Chairman's Note: At the beginning of the 2019, the Institute of Chinese History Studies in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences was established in Beijing, and the General Secretary XI Jin-ping sent a congratulatory letter to emphasize the importance of generalizing historical experience, exploring historical laws, figuring out historical trend and accelerating the construction of historiography discipline system, academic system and discourse system with Chinese characteristics, and expressed his hope that the institute could publish a series of insightful works and cultivate historians expertised in both Chinese and Western histories. For a better understanding of his congratulatory letter, the Journal of Beijing Normal University held a written discussion on the value of historiography, the features of Chinese ancient history, the relation between the historiography and sociology, the responsibility of historians and the task of the history discipline in BNU. The discussion is profound and comprehensive in theory, thought and analysis, and reflects the spirit and responsibility of the contemporary historians in the new era. (YANG Gongle)

Editorial Note: A prejudice can be found in Hegel's theory that the Oriental civilization is antique but standstill. In Philosophie der Weltgeschichte, he stated that Chinese history is the one without development, which provided the base for various wrong views on the Chinese history from west-centrism. Hegel's mistakes remain uncorrected, because the Chinses scholars of the Chinese history and the world history have little concern about each other's research fields as if there is an unbridged gap between different sub-disciplines. Since the reform and opening up, the study on the world ancient history in China has made tremendous achievements. Prof. LIN Zhichun holds that China and the west both experienced development of two stages, from city states to empires. Prof. WU Yujin points out that the world history witnesses a process from separated histories of various countries to the world history as oneness, and the lateral ties and longitudinal development are driving forces for each other. These opinions reveal the common rules in Chinese and the western ancient history development, which is significant in wiping out Euro-centralism. Is there any difference in the sameness? Is there a theoretical demonstration for the consistency in histories of all countries? Is there any change and development in Chinese history? Based on the predecessors' research and his own study and speculations in many years, Prof. LIU Jiahe points out that comparative study is both to search sameness from difference and then difference from sameness. He also thinks that the world history develops in the Aufhaben process from the ones of various countries to the one of the world. Chinese civilization shows its continuity in self-renovation and self-supersession, so it has become an inseparable part in the organic unity of the world history. Prof. Liu's views can be considered as the most meaningful theoretical answer to Hegel's challenge.

Mental modal and thinking style are prominent for the decision making in university governance. The paper combines the individual mental modal and collective decision making modal, explores the psychological basis of university governance and seeks explanations and solutions to practical problems. It integrates the JOHARI Window modal with collective thinking and decision making modals, by adding the perspectives of external and internal others as well as the illusion of perception. Based on the communication level and consensus level, the paper formulates four collective thinking modals: defensive modal (low communication and low consensus), laissez-faire modal (high communication and low consensus), arbitrary modal (low communication and high consensus), and effective modal (high communication and high consensus). The four models can partially reflect the situation of some universities, but none can fully cover all situations of a university. The effective modal, based on collective decision making and considers individual mental modal, is ideal for university governance, as it recognizes the illusion and has the willingness to erase it, keeps open to different ideas and accepts their reasonable parts, makes use of positive force in conflict, ensures all opinions can be heard and constructs the best decision for inner and outer situations.

“The pursuit of better education” has become the starting point and the foothold of education reforms in concordance with the changes in the principal contradictions our society faces in the new era,and inadequate government investment has long been regarded as the main cause for discontented education.However,the policy application and theoretical research indicate that more investment has not brought about the ideal result,which means the investment structure and its management is equally important.Based on the comprehensive analysis of the basic functions of education and its direct and indirect outputs,the empirical research shows that: first,districts with more investment may not necessarily have better education,because of the small scale or poor efficiency caused by the low education carrying capacity in these districts.By contrast,districts in rural or remote areas are facing surplus carrying capacity because of dispersed population and farther distance,which leads to high cost and serious waste of education supply.Therefore,one the one hand,we should focus on optimizing the spatial structure and providing fair and quality education by strictly limiting the scale of cities and matching the numbers of permanent residents and students in school and on the other hand,we should fully apply the requirements proposed by the 19th CPC National Congress on the rural revitalization strategy and regional coordinated development by speeding up urbanization and improving the population transfer mechanism.Second,the condition of school is the most influential factor to realize “better education” in the whole structure of education investment,which also reflects the shortcomings of one-size-fits-all standard in a new stage of compulsory education in the new era.In order to ensure the basic condition of small schools,it is necessary to speed up the formulation of the standards for small schools,and make efforts to strengthen the construction of small and boarding schools in villages.Additionally,we should strengthen the allocation of movable and most beneficial resources to ensure the comprehensive implementation of educational and teaching activities.Third,the education output is multi-faceted and comprehensive,and contradictions among different kinds of outputs may arise in reality,so we should judge which function is most desirable for “better education”.The study finds that social benefits,including school's service radius and the admissible number of students,are more important than the economic benefits.In the compulsory education,“nearby enrollment policy” is conducted for the benefits of the young aged students,which highlights the importance of the service radius and admissible number of students.Although the policy has provided the opportunity for every student to receive education,it cannot meet the people's demand for better education,and the contradiction between growing demand and the imbalanced education resources has become increasingly obvious.Whether people can enjoy the quality education resources fairly and nearly depends on the school district division,which is decided by the service radius of schools and their admissible capacity of students.

