Chinese to English translation (by Google translator, very imperfect, but more-or-less understandable)
Ancient culture and modern thinking collision Weilikelai Rees (Willy Clarysse), University of Leuven, Belgium Department of Ancient History senior professor, Department Head, College of Liberal Arts and Ancient History Department of the Academic Council and the title of director of the Vetting Committee, the Belgian Royal Academy of Sciences Fellow (1999-present). University of Leuven in 1975, received his Ph.D. in 1996, received France's highest academic award Sheng Duer Award (Prix Saintour) ,1998-1999 Free University in Brussels helm chair, and served as the famous "ancient" (Ancient Society) magazine editor. Research the Greek Roman Egypt (Greco-Roman Egypt) (BC 323-640) and multi-cultural society. Edit a lot of Greek and secular language (ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic cursive scripts) in papyrus archives, published a lot on the Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt, language, proper names, (historical or literary) character study ( Prosopography), system and religious issues of the research works, is currently guiding a number of issues of Fayum region, in papyrus records compilations. Includes "Human Studies Ptolemaic Egypt" (1981), "Alexandria's eponymous priest" (1983), "103/101 BC in Egypt and Syria's War" (1989), "Peter Li will "(1991) and" calculation of Egypt's population of Greece "(2 volumes, 2006).
December 2009, the author of Leuven in Belgium Academy of Ancient History Department of the University as a visiting scholar. The system is currently the international academic history of Greece and Roman Egypt papyrus Studies center. During this period, had the honor to visit the Weilikelai Professor Rees.
Papyrus of learning and research into the history of Egypt is interconnected
GUO Zi-lin: In recent years Chinese scholars began to study Greek and Roman Egypt during the reign of the history of the papyrus Studies in China is almost blank. You are in the Greek and Roman Egypt papyrus school history in both areas have made achievements that attracted worldwide attention, is that the two areas of the world's leading expert in both areas and both are among the world's Ancient History is very difficult even daunting branches, even if an area in which results have been very difficult to make, and you have to simultaneously achieve outstanding achievements in both areas. You can talk about the personal experience of it?
Weilikelai Rees (hereinafter referred to as "Li Wei"): On this issue, I think that should be treated as such.
First, the Greek and Roman history of Egypt during the rule refers to Macedonia in 323 BC until the death of Alexander the Great invaded Egypt in 640 AD the Arabs that nearly 1,000 years of history. This 1000 has been a very long history, there have been many stories, rich content, we can be as an independent subject to be treated. Papyrus study refers to the papyrus documents as the basis for interpretation of the text, linguistics, history and other aspects of a comprehensive study of the temporal and spatial scales involved are very extensive, of course, a huge subject. So, I agree with you these two research areas as the views of the two disciplines.
Second, do you think these two areas of research is very difficult, to some extent is true. In fact, the world's ancient history and papyrus studies are difficult, or even in the ancient history of the study, there are no easy solutions. Of course, one reason that these two areas of research is very difficult, even daunting, mainly because of people not in-depth grasp of ancient languages, about the ancient Egyptian, ancient Greek and Latin, but also the history of these languages in different during deformation, the general academic and research institutions have difficulty in-depth study of these two aspects, because they lack the ancient language, and I and our Department of scholars such problems do not exist.
Furthermore, although these two areas are different, but they are interoperable, that is, learning of papyrus in Egypt for the period provided the basis for research into the history, and history of science can also help the analysis of papyrus , so I can conduct research in two areas simultaneously, and we are papyrus Department of Ancient History Greek and Roman learning and the best period of Egyptian history research institutions.
GUO Zi-lin: How did you research the papyrus and Ptolemaic Egypt History come together?
Li Wei: This is actually a research methodology. Great emphasis on ancient history of the world's primary sources, and the history of Ptolemaic Egypt, just a lot of primary sources, inscriptions and archaeological material in addition to suits, most are papyrus archives, currently only in 法尤姆奥克西 Forest Library Sri Lanka find a way out of papyrus as many as more than 100,000 archival papers, there are other parts of the papyrus documents that are significant, and the archaeological excavation is continually growing number of papyrus archives, of course, has been interpreted and archives which published less than 1 / 20, this requires that we continue to interpret papyrus documents. Therefore, to study the history of Ptolemaic Egypt, the first draft should be able to read the paper archives. During my Ph.D. reading, translation, Sir Petrie brought back from Egypt, papyrus documents and will lay the foundation. On this basis, I find out the history of Ptolemaic Egypt, many issues and made a number of articles that were a lot of reference.
