“游牧帝国”一种事实还是模型建构——评巴菲尔德《危险的边疆——游牧帝国与中国》

“Nomadic Empire” as a Fact or Model Construction——Review of Barfield's The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empire and China

美国人类学学者巴菲尔德的《危险的边疆——游牧帝国与中国》于1989年出版,他结合自身人类学考察的成果,在书中提出了一种"游牧帝国"的理论和中原王朝与游牧民族关系的新的解释模式——"两极世界"模式。该书中的一些观点对于中国边疆史研究和游牧文明史研究具有一定的拓宽视野的意义,是一种新尝试。但其在史料使用、理论建构、人类学方法论等问题上仍有许多值得商榷的地方,需要学者们客观、辩证地思考与再探讨。

Thomas J. Barfield, American anthropologist, published The Perilous Frontier： Nomadic Empire and China in 1989. Based on his anthropological investigation, he put forward the theory of ＂nomadic empire＂ and ＂bipolar world＂, a new interpretation mode concerning the relationship between Chinese central dynasties and nomadic nationalities. Some ideas in this book are significant to broaden views for the study of Chinese frontiers and nomadic civilization, are new attempts. But some are still open for argument in terms of the use of historic data, theoretic construction, and anthropological approaches. Scholars need objective, dialectal reflection upon and probe into all the above-mentioned points.