Scientific Literacy is a key part of core competency for individual development.Based on the framework of core competency of students in China,the paper aims to reveal the complicate connotation and structures of scientific literacy by focusing on the historical views as well as the international comparison and analysis.We conclude that scientific literacy is a comprehensive concept with holistic,developmental situational and dynamic features.Moreover,rational thinking,critical capability and scientific inquiry are its key components.Scientific educational reform in future should start from the connotation and structure of the scientific literacy.Special attention should be paid to the cultivation of critical thinking and education mode of scientific inquiry.Chinese scientific literacy assessing mechanism should also be improved to fit into the current situation and cultural features of China.

Information literacy is the key component of individual's ability to adapt to the information society and realize self-development.Many organizations and countries including China have selected it as the key index and component of the core competence framework.By reviewing the historical evolution of information literacy connotation systematically,and comparing its connotation and structure in the framework of core competency from an international perspective,we summarize the connotation of information literacy and refine it into four main characteristics of being comprehensive,procedural,instrumental and critical.Moreover,we also reach the international consensus that the emphasis of information literacy lies in comprehensive performance,innovation in solving problem and correlated with assessment system.For cultivating students' information literacy and furthering the education innovation,we should construct connotation and structure of the information literacy with the characteristics of the times,and develop themes based on real-life situations and establish a scientific assessment system.

As health is the most important and precious asset for human,individual health literacy is the foundation for health maintenance and sustainable development.Health literacy is an essential element to ensure all-around development of an individual,and is a comprehensive indicator to reflect economic and social development.As an important literacy to reflect education quality and equity,health literacy is characterized with its comprehensiveness,hierarchy,interaction,lifelongness and purpose.Based on different definitions of health literacy,a large number of assessing tools have been globally developed for adults.Research on health literacy in other countries can provide a reference for the related study in China.We should understand the precise connotation of students' health literacy,build an assessment system for students,and attach great importance to the cultivation of communicational and critical health literacy.

Making decisions based on rational analysis of financial information has become an indispensable core competency for an individual to survive and develop in today's society.Therefore,the financial literacy education has become one focus in the development of education globally.This paper starts from the practice and innovation dimensions of core competency,makes a comprehensive analysis of its position in the core competency frame,and points out that financial literacy education is an effective carrier for practice and innovation competencies.At the same time,the cultivation requirements also provide an orientation for developing the financial literacy education.This paper summarizes the development history,basic connotation and characteristics of financial literacy,and puts forward a systematic and integrative theoretical framework.Combining with education reform to develop core competency,this paper provides some suggestions on the implementation of financial literacy education.

In the “Preface to the Twenty Chapters of ‘Zhuanyu’”,DAI Zhen took function words as examples, followed two connection standards of the meaning and archaic Chinese pronunciation, and adopted the parallel mutual corroboration method to prove “weitong”, one type of the time-place phonological change in the ancient times with evolved pronunciation position but unchanged pronunciation method. On the premise of “yitong(synonymy)”, the parallel mutual corroboration method can be used to verify relations between cognate words which have undergone regular pronunciation change in ancient, and the glyphs also have been correspondingly different. DAI Zhen's parallel mutual corroboration method is scientific and rigorous. It has multi-level logic from surface to inside. In this study, DAI Zhen's method is adopted to analyze the nine groups of commonly used function words and to discuss the etymology and pronunciation conversion types. It is found that the conversion on initials includes the interconversion of Ni-Xia, Ni-Yu and Xia/Yi-Yu, while the conversion on finals includes the interconversion of Yu-Zhi, Ge-Yu, and Ge-Yu-Zhi.

With the functions of highlighting word meanings and enhancing sound forms,reduplicated words describing shapes and appearances are conducive in the study on etymological relations.In Book of Songs exist a great number of reduplicated words,ideal materials to study the meaning and etymological relationship.According to the meaning characteristics and sound forms,the cognates of reduplicated words can be connected initially in the same sensory category.Furthermore,words of the same sensory category can be connected in the second degree depending on meaning interconnection determined by objective laws.Besides,meanings of different sensory categories can be connected in the third degree based on meaning interconnection brought about by synesthesia.Some characteristics and rules can be summarized from the results of the connections.First,the words in visual and audial categories account for the vast majority among all sensory categories of reduplicated words.Second,reduplicated words in the visual category are mainly about the descriptions of measurement,luminosity,length and state (momentum).Third,the number of words describing measurement and state (momentum) is larger than that of luminosity and length,which shows the poets’ special sensation and attention on quantity and state (momentum).Fourth,words of listening,touching,tasting and smelling categories interconnected with words in visual category by the quantitative meaning,rather than the meanings of luminosity and length.It illustrates that the perceptions of vision,listening,touching,tasting and smelling are all about measurement.From the perspective of the perception mechanism of etymology,the meaning interconnection and synesthesia are of the same psychological perception at the beginning of language generation,rather than the metaphor or mapping after its occurrence.

