The Beginnings of Chinese Civilization
中国文明的开始

作者简介:李济,哈佛大学哲学博士,考古学、人类学家,中国考古学之父,对西阴村、安阳和城子崖考古发掘的领导影响了20世纪下半叶中国考古学的发展。

内容简介:结集李济在在考古学、人类学领域最具代表性的英文论文,如在华盛顿大学介绍“使殷商文化由传说变为信史”的安阳殷墟发掘的演讲和分析中国现代考古学科形成、考证中华民族起源的文章。

ARCHAEOLOGY
考古学

Antiquarian studies in China began to develop in the beginning of the Sung Dynasty (960-1126*, A.D.). They enjoyed a glorious period for more than one hundred years, during which a solid foundation was laid for later development. The classical revival in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries included a very strong current of antiquarian interest, which has been rightly considered as the direct descendant of Sung scholarship. Western science began to affect China seriously, only at the beginning of the twentieth century. So the concept of modern archaeology in China may be said to be developed from two entirely different, but mutually complementary traditions: on the one hand, it is related to that special branch of classical learning known as the Study of Metals and Stones; and on the other, to the field explorations and excavations, which were first developed in the science of geology and biology, and from which archaeology in the West has been gradually evolved. Such being the case, archaeology, therefore, unlike most other natural sciences which have come to China unprecedented, serves best to link together modern science and traditional Chinese learning. In order to make a proper estimate of what is being done at present and what can be achieved in the future, it is necessary that something should be known of China’s antiquarian past.
在中国,对古物的研究在宋朝(960 年~ 1279 年)初期就已经开始有所发展,当时曾经有百余年的鼎盛期,为以后的发展奠定了坚实的基础。18 ~ 19 世纪古学的复兴包含了一股古物热的风潮,这股热潮被认为与宋学一脉相承,此种看法是正确的。西方科学开始对中国产生实在的影响,已是在 20 世纪初以后。因此,中国近代考古学的概念可以说是从两个截然不同而又相互补充的传统发展而来:一方面,它是从中国古典学问中的金石学这一特殊分支发展而来;另一方面,它又与地质学和生物学中首先发展起来的田野调查与地下发掘联系在一起,西方考古学正是从这些科学中逐渐发展出来。既然如此,那么,与大多数中国第一次接触到的自然科学不同,考古学极好地将西方近代科学和中国古典学问联系起来。要准确评价目前正在进行的工作和未来可达成的目标,有必要对中国古学研究的历史作一番了解。

Historical Background
历史背景

In a paper published by the late Professor Wang Kwo-wei on “Archaeology in the Sung Dynasty,” he pointed out the distinct achievements by Sung scholars in archaeology, in several different fields. The more important of these are collecting, recording, and identifying. In all these their merits rank very high; some remain unsurpassed down to the present time. It is interesting to note that this is only part of the result of a broad intellectual movement of the Sung Dynasty, which yielded important achievements in many different spheres. The whole movement was characterized by a great deal of constructive effort; many of the monumental works on history, treasures of Chinese spiritual possessions, date from this period. While the interest in antiquities was no doubt a phase of the historical mentality of the time, it attained an independent development in the very beginning. Works on this subject left to us from this period are strangely modern in many of their ideas.
在已故王国维教授发表的《宋代之金石学》1一文中,他指出宋代学者在金石研究多个方面取得了非凡成绩,尤其体现在搜集、著录和考订方面。他们在研究所及之领域均获得了极高的成就,有些至今尚无人能及。应该注意到,这只是宋代这场大的思想运动的部分结果,这场运动在许多不同领域都取得了重要成果。此次运动整体呈现出极具建设性的特点,许多史学巨著、精神财富都起源于那个时代。虽然对于古物的兴趣无疑只是宋代史学思想发展的一个阶段,但它从一开始就获得了独立的发展。这一时期留传下来的有关这一主题的著作,其中的许多观念都出人意料地具有近代特征。

