契约文书对中国历史研究的重要意义——从契约文书看中国文化的统一性与多样性

The Significance of Contract Documents to the Study of Chinese History:Viewing Chinese Culture's Uniformity and Diversity through Contract Documents

目前发现的契约文书呈现出数量多、分布广、价值大等特点,是中国历史变迁最生动的载体,被运用至经济史、法制史、社会史等诸多研究领域。契约文书揭示了中国历史最真实的样态,从中我们可以看到传统中国尤其是乡土社会所表现出的务实精神、契约精神和法治精神。就契约文书的内容与格式而言,呈现出丰富多彩的面貌,同时又具有极大的相似性,从此出发可以让我们对于中国文化的多样性与统一性有更为深层的理解。正是契约文书的多样性,导致学界使用材料的时候出现了诸多学术分歧,例如典与活卖关系、地价、土地经营规模大小、土地权利分层,等等。受到契约类书的传播、官方层面对于官版契纸的推行以及"法语"、"法谚"、契约中的"套语"等民间习惯的表达等多种因素的影响,契约文书又呈现出统一化的趋势。

The contract documents discovered so far are characterized by their large number,wide distribution and great value.As the most vivid carriers of Chinese historical changes,they are widely used in research fields such as economic history,legal history and social history.Contract documents display the most real appearance of Chinese history,from which we can see the pragmatic spirit,contract spirit and the rule of law manifested in traditional China,especially in the rural society.In terms of format and content,the contract documents take on a colorful appearance but have a great similarity as well.Departing from this we can get a deeper understanding of Chinese culture’s uniformity and diversity.Whereas,it is the diversity of contract documents that lead to the emergence of academic divergences in using materials,such as the relationship between pawn and land purchase and sale with a buy-back agreement,land price,size of land management and stratification of land right.Influenced by elements like the spread of contract books,the promotion of official version of contract paper by the government,and some folk expressions such as＂Fa Yu＂,＂Fa Yan＂and＂Tao Yu＂,the contract documents displayed the tendency of unification.