论严尤的民族观与边疆思想

Discussion on Ethnic Concepts and Borderland Thoughts of Yan You 严尤

严尤的民族观与边疆思想是中国古代处理边疆民族关系的代表性思想之一,系统总结了先秦至西汉时期处理农耕与游牧族群之间关系的得失问题,提出"无上策""五难""尉安貉人"等认识。严尤的民族观与边疆思想有助于王莽新朝的稳定与发展,但从历代边疆经略的角度看又有很大的局限性。正因如此,后世朝臣、史家对严尤之论展开了激烈的辩论,经历了从认可推崇到否定批判的过程,而一些帝王则从实践层面不断尝试突破。后世对严尤之论的争辩,从一个侧面反映了中国历史上处理边疆民族问题思想的演变过程,即从"夷夏之防"到"华夷一体"。

Yan You’s ethnic and borderland concepts,as one of the representative thoughts in dealing with borderland ethnic relations in ancient China,summarized gain and loss of the policies about border ethnic groups from the Pre-Qin period to the Western Han Dynasty,and put forward the understanding of"no best policy(wu shangce无上策),""five difficulties(wu nan五难)"and"appeasing He people(weian Heren,尉安貉人)."Yan You’s thought was helpful to the stability and development of the Xin Dynasty,but from the perspective of the administration of borderland in Chinese history,it had its limitations.Hence,the ministers and historians took it as a controversial argument,and many emperors wanted to show"the best policy"by action.The critique about the argument proposed by Yan You showed the evolution process of the thoughts of dealing with the frontier ethnic issues in Chinese history to some extent,that is,from"Yi Xia Zhi Fang"夷夏之防(the defense of Yi and Xia)to"Hua Yi Yiti"华夷一体(the integration of Hua and Yi).