《追寻五帝》写在前面

郭大顺

这本书是遵照苏秉琦先生的遗愿，并在他的学术思想指导下写成的。

苏秉琦（一九〇九-一九九七），生前是中国考古学会理事长，是我在北京大学读研究生的导师和到辽宁工作后的指导者。他所创建的考古类型学、考古学文化区系类型学说和关于中国文明起源的古文化古城古国、三部曲（古国-方国-帝国）与三模式（原生型、次生型、续生型）的系统论述，不仅是长期指导中国考古学的学科理论，也为社会各界所广泛关注和接受，正表现出无限的生命力。

用考古资料复原中国史前史，实现古史传说与考古资料的有机结合，是苏先生一生追求的目标，也是他所创建的学科理论的重要组成部分。早在二十世纪四十年代，苏秉琦就与徐旭生合著《试论传说材料的整理与传说时代的研究》一文；五十年代，他一直在思考这一问题；六十年代，他在《关于仰韶文化的若干问题》一文的最后一部分，专门论述了仰韶文化与古史传说的关系；七十年代，他亲自为吉林大学考古教学实习在冀西北桑干河流域选点，终于获得仰韶文化与红山文化南北碰撞的重要线索；特别是八十年代以来，随着全国各地史前考古新发现和中国文明起源讨论的开展，他在倡导重建中国史前史的同时，及时提出了史前考古与古史传说有机结合的问题，认为条件已经成熟。他并以考古学研究成果分析古史传说，提出如五帝时代分前后期、发展重心的三大区系、从燕山南北与黄河中下游之间到西北与东南地区之间文化组合与重组的作用等带有根本性的指导意见，在他最后一本著作《中国文明起源新探》一书中，对此又有进一步发挥，可惜未及更系统详细论述。

我大学期间的两次考古实习和毕业论文都是关于河南省洛阳王湾新石器时代遗址的，研究生实习是整理山东省大汶口新石器时代墓地和观摩江浙地区良渚文化等材料。王湾遗址所在的洛阳盆地属中原地区，不过那里的仰韶文化晚期，出现了大量“鼎豆壶”系列，这种本不是中原地区原生的文化因素，大有替代当地原有文化因素如彩陶、小口尖底瓶的趋势，并在以后长期成为中国礼器的主要组合。究其原因，当时考虑较多的是仰韶文化向龙山文化的过渡。直到两年后接触到大汶口材料才有新的理解。大汶口墓地的几乎每一种器物的主要部位都有比较敏感的时代差别，变化节奏极快，尤其是“鼎豆壶”的发展序列完整，典型性强，江浙地区也有近似现象。这时，苏秉琦《论仰韶文化的若干问题》发表，文中提出从仰韶文化后期始，东南沿海地区的社会发展水平渐高于中原，并对中原古文化产生了更大的影响，豫西地区在仰韶文化晚期出现的“鼎豆壶”序列，就是受了东南地区大汶口等文化影响的结果。他安排研究生到东南地区实习，也是意识到考古材料已在反映出东南地区古文化的这一特殊重要性。我在北大学习的六十年代初，考古学文化区系类型理论还在酝酿之中，但在北大考古专业已经有了以这一理论的一些基本思想指导的教学实践，我有幸成为受益者。到辽宁工作后又得到发现和发掘牛河梁红山文化遗址这样难得的机遇，对苏先生提出的辽西史前文化在中华文明起源史上“先走一步”的观点比较容易接受。

近十多年来，中国史前考古又有了突飞猛进的发展，但这几处遗址仍然都保持了典型性和标尺的位置。尤其是它们都恰同五帝时代诸集团有着更密切的关系，这就不仅为我进行这项研究提供了难得的条件，也使我感到有责任在这方面多作些思考。一九九五年我应《寻根》杂志之邀，写了一篇题为《考古追寻五帝踪迹》的短文，请苏先生审阅，先生在热情鼓励的同时，针对若干难点多次给予具体指导，此后就酝酿写就了这本小书。

谨以此书纪念苏秉琦先生诞辰一百周年。

The book was written to fulfill an unfulfilled wish of Mr.Su Bingqi and completed under his academic guidance.

Su Bingqi（1909-1997）was the Board Chairman of Archaeological Society of China，my tutor when I was a graduate student at Peking University，and my instructor when I started my career in Liaoning Province.He established the typological archaeology and cultural typology of regions and systems.He systematically explored the origins of Chinese civilization through his creative investigation of ancient cultures，cities，and states.He proposed theories of trilogy （ancient state-regional state-empire）and three types （protogenesis，subgenesis，successive genesis）.For a long time his theories have not only played a guiding role in Chinese archaeology as an independent discipline，but also gained much attention and wide acceptance.So it is appropriate to say that they are showing a boundless vitality.

