明代婢女政策与法规的演进及社会内涵

The Evolution and Social Connotation of Policies and Regulations for Maidservants in the Ming Dynasty

在明代身份等级社会中,国家关于婢女的政策与法规有一个发展演化的过程。明太祖朱元璋时期从缓和阶级矛盾为着眼点,立足于扩大国家名义下的劳动力数量,采取坚决推行抑制婢女数量与重申婢女贱民地位的强硬政策。然而,随着社会经济条件的变化,明后世诸帝对婢女政策与法规都做了程度不同的变通,表现为从严禁走向怀柔,由强制转为疏导。这一变化背后具有多重深层的社会内涵:一方面是社会上婢女数量的逆向增长,蓄婢阶层的渐趋广泛以及对蓄婢特权的普遍僭越;另一方面也反映出婢女政策与法规在文本与实践层面之间存在的距离与差异。明代婢女政策与法规的演进特征不仅体现了明代国家处理具体社会秩序方式上的弹性,也表明国家政策与社会实际之间的暗和。

In the identity class society of the Ming Dynasty,there was a development of the process of evolution about national policies and regulations of maidservants.During the first Ming emperor period,he focused on easing class contradictions based on expanding the amount of labor in the country name,and practised the suppress maidservants quantity and reiterated the hardline policies of the maidservants pariah status.However,with the change of social economic condition,Ming later emperors of the maidservant policy and regulations had done the modifications of varying degrees.Behind this change had multiple deep social meanings.The Evolution Characteristics of Policies and Regulations for Maidservants not only embodied the elastic about Ming countries to deal with specific social order,also indicated the agreement between the national policy and social realities.