To clarify a number of historical issues in the future, I was on the papyrus documents in a number of issues have a better understanding of papyrus documents in reading more accurate. Can say that I first read the papyrus documents of basic research as, of course, that the historical research methods to history by some scholars as the traditional method, and even some scholars and schools have been denied, they like sociological, anthropological methods to study ancient history. I object to my students start with some from theory to theory research methods, I and my students, my colleagues insisted the traditional historiography, especially in the history of Ptolemaic Egypt in this regard should be even more so, more historical data illustrates the problem.
GUO Zi-lin: you just say that you and your colleagues, the ancient language is not a problem, how do you do?
Li Wei: It's very simple, we introduce talents, the first required to have a very good candidate to read the ancient language ability, and our master's and doctoral students take a lot of time in learning the ancient language, even when they read University ready to learn ancient history when we must seriously study the ancient language. We are in the primary stage to accept the ancient Greek education. In addition, Belgium is itself a multi-ethnic, multi-language countries, only the official language have Dutch, German and French, three, many other languages and even our local dialect, so we naturally have a strong adaptability of language .
Research is also concerned about the ancient history of contemporary
GUO Zi-lin: Currently, international studies which papyrus and reference works worth learning what? History of Ptolemaic Egypt, papyrus should use what archival collection?
Li Wei: In my opinion, today, scholars in the West papyrus, papyrus learn more influential general works mainly with two, one is "reading papyrus, written in Ancient History" (Reading Papyri, Writing Ancient History, Routledge Press, 1995), which is well-known American scientist Bagenal papyrus (Roger S. Bagnall) classic. Another, "Oxford Handbook of papyrus" (The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology, Oxford University Press, 2009) is the latest editor of the papyrus Bagenal study guide book, a collection of almost all famous international scientists papyrus works, and also my article on the Greek and Roman religion in Egypt during the reign of the article, this is a must-read book. The papyrus archives collection, in addition to English literature collection edited Bagenal, there are a number of series of papyrus books, such as "奥克西林库斯 papyrus" (The Oxyrhynchus papyri) (published 73 volumes) "Michigan papyrus" (Michigan Papyri) (18 have been published), "Tabu Tunisia papyrus" (The Tebtunis Papyri) (4 volumes) and "Flinders Petrie papyrus" (The Flinders Petrie Papyri) (3 volumes), followed by this set has a roll of papyrus is my "Petree will", you should learn. In addition, there are a number of electronic resources, such as we hosted the "TRISMEGISTOS" (http://www.trismegistos.org/index.html) and "Leuven Database of Ancient Books" (LDAB) (http://www.trismegistos. org / ldab /) and the University of California, Berkeley's "Taboo Tunisia papyrus Center Online" (http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/ ~ tebtunis / index.html) and so on.
GUO Zi-lin: you study the history of Ptolemaic Egypt, the main concern about ethnic groups and ethnic identity. Belgium is a multi-ethnic, multi-language country. Ptolemaic Egypt is Egypt by the Greeks outside the local people and other immigrants to rule a country. So, if your research and the similarity of the two activities?
Li Wei: Your very good question. Ptolemy of Egypt and the modern Belgium does have many similarities. As mentioned above, Belgium is a multi-ethnic, multi-language country, people are basically divided into three groups according to language, the relationship between each other is very complex, involves many political, economic, religious problems. Ptolemy of Egypt is the same situation, with Greeks, Macedonians, Jews, Persians and Egyptians. Greeks speak Greek, speak Greek Macedonia Macedonian dialect, the Jews have their own language, and the Egyptians have their own secular language. It is this similarity prompted us to focus Ptolemaic Egypt ethnicity. In fact, any study ancient history because of practical problems to motivate, and this point since we have these so-called post-colonial era of Western scholars of ancient Greek history (especially Greek democracy) study has already begun. In turn, we have to choose their own research, they should take the initiative to consider contemporary issues and contemporary ideas, my mentor when choosing this field of study (strictly speaking, I inherited the research supervisor), and also by think about their own country was a Belgian national issues affecting, can be said that his research is ancient history, culture and contemporary thought collision (crash) of the results, but I just continued this collision, of course, I also hope that my students and colleagues able to continue such a collision.
Names of the problem is to understand the key groups Ptolemaic Egypt
GUO Zi-lin: indeed, any ancient history of the problem, researchers are subject to the impact of age and background. So, how do you conduct the Study of Ptolemaic Egypt's population? Can tell us about your entry point to the problem it?
