明清旌表制度的实践逻辑——以法社会学为视角

Practical Logic of the Commendation System in Ming and Qing:From a Perspective of Legal Sociology

在社会规制的绝大多数语境下,法律和社会规范都是并存的。实现国家治理体系和治理能力现代化,需要认识到法律和社会规范共同作用的重要性。中国明清时期存在的旌表制度,实际上体现了统治者巧妙地选取法律激励和社会规范制裁的组合来实现基层社会治理的意图。在对有关旌表制度的清代律例规定进行系统梳理的基础上,借助交叉学科的研究视角来理解旌表制度的发生机制和运作原理,有助于揭示“法与社会规范”在社会治理中所起的重要作用。旌表制度不仅可以改变特定行为的社会涵义,打破社会规范“无效率”的困境,而且实际上是对当时失灵的民间“声誉机制”的一种补强,使本来受限的皇权能够下达乡村,以更低的成本实现基层社会治理。此外,对于生存在贞节文化盛行语境中的女性,获得旌表成为其修复个人和家庭声誉的途径之一。这反而导致更多妇女倾向自杀以争取旌表奖励。

Commonly,laws and social norms collaborate to serve for goals of social regulation.To understand how laws and social norms work together is of great importance to modernization of the governance system and governance capacity of a country.The commendation system,established in Ming and Qing dynasty,indicates the attempt of emperors to combine incentives provided by laws and sanctions by social norms to develop the grassroots social governance.Having depicted the whole picture of the commendation system in Qing,this article,with an interdisciplinary perspective on the establishing mechanism and the operating principle of the commendation system,reveals the important roles played by the combination of“laws and social norms”in social governance.The commendation system not only changed the social meaning of certain kinds of behaviors and broke the logjam brought inefficient social norms,but also reinforced the local“reputation mechanism”that had failed since Ming,which strengthened emperors'primary-level governance at lower cost.Besides,for females lived where the culture of chastity prevalent,a commendation is helpful to rehabilitating the reputation of their families.Given that,females are more likely to suicide for getting commended.