“家产官僚制”与中国法律:马克斯·韦伯的遗产及其局限

“Patrimonial Bureaucracy”and Chinese Law:Max Weber's Legacy and Its Limits

马克斯·韦伯在支配社会学框架下对中国的思考,是影响其有关中国法律之表述的关键因素。在其支配社会学理论建构中,"家产官僚制"由于混合了家产制与官僚制两种支配因素,所以是一种非理性支配与合理性支配间的混杂或中间状态,该支配下的司法与行政因而并不体现为完全的恣意和擅断。然而,韦伯对于世界历史之不断合理化的设想,诱使其将中国置于合理化进程的最初阶段,而将现代欧美世界置于其终点。在这种思维的作用下,韦伯有意无意间忽略帝制中国"家产官僚制"中官僚制的面向,且刻意放大其家产制面向,从而使其笔下的"中国法"呈现为一幅实质非理性的"卡迪司法"画面。有必要强调的是,在其部分论断的局限得以澄清之后,韦伯的一系列概念和洞见仍将有益于未来学者对中国法律传统的研究。

Max Weber's thought about China within the framework of his sociology of domination is a crucial factor influencing his presentation of Chinese law.In his original theoretical design,'patrimonial bureaucracy'is a mixed or in-between state of irrational and rational types of domination,since it contains elements of both patrimonialism and bureaucracy.Thus,justice and administration under such domination are not completely arbitrary.Weber's assumption that world history increasingly moves toward full rationality,however,induces him to place China in the initial stage of the process of rationalization and the modern Western world at the end of that process.Under the influence of this thinking,Weber consciously or unconsciously neglects the bureaucraticfacets of imperial China's patrimonial bureaucracy and deliberately amplifies its patrimonial facets.As a result,Chinese law in Weber's writings is in essence an irrational type of'khadi justice'.Although Weber's concepts and insights are limited,if refined and revised,they can still benefit future scholars of traditional Chinese law.