五帝时代的历史学、考古学及人类学解读

An Interpretation of History,Archaeology and Anthropology in the Era of the Five Emperors

五帝时代是中国夏代之前的一个历史时期,其存在是客观事实,而非人为编造。五帝的名号产生虽晚却是其来有自的,应是出自后世一些著名氏族对祖先的追忆。五帝并非古代中国前后相继的五位大一统君主,而是不同氏族部落的首领。彼此之间并无血缘关系,所谓五帝谱系乃后世民族融合的产物。五帝的排列顺序也非前后相继,而是大致处于同一时代的人物。各位古帝所在的地域实际上就是上古各姓氏集团分布的地域。五帝起始年代的上限应在公元前2500年或公元前2300年。从考古学角度辨析,五帝时代大致相当于考古学上的龙山时代,并已进入农业定居时代。根据当代西方文化人类学四阶段进化的理论和具体实际,五帝时代所处的社会发展阶段应属于酋邦阶段。

The era of five emperors is a historical period before Xia Dynasty in China.Its existence is an objective fact,not a fabrication by human beings.Although the name of“Five Emperors”came into being late,it came from the recollection of the ancestors of some famous clans.“Five Emperors”were not the five unified monarchs in ancient China,but the leaders of different clans and tribes.There is no blood relationship between them.The so-called pedigree of five emperors is the product of the national fusion of later generations.The order of the five emperors was not successive,but the characters of the same era.In fact,the region where the ancient emperors are located is actually the distribution area of various surname groups in ancient times.The upper limit of the starting date of the five emperors should be 2500 or 2300 B.C.From the perspective of archaeology,the age of the five emperors roughly corresponds to the Longshan age in archaeology,and has entered the era of agricultural settlement.According to the theory and practice of the four stages evolution of Contemporary Western cultural anthropology,the stage of social development in the era of five emperors should belong to the Chieftain-state stage.