【摘要】 美国的早期中国研究是在二战以后北美高等教育区域研究框架下的中国研究领域内发展起来的一个分支。如果以《早期中国》杂志的创立为标志，早期中国作为一个研究领域开始于20世纪70年代中期。二十余年后《剑桥中国上古史》的出版，则标志着早期中国研究从研究方法和研究材料等层面达到前所未有的深度，但也暴露出早期中国研究作为一个学科所存在的问题。《剑桥中国上古史》在主要章节安排上将考古与文献并立的二元结构，可以看作关于中国上古史研究方法和材料争论——中国上古史的构建到底是依赖传世文献还是考古发现的问题——的集中体现。进一步追问，这一问题就变成传统中国古史研究所依据的文献材料能否像出土文物那样准确可靠地反映上古社会的问题。对这一问题的思考不仅提醒我们进一步反思早期中国研究作为一个学科能否成立以及走向哪里，也促使我们从方法论的高度探索材料与证据之间的关系，以及如何通过对材料进行处理使之成为有效证据的问题。更多还原

【Abstract】 In the United States,the study of ancient China is a branch of Chinese studies that developed in the field of sinology within the framework of regional studies in North American higher education after the Second World War.The publication of The Cambridge History of Ancient China more than twenty years later marked an unprecedented depth of research into ancient China,in terms of both methodology and materials,but also revealed the field’s problems as a discipline.The dichotomy in the main chapters of The Cambridge History of Ancient China between archaeology and documentary material handed down from the ancients can be seen as the focus of the debate about the methods and materials used in the study of ancient China—the question of whether the construction of this period of Chinese history should in fact be based on transmitted historical documents or archaeological findings.Thinking about this issue not only reminds us to reflect further on whether the study of early China can be established as a discipline and where it is going,but also prompts us to explore the relationship between materials and evidence from the heights of a methodological perspective,together with the question of how materials can be handled to make them effective as evidence.更多还原