春秋时期诸侯国是独立主权国家吗?——与叶自成先生商榷

Were the Leud States in Spring and Autumn Period Independent Countries?

叶自成先生于近期发表的《中国外交的起源———试论春秋时期周王室和诸侯国的性质》一文提出了春秋时期诸侯国是独立主权国家的理论。本文认为,诸侯国无论对内还是对外都要尊天子、循周礼,因此不拥有主权。对中国这样一个多民族国家来说,不能简单地用中央政权对割据政权制约能力的强弱来确定这些政权是否为国家。统一的政治-文化空间和大一统的国家认同是更重要的因素。

In his recently-published thesis, The Origin of China's Diplomacy, Mr. Ye Zicheng put forward a theory that the leud states in Spring and Autumn were independent sovereignty. This paper argues that these leud states had to respect Son of Heaven and abide by the ceremony of Zhou Dynasty. Hence they didn't enjoy the sovereignty. For a multi-ethnical country like China, it is not reasonable to conform if these regimes were countries or not only by the central regime's control over them. The more important factors are to identify with the country of the unitive political-cultural space and great unification.