民族学刊

铸牢中华民族共同体意识作为习近平总书记关于加强和改进民族工作思想的集中体现，是新时代推进民族工作高质量发展的关键议题。中华民族共同体本质上是一个复杂的自组织演化系统，符合熵理论所揭示的生命系统演化规律。非物质文化遗产作为各民族文化的载体，则是中华民族共同体系统对抗熵增的关键要素。从熵理论视角揭示非物质文化遗产与铸牢中华民族共同体意识的关系，可以明确中华民族共同体系统在非物质文化遗产的助力下，从一个相对无序、分散的熵增状态向高度有序、关联的熵减状态演化的节点和机理，最终扩展出非物质文化遗产铸牢中华民族共同体意识的熵减路径。在推进中国式现代化的进程中，应当强化对非物质文化遗产的保护与中华民族共同体意识的认同，确保非物质文化遗产的保护工作始终沿着铸牢中华民族共同体意识的方向推进。

In recent years,a significant number of scholars regard intangible cultural heritage as a valuable resource for forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation,and have yielded rich research findings. However,the majority of existing studies have approached this topic from a single disciplinary or thematic perspective in the humanities and social sciences,lacking systematic exploration from an interdisciplinary viewpoint of science and humanities regarding the relationship between intangible cultural heritage and forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation.The entropy theory in systems science provides a novel perspective for studying this issue.The Chinese nation,steeped in over 5,000 years of civilization and tasked with the construction of its modern civilization,represents a historically formed,pluralistic and integrated entity characterized by independence,unity,cohesion,and extensive scale. It also functions as a complex social system encompassing multiple ethnic elements, transcending historical time and space,while also possessing self-evolutionary functions that align with the evolutionary laws of life systems revealed by entropy theory. Intangible cultural heritage,as a kind of traditional cultural expression and cultural space passed down through generations by all ethnic peoples and deeply entrenched in their daily lives,not only serves as a carrier of diverse ethnic cultures but also constitutes a vital mechanism through which the system of the Chinese national community can mitigate the increase of entropy.Therefore, from the perspective of entropy theory,the relationship between intangible cultural heritage and the consolidation of a collective consciousness of the Chinese nation can be explained as follows: First,it is viewed essential to understand the three critical entropy-reducing nodes—triggering prerequisites,amplifying dynamics,and stable formation— that intangible cultural heritage facilitates in consolidating a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation. These nodes vividly illustrate the dynamic process of the Chinese national community consciousness system transitioning from an initially disordered state marked by increasing entropy to a new,orderly,and structured state. They also provide a clearer view of how ethnic groups gradually establish and strengthen this consciousness through cognitive foundations,emotional bonds,and daily behaviors. Second,intangible cultural heritage serves as a key element in transcending system boundaries, providing energy inputs,and promoting non-equilibrium evolution within the system of the Chinese national community consciousness. By examining specific cases of intangible cultural heritage,one can gain deeper insights into the entropy-reducing mechanisms through which it reinforces this consciousness. This scientifically grounded analysis based on entropy theory provides a solid theoretical foundation for understanding how intangible cultural heritage contributes to consolidating the consciousness of the Chinese national community. Finally,advancing a normalization and systematization of consolidating Chinese national community consciousness still requires multifaceted efforts and ongoing exploration. Intangible cultural heritage offers entropy-reducing pathways to achieve this goal,namely: 1) Establishing politically oriented order parameters to guide the macro-direction of system evolution; 2) facilitating negative entropy flows in cultural dissemination to sustain the system's vitality at the meso-level; and 3) optimizing the self-organizing environment of communities to activate individual internal motivation at the micro-level. These three courses of action mutually reinforce and synergize,transforming intangible cultural heritage into a potential force for consolidating the consciousness of the Chinese national community,driving its system toward higher levels of order,harmony,and prosperity.