Lyman P. Van Slyke

Bio: Lyman P. Van Slyke is an academic researcher from Stanford University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Communism & China. The author has an hindex of 4, co-authored 6 publications receiving 47 citations.

Liang Sou-ming and the Rural Reconstruction Movement

Abstract: The name of Liang Sou-ming is perhaps most familiar in connection with his controversial published lectures of the early 1920's, The Cultures of East and West, and Their Philosophies. It is less well known that Liang had an extensive career in the field of rural reconstruction during the 1930's, that he was one of the prime movers of the political coalition which ultimately became the China Democratic League, and that, more recently, he has been under severe attack by communist thinkers for his continuing rejection of Marxism-Leninism as applied to China. Particularly during the time when he was active in rural reconstruction and in national politics, Liang represented movements which stood, or seemed to stand, as alternatives to both the Kuomintang and the Communist solutions to China's problems. The failure of these movements to prevent antagonistic polarization and civil war in China raises some of the most important problems to which a study of Liang Sou-ming gives entry. Here we shall be concerned primarily with the first of these efforts—rural reconstruction.

The Battle of The Hundred Regiments: Problems of Coordination and Control during the Sino-Japanese War

Abstract: Communist sources record that between 20 August and 5 December 1940, the Eighth Route Army (8RA) of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) fought 1,824 large and small engagements with Japanese and puppet troops from the plains of Hebei to the mountains of Shanxi. These engagements are known collectively as ‘the Battle of the Hundred Regiments’ and they are the subject of this essay.

Endangered ecosystems : a review of the conservation status of tropical Asian rivers

Abstract: Tropical Asian rivers are characterized by their flow seasonality. One (sometimes two) peaks in discharge cause temporary declines in phytoplankton, zooplankton and zoobenthos biomass, but lead to inundation of river floodplains and significant land-water interactions. Fishes undertake lateral or longitudinal breeding migrations within the river system during the flood season, which is marked also by intensive feeding upon allochthonous inputs. Among the diverse human influences upon tropical Asian rivers, three threats stand out. Firstly, degradation of drainage basins (particularly through deforestation and overgrazing) leads to increased suspended sediment loads and extensive flooding. Excessive floodplain siltation alters habitats causing species decline or disappearance. The second threat — river regulation and control — has been practised widely in the region for centuries but, with the planned development of massive projects on the Yangtze and Mekong Rivers, the potential for environmental damage has increased. Flow regulation reduces flood-season peaks, changing the magnitude and extent of floodplain inundation and land-water interactions. Fish breeding migrations may be disrupted, because dams block migration routes or changed flow regimes fail to stimulate reproduction. River pollution is pervasive throughout the region, and constitutes the third threat. Untreated sewage is a particular problem in densely-populated areas, and pollution by industrial effluents and mining wastes is becoming more important. The effects of pollution in tropical Asian rivers are essentially the same as those recorded in north-temperate regions. However, biological understanding has yet to be matched by an ability to halt or limit river degradation. Together, the three threats have led to declines and range constrictions of aquatic animals and those terrestrial species associated with riparian corridors and floodplains. River dolphins and certain crocodilians are particularly threatened, but declines in species of waterfowl, floodplain deer, a host of fishes, macrophytes, and invertebrates have been documented. Reversing the trend is difficult as pollution, flow regulation, and drainage-basin degradation have non-additive detrimental effects on river ecosystems, and enhance the success of exotic invasive species. Moreover, our ability to predict the outcome of man-made changes is hampered by a lack of knowledge of species' life histories and a paucity of data on the trophic basis of production. Despite a lack of detailed information, conservation of tropical Asian rivers will be effected only if limnologists move beyond the bailiwick of science. Ecologically viable management strategies for tropical Asian rivers will succeed only if the socioeconomic context of development plans is taken into account. A failure to rise this challenge will result in the further degradation of these endangered ecosystems.

