in China have identified mo 貘 as the ancient name for the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). I concur with this identification and I trace the source of the modern misidentification of mo as the Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus) to the article by Jean Pierre Abel-Rémusat published in 1824. Abel-Rémusat based his identification on woodblock drawings of the mo depicted as the quadripartite animal first described by Bo Juyi in the ninth century: elephant trunk, rhinoceros eyes, cow tail, tiger paws. Xu Shen (ca. 55–ca. 149) in the Shuowen jiezi compared mo to the bear, as did all descriptions of mo before Bo Juyi. Bo Juyi's description reflects new ideas about mo in medieval culture, and cannot be used as evidence of the animal named mo in early China. As a consequence of Abel-Rémusat's mistaken identification – which was immediately accepted in Western zoology – the word mo lost its original meaning and became the word for tapir in modern Chinese and Japanese. Examination of textual and zooarchaeological evidence confirms the giant panda as the original referent of mo. Although the tapir inhabited the region of China in prehistory there is no evidence of the tapir in China in historical times.

The exploitation of natural resources in times of conflict has been the object of a prolific literature due to the extremely laconic character of the standards of conduct prescribed by the Hague and Geneva Conventions. Such laconicism has led scholars to be creative in ensuring that this central aspect of modern conflicts falls within the scope of existing legal instruments. This article starts by depicting the rich argumentative creativity developed by scholars and experts to ensure a more comprehensive regulation of what has often been perceived as a form of international brigandage. Subsequently it reflects on the biases of the professional community that has dedicated its efforts to the elaboration of a fairer framework of natural resources exploitation in times of conflict. In particular, it formulates some critical remark on the “just world business” that has dictated the methodology behind most of the interpretative engineering to be found.