外交研究有其獨到的學科傳統。自晚清、民國以降,就"中國外交源于何時"這一問題,歷史學界、國際法學界和外交學界曾提出過夏朝說、商朝說、春秋說與晚清說四類意見。隨著現代政治學研究對"主權國家"的日漸重視,外交作為一種古老的政治活動,日益為"主權國家"觀念所限制和窄化,以至于在一段時間內,春秋盟會被移出了外交研究的視野。但追本溯源,外交活動的發端明顯早于威斯特伐利亞體系;無論從歷史的眼光,學科的傳統,還是當下學科的發展方向上看,有關中國外交起源的研究,都不應受到"主權國家"理論的過強影響,而應依照外交學自身對"外交"活動的界定而展開。中國古代自春秋始,即已形成成熟的外交傳統。春秋時期諸侯國的交往行為,盡管與"王權"符號密切相關,但就諸侯國間行為結構的特征來看,春秋盟會應當視為中國外交起源的一個有力的假說。

The study of foreign relations has a unique disciplinary tradition.Following the late Qing and the Republic of China,historians and scholars of international law and diplomacy have put forward four different views on the origin of Chinese diplomacy,assigning it to the Xia,the Shang,the Spring and Autumn period,and the late Qing.With the increasing emphasis on the"sovereign state"in modern political studies,the ancient political activities of diplomacy has been increasingly confined and squeezed out by the concept of the sovereign state,to the extent that at a certain stage,they fell out of the purview of research on foreign relations.However,if we trace them back to their source, diplomatic activities in China obviously predated the Westphalian system;whether we look at it from a historical perspective or in terms of disciplinary traditions or the developmental direction of the current discipline,research on the origin of China’s diplomacy should not be overly influenced by sovereign state theory,but should rather be carried out in accordance with the definition of diplomatic activity provided by the foreign relations field itself.Starting from the Spring and Autumn period,China has developed a mature diplomatic tradition.Although exchanges between the states during the Spring and Autumn period are closely related to the symbol of"royal power"as a distinguishing structural feature,the Spring and Autumn League should be regarded as a powerful hypothesis for the origin of China’s foreign relations.