关于中国古代历史分期问题的思考

Reflections about Division of the Chinese Ancient Historical Periods

20世纪80年代中期以后,随着改革开放的不断深入,政治环境的日益宽松,不少学者对中国古代史的分期问题进行了重新探讨,在反思旧说的基础上,提出了诸多新的看法,显示了勇于探索真理的理论勇气,表现了以构建符合中国古代历史实际的中国古代史体系为己任的责任感和使命感。但尚未取得一致的认识。本文在吸收已有研究成果的基础上提出,中国古代史应分为四个大的时代,即血缘家族———氏族部落时代、封建时代、州郡时代、行省时代,并认为这一划分可最大限度地避免分歧,反映中国古代历史自身的特点。

With the deepening of economic reform and opening to the outside world after the mid-1980s and increasing relaxation of political environment in China, quite a few scholars rediscussed the problem of Chinese ancient historical periods. On the basis of reflecting the old propositions, they put forward some new ideas, showing their theoretical courage of exploring truth and their responsibility and sense of mission of constructing a historical system that confirms to the ancient Chinese historical facts. These attempts, however, have not come to agreement. This paper, based on the previous research, suggest that the Chinese ancient history can be divided into four great periods, namely the kinship-clan-tribal period, feudal period, state-county period, and provincial period. It is believed in this paper that this division can avoid disagreements among scholars to the largest extent and show the intrinsic characteristics of the Chinese ancient history.