To reconstruct the prehistory of China upon archaeological evidence and combine ancient legends with archaeological evidence from anew had been Mr. Su’s life-long pursuit and important components of the theories he established as a discipline.As early as the 1940s，Mr.Su Bingqi and Mr.Xu Xusheng coauthored an article titled“A Tentative Analysis of the Recorded Legends and Study of Legend Age”（“Shilun chuanshuo cailiao de zhengli yu chuanshuo shidai de yanjiu”）.His interest in legends continued in the 1950s though.In the 1960s，in the last part of his article titled“On Some Questions about the Yangshao Culture”（“Guanyu Yangshao wenhua de ruogan wenti”），again he turned his attention to the relationship between the Yangshao culture and legends in ancient history.In the 1970s，for Jilin University’s archaeological teaching and fieldtrip，he himself chose a location in the basin of the Sangganhe River，northwest of Hebei Province，where important clues were finally discovered of the encounter between the Yangshao culture in the south and the Hongshan culture in the north.In the 1980s in particular，when many places in China witnessed new discoveries in prehistoric archaeology，archaeologists shifted their attention to the origins of Chinese civilization，Mr.Su pointed out that it was time to reconstruct the prehistory of China and to combine prehistoric archaeology with the legends recorded in ancient historical texts.His analysis of the old legends through archaeological finds brought about numerous new insights，such as the two-part division of the Five Emperors Epoch，the Three Great Regions and Systems as the centers of development，and the functions of cultural groupings and regroupings from the south and north of the Yanshan Mountain and the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River to the northwest and southeast regions.Today these theories are treated as guiding principles in Chinese archaeology.In his last book A New Investigation of the Origins of Chinese Civilization（Zhongguo wenming qiyuan xintan），his above theories are further developed，but unfortunately not yet woven into a complete system due to his death.

When I was a college student，my two fieldtrips and one graduation thesis were all centered on the Neolithic site at Wangwan of Luoyang，Henan Province，while my graduate fieldtrip was entirely turned to Neolithic tombs in Dawenkou，Shandong Province，and the unearthed objects of the Liangzhu culture in regions of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.The basin of Luoyang where Wangwan is located belongs to the Central Plains，but too many pottery vessels of “ding，dou，and hu”series emerged from the late period of the Yangshao culture at Wangwan.These vessels were not originated in the Central Plains in terms of cultural factors，but they showed a strong tendency to replace the local cultural factors，such as painted pottery and the narrow mouthed and pointed-bottomed bottles，and became one of the major ceremonial vessels for a long period of time.Why?Researchers at that time turned much of their attention to the transition of the Yangshao culture to the Longshan culture for explanations.But new understandings had not been gained until two years later when unearthed objects were studied at Dawenkou.Major parts of almost every kind of objects from Dawenkou tombs show distinctive differences in time，a very fast pace of change，and especially the complete “ding，dou，and hu” series with strong typical characteristics，a phenomenon that occurred similarly in the regions of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.

At that moment，Mr.Su Bingqi published his“On Some Questions about the Yangshao Culture.”He pointed out that in the late part of the Yangshao culture，the level of social development in the coastal regions of the southeast gradually became more advanced than that of the Central Plains and in turn exerted a greater influence upon the cultures on the Central Plains，as evidenced by the fact that，in the late Yangshao culture，the“ding，dou，and hu” series in the west of Henan Province were nothing but the results of the influence from cultures such as the Dawenkou culture in the southeast regions.For this reason，he tried to make it possible for his students to have their fieldtrips in the southeastern regions，because he realized that archaeological evidence had already reflected the special significance of the ancient cultures in the southeastern regions.

In the early 1960s when I was a student at Peking University，archaeological typology of regions and systems（ATRS）was still a theory in its rudimentary form，but the archaeological specialty of PU already had its teaching and practice under the guidance of some of the basic principles of ATRS.I was fortunate to be one of those students.When I came to Liaoning，I was bestowed the rare opportunity to discover and excavate the sites of the Hongshan culture at Niuheliang.Because of this experience，I found it easy to accept Mr.Su’s theory that prehistoric cultures of western Liaoning Province is“one step ahead”in the history of the origins of Chinese civilization.

In the recent ten years，again the researches of prehistoric archaeology in China have undergone a fast development，but the above mentioned sites have their typicality and position as a scale plate unchallenged.These sites are remarkable in one more aspect——they happen to be closely connected with the groups in the times of the Five Emperors.

This connection not only provides the rare conditions for me to search for the Five Emperors，but also entrusted me with the responsibility to think more about the topic.In 1995 as a response to the request from Root Tracking （Xungen）magazine，I wrote a short essay titled “An Archaeological Search of the Five Emperors’ Footprints”（“Kaogu zhuixun wudi zongji”）.I asked Mr.Su to go over the essay.He not only warmly encouraged me to continue the work，but also gave me repeated instructions on certain difficult problems.And now the essay has evolved into the present book.

The book is dedicated to Mr.Su Bingqi in commemoration of his centennial birthday.