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我们在教授世界历史的时候,经常遇到的第一个问题是应该从美索不达米亚讲起还是应该从埃及讲起。因为这两个早期复杂社会大致开始于同一个时代,孰前孰后不过几百年,在社会发展的高潮时期,两者实际上是同时代的。我这里提出应该从总体的观念来探讨早期美索不达米亚的、尼罗河流域的、印度河流域的、以及欧亚大陆中部的各种大、中、小型的政体。早期人类社会尝试建立经济和政治体制的时候,有的以神庙为中心,有的先建立城市。周边的较小的国家、较为不发达的国家与发达的大国互利互补,同时总是伺机而入,在强国走下坡时取而代之。
The first question we often encounter when teaching world history is whether we should start with Mesopotamia or start with Egypt. This is because these two early complex societies started roughly in the same era but only after a few hundred years. In the climax of social development, the two are in fact contemporaries. Here, I propose that we should approach the large-scale, medium-sized and small-scale regimes of early Mesopotamia, the Nile, the Indus, and central Eurasia from a general perspective. Early human society tried to establish economic and political system, some temples as the center, and some first to build a city. The smaller neighboring countries, the less developed countries and the developed countries are mutually reinforcing and at the same time are always waiting in the wings to replace them when the great powers go downhill.