The Study of Comparative History of Ancient Cities in China and Japan

本课题是在与中国社会科学院历史研究所合作的基础上，对中日古代城市进行比较研究，研究时间为1984年4月至1991年3月。在这一时期，日本考察队先后四次访问中国，考察了北京市和河北、山东、山西、陕西、河南、湖北等省的100多处考古遗址和博物馆，其中包括许多未向外国考察者开放的遗址，并与中国许多考古学家和历史学家讨论了中国古代城市的性质和历史地位。迄今为止，中国考古学家和历史学家的注意力主要集中在墓葬和政治史的研究上，博物馆的展示也集中在从墓葬中出土的豪华文物上。然而，我们的项目吸引并影响了中国的历史学家和考古学家。今后，中国学者自己的中国古代城市研究和中日比较史研究将积极开展。为了了解中国古代城市的真实的性质和历史地位，有必要继续开展像本项目这样的合作研究。

This project aims at the comparative study of ancient cities in China and Japan, on the basis of cooperative researches with The Institute of History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.The researches had been carried out from 1984.4 to 1991.3. In this term, Japanese research team the visited China four times, and observed over 100 archaeological sites and museums in Beijing City and Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Hubei provinces, which included many sites unopened to foreign investigators, and we had discussed about the nature and historical position of Chinese ancient cities with many Chinese archaeologists and historians. Further, it was very useful for us to observe many walled ancient cities practically.So far, Chinese archaeologists and historians had focused their attention on researches of tombs and political history, and then the display of museums also focused on luxury relics unearthed from tombs. However, our projects were attracted and afectted on Chinese historians and archaeologists. Hereafter, the researches into Chinese ancient cities and the study of comparative history in China and Japan by Chinese investigators themself will be done actively. It is necessary to continue the cooperative research like this project in order to understand the real nature and historical position of ancient cities in China.