清代西南边疆儒学教化思想形成与影响——兼及对中华民族共同体意识的历史贡献

The Formation and Effect of Confucianism Cultivation Thought in Southwest Borderland Areas during the Qing Dynasty——Also on the Historical Contribution to a Sense of Community for the Chinese Nation

中央王朝在清代雍正朝改土归流以前从未对西南边疆实现过直接统治,导致儒学教化长期缺位而使西南边疆的大部分区域仍然处于“化外”阶段。清朝入关以后,“华夷一体、天下一统”的大一统政治思想逐渐形成并在西南边疆得以政治实践,西南边疆因此具有了和内地一样实施儒学教化的条件。清政府把儒学教化思想与西南边疆治理的具体情况相结合,形成了独具特色的清代西南边疆儒学教化思想体系,铸就了西南边疆与祖国内地持久的、稳定的、多民族的大一统文化格局。

It is widely accepted that the most successful historical events of the Qing Dynasty are the unification of China’s territory,the implementation of effective governance,and the establishment of a unified multi-ethnic country.It’s also generally understood that the Qing Dynasty was a period of wise and visionary leaders at work in the southwest borderland areas.Among their governing measures,the promotion of Confucianism in the southwest borderlands likely was the most important one and a great success.Through a series of institutionalized measures of cultivation,it seems the Qing Government constructed a consistent spiritual unity between the southwest border regions and the Central Plains of China.This unity reached the foundational level of culture and belief and apparently has created a lasting,stable,and multi-ethnic unified cultural pattern.From the perspective of ideological history,this paper attempts to analyze the formation of the“Dayitong”political thought of the“Huayi Yiti”and“Tianxia Yitong”by the Qing Dynasty,the transmutation of its border governance thought,and its political practice in southwest borderland areas,and the final accomplishment of the promotion of Confucian thinking in southwest borderlands.It appears that in the Qing Dynasty the thoughts of“Huayi Yijia”and“Zhongwai Yitong”were not only the political thoughts on national governance but also thoughts about borderland rule.However,the Tusi system made the central government never directly govern the southwest borderland areas.This resulted in a long-time absence of Confucian education,and this absence arguably became a big obstacle for integration between southwest frontier areas and the Central Plains.Therefore,the study shows the Qing government-represented by Yongzheng Emperor and Minister Ertai-vigorously abolished the Tusi system and instead developed Miao areas in southwest borderlands.What’s more,administrative systems like those in prefectures and counties of the Central Plains appear to have been established in southwest borderland areas as well,and officials instead of Tusi were sent to oversee these areas.Therefore,the southwest frontier regions offered the same conditions as the Central Plains for the promotion of Confucianism.The Qing government combined the cultivation of Confucian philosophy with the particular conditions of the southwest borderland areas,expanded the scope of this cultivation,set up a wide range of Yixue to teach children,and encouraged village conventions and imperial decrees to cultivate adults,and hence a rural Confucianism cultivation system gradually took shape.The official education policy was more specific and detailed.Prefecture-and county-level Confucian schools and government-run academies had been widely set up in the southwest borderlands,forming a local official education system.With Confucianism temples,ancestral halls,family instruction,and genealogy as a carrier,the Confucian sacrificial rites were strengthened.And finally,a type of unique Confucian ideology cultivation system was formed in the southwest peripheral territories during the Qing Dynasty,which fostered lasting,stable,and multiethnic unified cultural relations between the southwest borderland areas and Central China.