关于东亚海域

东亚海域史的一些思考（仅供课堂讨论）我们都知道，东亚海域史的概念是一种来自日本学界的表述。

它和日本学界长期以来的学术关注和兴趣有着直接的关系。

而与此同时，这个概念对于中国的历史学者来说同样有着一定的启发意义，这也是为什么当我们知道这个概念之后，会感觉很有共鸣，甚至借用了这样一个概念，来开设一门研究生的课程的原因。

正如我们在上课时曾经讨论到的，基本上我认为，东亚海域史的概念，对中国历史研究者的启发意义无外乎两点：一是研究视野的扩展，二是新材料的关注和应用，即材料边界的扩宽。

首先，关于研究视野的扩展。

我们知道，比起陆地来说，中国历来不那么重视海洋，至少不像日本那样重视，而这也是为什么今天中国在海洋的问题上总是处处受限的原因。

东亚海域的概念，从某种程度上提示我们，中国也是一个海洋国家，事实上还是一个海洋大国。

回到历史的层面上，我们同样可以发现，如果把目光聚焦到海洋的因素上，会发现很多以往被忽略但却很有价值的问题，这就是研究视野扩展的结果。

从实际研究的层面来说，传统的历史研究注重国别史或者国与国的关系史，比如中韩关系、中日关系、韩日关系，且一般都集中在个体或者两者关系的讨论，很少有关注三者以上关系的研究者，大家可以想一下，我们是不是很少听到有谁说我是研究中日韩三国关系的？我想这就是一个问题。

同时，我们也知道，现在很流行一种所谓全球史的观念，在我看来，这种观念有其特定的意义，但其局限性在于没有十分切实的操作性，这也是为什么到目前为止，全球史更多地还是停留在理论探讨的层面，或者是表现为在所谓全球史的大背景下表述的国别史和国际关系史，中国学界的情况尤其如此。

相对于过于笼统的全球史，更为人所接受的大概是稍微向下聚焦一点的所谓区域史，比如亚洲史，东亚史。

相对于中国学者来说，区域史的提出就研究的操作性来说，无疑更强一些。

那么，从东亚史到东亚海域史，这两者的区别又在哪里呢？我们知道，提出东亚海域史，我们不是要研究海洋本身，那是地理学家或者海洋生物学家的任务。

作为历史学者，我们研究的对象还是人和事，我们只是将海洋作为一种联系的方式，就像传统的将陆地作为联系方式的研究一样。

在东亚世界几千年的历史中，海洋是一个客观的存在，发生在这片海域上的事件，或者因为这片海域的存在而发生的事件也客观存在，如果忽略了这一部分的内容，我们所了解的东亚历史无疑就是不完整的。

反过来说，只有将东亚海域纳入研究的视野，我们才能够了解一个真正完整的东亚。

这就是我认为东亚海域史的提出最关键的价值所在，也是它比之于所谓的东亚史更近一步的地方。

其次，关于材料边界的拓展的问题。

我们知道，历史研究说白了是一种依靠材料说话的研究模式，视野的变化和关注点的转移，带来的一个直接的结果就是，我们以往不那么关注或者被我们忽略的新材料可能进入我们的视野。

从宏观的层面来说，比如，研究中国问题的学者，会发现用韩国和日本的材料同样对研究中国有很大的帮助；又比如，研究中韩关系史，不能忽略日本的材料；研究中日关系，韩国的材料也十分关键。

从微观一些的层面来说，比如研究东亚的国际关系史，除了传统的历史资料外，我们还可以关注历史上海洋交通中重要的港口城市所留存的文献和物质资料，以及海洋考古的出土文物资料等等。

最后，关于东亚海域史的概念对我自己研究的启发这样一个问题，我感觉，一个最理想的状态是能够在一个课题的研究上尽可能兼顾到中日韩三方面的材料，但是这对于一个研究者来说难度太高。

