Leadership and Management of A Jiangnan Town in Late Qing (1800-1911)
本文的目的在於理解南潯作為一個繁榮的江南市鎮,如何在十九世紀的各個階段得到有效的管理,以及其領導層的組成如何隨著外界的政治經濟變遷而改變。作者選擇市鎮作為研究單位,其目的在於將市場和周邊的村落放在同一單位下檢視,以求更好地在經濟和社會層面認識中國之城鄉連續體的本質。通過細讀地方一手史料(包括地方志、族譜、報紙和文集),本文將不僅從制度的角度,同時也會通過地方權力持有者(包括地方官、下層士紳和商人)的具體活動,來觀察南潯鎮的權力結構。我的主要論點是,雖然地方的領導層從未放棄其自治權,但是該領導層的組成卻能夠靈活地在不同階段(1800-1842,1843-1864,1865-1890,1891-1911)進行重組,這造就了南潯鎮一整個世紀的社會穩定,除了其間遭受外來的太平天國戰爭的打擊。為了經營市場和經營更大的市鎮,地方領袖們成立了不同的組織且運用了不同的策略。概括而論,商人行會的成立是為了協調商業事務,而寺廟和善堂的維護則是為了建立一種社區共同體的意識并消弭潛在的社會衝突。在整個十九世紀,尤其是其後半段,地方領袖們的行政權和執法權都得到了擴張,其代價是官方權力的縮減,但其同時也確保了辛亥革命期間南潯的和平政權更迭。 ; This paper attempts to understand how a prosperous Jiangnan town, Nanxun, was managed in different periods of the 19th century and how its leadership evolved when the broad political and economic environment changed. The choice of a town as the unit for analysis was made under the intention to bring together the marketplace and the surrounding villages for examining the nature of Chinese urban-rural continuum both economically and socially. Through scrutiny of local primary sources, i.e., local gazetteers, genealogies, newspapers and literary collections, I am going to investigate the power structure of Nanxun town not only from an institutional perspective but also through the activities of local power agents, e.g., local officials, lower gentry and merchants. My thesis is that the local leadership never gave up autonomy over town management but its constitution changed flexibly in four stages (1800-1842, 1843-1864, 1865-1890, 1891-1911), resulting in long-term stability throughout the century except the major interruption by the exogenous Taiping war. For running the marketplace and the broad town, local leaders established different institutions and adopted different strategies. Generally speaking, the merchant guilds were founded for coordinating commercial affairs while the temples and charities were maintained for building a sense of community and easing potential conflicts over the town. Through the second half of the century, especially after several major mid-century structural changes, the ...