汉族族称的出现与定型

Appearance and Establishment of a Term of Address for the Han Ethnic Group

汉代与周边民族对举时出现的“汉人”,因蕴含强烈的政治意义,并没有自然而然地成为魏晋时期“中国人”的称号。两晋十六国时期,“晋人”成为“中国人”的通称。北魏初年,出于否定“晋人”的需要,将较早置于统治下的“中州”人称作“汉人”。南北朝时期,“汉”一直是对“中州”人的他称,而非人们欣然接受的族称。至唐代,因应西域诸国在汉代以后长期将内地称为“汉地”等背景,律令中正式称唐民为“汉”,称周边各族为“蕃”。随着唐朝边疆的拓展,“蕃汉”使用日广,高、武时期以后,汉族族称定型。

During the Wei and Jin dynasties, the term “Han people” appearing as a result of the adversarial relationship between the Han Dynasty and surrounding ethnic groups failed to emerge naturally as a term of address for “Chinese people”, since it was laden with political meaning. During the Jin Dynasty and Sixteen Kingdoms Period, “Jin people” became a common term for “Chinese people”. In the early years of the Northern Wei Dynasty, “Zhongzhou people” who had fallen within its jurisdiction quite early on were accustomed to using the “Han people” in order to annul the address of “Jin people”. During the Northern and Southern dynasties, “Han” was an epithet for “Zhongzhou people”, which was not widely accepted. Until the Tang Dynasty, people at that time were officially called “Han” and surrounding ethnic groups were called “Fan” in official decrees, since the Western Regions referred to inland areas as “Han land” for a long time after the Han Dynasty. As the Tang territory expanded, the terms “Fan” and “Han” came to be used more extensively. After the reigns of Tang Dynasty Emperors Gaozong and Wu Zetian, the use of “Han” as an ethnic term of address was well established.