Traditional knowledge (TK) and practices have been developed from experience gained over centuries and adapted to the local culture and environment in the Pacific. Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) consider themselves resource custodians, and principal rights holders rather than stakeholders, and may have their own customary decision-making processes leading at a regional level with the concept of oceanian sovereignty in the Pacific. TK has complemented science in the protection of biodiversity (development of the Nagoya Protocol, designation of EBSAs, ILBI/BBNJ instrument, IPBES assessments), as well as in climate action (Paris Agreement, New Zealand Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Act 2019), fisheries management (NOAA https://voices.nmfs.noaa.gov), mineral resources management (Inuit Circumpolar Council), damage compensation (Local Communities in China) and recently the high seas treaty (the agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction) signed at the United Nations in June 2024. Also, the implementation plan for the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development defines “Ocean science” broadly to include “local and indigenous knowledge” alongside western science and “recognises, respects and embraces local and indigenous knowledge.” It is now commonplace that Island states of the Pacific have the obligation to incorporate TK into their national marine policies and the duty to consult and involve IPLCs in decision-making relating to offshore activities, as they would be directly affected by such activities or as an encroachment of their spiritual and cultural connection to the marine environment, including pertaining to the protection of culturally significant marine species that migrate through high seas water columns.

Uring the process of the Yellow River's capture of the Huai River, Lixia River was the area that suffered the latest and most severe disaster. Based on statistical analysis and reconstruction of the spatiotemporal sequence of floods in the Huang Huai region, it was found that the evolution of floods in the Lixia River during the Ming and Qing dynasties went through five stages. Since the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty, floods have become normalized, reaching their peak during the Jiajing to Wanli period and the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. However, similar disasters do not necessarily mean similar disasters. Overall, the lower limit of disasters in the Qing Dynasty was higher than that in the Ming Dynasty. From the perspective of ecological environment, the essence of the Huangdu Huai River disaster is the process of reshaping the natural landscape, which can be roughly divided into three evolution paths: lacustrine transformation in the Yunxi area, lacustrine transformation, and marshy transformation in the Yundong hinterland, as well as extensive coastal plain siltation. This new water town pattern constitutes a new resource and driving force for agricultural transformation, especially the rise of harvesting and water adapted agricultural production, which has alleviated the problem of low comparative efficiency in traditional agriculture. The Lixiahe case demonstrates that only by integrating the perspectives of disasters, environment, and agriculture can we dialectically understand the historical nature and direction of regional society.

Abstract: My interest in this topic is understanding how despite using different styles of enquiry, the two knowledge systems can integrate through translation. (1.)After giving some background information (2.) on the time frame in which these treatises came to be, as well as on the translators and their work, I will: (3.) take the source treatises as a reference, extract the characteristics of translation focusing on the knowledge of experiment from their translations in Chinese;(4.) analyze the cognitive gap between the authors and the translators, using science as a reference; (5.) discuss the translators' understanding and reconstruction of the core concepts, “Li”理and “ShiYan”实验, using Neo-Confucianism as the reference.
The research reveals that the narrative centre of the original work and the translated work have obviously shifted, but there are still some overlaps after translation. This shows that the two knowledge systems although different in style, are not strictly "incommensurable", therefore can be integrated by adopting appropriate strategies at an appropriate level, and that the translators' personal thoughts play a significant role in the process of this integration. It also shows that the features in physics that were consistent with Neo-Confucianism were strengthened, and the factors that conflicted with it were excluded. The introduction of physics knowledge was the translators' active reconstruction process.