对公元前1920年积石峡洪水与古代中国洪水传说的初步思考

The Jishi Outburst Flood of 1920 BCE and the Great Flood Legend in Ancient China: Preliminary Reflections

在发表于2015年8月5日《科学》杂志的文章中,吴庆龙及其考古学团队将公元前1920年在黄河上游大规模洪水溃决与传统上认为夏朝奠基者的大禹治理的那场洪水联系起来。而将两者相联系的关键问题在于,古代文献典籍中并无记载说明大禹所治之"水"为黄河的洪水。但这场洪水的爆发与二里头文化的巧合还是非常有趣,为何它能够帮助二里头的统治者建立起一个更高水平的复杂社会和政治组织?洪水的爆发地积石峡属于具有最早青铜铸造文化的齐家文化区域。如果黄河上游爆发的大洪水导致齐家文化区的人们迁徙到黄河中游地区,则这些具有青铜器冶金技术的移民能够激发二里头当地固有的青铜铸造工艺。在这种方式下,黄河上游爆发的洪水则能与发展到国家社会的二里头间接地联系起来。

On August 5,2015,Science published an article by Wu Qinglong and a team of distinguished archaeologists that reported on the discovery of evidence for a massive outburst flood in the upper reaches of the Yellow River in 1920BCE.The archaeologists identify this flood with the one brought under control by Yu,who was traditionally regarded as the founder of the Xia Dynasty.The most critical problem in linking the archaeological evidence of a catastrophic flood in the upper reaches of the Yellow River with that of the story of Yu is that the water controlled by Yu in the ancient texts is never described in the ancient texts as a flood of the Yellow River.And how could such a flood,on the contrary,have assisted a ruler at Erlitou in establishing a higher level of social complexity and political organization?If massive flooding in the upper reaches of the Yellow River caused the movement of people from the Qijia culture region to the middle reaches,then the migrants to the central plains with knowledge of metallurgy could have spurred the development of an indigenous bronze-casting technology at Erlitou.In this manner,the flooding in the upper reaches of the Yellow River and the development of the statelevel society at Erlitou were indirectly connected.