一种考古研究现象的文化哲学思考——透视所谓“吐火罗”与孔雀河青铜时代考古文化研究

A Cultural-philosophical Thinking about a Phenomenon of Archaeological Researches——A Review of the Studies on the So-called " Tochori" and Archaeological Cultures of the Bronze Age at the Konchi River

新疆地处欧亚交通冲要;居民种族多源、民族复杂;多种文化会聚、异彩纷呈;19世纪初、20世纪前期成国际竞逐的焦点。相关历史、考古、民族、语言、宗教、文化之研究,呈现十分复杂的面貌。目前,学界关注的"吐火罗"问题堪为显例。吐火罗,是里海、黑海北岸古代游牧民族之一,自称"Tochori"。公元前2世纪以前进入阿富汗北部。唐代玄奘译称它为"覩货逻"。公元8世纪前后,在回鹘文《弥勒会见记》题跋中有"Toχri",德国学者据音读相近,指其为印欧语西支中早已失落不见的"吐火罗",并与古欧洲人南下挂钩。近年发掘之孔雀河青铜时代考古文化,被个别学者假想为"吐火罗人"遗痕。有美国学者更将这一"假说"作为结论,并扩展指称塔里木盆地自青铜时代至唐,诸多不同王国、不同民族,均是"吐火罗",甚至与新疆现代民族联系。涉及古族、古国,必须关注特定时空背景;语言、文字不能与民族等同;种族与民族不能等同;它们又都必然在交融中发展。考古遗存必须总体把握,才可认识其民族个性,切忌抓住点滴枝节,就与民族联系。

Located at Eurasian communication hub,Xinjiang was populated by complicated ethnic groups of multi-origin and multi-culture. At the end of the 19th century and early stage of the 20th century,Xinjiang had been the focus of international struggle. Its concerned studies in history,archaeology,ethnic groups,language,religion and culture are complicated. The ' Tochori' question is a notable example. Tochori was an ancient nomadic people in the northern shores of the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea,called themselves ' Tochori',and got into northern Afghanistan prior to the 2nd century BC. It was translated as ' Du-Huo-Luo' 覩货逻 by the famous monk Xuan Zang of Tang times. In postscript of the Uighur ' Maitrisimity' of the 8th century or so there is a word ' To ri' which was suggested by German scholars to be ' Tochori' that was lost for a long time in the western branch of Indo-European according to their pronunciation and connected to an ancient European migration to the south. Very few scholars supposed that the archaeological culture of the Bronze Age excavated recently at the Konchi River was remains of ' Tochori'. This hypothesis was accepted by some American scholars as a conclusion and was expanded by them to cover the whole Tarim Basin,including all the kingdoms and ethnic groups from the Bronze Age to Tang Dynasty,and even the modern ethnic groups of Xinjiang. This paper insists that studies related to ancient kingdoms and ethnic groups must be based on their specific historical and geographical backgrounds. It is obvious that a written language cannot be equated with an ethnic group,and a race does not mean an ethnic group too,although they intermixed each other. Archaeological remains cannot be related simply to a certain ethnic group,unless they are examined completely. We must be careful to avoid connecting an archaeological culture to a certain ethnic group from its minor or isolated factors.