从“同心圆”论到“两极模式”论——美国中国学界有关中国古代朝贡制度的学说

From "Concentric Circle Theory" to the Mode of "Bipolar Empires" ——The Doctrine on Ancient Chinese Tributary System of American and Chinese Academia

1960年代,费正清提出"中国世界秩序"的"同心圆理论",长期以来,乃是西方解读传统中国对外关系的重要学说,在西方和日本产生重大影响。20世纪80年代,美国学者巴菲尔德提出中国历史上中原王朝与游牧帝国是一个彼此依存的"两极模式",而周边游牧民族根据自身实力对中原王朝采用"内疆策略"与"外疆策略",发展与中原王朝的关系。梳理了自先秦到清代数千年中原王朝与游牧民族关系的历史,也是影响深远的重要学说,这种学说在当今美国流行的"新清史"中也有反映。无论"同心圆论"还是"两极帝国论",两个学说都有其适应性,也有其局限性,都在一定程度上揭示了一些历史层面。我们应该采取辩证的态度,批判的眼光,取其所长,去其所短,从而丰富我们对中国历史的了解。

John King Fairbank put forward ＂Concentric Circle Theory＂ of the ＂Chinese World Order＂ in 1960s, which has been one of the main Western influential interpretations on the traditional Chinese foreign relations and the relationships between the Central dynasties and their neighboring nomads in Chinese history, and also have a significant impact in Japan. In 1980s Thomas J. Barfield, another American scholar, proposed a mutual dependent mode as ＂Bipolar Empires＂ to interpret the relationships between the central dynasties and the nomadic empires in Chinese history. The nomads under its own power chose different diplomatic strategies such as ＂the Inner Frontier Strategy＂ and ＂the Outer Frontier Strategy＂ to communicate with the Central Dynasties, which is influential and even is reflected in today＇s popular ＂New Qing History＂. This paper will focus on the interpretation and evaluations on the main arguments of the two theories.