一、绪论中国马车的起源问题对中国文明起源的研究有重大意义,中国学者多提倡中国文明本土起源说,而很多西方学者却相信殷代文明的兴盛直接受到西方传来的三个重大发明的影响:马车、骑马术和冶金术(Kuzmina 1998:65)。〔1〕新出版的《剑桥中国古代史》(The Cɑmbridge History of Ancient Chinɑ)还专门辟出两节文字讨论马车的问题(Bagley 1999:202-8;Di Cosmo 1999:903-5)。本文准备在现有研究基础上对这一问题作一初步的探讨。 I. INTRODUCTION The origins of Chinese wagons are of great significance to the study of the origins of Chinese civilization. Many Chinese scholars advocate the origin of Chinese civilization. Many western scholars believe that the prosperity of Yin dynasty was directly influenced by the three major inventions from the West Impact: carriage, horseback riding and metallurgy (Kuzmina 1998: 65). [1] The newly published “The Cɑmbridge History of Ancient Chinɑ” also devotes two separate passages to discuss the issue of carriage (Bagley 1999: 202-8; Di Cosmo 1999: 903-5). This article is ready to make a preliminary discussion of this issue on the basis of the existing research.