“八部聚议立王”和早期契丹的社会性质

Eight Chieves Taking Turn to be the Khan and Social Nature of Early Khitan

"八部聚议立王"一说源自后汉苏逢吉《汉高祖实录》和北宋赵志忠《虏廷杂记》,并定型于欧阳修。但八部不是早期契丹社会组织的常态构成,《辽史》"古八部"实是以北魏皇兴年间东北群狄中的七国拼凑附会传说,隋时契丹分为十部,而唐代"大贺氏八部"和"遥辇氏八部"也无法反映契丹社会组织之全部。契丹王在有限家族范围内世袭,兄终弟及和父子相继为重要方式。早期契丹社会组织先后大致经历了北魏末年至隋时松散的部落联合体、大贺氏酋邦式的部落联合体和遥辇氏早期国家这三种形态。

The viewpoint of"Eight chieves taking turn to be the Khan",which originated from Record of Emperor Liu Zhiyuan and Notes about Khitan,was shaped by Ouyang Xiu in his New history of The Five Dynasties.However,the early Khitan society always consisted of more than eight clans.In fact,the ancient eight clans from the Liao history were just seven societies of the northeast areas in Northern Wei Dynasty.The eight clans of Dahe or Yaonian could not represent the whole Khitan society in Tang Dynasty either.During this period,the power of the Khan was lifelong and handed from the elder brother to the younger or from the father to the son in a certain clan,instead of a democratic election involving all the clans.The development of early Khitan society approximately included three stages: a loose commonwealth between Northern Wei to Sui Dynasty,the chiefdom alike commonwealth in the Early Tang Dynasty and the early state after the Prosperity of Tang Dynasty.