明代谣谚的舆论诉求与政府应对

Appeal of Public Opinions and the Government Reactions about the Folk Proverbs in the Ming Dynasty

明代社会舆论空前高涨,民众的主体意识逐渐觉醒,他们通过制造和传播谣谚申诉意愿,参与政治,表现出鲜明的群体性、张大性、迷惑性、现实性、地域性、工具性等时代特点。明代谣谚的生成传播,一定程度上促进了国家与社会、官方与民间的多元互动。民众或借助颂谣、怨谣、谶谣以歌功颂德、针砭时政、臧否人物、弘扬风尚,或对国家命运、事件情势作出预测;官府则通过各类谣谚以洞察舆情,济安黎民,整饬风化,匡正时弊,谣谚由此发挥了社会评价、道德评判、舆论监督、营造风气等重要功用。但某些谣谚在传播过程中,言辞偏激,蛊惑人心,诬罔视听,甚而成为政治斗争的工具和引发社会动乱的祸源。在此情况下,明廷往往综合运用政治、法律、思想等手段,软硬兼施,惩防并用,以优化舆论生态,维持社会秩序,巩固王权统治。

In the Ming Dynasty,society public opinion is highly unprecedented,and the subject consciousness of the people awake gradually.The people appeal their desires and participate in politics by making and spreading the folk proverbs,showing distinctive characteristics of the times,which is group-based,extendable,confusing,realistic,regional,and instrumental.The spread of the folk proverbs of the Ming Dynasty,to a certain extent,has promoted the interaction between the government and society,the official and civil.On the one hand,people use praised rumors,complained rumors and prophetic rumors to sing praises,tackle politics,delineate someone,carry forward the general mood,or forecast national destiny and event situation.On the other hand,the official can gain insights into public opinions,relieve and placate persons,reorganize the weathering,or correct the current situation with help of all kinds of folk proverbs.Therefore,the folk proverbs plays a social role of social evaluation,moral judgments,supervision of public opinions,creating general mood and other important functions.However,some folk proverbs go to extremes in the course of propagation,where the folk proverbs become the tool of political struggle and the source of social unrest.In such a situation,the Ming Dynasty court always use the stick and carrot policy,punishing and preventing them in order to optimize the public opinion ecology,thus maintaining social order,consolidating the rule of the emperor through the political,legal,ideological and other means.