从幕府到职官:清季外官制改革中的幕职分科治事

From Mu-fu to Zhi-guan: Function-Based Division of Local Governments in the Late Qing Dynasty

清代原直省总督、巡抚衙门不置属官,司道衙署职官数量甚少,幕府成为事实上的体制外机构。咸同以后,随社会变化与政务增多,文案处与科房数量增加,众多局处所的不断衍生与扩充,分别从督抚衙门内外伸展行政权力,影响中央财政,原有体制弊端更为突出。清季新政的外官制改革,以借用唐宋幕职为形式,通过分科治事体现了近代科层制精神,将体制内外机构整合改造,使幕友成为职官,并设会议厅议政决策,其建置反映了清季内外官制改革的成果,在行省机构从传统官制向近代行政体制过渡中迈出了关键的一步。

In the early and middle Qing Dynasty, governors-general and governors had no authorized staff, and the number of authorized officials at the levels of si(司) and dao(道) was also small. Therefore, the mu-fu(private secretariat) actually constituted an informal operational agency. After the reign of Xianfeng and Tongzhi, the number of secretariat offices and administrative offices grew with social changes and the proliferation of government responsibilities. This structural expansion of the administrative power of the office of governors-general and governors exerted pressure upon the budgetary arrangements of the central government. As the weakness of the old pattern became increasingly obvious, local government reform became part of the social reform in the late Qing Dynasty and the non-official private secretariats were integrated into the formal official system. The government was modernized through bureaucratization by means of function-based division of departments, in reference to the system in the Tang and Song dynasties. Private assistants were recruited as authorized officials, and a council was set up as decision-making organ. That was a key, and successful, step in the efforts to modernize the government in the late Qing Dynasty.