【编者按】史学研究的拓展和进步除了仰赖新材料的发现，还有赖于新方法、新视角的探索，以及由此实现的新领域拓展。近年来，不少明史学者试图在明代政治史研究中探索出不同于以事件、人物、制度沿革、政策得失为中心的传统政治史的新的方法和路径，也是这种努力的表现之一。2013年7月，东北师范大学亚洲文明研究院与故宫博物院故宫学研究所联合举办了“故宫学与明清政治文化学术研讨会”。会后，本刊邀请参会的几位学者就“明代政治文化”做了一组笔谈，希望可以一定程度上展现此次会议在方法、视角方面的收获。其中，赵轶峰教授的《明代政治文化研究的视阈》对政治文化的定义，政治文化的4个维度——政治制度、政治价值、政治思想、政治生态——进行了系统阐述，并结合明代政治史研究实际，指出了适合从政治文化视角解析的论题。王剑教授的《政治文化：传统政治史研究的新增长极》提出，应将政治学研究中的一些理论、范式、核心概念引入中国政治史研究，从政治学与政治史的交集点即政治文化角度对传统政治史进行创新性的研究。该文还讨论了政治文化研究方式可能遇到的质疑问题。吴艳红教授的《关于明代的政治文化建设》认为，人们大多偏重强调政治文化作为状态、传统的传承性特点，较少注意政治文化被人作为主体加以建设的性质。文章以明代朝廷祭礼和公案小说中折射出来的司法官员形象两个情况为案例，阐释了其对政治文化的主动建设性的看法。希望三位学者各自对明代政治文化的理解有助于读者对中国传统政治文化研究做更多的思考。

[Specially Invited Column]

Title: Three Essays on the Study of Ming Political Culture

Author:Zhao Yifeng, Professor, Faculty for the Study of Asian Civilizations, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, Jilin, 130024, China; Wang Jian, Professor, History Department, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, 130012; Wu Yanhong, Professor, History Department, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310058, China.

Abstract:Following the conference held in July 2013 on Ming and Qing political culture, three well-known scholars in this area were invited to contribute their thoughts about further studies of Ming political culture aiming at clarifying certain related issues of methodology. Zhao Yifeng’s paper entitled “The Horizon of Ming Political Culture Studies”, points out four dimensions of political cultural, namely, political system, value, thought, and environment, and discusses the possible issues in Ming political culture for deeper examination. Taken political culture as the crossing point of political science and political history, Wang Jian, in his paper entitled “Political Culture：A New Frontier of Traditional Political History”, suggests to further apply theory, paradigm, and key concepts of political science in the study of Chinese political history. Wu Yanhong, on the other hand, in her paper entitled “On the Political Cultural Construction of the Ming Dynasty”, argues that political culture should be considered not only as an existing situation, or a given tradition, but also as an area to be constructed. Two cases of Ming judicial officials are particularly referred to in her discussion.

Key words:Ming Dynasty; political history; political culture; methodology