皇帝专制权力与官僚常规权力的博弈——读《叫魂》

The Game Between Imperial Power and Conventional Bureaucratic Power:A Book Review of Soulstealers

美国学者孔飞力的《叫魂:1768年中国妖术大恐慌》以发生在乾隆年间的一场关于妖术的"叫魂"案为例,见微知著地描述了清代中期的政治运作,展示了其官僚制度。通过对"叫魂"事件的梳理,进一步分析了皇帝专制权力与官僚常规权力之间的博弈及其影响。官僚阶层极力控制信息的传递,试图运用常规权力处理事件,并以颟顸迟缓的工作方式抵制皇帝的专制权力,皇帝则建立各种渠道获取信息,强化专制权力,达到严密控制官僚机构之目的。这些问题一直存在于清朝政府之中,影响着一代又一代的统治者。

The American scholar Philip Alden Kuhn＇s Soulstealers：The Chinese Sorcery Scare of1768describes the witchcraft about soulstealers in the Qianlong Period and shows the politics and the bureaucracy of the mid-Qing Dynasty in detail.Upon analysis of the book,this paper explores the game between imperial power and conventional bureaucratic power：the bureaucratic class tried to use the conventional power and the negative manner to oppose the imperial power,while the imperial power was increasingly strengthened to control the bureaucracy.This conflict never left the Qing Dynasty and hence it affected the government.