“走出疑古”的困惑——从“夏商周断代工程”的失误谈起

当下古史年代学研究可行的路径,仍应是在古文献“文本”的基础上多方联络和考证,力求将已有的年代系统调整到能够为大多数学者所接受的水平上。夏商周断代工程不由此途,而将主要精力放到非文字史料的调查和取证上,所得结果大都不可据。工程所提倡的多学科方法带有泛科学化的倾向,由此导致年代学论证上的一系列失误。这些失误表明,作为工程的指导理念,“走出疑古时代”的主张以及“超越疑古,走出迷茫”的提法,在理论上和实践上都是不妥当的。

Perplexity at "Transcending the Historical Skepticism": From the Errors of "The Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project"

In contemporary chronology of the ancient history, the feasible method should still be trying all possible conjunction and textual criticism upon the foundation of ancient documentary “texts”, striving to adjust the present chronological system to the standard acceptable to most scholars. Yet “The Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project” does not follow this way, concentrating itself mainly on the investigation and evidence collection of unwritten materials instead, and most of the results are unreliable. The multi-disciplinary method advocated by the Project bears the tendency of pan-scientism, thus has led to series of errors in the chronological demonstration. These errors have indicated that, as the guidance idea, the proposition of “Transcending the historical skepticism” as well as the formulation of “Transcending the historical skepticism, stepping out of confusion” are both theoretically and practically incorrect.