说“坊”——唐宋城市制度演变与地方志书的“书写”

A Study of“Precinct”(Fang): Changes of Urban System and Writing of Chorography in the Tang-Song Period

以地方志书为主的历史文献,大多以"坊巷"为核心概念来描述宋代城市的城区形制,存在将不同性质、不同层次的内容混同记载与概念混淆的现象。遵循由表及里、从解构历史文本入手的路径来作分析,梳理其所记载的坊区、坊额等内容的差异,可以发现,其一,从城市管理制度的层面看,虽然不同地区的城市中出现了坊、界、隅等各种别称,但不必每见一别称就另行归纳出一种"制度"。从制度的内涵看,可以将当时的城市管理归纳为在厢司与坊区两级之下,慢慢出现一个以巷为中心的更低的职役层级,最终形成了两级三层之制。其二,在坊额与街巷的关系上,前人或者强调坊只是"增加街路的美观的东西",或者断言"坊其实是街巷的雅称",都有失片面。究其原因,是因为受历史文本所传递的关于"坊"的失真景象误导之故。宋元地方志书的编纂者们出于其"名者,教之所自出也"的立场,在详尽记载某些城市的街首巷口所建立的、上面书写有"美名"之坊额的同时,鄙视出于俚俗、多非雅驯的街巷地名,以为"本不足录",极少记载,从而给后人留下了坊主巷从的假象。因此,我们应该摆脱以"坊"为中心来构建两宋时期城区布局的传统思路,回归以巷陌构成的长条街区的历史现实。同时,这种讨论,也可以视作历史文本与史实之间复杂关系的一个典型案例。

Historical documents,dominated by chorographies,mostly applied"precint-corridor"(fang-xiang)as the core concept when narrating the urban area structure in the Song Dynasty,yet such records confused contents of different natures and levels,as well as different concepts.Through analyzing the differences in contents such as precinct area and horizontal inscribed tablet on precinct recorded in historical texts,it can be seen that:first,from the level of urban management system,although there emerged various alternative names such as precinct,border,and corner in cities of different areas,it is unnecessary to conclude another kind of"system"at the sight of an alternative name.Judging from connotation of the system,it can be concluded that there gradully emerged an alley-centered office lower than the hierarchies of township and precinct.Second,on the relation between horizontal inscribed tablet on precinct and streets,it is one-sided for former scholars either emphasizing that precinct was only"something for increasing the beauty of streets and roads,"or asserting that"precinct actually was the elegant name of streets and alleys."The reason lies in that scholars were misled by distorted scene delivered by historical texts.Out of the standpoint of"name rectifying moralization,"chorography compilers in the Song-Yuan period detailed horizontal inscribed tablets with"good names"on streets and alleys,while despised vulgar names of streets and alleys,so few records on those were left.Therefore,we should break the traditional idea of construting the urban layout of the Northern and Southern Song centering on precinct,and return to the historical reality of strip block consisted of alleys.Meanwhile,the discussion in this paper can also be regarded as a typical case on the complicated relation between historical texts and historical facts.