郡县制度评价理论述评

Commentary of Appraising Theories of the System of Prefectures and Counties

郡县制实行以来，历经褒贬。在第一期论争中，以唐代为高潮。柳宗元等人持完全肯定的态度；与之相反，朱敬则、孙樵等人则认为郡县制度祸害社会，流弊颇深。明末至清中叶是论争的第二期。顾炎武、黄宗羲等人从天下长治久安的高度，提出了地方官专任等限制皇权的社会权力结构新模式。然而，他们仍未脱离秦代以来或言封建、或言郡县的窠臼。戊戌变法以来，论争进入了第三期，时人引入了宪政、联邦制等新型社会权力架构思想，对郡县制进行了更高层次的阐释，章太炎、梁启超、毛泽东等人提出了改造中国旧有社会行政结构的一些新思想，但因社会环境、思维角度的不断转换，他们的一些重要见解并非一成不变。透视历代有关郡县制的讨论，有助于我们总结经验，深入思考转型时期的制度创新问题。

The system of prefechtrues and counties has gone through praise and censure ever since its implementation in China. The first climax of the controversy occurred during the Tang Dynasty when Liu Zongyuan et al. gave it an affirmative assessment while Zhu Jingze, Sun Qiao et al. believed that it was harmful to the society in various aspects. The period between the late Ming Dynasty and mid Qing Dynasty witnessed the second stage of the contention when Gu Yanwu, Huang Zongxi et al, from the high plane of maintaining long-term peace and stability, put forward new models of social power struchure which advocated the heredity and full powers of local governors and the restriction on imperial power. Their theories, however, failed to break away from the beaten track of feudal system or system of prefectures and counties. The Reform Movement of 1898 marked the begirning of the controversy in its third stage wherein such new conceptions concerning social power structrues as constitutionalism and federalism were introduced and the system of preferctures and counties was expounded at a more incisive level. Zhang Taiyan, Liang Qichao, Mao Zedong et al. raised new ideas concerning the reforming of China's old administrative structures. Owing to the changes in social environment and point of view, their major ideas also underwent alterations with the advance of time. A thorough study of the different arguments concerning the system of prefectures and counties will be beneficial to the understanding of the renovation of our state system in the transitional period.