英国封建制度“诺曼起源说”的论争述析

英国封建社会的起源,是西方学术界一个长期纷争不已的话题。19世纪90年代,英国历史学家儒德先后发表一系列论著,创立了英国封建制度起源于诺曼征服的学说。其实,白面世之日始,这一学说就一直受到质疑和批判,特别是20世纪下半叶,对其批判的浪潮一浪高过一浪。1973年,布朗在《英格兰封建制度起源》一书中,坚定地捍卫了诺曼征服是英国封建社会起源的理论,该书被视为是诺曼起源学说反批判的扛鼎之作。然而,从史实和学理两个角度而言,儒德所创立和布朗所恪守的诺曼起源学说都是难以获得证实的。     

关于中国前近代社会“非封建”的对话

《"封建"考论》引起的学术争论,展现出学界对"封建"名实问题及社会形态学说的不同理解。日本京都学派代表学者谷川道雄与《"封建"考论》作者冯天瑜就此展开对话,取得相近的认识,他们以为,将秦至清中国社会称为"封建社会"的"泛化封建"观是教条主义产物,不能谓之"马克思主义史学成果"。从中国历史的实际出发,而不是从斯大林规定的"五形态"说出发,是论析中国前近代社会性质的健康起点;尊重马克思的封建观,恢复其本来面目,是正确对待马克思历史学说的首要前提,不应将马克思尖锐批评的泛化封建观强加到马克思头上。对"封建"概念的阐释和运用,应取古今演绎、东西涵化的正途。在精准概念与真确史实的相互观照中,显现中国前近代社会的非封建性及其与西欧、日本前近代社会的封建性之间的差异。     

Book review

In his main work, The Science of Legislation (1780–1783), the Neapolitan Gaetano Filangieri proposed a set of extensive political and cultural reforms. These reforms were necessary to free eighteenth-century societies from the remnants of feudal institutions that obstructed international peace and economic growth. Filangieri's ideas were shaped by the international political climate between the seven Years’ War and the eve of the French Revolution. Reinterpreting Montesquieu and Genovesi through the influences of French radical and Enlightenment thought (Helvétius, Raynal, l’Encyclopédie), as well as the economics of Hume, Verri and the Physiocrats, he concluded that European modernity was inherently contradictory.

From this perspective Filangieri set out to force a clean break between the technical horizons of mercantilism and enlightened absolutism and a society based on civil rights, a fair distribution of wealth and resources, and free trade. Proper ‘scientific’ knowledge of the rules and principles of legislation would allow governments to balance out the natural and cultural factors that characterise individual states, and to identify the appropriate model for social and economic development. If all states acted on their proper interest, international free trade and peaceful competition between states would emerge and the potential for general economic growth be materialised. Thus, the natural equilibrium and ‘universal consensus’ among nations could be restored.     

Myths,missions, and mistrust: The fate of Christianity in 16th and 17th century Japan

This article examines accepted opinion regarding the persecution and demise of Christian/Catholic missions in 16th and 17th century Japan. Many of the key issues associated with the encounter of European missionaries and Japanese feudal systems of authority and power resonate with contemporary interest in transculturalism, semantic slippage, personal agency, and the intimate interplay between religion, politics, and economics. Burdened with rigid standards of belief, heresy, and race from European inquisitions as well as Mesoamerican conquests, the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries made numerous strategic blunders that contributed to their fates, both as recipients of expulsion orders and, finally, on the execution grounds.     

Chiefdoms and the emergence of private property in land

A prevailing characteristic of complex, stratified societies is unequal access to critical resources, and in most cases land is the most fundamental of those resources. Gaining an understanding how relations to land are transformed is viewed as integral to revealing the origins of social inequality. Recent scholarship has proposed an evolution of property rights in land from open access to private property, the latter condition having been attributed to nation states. However, some scholars have concluded from their examinations of Early Medieval Irish texts that land within Irish chiefdoms was regarded as a commodity. The analysis carried out in this paper reveals that in Early Medieval Ireland some land could be considered to be private property, but the holding and transfer of land was restricted to chieftains and their dependents, the lands of commoners being held communally. The closest counterpart to this mode of land ownership is the form of feudalism proposed for the Classic and Post-Classic Maya.     

近年来学术界对"封建"及"封建社会"问题的反思

在新时期,越来越多的学者认为中国只有在西周时期才有封建制。从秦到晚清的社会不应被称为“封建社会”。在这一阶段,社会状况与西欧中世纪的封建社会并不相同,也与斯大林所概括的以经济为特征的封建社会有较大的距离。他们批评滥用“封建”的现象,并力图用新的概念来代替“封建社会”,用新的理论体系描述从秦到晚清的历史。一些学者还注意到,中国古代社会的主要矛盾不能简单地归结为地主阶级与农民阶级的矛盾。可以预料,关于封建社会的认识必将有重大的突破。     

Free trade, feudal remnants and international equilibrium in Gaetano Filangieri's Science of Legislation

In his main work, The Science of Legislation (1780–1783), the Neapolitan Gaetano Filangieri proposed a set of extensive political and cultural reforms. These reforms were necessary to free eighteenth-century societies from the remnants of feudal institutions that obstructed international peace and economic growth. Filangieri's ideas were shaped by the international political climate between the seven Years’ War and the eve of the French Revolution. Reinterpreting Montesquieu and Genovesi through the influences of French radical and Enlightenment thought (Helvétius, Raynal, l’Encyclopédie), as well as the economics of Hume, Verri and the Physiocrats, he concluded that European modernity was inherently contradictory.From this perspective Filangieri set out to force a clean break between the technical horizons of mercantilism and enlightened absolutism and a society based on civil rights, a fair distribution of wealth and resources, and free trade. Proper ‘scientific’ knowledge of the rules and principles of legislation would allow governments to balance out the natural and cultural factors that characterise individual states, and to identify the appropriate model for social and economic development. If all states acted on their proper interest, international free trade and peaceful competition between states would emerge and the potential for general economic growth be materialised. Thus, the natural equilibrium and ‘universal consensus’ among nations could be restored.     

Bringing the feudal law back home: social practice and the law of fiefs in Italy and Provence (1100–1250)

ABSTRACT

The Libri feudorum is a composite law book containing the customary laws of fiefs held in Lombardy which were codified in 1100–1250. Its function in shaping a late medieval ‘feudal vocabulary’ and, ultimately, modern models of feudalism was highlighted by Susan Reynolds and lies at the core of her anti-feudalism paradigm. This paper questions the disjuncture between social practice and learned law that underlies the paradigm, by analysing the context and making of the Libri feudorum and of legal writings associated with it – by Pillius de Medicina, Iacobus de Ardizone and Jean Blanc. By showing how practice could shape legal tools used by learned lawyers to frame fiefs and by reassessing the influence of the Libri feudorum on practice, the paper challenges the idea that fiefs were the outcome of professional or academic law and unveils aspects of the practical nature and intellectual dimension of lawyerly writing.