Li Wei: Many scholars are concerned about 族群 (ethnic) and ethnic identity (ethnic identity) issues, which is the birth of post-colonial era, particularly those relating to the Greek ethnic identity of the most enthusiastically received, and this is currently a hot topic in academic circles, I believe that China scholars are concerned about this. Scholars in the study population issues, often from the language, customs, religion, physical appearance and other aspects of features, in fact, language, customs and religious beliefs are very strong cultural phenomenon, is very easy to change with the environment changes, although the physical characteristics is not easy to change, but there are many limitations, were not enough. Our study population problem, primarily relies on the Ptolemaic papyrus archives in the use of Egyptian names, composition and evolution. Although the language of Ptolemaic Egypt divide more obvious, but to the Ptolemaic dynasty after the mid-rule, particularly in a later stage, more and more Egyptians can speak Greek, because Greek occupy the status of official language, many Egyptians contract between the Greek also used to write, so completely on the language to determine the ethnic problem is not scientific, but the person's name can reflect a person's ethnic affiliation, as any one nation or race has its own naming convention. For example, the Greek name to reflect the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren, that is, grandson's name Grandpa's name is often used; Egyptian names have similar characteristics, but they are more like something to do with God. Therefore, by examining the evolution of Ptolemy the Egyptian name, we can observe the evolution of different communities and even study the policy Ptolemy Egypt populations.
GUO Zi-lin: in March 2004, you do the University of California, Berkeley speech, presented a paper on ethnic identity in Ptolemaic Egypt the article, the article shows you whether the large ones and methods of this study?
Li Wei: Yes, the article is "Greek and Roman period of Egypt's ethnic identity," because it is just a speech, so only roughly in several ways (personal name, language, social, educational, religious) of the time Egypt's ethnic identity is introduced. Later, I wrote this article under another article, entitled "Creating the Greeks: Ptolemaic Egypt population policy or rule policy?. " In this article, I use a lot of statistics and analysis on the name of the show with an Egyptian family pedigree (three generations) but there are two family trees, genealogy Egyptians and Greeks. In fact, this is a family of two lineages, because the second generation of the family at least two male: one is the village head, village head is the Egyptians to act as the official, so he must use the Egyptians, the name, but established him as the core of the three generations of family lineage is of course the Egyptian lineage; another male was the village police, the police is Greek officials, so the male must use a Greek name, and therefore he established the family as the core is of course the Greeks pedigree pedigree. I also mentioned in the article caused a number of other official name change. My final conclusion is: in the Ptolemaic Egypt, the Greeks and Egyptians really mixed up, and the population is always at work, but the government policy for the Egyptians to enter into the Greek royal family system and opened the door.
Of course, many other articles which I still use such a research method. For example, in recently published two articles in the issue will be fully explored names. Including one on the names used in Greece and Egypt characteristics, in particular, names described the changes in the Ptolemaic Egypt, and the name change research is to study the population-based perspective. Another one Shiyi Salapisi of papyrus documents as the basis, in the full analysis of the data based on the names proposed Salapisi place names and in favor of God, the Egyptians linked to that a majority of the name of Lai Yuan in God's name.
GUO Zi-lin: You Ptolemaic Egypt in the study of names and the use of names in the process of research of ethnic groups, is Greece considered the impact of culture on the Egyptian culture?To talk about how you look at this it?
Li Wei: In 2004, the University of California at Berkeley, I was an academic visit, submitted another article to explore the 500 BC to AD 500, the Greek culture in the Mediterranean region.I am from the political, economic, linguistic and other aspects described, that Alexander the Great Crusade before the Hellenistic around the Mediterranean region had begun, the first businessman to the spread of Greek culture, and then the mercenaries on the spread of culture and, finally, Alexander Crusade of the Kingdom of Greece after the ruling class deliberately spread Greek culture to the Roman period, although the Greek is no longer the official language, but the strong influence of Greek culture still exists, has been extended to around 500 AD, or even longer.
Ptolemaic Egypt is an oligarchy government
GUO Zi-lin: At this point, I have to ask the other on Greek culture and the question of the relationship between Egyptian culture. I have been studying the Ptolemaic Egypt, autocratic monarchy, I think that the Ptolemy of Egypt's autocratic monarchy is the combination of monarchy and the Pharaoh of Egypt in Macedonia is a special system of despotism, this system embodies the elements of Greek and Egyptian elements combination. You also concerned about the Ptolemaic system of government in Egypt, what do you think of Ptolemy of Egypt's political system?
