Page 51 - 《社会》2021年第1期

社会·2021·1

institutionally and ideologically. As a part of this endeavor, Chinese intellectuals during
the 20th century made great efforts to reconstruct historical narratives on how a “multi鄄
ethnic China” had manifested and consolidated over time. This paper outlines three
narratives after a systematical analysis of the important works on national and ethnic
history during this period. The first narrative appeared in the early 1900s came from the
writings on history of China, in which China and “ethnic Han” were interchangeable and
the formation of “China” was described as a fierce competition for survival between Han
and non鄄Han people. The second narrative came from the new鄄type “ethnic history”
developed in the 1920s and 1930s， in which the conception of“China” was distinguished
from that of “ethnic Han” and the principle of ethnic equality became a consensus.
Meanwhile, the concept of “amalgamation” and “assimilation” emerged as important
terms, and the formation of multi鄄ethnic China was depicted as a process of continual
ethnic fusion. The last narrative was shaped by the framework of historical materialism.
Since the 1940s， a new theoretical perspective had been promoted by Marxist
historians. On the one hand, their anti鄄Han鄄chauvinism political standing compelled
them to oppose a Han鄄Centered narrative; on the other hand, their belief in Marxist
universal development stages of human society allowed them to place ethnic Han in the
dominant and advanced position in Chinese history. Although these three narratives are
quite different in framework and viewpoints, nevertheless they share one thing in
common: the theoretical recognition and anxiety of two contradictory notions: Ethnic
Han deserves a dominant position of the nation and all ethnic groups should be equally
treated. This tension reflects the fundamental paradox of modern China as“a nation鄄
state of multiple ethnicities.” To this day, this paradox still constitutes a basic valid
framework for understanding the issues concerning Minzu.
Keywords：ethnic history， historical view of nationality and ethnicity， historical
narrative， multi鄄ethnic China， a nation鄄state of multiple ethnicities

在过去的 30 年间，“何为中国” 成为社会科学领域的一个热门议题。
有趣的是，学者们争论的重点并不在“中”的含义上，而是集中于“边”
的界定。“边疆”与“民族”日益成为理解“何为中国”（葛兆光，2014）和
“什么是中国人”（王明珂，1997：7-17）的关键概念，甚至有学者将这一
趋 势 称 为 中 国 研 究 的“族 群 转 向 ”（ethnic turn）（Dunnell and Millward，

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