The difference among Chinese dialects is mainly reflected in phonetics,which can be quantitively analyzed by calculating the phonetic differences of Chinese characters in different regions.The Chinese syllables commonly consist of three parts: initials,finals and tones.The initials are usually consonants or zero initials,which can be described in four dimensions including pronunciation position and pronunciation method,etc.The finals are vowels or composed of vowels and consonants featured by the height of tongue,the front and back of tongue and the roundness of the lips.Tones are represented by five-level marks.Thus,we formulated a quantitative model to illustrate a Chinese syllable from its 21 features.The calculation results of the phonetic differences in the 42 representative points verify the available of the model.

From the academic perspective of research on the Old Text Confucian Classics,HUAN Tan made a criticism of the theology on the basis of prophecy,interpretation,images and tokens,and showed his choice on politics.He cooperated at first but ruptured with WANG Mang,and he criticized WANG Mang in his Xin Lun(New Comments).In the early period of the Eastern Han Dynasty(25-220),HUAN Tan publicly objected to the Emperor Guangwu's concept that ‘all events can be predicted by the prophecy,interpretation,and image and token reading’.All he did originated from his academic perspective and negative attitude to the theology on the basis of prophecy,interpretation,images and tokens.The academic stance decided his political personalities.Compared with other scholars of his times such as LIU Xin and JIA Kui,HUAN Tan pursued and persisted the academic truth,which was rare at that time.In the age dominated by imperial right,HUAN Tan kept his academic stance unremittedly even under the powers of the autocrat,which proves his worshipful personality.

The research found that Shanxi province did not suffer from bandits and robbers in the regime of Beiyang Government due to Shanxi's police reform.In the 1910s,Beiyang Government launched a national police reform so as to create and maintain a stable society.Under the leadership of Yan Xishan,Shanxi Provincial government implemented a province-wide police reform with Shanxi characteristics which consisted of three vital parts:the strict police administration system,the police training center,and the police wage system.This reform expanded and reinforced the police's involvement into the administration at different levels so as to extend the governmental control to the grassroots units such as villages.However,this police reform did not achieve the anticipated goals due to the bureaucracy and endless internal strife and other social issues.

“Heideggerian Marxism” represented respectively by Herbert Marcuse and Karel Kosik are two typical theoretical modes integrating Heideggerian thoughts and Marxism.Though different in their theoretical expounding,both are based on the bidirectional reflection on Marxist dogmatism and Heidegger's concept of empty “existentialism”,and attempt to integrate Heidegger's theories with Marx's ideas on objective activities and alienated labor.They are profoundly provoking for constructing a concrete philosophy by transcending binary separation and an ontology of sensuousness.However,the two modes of “Heideggerian Marxism” take the Heidegger's existentialism as the dominant principle,so they fail to overcome the shortcomings of modern metaphysics framed in interiority of consciousness.From the critical reflection “Heideggerian Marxism”,we should shift to explore the principle level of Marx's theories on sensuousness and objectiveness in order to open a broader and more realistic historical materialist phenomenology.

Local public goods can serve as important guarantee to promote regional economic growth and the welfare of residents.However,the supply of non-economic public goods,such as education and medical care,is insufficient compared with that of fast-growing economic public goods,such as infrastructure in China.The bias on economic factors will have a lasting negative impact on economic and social developments.It will result in the inadequate supply of people's livelihood and affect residents' happiness index,and in the meanwhile,lead to a higher deposit rate and lower consumption rate,which is unconducive for consumption upgrading and economic restructuring.The mainstream viewpoint among researchers is that land-based finance,as the main source of urban construction funds,is the prominent cause of imbalanced structure of public goods supply.However,the comprehensive logical analysis reveals that the incentive mechanism is the most fundamental cause of the government behavior that causes this imbalance.Thus,it is of great significance to discuss the impact of land-based finance under different promotion incentives.Based on the above assertion,this paper held an empirical analysis on the panel data of prefecture-level cities in 2004-2013 and examined the impact of various features of officials,such as age,education,tenure and hometown.The study finds that land-based finance has a significant positive effect on the economic public goods supply and has a constraining effect or no effect on non-economic public goods supply.The influence of land-based finance on public goods supply varies with different features of local officials.The influence is more significant in the districts where local officials with younger age,shorter tenure,higher education degree,birthplace in the governing province and stronger expectation of promotion.It can be concluded that restructuring incentives of local officials are crucial for optimizing the supply structure.The emphasis of China's economy has shifted from high-speed growth to high-quality development,and the focus of assessment should be correspondently shifted from economic growth to the people's livelihood.