CTD RECIPIENTS
Due its consulting potential, the CTD is designed for researchers, academics and students: sinologist, historians of the silk way international relationships, ethnographic experts, linguists, experts of Arabic, Indian and African historical linguistics interested in the comparison between the Chinese references to understand how much of the “external” world the Chinese people knew from XII to XV century. In addition to the passive fruition of the CTD (IN PULL INFORMATION), an active interaction with the CTD will be possible. Users will be able to contribute actively to the project implementation and development, due their capabilities and profiles. The realization of this feature represents a fundamental aspect to give the CTD the final structure of an OPEN RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT.
DEVELOPMENTS
After the realization of the first starting CTD template (with five works included), with the collaboration of other researchers it will be possible to increase the number of the geographical and travel works (related to outside Chinese territories) and consequently the number of the available toponyms.
Starting from the schemes below:
Fei Xin > Ma Huan > Wang Dayuan > Zhao Rukuo > Zhou Qufei
or
Xingcha Shenglan > Yingya Shenglan > Daoyi Zhilüe > Zhufanzhi > Lingwai Daida
Or
1436 > 1433 > 1349 > 1225 > 1178
Proceeding in the right direction more ancient works could be included , like Youyang Zazu (IX cent.), the travel reports of the Yijing Buddhist monks (635-713), Xuanzang (596-664) and Fa Xian (337-442), the ambassador Zhang Qian travel diary (Bactria, I cent.). In the same way, going towards left after Fei Xin’s work (1436), some works realized by Jesuits interested in Geography could be considered a valid source (Giulio Aleni’s Zhifang Waiji-1623 or Matteo Ricci’s first globe-1602). Other works of the XIX century: Lin Zexu (1785–1850), Wei Yuan (1794–1856), and Xu Jiyu (1795–1853).
It would be interesting to add the possibility to consult work related with animals or plants, in order to include even the biological, zoological and anthropological fields inside the Database philosophy. These last are only some examples of other fields of interest, but many more could be considered (food, medicine…)!
This is an innovative project, not only from a methodological point of view because thanks to the insertion of a large amount of data, for the first time, a scrupulous analysis will be carried out on multiple sources, but also because in the digital era you cannot ignore the targeted use of technological tools and devices (SaaS platforms, DaaS, Nas in the various declinations) that can facilitate the management of IT processes, thus allowing to shift the focus on data analysis and to improve the efficiency of the interaction between several fields of study and between experts all over the world.