世界不同地区的早期国家,尽管形态各自不同,但是却被某些考古学家分成几种主要的形式,其中最常提到的形式,便是所谓的城市国家(city-states)〔1〕、地域国家(territorial-states)〔2〕和乡村国家(village-states)〔3〕。西方学者试图从跨文化比较的角度,将这些范畴应用于对中国早期文明的解释中〔4〕。本文通过考察中国的考古材料,特别是通过对二里头和早商(二里岗期)(约公元前1900~前14.50年)时代的中国早期 Early states in different parts of the world, albeit in different forms, were divided into several major forms by some archaeologists. The most frequently mentioned form was the so-called city-states [1] Territorial-states [2] and village-states [3]. Western scholars have tried to apply these categories to the interpretation of early Chinese civilization from the perspective of cross-cultural comparison [4]. This article examines the Chinese archeological materials, especially through the early Era of Erlitou and Early Shang (Erligang period) (about 1900 ~ 1450 BC)