History

The accession of Emperor Jiajing 嘉靖 of China's Ming dynasty to the throne was accompanied by a controversy over the proper imperial rituals 大禮議. Chief Grand Secretary Yang Tinghe 楊廷和, who enjoyed the support of the majority of the court officials, requested that Emperor Jiajing recognize his uncle Emperor Hongzhi as his father. At the same time, Emperor Jiajing was also asked to treat his own father as his uncle. Deeply disturbed, Emperor Jiajing sought to reject Yang's request. With the support of Zhang Cong 張璁 and other junior officials, Emperor Jiajing succeeded in politically defeating Yang Tinghe. Following the controversy, Zhang Cong and other supporters of Emperor Jiajing began to rise within the Ming government and eventually formed the ruling administration. During Zhang Cong's tenure as Chief Grand Secretary, a number of scholars who served in the government were disciples of Wang Yangming 王陽明, the founder the Yangming school of thought 陽明學, an important branch of Neo-Confucianism. Examining the political views of those Yangming scholars, who maintained contact with Wang Yangming until his death in 1528, helps us better understand the political stand of the Yangming school. They supported the political reforms launched by Zhang Cong and Gui E 桂萼, the two leading members of Zhang Cong's administration. The Yangming school was clearly in favor of reforms to restore the political and economic order of the Ming dynasty. However, there were also notable differences between Zhang and Gui and other Yangming scholars. Eager to implement their policies, while pursuing their personal power, Zhang and Gui continued to engage in factional politics against other powerful members within the government. As a result, Zhang's administration grew unstable, and his reforms were delayed. Yangming scholars sought to bring together Zhang Cong, Gui E, and other political figures. Such actions show the influence of the teachings of Wang Yangming, who instructed his pupils to restore their moral intelligence 良知 in order to restrain their arrogance, ill temper, and the pursuit of power. Wang's goal was to introduce mutual trust among politicians and the emperor into the administration of Ming's politics so that policies whose effects would be felt over the long term could be implemented. Examining the teachings of Wang Yangming reveals the political ethic of the Yangming school of thought.

As an influential scholar, the Ming 明 Neo-Confucian master Wang Yangming 王陽明 (1472–1529) was also active in the political world. While showing philosophical ingenuity, Wang launched an ideological movement which reached beyond Neo-Confucian discourse and into the social and political spheres. By promoting his xinxue 心學 teachings, Wang aimed to change Ming political life through fostering a moral retrenchment among future officials. To achieve his goals, Wang Yangming implemented several strategies, such as turning to humble local literati for a following, teaching them as a sitting official, and supporting nonofficial academies with his political power. These strategies succeeded to some extent, in part because the Ming court had relaxed the ideological intolerance of the early Ming. The real-world background of Wang Yangming's success can be further explored by comparing Wang with his two predecessors, Xue Xuan 薛瑄 (1389–1464) and Wu Yubi 吳與弼 (1391–1469).

As an influential scholar, the Ming 明 Neo-Confucian master Wang Yangming 王陽明 (1472–1529) was also active in the political world. While showing philosophical ingenuity, Wang launched an ideological movement which reached beyond Neo-Confucian discourse and into the social and political spheres. By promoting his xinxue 心學 teachings, Wang aimed to change Ming political life through fostering a moral retrenchment among future officials. To achieve his goals, Wang Yangming implemented several strategies, such as turning to humble local literati for a following, teaching them as a sitting official, and supporting nonofficial academies with his political power. These strategies succeeded to some extent, in part because the Ming court had relaxed the ideological intolerance of the early Ming. The real-world background of Wang Yangming's success can be further explored by comparing Wang with his two predecessors, Xue Xuan 薛瑄 (1389–1464) and Wu Yubi 吳與弼 (1391–1469).

This article takes a glance at the medial reform program recorded in the book Shizheng Lu 實政錄 (Records of Practical Policies for Governing) by Lü Kun, a scholar-official from Ming China who was active more than 400 years ago. The Shizheng Lu is a compilation of varied policies and plans designed by Lü Kun as a local official to restore and improve administration of civic affairs. A sub-chapter in this book is devoted to the subject of public health service. Analysis of this text yields knowledge of how the local public health system in Ming China was supposed to operate, pivoting on the key role of medical schools and highlighting the severe malfunction of this system in Lü Kun's time. The same text also sheds light on a handful of popular medical books from the era that could have been used for medical education.

This article takes a glance at the medial reform program recorded in the book Shizheng Lu 實政錄 (Records of Practical Policies for Governing) by Lü Kun, a scholar-official from Ming China who was active more than 400 years ago. The Shizheng Lu is a compilation of varied policies and plans designed by Lü Kun as a local official to restore and improve administration of civic affairs. A sub-chapter in this book is devoted to the subject of public health service. Analysis of this text yields knowledge of how the local public health system in Ming China was supposed to operate, pivoting on the key role of medical schools and highlighting the severe malfunction of this system in Lü Kun's time. The same text also sheds light on a handful of popular medical books from the era that could have been used for medical education.

Elucidation of molecular mechanisms underlying stage-and tissue-specific expression of genes activated by a blood meal is of great importance for current efforts directed towards utilizing molecular genetics to develop novel strategies of mosquito and pathogen control. Regulatory regions of such genes can be used to express anti-pathogen effector molecules in engineered vectors in a precise temporal and spatial manner, designed to maximally affect a pathogen. The fat body is a particularly important target for engineering anti-pathogen properties because in insects, it is a potent secretory tissue releasing its products to the hemolymph, an environment or a crossroad for most pathogens. Recently, we have provided proof of this concept by engineering stable transformant lines of Aedes aegypti mosquito, in which the regulatory region A. aegypti vitellogenin (Vg) gene activates high-level fat body-specific expression of a potent anti-bacterial factor, defensin, in response to a blood meal. Further study of the Vg gene utilizing Drosophila and Aedes transformation identified cis-regulatory sites responsible for state-and fat body-specific activation of this gene via a blood-meal-triggered cascade. These analyses revealed three regulatory regions in the 2.1-kb upstream portion of the Vg gene. The proximal region, containing binding sites to EcR/USP, GATA, C/EBP and HNF3/fkh, is required for the correct tissue-and stage-specific expression at a low level. The median region, carrying sites for early ecdysone response factors E74 and E75, is responsible for a stage-specific hormonal enhancement of the Vg expression. Finally, the distal GATA-rich region is necessary for extremely high expression levels characteristic to the Vg gene. Furthermore, our study showed that several transcription factors involved in controlling the Vg gene expression, are themselves targets of the blood meal-mediated regulatory cascade, thus greatly amplifying the effect of this cascade on the Vg gene. This research serves as the foundation for the future design of mosquitospecific expression cassettes with predicted stage-and tissue specificity at the desired levels of transgene expression. 