Evolution of the Coastal Depositional Systems of the Changjiang (Yangtze) River in Response to Late Pleistocene-Holocene Sea-Level Changes

Abstract: The paleo-Changjiang (Yangtze) incised-valley fills, approximately 80-90 m thick, provide an opportunity to document the evolution of coastal depositional systems with large sediment supply in response to late Pleistocene-Holocene sea-level fluctuations on time scales of 103 to 104 years. The sedimentary facies of the incised-valley fills record three main depositional systems: fluvial, tide-dominated estuary, and tide-dominated delta. Radiocarbon ages for the incised-valley fills suggest that these depositional systems developed before about 11 ka, between 11 and 8 ka, and after approximately 8 ka, respectively. By applying sequence-stratigraphic concepts, the evolution of the depositional systems can be divided into three systems tracts--a lowstand systems tract (LST), a transgressive systems tract (TST), and a highstand systems tract (HST). Sea-level changes on a 104-year time scale controlled the basic architecture of the sequence of the incised-valley fill. On the other hand, sea-level changes on a millennial time scale affected the stacking pattern of the systems tracts. In particular, the continuous sea-level rise with episodic rapid rises during the last deglaciation affected the stacking pattern of the TST, which is characterized by a combination of aggradation and backstepping. The aggradation of fluvial and estuarine systems was dominant and the shoreline migrated only gradually landward under the relatively slow rise in sea level, and a very rapid sea-level rise around 12 and 10 ka caused the system to migrate abruptly landward. Unlike the transgressive estuarine phase, the stacking pattern of the regressive tide-dominated delta (HST), which developed within the almost filled incised valley and on the surrounding interfluve zones, was characterized by seaward progradation with clinoform architecture. It was initiated with aggradational and progradational stacking about 8 ka during the last phase of decelerated sea-level rise, and was followed by a progradational phase after the highest sea level about 6 ka.

War, Religion and Empire: The Transformation of International Orders

Abstract: What are international orders, how are they destroyed, and how can they be defended in the face of violent challenges? Advancing an innovative realist-constructivist account of international order, Andrew Phillips addresses each of these questions in War, Religion and Empire. Phillips argues that international orders rely equally on shared visions of the good and accepted practices of organised violence to cultivate cooperation and manage conflict between political communities. Considering medieval Christendom's collapse and the East Asian Sinosphere's destruction as primary cases, he further argues that international orders are destroyed as a result of legitimation crises punctuated by the disintegration of prevailing social imaginaries, the break-up of empires, and the rise of disruptive military innovations. He concludes by considering contemporary threats to world order, and the responses that must be taken in the coming decades if a broadly liberal international order is to survive.

River regulation in Southern China: Ecological implications, conservation and environmental management

Abstract: Southern China—i.e. China south of the Chang Jiang (Yangtze River)—has a monsoon climate with pronounced wet and dry seasons and consequent effects on river discharge. There is considerable inter-year variation in the duration and intensity of the monsoon, and the region experiences frequent floods and droughts which cause considerable human misery. The importance of floods as an incentive for river regulation is apparent from the fact that 10% of China's area, inhabited by 65% of the population and responsible for 70% of the agricultural and industrial output, is below the flood level of major rivers. Irrigation and hydroelectric power are additional benefits to be derived from river regulation. China has a 4000 year history of river regulation, but most of the changes that have been made to riverine environments have not taken account of the ecological consequences. This review considers the ecological implications of planned or existing schemes for the regulation of southern Chinese rivers. Particular attention is paid to the Chang Jiang and Zhujiang (Pearl River) which, by volume of discharge, are the two largest rivers in China. Large-scale water-transfer projects and the planned construction of the biggest dam in the world (the Three Gorges High Dam) on the Chang Jiang have the potential to affect fisheries stocks and endangered fish species, to alter inundation patterns in wetlands of international conservation significance and may contribute to the extinction of the endemic and highly endangered Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis) and Chinese river dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer). In addition, deforestation and soil erosion in the Chang Jiang basin have given rise to siltation and degradation of floodplain habitats. In the Zhujiang, dam construction has caused reductions in fisheries stocks but here, as elsewhere in China, the ecologically damaging consequences of river regulation are exacerbated by overfishing and increasing pollution of rivers by sewage, pesticides and industrial wastes.