No abstract

Xuxiebian is an iron-smelting site located in Pujiang county of Sichuan province, China. Two excavations were carried out in 2007 and 2011, and four bowl-shaped furnaces were excavated. Ten slag samples from the site were prepared and analysed. The present paper reports the results of metallographic and elemental examination of the specimens. It is concluded that both pig-iron-smelting and refining process were applied at the Xuxiebian site, and the bowlshaped furnaces are possibly refining furnaces. The function of the site was probably to produce pig iron and refine the pig iron into wrought iron.

Volumes of historical archives in China have been digitised, from which various datasets have been constructed for scholarly inquiry. Furthermore, the excavation of thousands of archaeological sites provided detailed data about prehistoric development across China's landmass. As a result, there has been remarkable progress in quantitative studies on China's past. This article reviews recent work in five theme areas to provide a background for the papers included in this special issue. These themes include state formation, Confucianism, human capital, Christian missionaries, and long‐term persistence studies. The five papers in this issue fall into these themes and are introduced where appropriate.