古代中国的历史分期与历史观念——从中西比较的视角出发

西方史学中中世纪概念的产生,代表了人文学者与过去决裂的决心。有西方学者批判中国传统史学缺乏＂对过去的感觉＂,尽管这种观察看到了中西史学的明显不同,却存在严重的误解。中国古代正史中确有表述历史分期的词语,却没有与＂中世纪＂相对应的强烈否定过去的概念。封建与郡县之别被中国古人赋予丰富的政治道德意义,并由此在先秦和秦以后划分了一条古今有别的鸿沟,秦及秦以后的历史被视作是同质的。西方历史观念东渐,秦至清的漫长时段自然地被比拟为中国的＂中世纪＂。

Historical Division and the Concept of history in Ancient China from the Perspective of Comparison between China and the West

The concept of ＂Medievalism＂ in the historical theories in the west was created to represent that the humanists were determined to rebirth of the classic-tinged present from the sterile past. Chinese tradi- tional historical writings used to be questioned by some western scholars as lacking of sense of the past. Though this kind of perspective noticed the differences in Chinese and western historiography, there is still a severe misunderstanding. Words in Chinese historiography indicating division of the past periods, though abundant, comprise of none corresponding to the meaning the ＂Medievalism＂ has as a dark past that needs to be broken through. In contrast, Feudalism and the system of prefectures and counties, both fantasized as periods with de- clined moral value in sequence, are the unique concepts used by Chinese to signify a permanent separation be- tween past and present, with Qin dynasty as the watershed. Thus the whole range of the history after Qin was viewed as of the same essential characteristic, and it was regarded as equal as the Western Medievalism