中国辺境諸民族の文化と居住地 : エーバーハルト説の紹介と評価 : そのI. 概観

Wolfram Eberhard (1909-1989), the German born sinologist andethnologist, published his two major contributions to the ethnology andcultural history of China in 1942: Kultur und Siedlung der RandvolkerChinas (Culture and Settlement of Peoples in the Border Regions ofChina) and Lokalkulturen im alten China (Local Cultures in AncientChina) . These two works are companion volumes; Kultur und Siedlungclassifies and describes non-Han Chinese peoples on the outskirts ofChina Proper in historical times, while Lokalkulturen formulates localcultures which are supposed to have contributed to the formation ofChinese civilization, using data from the cultural history and folklore ofthe Han-Chinese. Both aim at the reconstruction of ethnic componentsof Chinese civilization and contain stimulating insights and suggestions.Kultur und Siedlung classifies about 800 non-Chinese peoples into 5major categories: (1) Peoples in northern border regions, (2) peoples inwestern border regions, (3) peoples in southern border regions, (4)legendary peoples, and (5) peoples recorded only for ages before theHan dynasty. Categories 1 to 3 are subdivided further into some localgroups of peoples respectively. Each local group represents a culturecomplex and belongs to a linguistic family.In the present paper I have tried to evaluate Eberhard's results fromthree view points: ecological background, linguistic affiliation andprehistoric foundation. Eberhard's groupings fit quite well with thephysiographic areas proposed by G.B. Cressey. This implies that eachgroup probably developed in a specific ecological area, althoughEberhard paid only scanty attention to the ecological conditions of hisgroups. The study of dialects of the Chinese language by M. Hashimotoindicates that most of the southern dialects developed on non-Chinesesubstrata. This lends support to the cardinal idea of Eberhard thatChinese civilization contains a series of non-Han components. Yet insome points his theory is weakly founded; he supposed, for example,that both the Yao and the ancient Yiieh were Austronesian speakers, andthe Liao Austroasiatic speakers. These are very dubious attributions inthe light of recent studies by P. Benedict and E.G. Pulleyblank. Contemporaryarchaeological investigations by Chinese scholars, amongothers Su Bing Qi, have revealed the existence of some local cultures inthe neolithic age which eventually contributed to the formation ofChinese civilization. Eberhard's pioneer attempt to classify non-Hanpeoples and to establish local ethnic cultures anticipated in a sense the recentmovement by Chinese archaeologists. Eberhard was right in themain in his classification of peoples and cultures. Yet his theory has ashortcoming in that he failed to recognize the cultural and linguistic localunit which made up the core of the Chinese and their civilization, locatedin the Middle Yellow River area.