从文字上而论,“夏”同以后的“华”的概念接近,甚至说,二者之间存在着颇为密切的关系。西周时期“夏”主要用来指代周王朝的直辖领域,春秋以后其范围逐渐扩大。而“夷”的概念则产生久远,起初并没有包含受到歧视的内容,与战国以后的夷狄概念是大有区别的。无论就语言、地域、经济生活以及表现于共同文化上的共同心理素质,先秦时期的戎夷蛮狄诸多人们共同体,都还处于极不稳定的状态,相互渗透混融为普遍的历史现象。华夏与夷狄观念的区别,主要表现在饮食、衣服、社会生活习俗和物质文化等方面。然而,随着民族间的文化交流与融合,彼此间的诸多差别也逐步消失。 From a literary point of view, the concept of “summer” is similar to the concept of “China” in the future, and even said that there is a close relationship between the two. The Western Zhou Dynasty “summer” is mainly used to refer to the area under the direct administration of the Zhou dynasty, its scope gradually expanded after the Spring and Autumn Period. The concept of “barbarians”, however, has come a long way and at first did not contain discriminatory content, which is quite different from the concept of barbarians after the Warring States. In terms of language, geography, economic life and common psychological qualities manifested in the common culture, many people’s communities in the pre-Qin period were still in a state of extreme instability and were interpenetrated and blended into common historical phenomena. The difference between Huaxia and the concept of barbarians is mainly reflected in the aspects of diet, clothes, social customs and material culture. However, with the cultural exchange and integration among different ethnic groups, many differences between them have gradually disappeared.