The author of the article presented Witold Bobrowski’s Kashubian translation of the collection entitled Ogura Hyakunin-isshu – one poem from a hundred poets. The author of the translation is Kashubian, social activist, artist (sculptor and draughtsman), teacher, founder and head of the school of Kashubian as a lecture in Głodnica. Ogura Hyakunin-isshu collection is an anthology of one hundred most beautiful Japanese poems, already chosen in the thirteenth century by the poet Fujiwara no Teika (Teika Fujiwara) (1162–1241), at the time when this aristocrat and scholar of literature lived in Ogura, a district of Kyoto, from where the title of the collection of poems comes: The collection from Ogura.
It is the obligatory reading in Japanese schools. The collection was read, transcribed by hand and memorized for centuries. Bobrowski translated the poems from the original Japanese basing on explanations of the lines, and English and Russian versions. His translation is a philological translation The article describes the content of the volume of 200 pages and 100 lines – in a spread: on the left with translation into Kashubian and information about the author with the commentary line, and on the right the original Japanese version (Kanji characters and Latin transcription – in romaji). Each line has 5 verses. The author of the article presented a description of the study of one line, analyzed lexical layers of the poem indicating archaisms, neologisms and lexical characteristics.

The aim of the paper is to make an initial reconstruction and to undertake a preliminary analysis of the profound expedition of Japanese statesmen to the West (so called The Iwakura Mission) held in the second half of the nineteenth century. The basic purpose of The Iwakura Mission was to search for information and data (especially related to the shape of the legal and political system which would strengthen the Japanese state and society). The Iwakura Mission was a paradigmatic example not only for the next Japanese overseas expeditions, but also for the very similar embassies undertaken in the Middle Kingdom. The Author attempts to work out some preliminary findings necessary to propose more sophisticated set of hypotheses related to the processes of traveling as a source of knowledge on legal and political issues in the future. In this sense, the study of The Iwakura Mission is also a small contribution to developing both a socio-legal theory of inter-cultural transmission of legal knowledge and general theory of copying foreign laws.

The defeat of the Combined Fleet at the Battle of Midway halted the aggressive actions of Japan in the area of the central Pacific Ocean and caused the displacement of expansion towards the islands of the South Pacific. It was on one of them – Guadalcanal that was a real confrontation between Allied forces and the Empire of Japan. One of the results of landing of the United States forces on its banks on August 7, 1942, was the Battle of Savo, which took place on the night of 8/9 August 1942. In this challenge, the 8th Fleet under the command of Vice Admiral Mikawa Gunichi smashed the Allied forces. The confrontation demonstrated the superiority of the Combined Fleet over the forces of the enemy, for whom this was one of the biggest disasters in the Pacific War. However, Vice Admiral Mikawa winning the combat ships did not destroy the amphibious units whose elimination was defined as the overriding objective for the 8th Fleet.

When Shinzō Abe became the Prime Minister of Japan in 2006, he promised groundbreaking reforms to the national security system of Japan and a revision of the Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, which renounced war and prevented Japan from maintaining any war potential. However, under the recent interpretation of the Article 9 the Japanese administration is allowed to maintain forces used exclusively for self-defense within the Japanese borders. Only during his second term of office as a Prime Minister, he fulfilled those promises. In 2013 he established the National Security Strategy with National Security Council modeled after its American counterpart. Shortly after, the Japanese Parliament approved a controversial State Secrecy Law. Lastly, in July 2014 Abe’s Cabinet managed to approve the reinterpretation of article 9 allowing Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to exercise the right of collective self-defense, permitting SDF to exercise a military action in order to aid allies on their territory if they were to be attacked. With the upcoming Upper House Parliamentary Elections, a nationwide referendum to abolish the Article 9 of Constitution is not out of the question.

The subject of consideration is the cultural landscape of Japan. It should be noted that Japan is an island country and the vast majority of its area are mountains ranges that are unfavourable to any land development. Therefore, mainly coasts and softly shaped land areas are occupied. The geographical nature of Japan forces a huge concentration of population in a relatively small area. An analysis of diversity of the landscape of Japan lurks, in general, the image of chaos with the exception of unique and beautiful places. A justification of current state of cities is the World War II that brought destruction to Japan. The country quickly overcame the crisis and achieved significant economic growth. The buildings became a symbol of the development and free market system, however, at the cost of the landscape. Currently, state planning policy is aiming to correct mistakes of the past. In addition, there is a great emphasis on society that has a major role in shaping landscape. The improvement of the planning system in Japan, environmental protection and concentration to preserve the greatest acreage of green areas are another sources of optimism. Unfortunately, rural cultural landscape in Japan seems to be in a crisis.

In the end of the 19th century political situation in the Far East was tense and uncertain. China being afraid of the repeated Japanese aggression signed the agreement with Russia allowing to establish a Russian military naval base at Port Arthur (close to today’s Dalian) and agreed for the construction of Chinese Eastern Railway through the territory of Manchuria. This railway was dedicated to connect the Transsiberian Railway with Vladivostok, the Russian port on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. At the early stage of the history of the Chinese Eastern Railway many Polish engineers held important positions in the railway construction administration with Stanisław Kierbedz as its vice-chairman and manager. Adam Szydlowski, who was the founder of Harbin, held the main position in the railway administration. Among the management of the 21 sections of the railway the majority were Polish engineers, former constructors of Transsiberian Railway.
The author cites some fragments of the reminiscences of one of these engineers – Stefan Offenberg, who was in Manchuria at the time of Boxer Uprising. These reminiscences were included into a very rare album, published in Harbin in 1923 on the 25th anniversary of the Chinese Eastern Railway (on the eve of its factual overtaking by the Soviet authorities).