It is true that there was neither historical nor comparative method, nor any attempt at a comprehensive system, but the effort aimed at accurate presentation and reproduction, and many of their identifications are quite praiseworthy. K’ao Ku T’ou and Po Ku T’ou published between the eleventh and twelfth centuries A.D. are more than a collector’s handbook. In them a system was created for recording and reproducing antiquities, which, except for minor details due to improvements in modern printing, has been taken as a model of all treatises on antiques till the present day. It may not be possible to test the accuracy of their measurements or reproductions, but their aims at being accurate are more than obvious; and the ingenuity and correctness of most of their identifications have been confirmed by modern criticism. As printing was at that time already invented, so the vogue of collecting spread fast. What is more remarkable is that the fashion of collecting was created and maintained chiefly by private individuals, in spite of the fact that the largest and the most well-known collection is an Imperial one. Thus Professor Wang says in his paper on “Archaeology in the Sung Dynasty”:

诚然,那时没有历史方法,没有比较方法,更没有试图创造一个综合体系,但他们追求准确描述和复制的努力以及他们的许多考订,都是颇值得称道的。11 ~ 12世纪出版的《考古图》和《博古图》绝不仅仅是一个收藏指南,其中创立了一个著录和复制古物的系统,除了因近代印刷技术的改进而造成的在少数细节上比较落后外,这一系统直到今天都是这方面论著的典范。也许无法检测其度量与复制的精确程度,但他们力求精确的目标是显而易见的;他们在辨识古物方面表现出的独创性和正确性已为近代批评界所印证。由于那时印刷术早已发明,因此,收藏古物之风传播极快。更令人惊叹的是,尽管最大最著名的收藏是皇室收藏,但收藏之风尚却主要是由个人开创并维持的。因此,王国维教授在其《宋代之金石学》一文中说:

Remarkable as was the Imperial collection, the fashion of collecting ancient objects, however, was created by private individuals. History records that Liu Ch’ang, when governor of Yung Hsing (present Hsianfu in Shensi), secured eleven objects of pre-Ch’in periods; and that Li Kung-lin, having a wide acquaintance with objects of antiquity and being skilful in judging them, showed such enthusiasm, that whenever he heard of an object of value, he would not hesitate in the least to pay a price of a thousand taels. Books such as Lü Ta-lin’s K’ao Ku T’ou, Hsu K’ao Ku T’ou by an unknown author, Wang Fu-chai’s Chung Ting K’uan Shih, and the appendices of the Tsih Ku Lu and Chin Shih Lu, very frequently record the names of the collectors underneath the descriptions of the objects. The collectors thus recorded numbered no less than several scores.... (p. 223)
……宣和藏器之富,固自不足怪也。然宋人搜集古器之风,实自私家开之。刘敞知永兴军 [ 今山西 ],得先秦古器十有一物。李公麟博物精鉴,闻一器捐千金不少靳。而《考古图》、无名氏《续考古图》、王复斋《钟鼎款识》以及《集古》、《金石》二录跋尾,往往于各器之下注明藏器之家,其人不下数十……(223 页)

The scope of those collections included mainly bronzes and jades, but coins and some kinds of stone work were sometimes also included. Although they concentrated most of their interest on inscriptions, it is the merit of the Sung archaeologists that they were able to see, in the antiques which they were collecting, important materials for studying ancient institutions. It was the common belief of the Sung antiquarians that it needed men versed in rituals to know the usage of antiques. Thus they made two great contributions towards the gradual building up of an antiquarian science in China: namely epigraphical study, and identification of forms, besides their persistent effort in collecting, reproducing, and circulating. In about one hundred years or so, they created a new science and perfected a new technique.
这些收藏的范围主要包括青铜器和玉器,不过,钱币和石器有时也在收藏之列。尽管宋代藏家们的兴趣主要是在铭文上,但是,他们的可贵之处在于,他们能在其所收藏的古物之中看出研究古代制度的重要材料。宋代的古物研究者们普遍相信:了解古器物的用途需要熟谙礼法。因此,除了不断地收集、复制和传播古物之外,他们对中国古物学的逐步建立还作出了两方面的重大贡献,即铭文研究和款式识别。在一百年左右的时间里,他们开创了一门新科学,完善了一门新技术。

