晚清局所与清末政体变革

The Late Qing Administrative Bureaus and the Reform of the Late Qing Political System

晚清局所适内忧外患之变局而出现,为平定战乱与善后、筹措赔款的应急措施。咸同以后局所膨胀与捐纳、保举泛滥及行政新事务的扩展相交织,形成了由督抚掌控的非正式行政机构,造成了官与差、名义与实权相分离的局面,加剧了吏治腐败与财政困窘。清廷三令五申裁撤而未能显效,客观上削弱了其分权制衡的掌控力。局所泛滥的乱象背后,既隐伏着各级政府对社会变动下既有政体结构与职能如何调整的角力,同时也掩盖了局所在接引新知与发展新兴事业方面曾起过的重要推动作用。丙午官制改革与清理财政,以司道改制的方式归并局所功能,使之纳入职官体制,直省行政由此根本改变。

The late Qing administrative bureaus were founded against the background of domestic troubles and foreign invasions,and were emergency measures for putting down chaos caused by wars,dealing with the aftermath of war,and collecting funds to pay China's indemnities.After the Xianfeng and Tongzhi reigns,administrative bureaus were expanded sharply.This expansion was interwoven with the expansion of new administrative duties and with the unchecked spread of practices such as making donations to purchase official posts and granting official posts on the basis of recommendation from higher officials.Together these factors constituted an unofficial political system controlled by the governors and governors-general,and led to a separation of nominal official posts from real powers and duties,and intensified official corruption and financial straits.The Qing court repeatedly issued orders to dissolve the bureaus,but to no avail.Behind the chaotic phenomenon of unchecked expansion of administrative bureaus,we can not only see the hidden struggles at all levels of government over how to restructure the existing political system in the face of social change,but can also see the important hidden roles they played in disseminating new knowledge and developing new causes.The administrative and financial reforms of 1906 brought the administrative bureaus into the official system by absorbing them into the central government's system of departments and circuits.This was a fundamental change in provincial administration.