摘要
文章首先根据古文献学、考古学以及天文学等多学科交叉研究的成果,分析了史前洪水可能发生的时代,然后利用高分辨率的气候代用指标重建了'大禹治水'传说时期的气候背景,推测传说中尧舜禹时期的大洪水发生于4 200～4 000aB.P.左右,即一次对世界许多地区早期文明发展进程产生重大影响的全球性气候异常时期;根据气候突变与东亚季风降水之间的关系论证了洪水发生的可能性,探讨了大禹治水的历史真相;认为夏朝建立前夕的史前大洪水是真实发生过的,而大禹之所以能够治水成功可能主要得益于4 000aB.P.以后的气候好转而并非人力之所为.研究结果较好地解释了多数学者对史前发生洪水的相信但却对大禹能否成功治水的怀疑之间矛盾.
Of all the myths and legends in ancient China, none has generated more interests and stimulated more research than the story of the Extraordinary Flood and the Dyu＇s successful regulation of the floodwaters. According to a surprising number of Chinese historical texts, an extraordinary flood occurred shortly before the beginning of Xia, the first hereditary dynasty in China. Yu, the founder of the Xia dynasty, is credited with having successfully controlled these floods and founding the first hereditary dynasty. It is not surprising that the proof-or disproof of this such extraordinary flood is a literal truth, which bears great implications for understanding the actual existence and the mechanism of the emergence of the Xia Dynasty, has proven irresistible and fascinated to researchers of a broad scientific sphere through the ages. In this paper, the timing of the occurrence of the extraordinary floods is analysed first by historical tests, then archaeological evidence, and lastly by astronomical phenomenon. Then highly resolved and/or well dated paleoclimatic proxy data were synthesized and then compared to those palaeoclimatic records in other parts of the world with an aim to reconstruct the climatic background against which the extraordinary floods occurred. Our results indicate that the extraordinary flood occurred during a period of global climatic anomaly around 2200 - 2000B. C. , which was widely accepted to have played an important role in the collapse of civilizations in the Old World. Based on the detailed analysis of the relationship between climatic change and the variations of monsoon related precipitations,we suggest that it is of a great possibility for the occurrence of the legendary extraordinary flood. Our climate reconstruction could also provide a good explanation for the doubts of why Yu could not conquer the extraordinary floods even with the modem technology.
出处
《第四纪研究》
CAS
CSCD
北大核心
2005年第6期741-749,共9页
Quaternary Sciences
基金
国家自然科学基金项目(批准号:40472095)
中国科学院知识创新工程重要方向项目(批准号:KZCX3-SW-321和KZCX1-SW-01-09)资助