WEI Li: First of all, definitely not a positive autocratic politics, but a negative political. In fact, no one likes to autocratic government. Second, since ancient times many governments are oligarchic government (Oligarchy), Ptolemy of Egypt is no exception. In 1939, Rahim (Ronald Syme) "written by Roman Revolution" (The Roman Revolution, Oxford University Press), Chapter II, "oligarchy" can provide us some clues, Ptolemy of Egypt's political system and the Roman Republic is very similar to the later. Also, if we modern system of government in some countries the analysis, then a certain extent, we believe that the Nazi government of Germany's Hitler, Mussolini in Italy and France, the Napoleonic empire, are all oligarchic government. King Ptolemy of power are in their own hands, so the Greeks to become the ruling class, to Egypt, some of the local people in the aristocratic privilege of using them to rule, and take advantage of the magic of religion by religion to control the local and Greeks, he orders a group of vested interests will be upheld and supported, thereby ensuring the country's oligarchy. Of course, I know that my views have not been recognized by many people, most scholars still insist on Ptolemaic Egypt was a monarchy, and autocratic nature of the monarchy, the problem still continue to need to explore.
GUO Zi-lin: You just mentioned that King Ptolemy full use of the religion, the Egyptian ruler Ptolemy further elaborated the relationship between the Group and the priests do?
Li Wei: This question is actually very close to my question, I recently also took part in the writing of some related works are also directly or indirectly address the issue. King Ptolemy of Egypt's position is higher than the pharaonic period, so that they can make better use of religious factors, the priest group services for the king, of course, in Ptolemaic Egypt, high priest group occupying a pivotal position. Jiu Ptolemy king of Egypt and religious priests in the relationship, there are many specific issues not discussed clearly refer to this area in addition to some of the suits I can also be based more in-depth study of historical data.
Land development and environmental destruction are a puzzling contradiction
GUO Zi-lin: As you said earlier, ancient history, culture and contemporary thought can trigger a collision of many historical problems. At present, concern about environmental pollution, which makes me think of the Ptolemaic Egypt's agricultural development and environmental damage issues. I think the reason why the Fayum region of Egypt Ptolemy agricultural development, mainly in order to house veterans and Greek immigrants, economic development, and agricultural development has certainly achieved the desired results, but also on the environment to a certain extent damage. You long been concerned about the academic study of the Fayum region, is also chair of Fayum, Egypt Ptolemy project. You can talk about the views on this issue it?
Li Wei: Ptolemaic Egypt, Fayum region is a very important area, have important significance, and we get from here is also the most historical fact, our research Ptolemaic Egypt, mainly depend on the method You Mu Unearthed papyrus documents, such as 奥克西林库斯 papyrus, papyrus Tunisia Tarbes, Zeno papyrus, Petrie papyrus and so on. Therefore, we more concerned about the region of the archival and management system.
Fayum agricultural development is a very important economic issue, on this issue, Stanford University, Manning (JJManning), PhD, is an expert, I think you must read his "Land and Power in Ptolemaic Egypt" ( Land and Power in Ptolemaic Egypt), in his book on the issue in which some of, of course, he did not mention the land development and environmental destruction, he is mainly concerned with the king's economic dictatorship. Therefore, this study is promising, but had to rely more on interpretation of historical documents, you do not focus too much on the archaeological excavation of things, because those are not historical Interpretation.
But my view is slightly different point of view with you. I think the Fayum agricultural development mainly for resettlement of Greek immigrants, but also from the Fayum papyrus found in some of the terms, Ptolemaic Egypt does Fayum on a large scale development and construction of King Ptolemy to large numbers of Greeks migrated here. Of course, these Greeks, which may be mercenaries, but not much direct evidence. The statistics from the name the Greeks the majority of other people, including Persians, Jews, Egyptians. As you said the other reasons, I would like to Ptolemy king, there is an economic consideration, but I have not studied, I dare not say. The land development will affect the environment, I think this is an indisputable fact, as long as look at modern Fayum desert will know, and land development and environmental destruction has always been difficult to resolve a pair of contradictions, even in today's society is no exception.
Founder of the ancient Olympics site
GUO Zi-lin: In the occasion of the 2008 Olympic Games, you are to lead their students to Sophie (Sofie Remijsen) Yan Haiying of Beijing University professor and a co-founder of the ancient Olympic site (http://ancientolympics.arts.kuleuven.be/), to English, Dutch, Chinese and Arabic language to the world of four people the history and culture of the ancient Olympic Games, introduced the 2008 Beijing Olympics grand occasion. Can talk about your site's original intention to do this academic it?
