鸦片战争前后民族史学思想的新发展

The New Development of the Ethnohistoric Studies before and after the Opium War

鸦片战争前后,中国的民族史学思想开始出现新的变化。其明显表现在:一是对传统夷夏观念的突破,这一时期,史地学者普遍认为夷夏问题不再仅是中原农耕地区与周边游牧民族的关系问题,而主要演变成中华民族与西方资本主义国家之间的问题;二是在如何面对和处理国内民族关系和民族问题上,史地学者普遍从安定少数民族的民心,维护少数民族地区稳定发展的高度出发,阐发了他们的民族平等、民族团结思想。

Before and after the Opium War, the ethnohistoric studies in China emerged with some changes. One clear change was a breakthrough in the traditional Yi - Xia concept because both the historians and geographers thought this concept was not only related to the relationship between the farmers in the Central Plains but closely to the relationship between the Chinese nation and the capitalist countries of the West. The other conspicuous change was a new understanding of the treatment of the ethnic problems and relations at home because these scholars advocated the national equality and unity in order to stabilize the ethnic groups and their development.