傳統領域如何發展？─對宋代政治史研究的幾點觀察

就臺灣近二十年的中國史研究而言，政治史並非熱門領域，學界往往將這種現象歸因於社會史、文化史等新領域的發展。本文藉由回顧宋代政治史的研究成果，指出政治史的趨於沉寂，不僅是受到其他新興領域崛起的影響，更是由於自身在發展上遭遇了一些困境。經由分析議題選擇與論證方式兩個層面，可以看出多數的論著在選題上以資料的多寡為導向，因而產生了議題集中的現象。在論證的處理上，對於推論所依據的證據缺乏深度的辨析，使所得之論點有所差誤，也就阻礙了繼續開展研究的空間。本文希望經由分析宋代政治史研究的缺陷之所在，能有助於思索繼續發展此一傳統領域的可能方向。

關鍵字

政治史；議題選擇；研究方法；宋史

並列摘要

During the past twenty years, political history has attracted less attention from historians of ancient China in Taiwan. This fact is usually attributed to the new developments of social and cultural history, which has become more popular in the historian community. Through reflecting on research of Song political history, however, this article tries to identify the reasons causing the decline of political history by an alternative method. Using Song political history as an example, this article argues that the failure to create new research subjects was the main obstacle for further developing political history. The fact that historians inclined to choose famous Song scholars as their research topic has produced many publications with similar subjects, and limited the possibility of managing research with originality. Moreover, without carefully analyzing the primary materials they used, some arguments lacked solid evidence. Thus, reviewing and reconsidering the subject and method of political history has become crucial for historians who intend to develop Song political history.