An essential element for the functioning of the international system is idea forming the basis for creating rules and institutions ruling political and economic interactions of international actors. With the crisis of the position of the West since 20083, one can observe non-Western actors’ narrative pointing a need for a new international order in the twenty-first century. Behind that lies the idea of a “fair and reasonable international order” supported by the developing countries, and especially by the so called “emerging powers”. The most important role plays the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which reached the status of the second world’s well-developed economy, aiming at strengthening its political position and seeking adequate justification for this process.

While analysing provisions concerning legal professions in Mainland China, we can observe that the procedure of obtaining necessary qualifications is really complicated. It requires the approval of judicial administration department (of lower and upper level) and finally, the issuance of lawyer practice’s certificate. The same rules are applicable to the Chinese law firms. However, foreign law firms, which would like to provide legal service within the territory of the People’s Republic of China, need to comply with more restrictive requirements. Moreover, we can notice some changes in the Chinese legislation concerning lawyers’ professionalism and quality of legal service. The Communist Party of China makes some efforts to reduce corruption in the Chinese legal environment. Despite mentioned reforms, China still meets challenges related to the lawyers’ independence.

The article focuses on the issue of soft power in two Asian countries – People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Korea. These countries differ significantly in size not only territorial but also military and economic, yet have much in common in culture and history, as well as in the active use of public diplomacy. The Article aims to briefly introduce the use and tools of soft power in both countries, and compare them, paying attention to both the deficiencies and successfully conducted operations of Seoul and Beijing.

This article is the fruit of author’s interest in the Korean history and culture. The topic of Confucian influence on the Korean legal thought is not entirely new, but given its significant importance in understanding Korean history, it is still worth recalling. The topic of the article is also related to the subject of Chinese cultural influence on Korea in broader sense. Author chose 93 years period from the beginning of the Joseon Kingdom under Yi dynasty rule (1392) until the enactment of the State Code (Gyeonggukdaejeon) by its ninth king – Seongjong (1485) as the time frame for the paper. First century of Joseon was the period when Confucianism clearly achieved domination over the nation’s political ideology, which was reflected in the legal and jurisprudential aspects as well. King Seongjong (1469–1494) managed to compile the State Code started by his predecessors, thus consolidating Joseon’s Confucian form of law and government and for this reason the paper is limited to year 1485. The 16th century (generally speaking) can be regarded as the period of great development of Korean Confucian thought by its most renowned sages – Yi Hwang (Toegye) and Yi I (Yulgok)9, but the biggest change in favor of Confucianism occurred during the age specified as the initial period of Yi dynasty.
In the article the author tried to answer the following questions: how was the Confucianism established in Korea? Why did Joseon rulers rely on it? How Joseon legal thought reflected Confucian worldview? What were the results of it for Korea?

This paper presents lexical borrowings from East Asian Languages functioning in informal English, especially American English. They constitute an interesting and colorful part of informal English lexicon, both linguistically and socioculturally. The paper shows that borrowings from Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean – the languages which contributed most – represent diverse typological variants such as loanwords, loanblends and loan translations. Many of them exhibit a high degree of assimilation in English, evidenced by successful adaptation to English morphological system, seen in zero derivation, fusion with native English words, or semantic changes. The borrowings also demonstrate connections with their social context, seen in such historical events as emigration waves or military conflicts which brought language contacts. It is hoped that this necessarily sketchy paper will serve as an encouragement to further studies of this interesting part of informal English lexicon.

The Article presents reflections of SANBAO Academy’s instructors after spending training time in Chenjiagou village (陳家溝村), located in Henan province in central China. Over 25-year-old practice of Chinese martial arts allowed the Authors to develop a subjectiv evaluation of the benefits from making physical activity. They also made an attempt to evaluate the differences between the attitude to the training of people practicing Tai Chi in Europe and China. The Article reaches with its content to the source of Chen Tai Chi Chuan and describes the place from which derive a variety of different martial arts, including popular all over the world Yang Tai Chi Chuan, the place where nineteen generations passed within a family secret training of Chen Tai Chi Chuan. And finally, where even today you can feel the atmosphere of this old, beautiful, traditional and original martial art. Today, the Chenjiagou village is perhaps the last relic of Chinese culture and art, which is by no means interesting for the representatives of the young generation of the Middle Kingdom.

Jan Rowiński, Wojciech Jakóbiec, System konstytucyjny i przedstawicielski Specjalnego Administracyjnego Regionu ChRL Makau (The constitutional and representative system of PRC’s Macau Special Administrative Region), Wydawnictwo Sejmowe, Warszawa 2012, pp. 76 (Magdalena Łągiewska)

Willy Wo-Lap Lam, Chinese Politics in the Era of Xi Jinping. Renaissance, Reform, or Retrogression?, Routledge, New York–London 2015, pp. 323 (Bogdan Góralczyk)

Xi Jinping, Innowacyjne Chiny (Governance of China), Wydawnictwo Kto Jest Kim, Warszawa 2015, pp. 437 (Marta Dargas)

Polish national students’ sinological workshops “Sinoworkshops”, Gdańsk, 15–17 April 2016 (Maria M. Sztuka, Magdalena Orłowska, Marcin Damek)

The activities of the Centre for East Asian Studies at the University of Gdańsk in 2015 (Kamil Zeidler)