中国古代文明和国家起源研究中的几个问题

近年来新出土的《容成氏》等战国竹书,在增加和扩充史料的同时,我们也应意识到它们依然是有其局限性的,重建上古史还得靠以考古学为基础的多学科的结合。而考古学本身也有自己的局限性,它也需要借鉴人类学的理论以及技术的、经济的、环境的、人口学的等等知识。将酋邦理论、社会分层理论与聚落形态学理论相结合是研究的趋势和方向,但理论贵在创新。因而,结合中国考古新发现,从中国的材料出发,创建出符合中国历史实际的理论,才是最上乘的文明和国家起源研究。依据近年来对山西襄汾陶寺和河南新密古城寨的考古发现,将早期文明与初始国家出现的时间,划定在龙山文化时代,应该说是有着充分事实依据的。与此相关,将中国古代的国家形态划分为邦国—王国—帝国,要比称之为古国—方国—帝国,更约定俗成更合理一些。

Some Issues in the Research on the Origin of Ancient Chinese Civilization and State

The newly unearthed bamboo slips such as Rongcheng Family of the Warring States period may extend and enrich our historical materials,but they have limitations as well.Reconstructing ancient history must have solid archaeological basis,while archaeology must borrow kownledge from anthropology,economy,environment,etc.Combining the theories of tribe,social strata and gathering morphology is the trend and direction of research.We should create our own theory on the basis of materials to study the origin of civilization and state.In view of the recent archaeological discoveries in Shanxi and Henan,it is reasonable to locate the time when early civilization and state appeared in the period of(Longshan) Culture.Accordingly we can redefine the ancient state morphology in China as from tribe to kindom to empire.