Li Wei: A few years ago, Yan Haiying of Beijing University professor invited me to give lectures in China, I went to Beijing, Wuhan and Sichuan, China has been deeply felt the earth-shaking changes have taken place in people's mental outlook than ever before, enthusiastic studentsand scholars of the spirit are touched and surprised me, it all changed my mind before going to China. China's ancient civilization, I had a very strong sense of curiosity, wanted to better understand her. I believe the rest of the world many people, like me, think China does not accurately reflect the current situation in China. 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, which again aroused my curiosity in China. I would like to personally witness the grand occasion of 2008 Olympic Games, but unfortunately I have very old, the body does not allow. So I hope that online viewing. At this point, Professor Yan Haiying just suggestions and I hope together to build a website, not only introduced the world the grand occasion of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, but also introduces the history and culture of the ancient Olympic Games, it must be many people concerned. I think this is ancient history, culture and contemporary thought it the result of the collision. (CASS Institute of World History GUO Zi-lin)
December 2009, the author of Leuven in Belgium Academy of Ancient History Department of the University as a visiting scholar. The system is currently the international academic history of Greece and Roman Egypt papyrus Studies center. During this period, had the honor to visit the Weilikelai Professor Rees.
Papyrus of learning and research into the history of Egypt is interconnected
GUO Zi-lin: In recent years Chinese scholars began to study Greek and Roman Egypt during the reign of the history of the papyrus Studies in China is almost blank. You are in the Greek and Roman Egypt papyrus school history in both areas have made achievements that attracted worldwide attention, is that the two areas of the world's leading expert in both areas and both are among the world's Ancient History is very difficult even daunting branches, even if an area in which results have been very difficult to make, and you have to simultaneously achieve outstanding achievements in both areas. You can talk about the personal experience of it?
Weilikelai Rees (hereinafter referred to as "Li Wei"): On this issue, I think that should be treated as such.
First, the Greek and Roman history of Egypt during the rule refers to Macedonia in 323 BC until the death of Alexander the Great invaded Egypt in 640 AD the Arabs that nearly 1,000 years of history. This 1000 has been a very long history, there have been many stories, rich content, we can be as an independent subject to be treated. Papyrus study refers to the papyrus documents as the basis for interpretation of the text, linguistics, history and other aspects of a comprehensive study of the temporal and spatial scales involved are very extensive, of course, a huge subject. So, I agree with you these two research areas as the views of the two disciplines.
Second, do you think these two areas of research is very difficult, to some extent is true. In fact, the world's ancient history and papyrus studies are difficult, or even in the ancient history of the study, there are no easy solutions. Of course, one reason that these two areas of research is very difficult, even daunting, mainly because of people not in-depth grasp of ancient languages, about the ancient Egyptian, ancient Greek and Latin, but also the history of these languages in different during deformation, the general academic and research institutions have difficulty in-depth study of these two aspects, because they lack the ancient language, and I and our Department of scholars such problems do not exist.
Furthermore, although these two areas are different, but they are interoperable, that is, learning of papyrus in Egypt for the period provided the basis for research into the history, and history of science can also help the analysis of papyrus , so I can conduct research in two areas simultaneously, and we are papyrus Department of Ancient History Greek and Roman learning and the best period of Egyptian history research institutions.
GUO Zi-lin: How did you research the papyrus and Ptolemaic Egypt History come together?
Li Wei: This is actually a research methodology. Great emphasis on ancient history of the world's primary sources, and the history of Ptolemaic Egypt, just a lot of primary sources, inscriptions and archaeological material in addition to suits, most are papyrus archives, currently only in 法尤姆奥克西 Forest Library Sri Lanka find a way out of papyrus as many as more than 100,000 archival papers, there are other parts of the papyrus documents that are significant, and the archaeological excavation is continually growing number of papyrus archives, of course, has been interpreted and archives which published less than 1 / 20, this requires that we continue to interpret papyrus documents. Therefore, to study the history of Ptolemaic Egypt, the first draft should be able to read the paper archives. During my Ph.D. reading, translation, Sir Petrie brought back from Egypt, papyrus documents and will lay the foundation. On this basis, I find out the history of Ptolemaic Egypt, many issues and made a number of articles that were a lot of reference.
To clarify a number of historical issues in the future, I was on the papyrus documents in a number of issues have a better understanding of papyrus documents in reading more accurate. Can say that I first read the papyrus documents of basic research as, of course, that the historical research methods to history by some scholars as the traditional method, and even some scholars and schools have been denied, they like sociological, anthropological methods to study ancient history. I object to my students start with some from theory to theory research methods, I and my students, my colleagues insisted the traditional historiography, especially in the history of Ptolemaic Egypt in this regard should be even more so, more historical data illustrates the problem.
GUO Zi-lin: you just say that you and your colleagues, the ancient language is not a problem, how do you do?
