摘要： “五帝时代”是中国史前社会演进的一个重要阶段,然而其历史真实性却一直被质疑,其具体年代也存在较大争议。作者从人地关系视角出发,对这一重大历史问题进行了初步的探讨。首先介绍了历史文献记录“五帝时代”和龙山中晚期考古证据所揭示出类似的“万邦”林立、相互竞争的政治景观及其社会含义,分析了“五帝时代”的可能年代,认为二者在地望、政治景观以及年代等方面都可能存在一致性。基于竞争和冲突与气候变化之间可能存在的成因联系,重建了“五帝时代”的气候背景,发现4.5～4.0 ka BP阶段,即龙山中晚时期为一明显的降温期,且此降温阶段可以与世界其他地区古气候记录对比,进一步证明了该降温期的存在及其广域性分布特征。最后从人地关系的视角,论证了该降温阶段气候变化与“万邦”(酋邦社会)形成之间的成因联系,从一个侧面证明了“五帝时代”存在的历史真实性,同时进一步表明“五帝时代”的年代极有可能相当于龙山时代的中晚期,具体年代为4.5～4.0 ka BP。

关键词: 五帝时代, 龙山时代中晚期, 4.5～4.0, ka, BP气候事件, 中原地区, 人地关系

Abstract: The “Five Emperors Era”has been regarded by many scholars as one of the most important evolutionary stages in prehistoric China,since it marks the establishment of Longshan chiefdom-like societies and the origins of ancient civilizations in the middle-lower Yellow River valley. However,its historical authenticity and ages have been debated. In this paper,we attempted to address these issues from the perspective of human-environment relationship. Firstly,we analyzed and compared the political landscapes and social features of possible “Five Emperors Era”recorded in historical texts with those revealed by the archaeological evidence. It was found that both of them revealed a similar political landscape characterized by tens of thousands states competing each other and a similar social evolutionally stages with comparable ages. We then reconstructed the climatic background of the “Five Emperors Era”,and found that it occurred during a pronounced climatic deterioration around 4.5～4.0 ka BP. Comparison with climatic records from other parts in the northern hemisphere indicates that such climatic anomaly has a significance of at least hemisphere scale. Based on such findings,the mechanism behind the emergence of the “Five Emperors Era”is suggested as that climatic change beginning around 4.5 ka BP resulted in resource stress,and then stimulated the conflicts and warfare between different communities,which lead to the emergence of Longshan chiefdom-like societies. Such finding indicates that the “Five Emperors Era”truly exists and its age is most probably at 4.5～4.0 ka BP.

Key words: Five Emperors Era, middle-late Longshan Period, 4.5～4.0 ka BP climatic event, central China, human-environment relationship

中图分类号: 

• K901.6