早期丝绸之路文献研究（英文版）/西域上古史研究

作者简介

余太山先生，是中亚古史研究奠基性学者。后于历史所任职，1993年起为研究员，曾任中外关系史研究室主任。专治古代中亚史、中外关系史。

内容简介

PREFACE The evidence provided by the literature indicate that the so-called “Silk Road” was not only just the route of commodity circulation, but also the routes of ethnic migration, military conquest, belief transmission, presenting tribute and granting gifts in return, and the route that wealthy traders traveled. Today when we focus on the “Silk Road”, we mainly focus on East-West cultural exchange, and “Silk” here becomes a symbol of cultural carrier. The purpose of study on the “Silk Road” is to search for the lost trajectory of EastWest cultural exchange. To study the “Silk Road”, we are bound to use East-West literatures. The mutual verification of East-West literatures has always been the state that the scholars who research the history of East-West cultural exchange aspire to. Unfortunately, this may only happen fortuitously. The East-West literatures are like the donkey’s lip and the horse’s mouth — if one is slightly careless, one would suffer the ridicule of describing neither donkey or horse. In fact, the EastWest cultural exchange of itself can be regarded as a process of donkey’s lip meeting the horse’s mouth. At least, “neither donkey nor horse”, as intermediate products, is very common. So one might as well laugh and say: the research of the history of East-West cultural exchange is a study of the donkey’s lip and the horse’s mouth. 本丛书的研究范畴是公元前六世纪至公元六世纪的中亚史。 这一时段的中亚史有各种原始资料，其中汉语资料无疑是关键的。可以说，没有汉语资料，这一时段的中亚史无法构建。西方（包括印度、俄罗斯）学者研究这一时段的中亚史已有一个半世纪，成绩可圈可点。其主要缺点是没有充分利用汉语史料。弥补这一缺憾的是日本学者，从白鸟库吉算起，至少已有四代学者投身这一时段的中亚史研究，其主要特色正是利用汉语史料。可惜的是，日本学者很少英译自己的论著，西方学者又多不习日语，因而日本学者的有关成果罕见引用。余氏的研究不仅填补了中国中亚史研究的空白，而且比日本学者更充分地利用了汉文史料，且不说余氏以汉语为母语，对汉语史料的理解应胜过日本学者。 该文集的出版则有助于西方学者理解和运用汉语史料，使国内中亚史的研究深入世界，继而使得世界史意义上的古代中亚史研究更上层楼。 十本英文著作大部分已在国外发表。著者的译文均经Prof. Victor H. Mair（梅维恒）和Dr. Bruce Doar（陶步思）修改、编辑。两位都是优秀的学者——母语是英语、精通汉语、有丰富的编辑经验、熟悉古代中亚历史，主要的是极端负责的工作精神。十本英语论著发表时间跨度较大（1990—2017），又经过不同的英语编辑，原译文差异不小，这一次由著者本人历时2年，做了统一译文的工作。透过早期丝绸之路文献，寻找失落的东西方文化交流轨迹