“国权”:“下县”与“不下县”之间——析明清政府对江南市镇的管理

How Deeply Did State Power Penetrate into Local Society? ——Studies of the Management of Market Towns in Jiangnan by the Ming-Qing Government

明清时期江南地区蓬勃兴起的各类市镇,不仅在经济结构上各有千秋,在行政管理机制上也各具特色。明清政府对江南市镇的管理实践表明,中国古代国家权力的直接延伸,绝非只到县一级为止,而是毫无疑问延伸到了县以下,突破了"国权不下县"的传统。政府对江南市镇多类型、多层次的管理模式,反映了这一时期政府行政管理体系的相对灵活性,是一种制度创新。对明清时期江南地区不同类型的市镇管理特点及官员理政实态做相关分析,对我们进一步认识在传统国家行政框架之下,政府行政机构在融合国家行政体系与基层社会管理、促进地方社会发展等方面的职能空间将多有启迪。

What level did State Power penetrate into local society and how did it practice? It is one of the major issues in the study of Chinese history. Focusing on the market towns in Jiangnan(the Yangzi delta) of the Ming and Qing(late imperial) period,the author makes a deep analysis of this issue in this article. During this period,market towns of various types rose and flourished in this area. These towns were highly divergent,not just in economic structures,but in administrative management. The multi-types and multi-levels of the management reflected the considerable flexibility of the civil administrative system of the government in the late imperial period.The analysis of features in the management of market towns of different models and performances of the officials in the management in Jiangnan of the Ming and Qing times will provide us with a fresh and better understanding of how big spaces the government had in integration of local management into the state administrative system and then promotion of local development in late imperial China.