就我而言，我只能说自己比较熟悉的是韩国方面的文献，所以只能从韩国文献出发做一些有关东亚海域世界的讨论。

我的一个基本认识是，从韩国文献的状况，很能反映历史上依托东亚海域展开的中日韩三国的关系。

我一直有一种看法，即认为朝鲜半岛在东亚三国之间扮演了一个重要的桥梁的角色，而它恰恰又是一座架设在海洋上的桥梁。

我有时候甚至有这样一种感觉，整个朝鲜半岛的历史，就是一部它和中国大陆以及日本列岛的关系史组合起来的历史。

韩国和其他两个国家之间的关系占据其自身历史的比重，远比其他两个国家的大的多。

韩国的历史或者朝鲜半岛的历史，可以说是中日韩三国之中最能够展现历史上三者密切交互关系的一部历史。

从这个意义上说，韩国的地位和韩国的材料，足以应该成为我们站在东亚海域的视角上研究历史的不可忽视的因素。

这大概就是东亚海域史这一概念的提出，对于我自己所关注的韩国研究启发最大的方面。

王鑫磊2012-5-31On the History of East Asia Maritime World(Only for discussion)As we all know, the history of East Asian maritime world is an academic concept from Japan. It has direct relation with the Japanese scholars’ special academic concern and interests. Meanwhile, such a concept also inspired the Chinese history scholars to some extent. That’s why we feel interested and even use such a concept to name our lesson for graduate students.As we have discussed in class, basically, I think this concept instructive the Chinese history scholars mainly on two aspects: First is the expansion of research horizons, Second is the widening of the material boundary, or we can say it leads to the concern and application of new materials.First, regarding the expansion of research horizons, we know that compared to the continent, China has always been less focus on sea, at least, not so highly regard it as Japan. While the proposal of East Asia Maritime history concept just make us realize that China is also a maritime country as well as a continent one. The fact is that when we go back to history, we can find that if we pay more attention to the factor of sea, we will see lots of problems which been ignored before, and this is the result of the expansion of research horizons.Then, specific to the concrete research level, especially the research of East Asian history, traditional research has focused on country history, or relation history between countries. And most of them just concern two individuals such as China and Japan, China and Korea, or Japan and Korea. We rarely heard about researchers who claim to study the relation history among three countries, like said I’m studying China, Korea and Japan; it seems few like that. I think this is a problem. Of course, I should say I’m just talking about situations of China.Meanwhile, we also know a very popular concept that is called Global history. In my opinion, this concept has its specific academic meaning. But it seems to be limited when it comes to specific studies. This is why till now in China Global history is more stay in the level of theoretical discussion. Or the scholars just use it as background in their still traditional research. In contrast to the too general Global history, a more acceptable concept is so-called regional history, for example Asian history or East Asian history, and I think it may be more operational than global history for Chinese scholars.As we are talking about regional history and East Asian history, maybe we should consider a question that what’s the difference between them and the history East Asian maritime world? We all know that the proposal of maritime history does not mean that we attempt to study the sea itself, which is the task for the geographers or Marine biologists. As scholars of history, we mainly study persons and events. Under the context of maritime history, we just regard sea as a mode of connection which connects three countries in East Asia, as well as the traditional mode of continent. In thousand years of history in the East Asian world, the sea was an objective existence, so was the events related to it. If we ignore the factor of sea, the history we saw wasabsolutely an incomplete one. On the other hand, only when we take the sea into our perspective, we are able to reach a history as complete as possible. This is what I think the most critical value of East Asian maritime history concept. And so is why I think it has gone far ahead than the East Asian history.Second, I would like to say a few more words about the second point I mentioned about the maritime history-- the widening of the material boundary. I think we all agree that history is a study which we speak out strictly based on the materials we gain, no more and no less. The materials are the most important thing. The change of perspective and shift of focus will bring a result that some new materials come into our vision. From a macro respect, for example, the researchers who study China may find it helpful to use the materials of Japan or Korea, and so is who study the other two countries. Furthermore, when it comes to the research of relation history, we may also find Japanese materials useful for China and Korea relation history and so on. That is all because, these three countries connect to each other closely in history, mainly through the sea. From a micro respect, for example, if we study the history of East Asia, besides the traditional materials, we should also pay more attention to the materials such as stored in the port cities which play important role in over-sea transportation in history, or the marine archeology materials, and so on. That’s what I want to say about the material aspect.At last, I want to share some idea about how the East Asian maritime history concept helps me with my own research. Basically, according to the theory of East Asian maritime history, I feel that there may be a most ideal state that when we deal with a research about East Asia, we’d better try best to gain related materials from all three countries of China, Japan and Korea. This is a most ideal state but actually it can hardly be reached by ord inary researchers. For me, I can only say that I’m familiar with the Korean materials. So what I can do is only doing researches mainly based on Korean materials. But from the other side, I would like to say that based on Korean materials, we can also contribute a lot to the discussion of East Asian maritime history.I have a thought that Korea plays an important role among the three countries in East Asia. Somehow just like a bridge between China and Japan which is over cross the sea. The history of Korea was some kind like a history combined by two. One is the history of Korea and China; one is the history of Korea and Japan. Also, the Korea’s relation with China and Japan makes up the main content of its history, the proportion of it is far more than that in China and Japan history. We can almost say that in the three histories of China, Japan and Korea, the Korean is definitely the one which can demonstrate the close interactions of three countries the best. In this sense, I think the position of Korea and Korean materials may become factors that cannot be ignored when we doing research under the perspective of East Asian maritime world. And this is what the proposal of East Asian maritime history concept inspired me with my own studies.(Wang Xinlei)。