史学术语“封建”误植考辨  

An Examination on the Wrong Term “Fengjian” in Historical Studies

作　　者：冯天瑜[1,2] 

机构地区：[1]武汉大学中国传统文化研究中心 [2][日本]国际日本文化研究セこタ外国人研究员

出　　处：《学术月刊》2005年第3期5-21,共17页Academic Monthly

摘　　要：“封建”本义“封土建国”、“封邦建藩”,原指殷周实行的分封制,与秦以降实行的郡县制相对应。近代中日两国学人皆以“封建”翻译西方史学术语feudalism(意为领主、采邑制),遂成一重要汉字史学术语。自20世纪20年代初期始,共产国际译词在中国传播(如称现实中国为“半封建”),尤其是1929年前后中国社会性质论战中的一派,将“封建”泛化,把秦汉至明清这一颇不“封建”的两千余年历史纳入“封建时代”。由于特定的社会历史原因,此一论说在近半个多世纪以来的中国通行。而负荷新义的“封建”,脱离了中外古今概念坐标系的正轨,既未求得古今义流变的合理性,也没有达成中西义对接的准确性,故其效用不佳。笔者从语义学与历史学的结合部,追踪术语“封建”误植的过程,并建议恢复“封建”古典义,又与英文术语feudalism相通约,将殷周称“封建时代”,秦汉至明清的社会,不宜冠以“封建”,从政制角度可称“郡县制时代”,从较宽泛的历史学言之,可称“宗法专制帝制时代”。The Chinese term “fengjian” means “dividing land to build up states” or “holding lands in feoff”, originally it means the system of feoff in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, which corresponds to the system of prefecture and county since Qin Dynasty. In modern time, both Chinese and Japanese scholars translated “feudalism”, a western historical term, as “fengjian”, and made it an important term in historiography in Chinese characters. Ever since the early years of 1920s, the Communist International translation of terms communicated into China (for instance, the Chinese reality was called a “semi-feudal one”). Around 1929, a polemic on the nature of Chinese society produced a viewpoint that enlarged the conception of “fengjian”. It brought into the conception of “feudal time” a history of two thousand years from Qin Dynasty to Qing Dynasty that was not “feudal”. Owing to a specific socio-historical reason, such a viewpoint prevailed in Chinese mainland in recent half a century and more. But the conception with new definition deviated from an authentic coordinate system, both Chinese and foreign, ancient and modern. It became ineffective, for it neither conformed to the evolution from the ancient to modern definitions, nor acquired a correct coincidence between Chinese and western definitions. The author, starting from all the joint point of semantics and history, traces the process of the wrong terminology of “fengjian”. He suggests that the ancient definition of “fengjian” should be resumed, so as to be in conformity to the English term “feudalism”. Shang and Zhou Dynasties could be called as “feudal time”, while the society from Qin to Qing Dynasties can be called as “the tome of feoff system” in a sense of political system instead of being called as “feudal”. In a broader sense of historical study, it could also be called as “the time of patriarchal-autocratic-imperial system”.

关 键 词：封建 历史学 秦汉 西方史学 古今 领主 郡县制 殷周 汉字史 新义 

分 类 号：C933.2[经济管理—管理学] H12[语言文字—汉语]