Li Wei: It's very simple, we introduce talents, the first required to have a very good candidate to read the ancient language ability, and our master's and doctoral students take a lot of time in learning the ancient language, even when they read University ready to learn ancient history when we must seriously study the ancient language. We are in the primary stage to accept the ancient Greek education. In addition, Belgium is itself a multi-ethnic, multi-language countries, only the official language have Dutch, German and French, three, many other languages and even our local dialect, so we naturally have a strong adaptability of language .
Research is also concerned about the ancient history of contemporary
GUO Zi-lin: Currently, international studies which papyrus and reference works worth learning what? History of Ptolemaic Egypt, papyrus should use what archival collection?
Li Wei: In my opinion, today, scholars in the West papyrus, papyrus learn more influential general works mainly with two, one is "reading papyrus, written in Ancient History" (Reading Papyri, Writing Ancient History, Routledge Press, 1995), which is well-known American scientist Bagenal papyrus (Roger S. Bagnall) classic. Another, "Oxford Handbook of papyrus" (The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology, Oxford University Press, 2009) is the latest editor of the papyrus Bagenal study guide book, a collection of almost all famous international scientists papyrus works, and also my article on the Greek and Roman religion in Egypt during the reign of the article, this is a must-read book. The papyrus archives collection, in addition to English literature collection edited Bagenal, there are a number of series of papyrus books, such as "奥克西林库斯 papyrus" (The Oxyrhynchus papyri) (published 73 volumes) "Michigan papyrus" (Michigan Papyri) (18 have been published), "Tabu Tunisia papyrus" (The Tebtunis Papyri) (4 volumes) and "Flinders Petrie papyrus" (The Flinders Petrie Papyri) (3 volumes), followed by this set has a roll of papyrus is my "Petree will", you should learn. In addition, there are a number of electronic resources, such as we hosted the "TRISMEGISTOS" (http://www.trismegistos.org/index.html) and "Leuven Database of Ancient Books" (LDAB) (http://www.trismegistos. org / ldab /) and the University of California, Berkeley's "Taboo Tunisia papyrus Center Online" (http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/ ~ tebtunis / index.html) and so on.
GUO Zi-lin: you study the history of Ptolemaic Egypt, the main concern about ethnic groups and ethnic identity. Belgium is a multi-ethnic, multi-language country. Ptolemaic Egypt is Egypt by the Greeks outside the local people and other immigrants to rule a country. So, if your research and the similarity of the two activities?
Li Wei: Your very good question. Ptolemy of Egypt and the modern Belgium does have many similarities. As mentioned above, Belgium is a multi-ethnic, multi-language country, people are basically divided into three groups according to language, the relationship between each other is very complex, involves many political, economic, religious problems. Ptolemy of Egypt is the same situation, with Greeks, Macedonians, Jews, Persians and Egyptians. Greeks speak Greek, speak Greek Macedonia Macedonian dialect, the Jews have their own language, and the Egyptians have their own secular language. It is this similarity prompted us to focus Ptolemaic Egypt ethnicity. In fact, any study ancient history because of practical problems to motivate, and this point since we have these so-called post-colonial era of Western scholars of ancient Greek history (especially Greek democracy) study has already begun. In turn, we have to choose their own research, they should take the initiative to consider contemporary issues and contemporary ideas, my mentor when choosing this field of study (strictly speaking, I inherited the research supervisor), and also by think about their own country was a Belgian national issues affecting, can be said that his research is ancient history, culture and contemporary thought collision (crash) of the results, but I just continued this collision, of course, I also hope that my students and colleagues able to continue such a collision.
Names of the problem is to understand the key groups Ptolemaic Egypt
GUO Zi-lin: indeed, any ancient history of the problem, researchers are subject to the impact of age and background. So, how do you conduct the Study of Ptolemaic Egypt's population? Can tell us about your entry point to the problem it?
Li Wei: Many scholars are concerned about 族群 (ethnic) and ethnic identity (ethnic identity) issues, which is the birth of post-colonial era, particularly those relating to the Greek ethnic identity of the most enthusiastically received, and this is currently a hot topic in academic circles, I believe that China scholars are concerned about this. Scholars in the study population issues, often from the language, customs, religion, physical appearance and other aspects of features, in fact, language, customs and religious beliefs are very strong cultural phenomenon, is very easy to change with the environment changes, although the physical characteristics is not easy to change, but there are many limitations, were not enough. Our study population problem, primarily relies on the Ptolemaic papyrus archives in the use of Egyptian names, composition and evolution. Although the language of Ptolemaic Egypt divide more obvious, but to the Ptolemaic dynasty after the mid-rule, particularly in a later stage, more and more Egyptians can speak Greek, because Greek occupy the status of official language, many Egyptians contract between the Greek also used to write, so completely on the language to determine the ethnic problem is not scientific, but the person's name can reflect a person's ethnic affiliation, as any one nation or race has its own naming convention. For example, the Greek name to reflect the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren, that is, grandson's name Grandpa's name is often used; Egyptian names have similar characteristics, but they are more like something to do with God. Therefore, by examining the evolution of Ptolemy the Egyptian name, we can observe the evolution of different communities and even study the policy Ptolemy Egypt populations.
