民间契约与国家干预——明清时代的“契约正义”问题

Private Contracts and State Intervention:The Problem of “Contractual Justice” in the Ming-Qing Period

宋代以来的中国,与同时代其他国家相比,可说是相当自由的契约社会。国家基本上承认"自愿非逼"的契约之效力。但经济上的强者和弱者之间的契约,有时会带来实质上的不公平。明清国家是如何对待这种契约不公平问题的?本文以"绝卖的土地可否回赎"这一问题为中心,通过明清国家允许当事者回赎绝产的若干事例,来探讨当时为政者在解决此类问题时所依据的逻辑。本文第一部分以乾隆五十一年(1786)灾后土地原价回赎政策为对象,较详细地分析皇帝、官员对此问题的思考理路;第二部分概观清朝中、后期灾后赎地政策的若干尝试,讨论中央以及省级政府处理灾民因窘迫而卖地问题的办法与其面临的困难;第三部分分析了在州县层次的审判中,官员对要求回赎绝产的诉讼所做出的判断与其逻辑。

Private contracts played a significant role in post-Song China.Compared with other countries in the same period,Chinese governments were less interfering in the contracts made of the free will of the parties concerned.Freedom of contract,however,might result in unfairness in effect,especially when the contracts were made between the powerful rich and the weak poor.How did the Ming-Qing governments deal with this problem of contractual unfairness?This article will investigate the logics applied by the governments to resolve this problem,centering on the policies concerning the redemption of the land sold at too low prices.The first part will focus on the land-redemption policy after the famine around 1785,analyzing the ways of thinking of the emperor and officials.Other attempts at land-redemption policies in the Qing period will be surveyed in the second part,and the third part will deal with the local-level adjudication on the land-redemption cases.