从分立各契到总书一契:清代苏州房产交易文契的书立

From Setting up Each Contract Independently to General Contracts:The Writing of Real Estate Contracts in Suzhou in the Qing Dynasty

清代苏州房产交易文契的书立情形,至迟康熙十年即已出现一次性书立各种文契的现象,这种变化并不是新的经济现象的产物,而只是民间为了符合当地房产买卖俗例而已。大量文书形式和内容表明,苏州地区的房产交易,遵行清律要求,乾隆初年即已开始以"总书一契"的形式具立相关文书,到乾隆后期已逐渐取得主导地位。文契书立形式的这种变化,不仅发生在苏州地区,而且也出现于常州、南京、杭州等周邻地区,在江南具有普遍性。文书书立过程、形式以及民间的找价实际表明,房产找价现象虽然自乾隆时期起逐渐趋于弱化,但直到清末仍然存在,上海一带甚至更为普遍,因此不能说江南包括上海地区加叹名存实亡的过程自道光年间就已开始。

One-off contracts appeared in Suzhou real estate transactions no later than the 10 th year of Kangxi.This change was not the outcome of new economic phenomena;rather,it conformed to customary practice in local real estate transactions among civilians.The form and contents of many documents show that from the beginning of the Qianlong reign,real estate transactions in Suzhou,began to present the relevant documents in the form of a'general contract'in accordance with the requirements of Qing law.By the later Qianlong period,this practice had become dominant.The change in the form of contracts took place not only in Suzhou,but also in neighboring areas,such as Changzhou,Nanjing and Hangzhou;the practice was widespread in the Jiangnan region.In fact,the process and form of drawing up the contracts and the popular practice of asking for extra payment of the buyer after closure of a real estate transaction(zhaojia找价)show that although this practice began to weaken under Qianlong,it still existed in the late Qing,and was prevalent even in Shanghai.Accordingly,it can hardly be said that by the Daoguang reign,the last time extra payment of the buyer(jiatan加叹)existed only in name in the Jiangnan region,including the Shanghai area.