乡规民约存在形态刍论

A Preliminary Comment on the Forms of Village Convenance

乡规民约起源于人类社会以地缘关系为纽带的乡村社区形成之后,以协调超越家庭、家族关系的社区社会秩序的需要。其文本形态分为劝戒性乡规民约与惩戒性乡规民约,其组织形态在早期普遍依托于村落组织,北宋以后,又出现了专门的乡规民约组织。自《吕氏乡约》以降,传统乡规民约就不仅仅是以乡民自愿合意为基础的行为规则条文,同时也是一种民间自设的处理地方性社区事务的较为完整的社会组织体系。由于历代的推崇,传统形态的乡规民约不断发展完善,成为国家正式法律制度以外民间法的重要组成部分,并影响到今天正在进行的村民自治实践中乡规民约建设的形式和内容。

Village convenance emerges from the need to coordinate social order of a gemeinschaft, a geo-bond-based village community beyond the family tie. The written form of tradi- tional village convenance was of two kinds: admonitory and punitive. In the eary time, village con- venance was practiced within a natural village. From the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1126), council of conventionalities appeared. Since the appearance of Lu's Village Conventionalities (Lu Shi Xiang Yue), convenance has become not only written texts within a broad consensus to regulate villagers'behavior, but also an autonomous social body helping to settle local affairs of a community. Praised highly through ages, the traditional forms of village conventionalities have become improved and perfect, and turn to be an important part of the folk law. The traditional village convenance will cast a profound impact on its present version in the ongoing villagers'self regulating practices.