荷属东印度华人社会的自治与困境——以18—19世纪吧城公堂丧葬管理为中心

The Dilemma of Control: The Funeral Management of Chinese Communities in Batavia under the Dutch East India Company during the 18th and 19th Centuries

论文利用公堂审理华人民事案件和日常管理的档案记录《公案簿》和荷兰莱顿大学图书馆藏原始公堂数字化档案,从华人社会权力管制的视角对公堂的丧葬管理过程、华人丧葬规范以及丧葬背后体现的社会内在矛盾进行了研究探讨。1742年建立的吧城公堂是荷属东印度时期荷兰殖民者委任华人甲必丹管理的华人半自治机构,主要处理华人民政事务,其中丧葬事宜便是管理要务之一,包括倡建、购置和经营华人塚地,规范华人葬仪、丧服之礼。然而在西方殖民统治不断强化的时代背景下,公堂在丧葬管理中面临唐吧贸易衰落后甲必丹们义葬观念的转变、闽粤二帮祭祀矛盾、华人美色甘及公堂内部人士对塚地经费管理的质疑以及殖民政府推进城市化过程中对塚地的侵蚀等挑战,再加上1900年吧达维亚中华会馆成立后倡导革新婚丧旧俗,公堂的权威地位逐渐遭到削弱,华人社会管理多元化的诉求和实践成为时代需要。

Based on archival materials about Batavia and the digital archives at the Leiden University in the Netherland, this paper examines the process of funeral management including Chinese funeral customs and the social struggles reflected in the funeral ceremonies. During the Dutch East India period, Batavia Chinese Tribunal on funeral ceremony advocated the construction, acquisition and operation of Chinese graves, standardized Chinese funeral etiquette, appearance and sacrifice in more Fujianese society, adopted the Hokkien culture and Chinese Confucian culture to maintain social and economic orders, and established authority, but the Tribunal also faced the decline of China-Batavia trade, cuhural conflicts in funeral ceremony between the Fujianese and Cantonese communities, the problems of grave cost and reduced cemetery area caused by urbanization. Therefore, although Tribunal was a useful tool to rule Chinese by Dutch colonists, its functions were narrowed down due to various factors mentioned above.