p. 80: For Tung Chung-shu, I rely mainly upon O. Franke.—Some scholars do not accept this "double standard", although we have clear texts which show that cases were evaluated on the basis of Confucian texts and not on the basis of laws. In fact, local judges probably only in exceptional cases knew the text of the law or had the code. They judged on the basis of "customary law".
p. 81: Based mainly upon my own research. K.A. Wittfogel, Oriental Despotism, New Haven 1957, has a different interpretation.
p. 82: Cases in which the Han emperors disregarded the law code were studied by Y. Hisamura.—I have used here studies published in the Bull, of Chinese Studies, vol. 2 and 3 and in Tôyô gakuho, vol. 8 and 9, in addition to my own research.
p. 85: On local administration see Kat[=o] Shigeru and Yen Keng-wang's studies.
p. 86: The problem of the Chinese gold, which will be touched upon later again, has gained theoretical interest, because it could be used as a test of M. Lombard's theories concerning the importance of gold in the West (Annales, Economies, Sociétés, Civilisations, vol. 12, Paris 1957, No. 1, p. 7-28). It was used in China from c. 600 B.C. on in form of coins or bars, but disappeared almost completely from A.D. 200 on, i.e. the period of economic decline (see L.S. Yang, Kat[=o] Shigeru).—The payment to border tribes occurs many times again in Chinese history down to recent times; it has its parallel in British payments to tribes in the North-West Frontier Province in India which continued even after the Independence.
p. 88: According to later sources, one third of the tributary gifts was used in the Imperial ancestor temples, one third in the Imperial mausolea, but one third was used as gifts to guests of the Emperor.—The trade aspect of the tributes was first pointed but by E. Parker, later by O. Lattimore, recently by J.K. Fairbank.—The importance of Chang Ch'ien for East-West contacts was systematically studied by B. Laufer; his Sino-Iranica, Chicago 1919 is still a classic.
p. 89: The most important trait which points to foreign trade, is the occurrence of glass in Chinese tombs in Indo-China and of glass in China proper from the fifth century B.C. on; it is assumed that this glass was imported from the Near East, possibly from Egypt (O. Janse, N. Egami, Seligman).
p. 91: Large parts of the "Discussions" have been translated by Esson M. Gale, Discourses on Salt and Iron, Leiden 1931; the continuation of this translation is in Jour. Royal As. Society, North-China Branch 1934.—The history of eunuchs in China remains to be written. They were known since at least the seventh century B.C. The hypothesis has been made that this custom had its origin in Asia Minor and spread from there (R.F. Spencer in Ciba Symposia, vol. 8, No. 7, 1946 with references).
p. 92: The main source on Wang Mang is translated by C.B. Sargent, Wang Mang, a translation, Shanghai 1950 and H.H. Dubs, History of the Former Han Dynasty, vol, 3, Baltimore 1955.
p. 93: This evaluation of the "Old character school" is not generally accepted. A quite different view is represented by Tjan Tjoe Som and R.P. Kramers and others who regard the differences between the schools as of a philological and not a political kind. I follow here most strongly the Chinese school as represented by Ku Chieh-kang and his friends, and my own studies.