This new science, founded by a group of Northern Sung scholars, was ably continued even after the disastrous event of the Tsing K’ang era when the Golden Tartars raided the capital city at K’aifeng and made it a ruin. In fact it continued to the very end of the Sung Dynasty. Many notable treatises on antiques were produced in the later period.
由北宋学者建立的这门新科学,即使在遭遇靖康年间金人突袭、摧毁京城的灾难后,仍顽强地沿续了下来。事实上,它一直延续到宋朝末年。许多有关古物学方面的著名论著都是在宋朝后期完成的。

Owing to this continued activity, the foundation of the new science was laid firmly; so even after a total lapse of almost five hundred years, it still retained enough vitality to give new strength to the classical revival in the Manchu Dynasty. “During the 150 years, from the middle of Chien Lung’s reign to the present, marvellous progress has been made in the study of archaeology, ...” says Liang Ch’i-ch’ao in an address in honor of the visit of the Crown Prince of Sweden to China. “The number of books on archaeology is truly astonishing. I am familiar with at least 400 books which I consider as valuable contributions to this subject,” he continued. The works of this period, however, deviate very little from their Sung prototype; but they have attained greater accuracy, and are worked in greater detail. They are on the whole better epigraphists. Owing to the intensive interest in textual criticism of this period, antiquarian studies were much encouraged, as they offered so much new material, and were evidently helpful in the study and interpretation of ancient classics. Yüan Yüan, who edited the famous Huang Ch’ing Chin Chieh, is also the author of Chi Ku Chai Chung Ting I Ch’i K’uan Shih, one of the first treatises on bronze inscriptions written in this period. From Yüan Yüan’s time on, a long list of scholarly antiquarians has followed, until it gradually merges into an intermediate stage when Western influence began to penetrate. The result of the contact of this influence with the old tradition is the birth of a new archaeology in modern China.
由于此种连续不断的努力,这一新兴科学的基础得以建立牢固;也正因为如此,即使在经过了近 500 年后,它仍有足够的生命力给清朝古学的复兴以新的动力。 “由乾隆中叶以后直至现在,一百五十年间,这种学问有很猛烈的进步” ,梁启超在欢迎瑞典王储到访中国的致辞中说。他还继续说道: “关于考古学的著作,数目的增加实在可惊,据我所看见过,认为很有价值已经成书的,不下四百种。 ”这一时期的著作几乎没有偏离宋代的原型,不过更精确、更详细而已。从总体上看,他们是更优秀的碑铭研究家。由于这一时期对于文本考据的浓厚兴趣,古物研究得到大力提倡,因为它们提供了如此多的新材料,对于研究和解释古代经典显然极有帮助。著名的《皇清经解》的编者阮元,同时也是《积古斋钟鼎彝器款识》的作者,后者是这一时期研究青铜器铭文的最早的专著之一。自阮元以后,涌现出了一大批学者型的古物学家,直到西方影响渗入中国,传统的金石学逐渐进入一个过渡性的中间阶段。古老传统与西方影响接触的结果催生了近代中国新的考古学。

The great contribution of this period is the advancement of epigraphical studies, of which the Sung antiquarians made only a start. They also showed a more diversified interest, and produced special treatises on bricks, tiles, seals, and other antiques of a given locality. It is only fair to say that at the end of the nineteenth century, traditional antiquarian science had already developed to such a stage that it was only a step from the standard of Modern Archaeology. Wu Ta-chêng’s treatise on jade, and his study of early inscriptions, for instance, can stand comparison with any modern scientific treatise of a similar nature. It is an even bet whether or not traditional archaeology in China would have advanced to the modern stage even without Western influence! It is at any rate obvious that without such background archaeology would not have attracted so much interest in China at the present time.
这一时期的重大贡献在于铭文研究的进步。在这一领域,宋人只是开其端绪而已。此外,他们的兴趣也比宋人更为广泛,并撰写了有关砖、瓦、印玺及某些特定地区的其他古物的专门论著。公允地讲,到 19 世纪末,传统的古物学早已发展了到离近代考古科学仅有一步之遥的阶段。例如,吴大 论玉器的专著及其对早期铭文的研究,可与任一同类性质的现代科学著作相媲美。即使没有西方的影响,中国传统的考古学是否也已发展到近代阶段,对此我们很难下结论。无论如何,若没有这样一个背景,考古学不会在中国引起如此多的兴趣,这是显而易见的。

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《中国文明的开始》(英汉对照版)
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