酋邦轮回与中国早期国家形成

On the evolution of the chiefdom in ancient China

学者们对于五帝时代存在纵向观和横向观两种截然不同的认识,但都不能令人信服。以社会人类学的酋邦概念来重新审视文献中的五帝时代,可知五帝时代应该是中国酋邦轮回时代史迹的历史沉淀。酋邦轮回是中国酋邦时期即五帝时代最普遍的现象,因此酋邦轮回应该是中国早期国家形成的主要路径,酋邦轮回的结束,酋邦宗主权世代固定在某一氏族内部传承并为其他酋邦所承认,应该是中国早期国家形成的重要标志之一。

Anthropologists have pointed out that all chiefdoms experience the turn of prosperity and decaying, but not the evolution into states. Therefore, the writer argues that the evolution of ancient Chinese chiefdoms should be divided into two stages, in the early of which wars, politics, environment and land resource are all crucial. In the later stage, however, wars top other factors of environment, population, concentrated stores, and the like.