Acta Orientalia 38. (1984)

1-2. szám - I. Ecsedy: Capitals and Village Communities at the Beginning of China's History

Acta Orientalin Academiae Scientiarum Hung. Tomus XXXVIII (1 — 2), 7 — 32 (1984) CAPITALS AND VILLAGE COMMUNITIES AT THE BEGINNING OF CHINA’S HISTORY* ILDIKÖ ECSEDY Research into China’s ancient history cannot be achieved by a rapid drive to conquer the subject in a manner made possible e.g. by one single discovery. Instead, while cutting one’s way along its untrodden paths, one meets different puzzles that have to be solved once again, before any further step forward can be taken. An inherent difficulty in any approach to the beginning of Chinese history is raised by the well-known enigma that the extant literary sources and the actual archaeological evidence of early times are in several cases incompatible ; at least they cannot be harmonized or even connected in an unambiguous manner. China’s traditional philology showed an interest in the past of the written tradition itself, rather than in its objective bases and background hidden in the earth. Thus when archaeological excavations began in the 20th century—especially from the 1920s—scholars could hardly find a firm basis for the chronicle history on the newly discovered pieces of land of a past culture. This happened despite increasingly more detailed and scrupulous volumes of textual comments, or, in several respects, as a consequence of them, i.e. their one-sided view and the related danger of misinterpreting the records involved.1 The archaeological results could be “disturbed” by written evidence at least concerning the historical beginning, partly bacause of the lack or scarce occurrences of the related records, and partly because they were pushed into the fabulous peripheries of the written tradition. Their credit could be doubted—in the light of modern scholarly studies—because once they were in­ * A preliminary summary of my research that is to be published in a volume A kinai ällam kezdetei (On the Beginnings of the Chinese State) by Akadémiai Kiadô. It was submitted to the Kôrôsi Csoma Society in 1980 ; cf. Ostarsadalom és âzsiai termelési mod (Primitive Society and the Asiatic Mode of Production), F. Tôkei (ed.) : Elvek és utak (Principles and ways). 2nd (enlarged) edition. Magveto, Budapest 1982, 114-143. 1 For the earliest written sources, on their problems, and the extent and limit of their credibility, see B. Karlgren’s works, e.g. The authenticity of ancient Chinese texts. BMFEA 1 (1929), 165-183; The early history of the Chou Li and Tso Chuan texts. BMFEA 3 (1931), 1-59. Acta Orient. Нищ. XXXVIII. 1984

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