GUO Zi-lin: in March 2004, you do the University of California, Berkeley speech, presented a paper on ethnic identity in Ptolemaic Egypt the article, the article shows you whether the large ones and methods of this study?
Li Wei: Yes, the article is "Greek and Roman period of Egypt's ethnic identity," because it is just a speech, so only roughly in several ways (personal name, language, social, educational, religious) of the time Egypt's ethnic identity is introduced. Later, I wrote this article under another article, entitled "Creating the Greeks: Ptolemaic Egypt population policy or rule policy?. " In this article, I use a lot of statistics and analysis on the name of the show with an Egyptian family pedigree (three generations) but there are two family trees, genealogy Egyptians and Greeks. In fact, this is a family of two lineages, because the second generation of the family at least two male: one is the village head, village head is the Egyptians to act as the official, so he must use the Egyptians, the name, but established him as the core of the three generations of family lineage is of course the Egyptian lineage; another male was the village police, the police is Greek officials, so the male must use a Greek name, and therefore he established the family as the core is of course the Greeks pedigree pedigree. I also mentioned in the article caused a number of other official name change. My final conclusion is: in the Ptolemaic Egypt, the Greeks and Egyptians really mixed up, and the population is always at work, but the government policy for the Egyptians to enter into the Greek royal family system and opened the door.
Of course, many other articles which I still use such a research method. For example, in recently published two articles in the issue will be fully explored names. Including one on the names used in Greece and Egypt characteristics, in particular, names described the changes in the Ptolemaic Egypt, and the name change research is to study the population-based perspective. Another one Shiyi Salapisi of papyrus documents as the basis, in the full analysis of the data based on the names proposed Salapisi place names and in favor of God, the Egyptians linked to that a majority of the name of Lai Yuan in God's name.
GUO Zi-lin: You Ptolemaic Egypt in the study of names and the use of names in the process of research of ethnic groups, is Greece considered the impact of culture on the Egyptian culture?To talk about how you look at this it?
Li Wei: In 2004, the University of California at Berkeley, I was an academic visit, submitted another article to explore the 500 BC to AD 500, the Greek culture in the Mediterranean region.I am from the political, economic, linguistic and other aspects described, that Alexander the Great Crusade before the Hellenistic around the Mediterranean region had begun, the first businessman to the spread of Greek culture, and then the mercenaries on the spread of culture and, finally, Alexander Crusade of the Kingdom of Greece after the ruling class deliberately spread Greek culture to the Roman period, although the Greek is no longer the official language, but the strong influence of Greek culture still exists, has been extended to around 500 AD, or even longer.
Ptolemaic Egypt is an oligarchy government
GUO Zi-lin: At this point, I have to ask the other on Greek culture and the question of the relationship between Egyptian culture. I have been studying the Ptolemaic Egypt, autocratic monarchy, I think that the Ptolemy of Egypt's autocratic monarchy is the combination of monarchy and the Pharaoh of Egypt in Macedonia is a special system of despotism, this system embodies the elements of Greek and Egyptian elements combination. You also concerned about the Ptolemaic system of government in Egypt, what do you think of Ptolemy of Egypt's political system?
WEI Li: First of all, definitely not a positive autocratic politics, but a negative political. In fact, no one likes to autocratic government. Second, since ancient times many governments are oligarchic government (Oligarchy), Ptolemy of Egypt is no exception. In 1939, Rahim (Ronald Syme) "written by Roman Revolution" (The Roman Revolution, Oxford University Press), Chapter II, "oligarchy" can provide us some clues, Ptolemy of Egypt's political system and the Roman Republic is very similar to the later. Also, if we modern system of government in some countries the analysis, then a certain extent, we believe that the Nazi government of Germany's Hitler, Mussolini in Italy and France, the Napoleonic empire, are all oligarchic government. King Ptolemy of power are in their own hands, so the Greeks to become the ruling class, to Egypt, some of the local people in the aristocratic privilege of using them to rule, and take advantage of the magic of religion by religion to control the local and Greeks, he orders a group of vested interests will be upheld and supported, thereby ensuring the country's oligarchy. Of course, I know that my views have not been recognized by many people, most scholars still insist on Ptolemaic Egypt was a monarchy, and autocratic nature of the monarchy, the problem still continue to need to explore.
