良渚、陶寺与二里头——早期中国文明的演进之路

Liangzhu,Taosi and Erlitou——the Evolution Route of the Early Chinese Civilization

良渚古城、陶寺古城和二里头古都这3处大型中心聚落的发展变化,可以大致勾勒出早期中国文明的演进之路:最先形成良渚古国为代表的各个邦国文明,以后的陶寺类型——陶唐氏古国进入雏形王国,后来的二里头青铜文明——晚期夏王朝进入王国阶段。这一从邦国到王国的发展历程,与"邦国→王国→帝国"的演进之路基本吻合。

The sizes of the Liangzhu Ancient City, Taosi Ancient City and Ancient Capital City at Erlitou are all around 300 ha or so, all of which are listed as the largest settlement remains before the Shang Dynasty. The evolutions of these three central settlements roughly outlined the route of the evo- lution of the early Chinese Civilization： the regional state civilizations represented by Liangzhu Archaic State, which emerged around 5000 BP, were flourishing indeed but independent from each other. The Taosi Culture, which was the Taotang Archaic State emerging in 4500 BP and nearby the Central Plains and had overall control rather than regional one, was still had very limited sphere of influence, and the hereditary monarchy was not formed yet, so it could only be an embryonic state or kingdom. The Erlitou Bronze Civilization appeared in the Central Plains since 3800 BP, however, could absorb the essences of all of the peripheral regions and radiate its own culture to them, and had unprecedented wide and deep influence to these regions; moreover, the stable hereditary royal power formed and the real kingdom was founded. This development from a regional state to a kingdom met the evolution route of ＂Regional state-kingdom-empire＂ and was tightly related to the evolution of the natural environment.