荀子对“得地兼人”的论述与国家规模理论

The Thought on“Annexing people-Acquiring territory” in Xunzi and the Theory of Efficient Scale of the State

本文通过对两千多年前的先秦典籍《荀子·议兵》中有关"得地、兼人"论述的分析,指出其中蕴含着增量分析(即现代社会科学中的"边际分析")的萌芽。通过将荀子有关国家规模变动对国力变化影响的论述与当代有效率(最优)国家规模理论模型比较,分析了两者间的相通之处与差异。在影响有效率国家规模的实质性因素方面,本文分析了荀子强调的"德"的意义,以及其与当代几种主要分析思路的不同。在梳理荀子的论述时,本文将其做了命题化处理,以便做出更清晰的分析。

This paper points out that the development of incremental analysis(the marginal analysis in the contemporary social sciences) was included in the 'acquiring people' and 'annexing territory' in Xunzi,which was a classic in the Pre-Qin Period two thousand years ago.The discourse on the influence of the change of the state scale in Xunzi has been compared and contrasted with the contemporary theoretical model of the efficient(optimal) scale of the state.In terms of the substantial factor affecting the efficient scale of state,the paper analyzes the significance of 'virtue' emphasized in Xunzi,and the difference between ideas of the other main contemporary analyses.The discourse in Xunzi was made into several propositions for further analysis.