历史分期命名标准刍议

大半个世纪以来,中国历史分期聚讼未决,原因之一是“封建”等核心术语概念有待厘清。在给历史段落命名时,应“制名以指实”、“循旧以造新”、“中外义通约”、“形与义切合”。秦以下两千年命名“封建社会”,名实错位,形义脱节,亦与外来义相左,而称之“宗法地主专制社会”较为名实相符。

On the criteria for naming historical periods

For over half a century the division of China’s historical periods has undergone much debate, one of the underlying causes for which are some unclarified central concepts such as “feudalism.” The naming of historical periods should follow such principles as “creating names to refer to the reality”, “adapting the old name in creating the new”, “inter-communicability with foreign terms”, “affinity between form and content.” The naming of the two millennia after the Qin dynasty as a “feudal society” represents a dislocation between name and thing and incompatibility with foreign terms. It is advisable to call it a “landowner’s patriarchal clan autocracy.”