略论晚清改造胥吏的思想

The Thoughts on the Reform of the Xuli System in the Late Qing Dynasty

胥吏问题是晚清吏治中的顽症。为数众多的各类胥吏,利用官场信息牟利,利用权力缝隙进行权钱交易,敲诈百姓,贪赃枉法,严重地影响了中央各部门与地方政府的行政效率,败坏了官府的形象。这一问题的产生,表层原因是胥吏素质低下,直接面对广大民众,实际上掌握了很大权力;制度层面原因,在于政府官员不熟悉业务;各色地方官因回避本籍,不熟悉所治地方风土民情;官场机构叠床架屋,多方牵制,效率低下。更宏观原因,在于其时官制设计过度地堵塞了胥吏阶层的升迁通道,缺失了对这一阶层的激励机制,从而在官僚制度的最底层,留下了普遍性的漏洞。冯桂芬、郑观应、陈炽等人,提出过许多改造胥吏的思想,诸如改变胥吏结构,提高胥吏素质;删削、精简则例,以杜舞弊之门;免除回避旧规,减少舞弊机会;优给工食,量予出身。清政府也在改造胥吏方面进行了一些实际的努力,但直到清朝覆亡,这一问题也没能彻底解决。

Xuli,the petty officials,were very corrupt.They traded power for money and exploited the ordinary people,and on the other hand,existence of the Xuli class also lowered the efficiency of the central and local government and damaged the image of the authority.There are some reasons for the phenomena,which include the lower qualification of Xuli,the official of the government coming from the other province knowing little about the local conditions,and so on,but the fundamental cause lies in that the Xuli have no approaches to promotion,based on the official system of the Qing dynasty,they never had chance to go upper level.The famous reformers of late Qing dynasty,such as Feng Guifen,Zheng Guanying and Chen Zhi criticize the Xuli system and proposed to reform,and the government also took some actions to reform it,but this issue had not been thoroghly solved until the Qing dynasty was overthrown.