GUO Zi-lin: You just mentioned that King Ptolemy full use of the religion, the Egyptian ruler Ptolemy further elaborated the relationship between the Group and the priests do?
Li Wei: This question is actually very close to my question, I recently also took part in the writing of some related works are also directly or indirectly address the issue. King Ptolemy of Egypt's position is higher than the pharaonic period, so that they can make better use of religious factors, the priest group services for the king, of course, in Ptolemaic Egypt, high priest group occupying a pivotal position. Jiu Ptolemy king of Egypt and religious priests in the relationship, there are many specific issues not discussed clearly refer to this area in addition to some of the suits I can also be based more in-depth study of historical data.
Land development and environmental destruction are a puzzling contradiction
GUO Zi-lin: As you said earlier, ancient history, culture and contemporary thought can trigger a collision of many historical problems. At present, concern about environmental pollution, which makes me think of the Ptolemaic Egypt's agricultural development and environmental damage issues. I think the reason why the Fayum region of Egypt Ptolemy agricultural development, mainly in order to house veterans and Greek immigrants, economic development, and agricultural development has certainly achieved the desired results, but also on the environment to a certain extent damage. You long been concerned about the academic study of the Fayum region, is also chair of Fayum, Egypt Ptolemy project. You can talk about the views on this issue it?
Li Wei: Ptolemaic Egypt, Fayum region is a very important area, have important significance, and we get from here is also the most historical fact, our research Ptolemaic Egypt, mainly depend on the method You Mu Unearthed papyrus documents, such as 奥克西林库斯 papyrus, papyrus Tunisia Tarbes, Zeno papyrus, Petrie papyrus and so on. Therefore, we more concerned about the region of the archival and management system.
Fayum agricultural development is a very important economic issue, on this issue, Stanford University, Manning (JJManning), PhD, is an expert, I think you must read his "Land and Power in Ptolemaic Egypt" ( Land and Power in Ptolemaic Egypt), in his book on the issue in which some of, of course, he did not mention the land development and environmental destruction, he is mainly concerned with the king's economic dictatorship. Therefore, this study is promising, but had to rely more on interpretation of historical documents, you do not focus too much on the archaeological excavation of things, because those are not historical Interpretation.
But my view is slightly different point of view with you. I think the Fayum agricultural development mainly for resettlement of Greek immigrants, but also from the Fayum papyrus found in some of the terms, Ptolemaic Egypt does Fayum on a large scale development and construction of King Ptolemy to large numbers of Greeks migrated here. Of course, these Greeks, which may be mercenaries, but not much direct evidence. The statistics from the name the Greeks the majority of other people, including Persians, Jews, Egyptians. As you said the other reasons, I would like to Ptolemy king, there is an economic consideration, but I have not studied, I dare not say. The land development will affect the environment, I think this is an indisputable fact, as long as look at modern Fayum desert will know, and land development and environmental destruction has always been difficult to resolve a pair of contradictions, even in today's society is no exception.
Founder of the ancient Olympics site
GUO Zi-lin: In the occasion of the 2008 Olympic Games, you are to lead their students to Sophie (Sofie Remijsen) Yan Haiying of Beijing University professor and a co-founder of the ancient Olympic site (http://ancientolympics.arts.kuleuven.be/), to English, Dutch, Chinese and Arabic language to the world of four people the history and culture of the ancient Olympic Games, introduced the 2008 Beijing Olympics grand occasion. Can talk about your site's original intention to do this academic it?
Li Wei: A few years ago, Yan Haiying of Beijing University professor invited me to give lectures in China, I went to Beijing, Wuhan and Sichuan, China has been deeply felt the earth-shaking changes have taken place in people's mental outlook than ever before, enthusiastic studentsand scholars of the spirit are touched and surprised me, it all changed my mind before going to China. China's ancient civilization, I had a very strong sense of curiosity, wanted to better understand her. I believe the rest of the world many people, like me, think China does not accurately reflect the current situation in China. 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, which again aroused my curiosity in China. I would like to personally witness the grand occasion of 2008 Olympic Games, but unfortunately I have very old, the body does not allow. So I hope that online viewing. At this point, Professor Yan Haiying just suggestions and I hope together to build a website, not only introduced the world the grand occasion of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, but also introduces the history and culture of the ancient Olympic Games, it must be many people concerned. I think this is ancient history, culture and contemporary thought it the result of the collision. (CASS Institute of World History GUO Zi-lin)
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