晚清地方督抚权力问题再研究——兼论清末“内外皆轻”权力格局的形成

Further Study on the Power of Local Government in the Late Qing Dynasty:The Concurrent Weakness of Central and Local Governments in the Late Qing Dynasty

关于晚清中央与地方关系的权力格局,学界长期以来多信奉"外重内轻"说。笔者通过对清末新政时期地方督抚权力变化的研究认为,辛亥鼎革之际,中央与地方权力关系实际上已演变为"内外皆轻"的权力格局。在清末庚子至辛亥期间,随着新政尤其是预备立宪的开展,清政府不断加强中央集权措施,地方督抚的权力被收束而日益变小,其干政的影响力也有一个逐渐减弱的趋势。但与此同时,清政府中央集权的实际效力却并不显著,反而随着统治集团内部矛盾的激化而有削弱之势。这样,便形成"内外皆轻"的权力格局。一方面,清廷并没有建立强有力的中央政府,也未能真正控制全国的军权与财权,中央集权有名无实;另一方面,各省督抚也不能有效地控制地方军权与财权,在地方已没有强势督抚,更没有形成强大的地方势力。武昌起义前夕,正是地方督抚权力明显削弱,而清廷中央集权尚未强固之时,在此权力转换临界的关键时刻,革命爆发,无疑是对清王朝的致命一击。

Scholars have long believed that ＂the local government was more powerful than the central government＂ during the last decade of the Qing. After probing changes of local government power during the New Policy Reform in the late Qing Dynasty, the author argues that ＂the local government was as powerless as the central government. ＂ With the New Policy Reform, especially the Preparation for Constitutionalism, during the decade preceding the Revolution of 1911, the Qing government took measures to strengthen its centralization of authority and limit the influence of local government but these efforts were ineffectual and were undermined by the intensification of the internal contradictions within the government. This is why the power structure took the form of ＂the central government being as powerless as the local government. ＂ On one hand the Qing court neither established a strong central government nor really controlled the military and financial power. On the other hand, no local governments effectively controlled local military and financial powers. On the eve of the Wuchang Uprising local government was obviously weaker and the Qing court had failed to centralize its authority.