简述我的民族研究经历和思考

Investigating Ethnicity: My Studies and Views of Ethnic Groups in China

本文回顾了作者６０年来研究中国各民族的经历和思考。１９４９年前，作者曾在汉族和非汉族地区进行实地考察；１９４９年后，他又参与了大规模的民族普查。在普查中，他逐渐认识到，民族是在其成员的共同生活中形成的，而这种生活又会随着时间的推移而发生变化。这一认识使作者在民族学研究中注重社会历史因素。１９７９年后，作者重新开始进行少数民族研究；１９８９年，他总结多年的研究思考，提出了中华民族多元一体格局的观点。他认为，几个世纪以来，中国的各个民族一直共同生活在一起。因此，欧洲中心主义的民族国家定义并不适合中国的国情。中华民族的形成是一个双向过程：在自下而上的过程中，中华民族的历史是将不同的民族文化、社会群体纳入一种高层次秩序的历史；在自上而下的过程中，高层次的秩序从未排斥低层次的民族文化系统。在中华民族与自身所容纳的“其它文化”之间从来就没有明确的分界线。

This paper represents an attempt to provide an overall view of the author's personal experiences in his 60 years of study of ethnic groups in China and presents the ways in which he views ethnic identity. Prior to 1949, the author conducted field work in both Han and non-Han communities. After 1949, he was involved in extensive nationality surveys, through which he came to realize that ethnicCultures were shaped in the communal lives of their members which were transformative in thime. This observation led the author to emphasize the significance of social historical perspectives in ethnological studies. In 1979 he re-started his work among minority nationalities and he summarized his ideas in an argument which finally took form in 1989 that China is an integrated nation with cultural diversities. This argument is based on 2 considerations: 1) the inapplicability of the Europe-centric definition of nation-state in China who has different ethnic groups living together for centuries within her boundaries; and 2) the Chinese nation was shaped in a 2-way process. From the bottom up perspective, the history of the Chinese nation is one through which diverse ethnic cultures and social solidarities became integrated into a higher level order. From the top-down perspective, the higher level order has never excluded lower level ethnic cultural systems. There is no clear-cut demarcation line between the Chinese nation and 'other cultures' within it.