“比屋连甍”:明清鄂西北“隐形”区的流民与山匪

Research on the Social Regulations of Refugees and Mountain Bandits in the Interprovincial Northwest Regions in Hubei Province during the Ming and Qing Dynasties

明清时期鄂渝陕豫毗邻地区是一个"隐形"区域,该区域山林之中居住了大量的流民,而政府没有他们的户籍记录,也长期缺乏有效的管辖和治理。这里的流民构成复杂,多来自于周边省份,他们入山从事生产经营活动。由于特殊的地理环境和匪帮威逼、邪教蒙骗、赌博欠债等因素,山民往往沦为山匪,山匪内部有着严密的组织结构,势力强大的山匪还与官府勾结。明清官方对该区域采取了一定的抚治措施,曾设置郧阳府为专门的治理单位,采取流民附籍、整治武备、宣讲教化、赈恤抚治等具体措施。但是并没有得到很好的治理实效,一旦官方治理松懈,教匪等势力便卷土重来,导致该区域治乱反复,民风剽悍。

In the Ming and Qing dynasties,the border area among Hubei,Chongqing,Shanxi and Henan was an "invisible" region,where a large number of refugees lived in the mountains. However,the government did not have their census register and they lacked effective jurisdiction and governance for a long time. The composition of refugees here was complicated,mostly from neighboring provinces,and they went into the mountains to engage in production and business activities. Because of the special geographical environment and the threats of the bandit gangs,deceiving of heresies,and gambling debts,mountain people tended to become mountain bandits. The interior of the mountain bandits had a strict organizational structure. The powerful mountains also colluded with the officials. Officials of the Ming and Qing dynasties took certain measures to deal with the situation. They once set up the Yunyang government as a special administrative unit,and adopted specific measures such as household registration,renovating military,enlightenment,succour. However,it did not get very good governance effectiveness. Once official governance was relaxed,the forces of cults and mountain bandits began to make a comeback,which led to repeated chaos and the people were quick and fierce in the region.