乌江流域土司碑刻的史地学考察

An Investigation of History and Geography in the Tusi Stele Inscriptions in Wujiang River Basin

明清时期的乌江流域为川、黔少数民族聚集区,有一定数量涉及土司历史纪事的碑刻保存至今,对研究西南土司制度及其历史文化有重要意义。首先这些土司碑刻纪事具有早于正史记载的先前性与地方性,有正本清源的意义,与传世文献记载多可互为印证,同时又可补充正史文献记载的阙略。其次,乌江流域土司碑刻为研究西南土司历史地理问题提供了不少实证资料,对于探讨西南民族地区政区的早期状况、政区调整变迁、汉夷畛域纠纷及其解决等有一定认知意义。同时,乌江流域土司碑刻对黔、滇古代方国地理多有考证,其学术价值值得重视。

During the Ming and Qing dynasties,the southwestern tusi region was a very remoteand isolated area. Except for those records relatedto tribute,requisition and conferring,records about tusi in the official literature were exceedinglyrare. As for comprehensive and indepth studies ofthe tusi political system,historical geography,economic forms,military wars and family culture,thelack of historical materials causes great difficulties,making it impossible to examine many problems indetail. In this situation,surviving local stele inscriptions become very precious. Compared withthe official historical documents,these inscriptionsare relatively rare,dispersed,unitary and unsystematic. However,because most tusi inscriptionsare reliable records and testimonies of historical events or historical figures,we should pay particularattention to this kind of historical record when westudy the historical issues relating to the tusi insouthwestern China. This is also a “ reasonable assumption”because,in recent years,scholars havebeen paying more and more attention to the steleinscriptions about the tusi.Among the collections of tusi stele inscriptionscompiled by scholars in recent years,the followingare ones with academic and research value：thewujiang liuyu minzu diqu de lidai beike xuanji（ Selected Collections of Ancient Stone Tablets in theEthnic Minority Area in Wujiang River Basin,andhereafter “ Selected Collections” ）edited by Peng furong,Li liangpin;the yongshun tusi jinshi lu （ TheStone Inscriptions of Yongshun Tusi）by Lu Weidong;the lishi jiyi： yongshun tusi jinshi mingwen zhengli yanjiu （Historical Memory：A Study of Stone Inscriptions of Yongshun Tusi ） by QuZhoulian,Qu Hongzhou;and the enshi zizhizhoubeike daguan （ A General Introduction to the StoneInscriptions in Enshi Autonomous Prefecture）compiled by Wang Xiaoning. Many of these works involve chronicling the tusi and related historical andgeographical problems,and provide rare and precious local stone inscriptions for studying the tusiin southwestern China during the Ming and Qingdynasties. So,the contributions of these scholarsthrough their collecting and sorting cannot be ignored. Speaking from the perspective of the diversity of historical materials and the multidimensional aspect of research methods found in contemporary historical and cultural studies,their academicvalue also cannot be ignored. This article intendsto explore briefly the content and value of thesouthwestern tusi as found in the Selected Collectionedited by Peng Furong,Li Liangpin from the perspective of historical philology and historical geography.The Wujiang River basin is an area where thedominant residents are ethnic minorities of Sichuanand Guizhou. Many tusi are found in this area during the Ming and Qing dynasties,for example,theYang clan tusi of Bozhou,the An Clan tusi of Shuixi,the Ma Clan tusi of Shizhu,the Ran Clantusi of Youyang,and so on. In the distributionmap of the southwestern tusi,we see that the middle and lower reaches of the Wujiang River lieclose to the Han people in the Central Plains,andthe map reveals a mixed distribution of Han and Yi （ 夷 or ethnic minorities） . Therefore,whether it isthe tusis relationship with the central court,or thedisputes among tusi,the area could be regarded asa remarkable “ ethnic dynamic”from present perspectives. The Selected Collection edited by PengFurong,and Li Liangpin has a wide and rich content,covering not only the materials collected fromfieldwork,but also materials dug out from local annals which were compiled during the Ming andQing periods. The Selected Collection includes thechronicles and figures in the field of politics,economics,military,law,education,transportation,ethnicity,and folk customs. Among the collectionof about 540 stone inscriptions,only a few are related to the tusi. Nonetheless,we can still glean alot of important historical and cultural informationabout the southwestern tusi from these limited inscriptions or “ tusi inscriptions” .As an important part of the literature derivedfrom Chinese stone carvings,stone inscriptions areone of the most important sources of historical materials in historical research,and tusi stone inscriptions are no exception. There are three typesof stone inscriptions about the tusi in the WujiangRiver basin：1）inscriptions related to the biographies of the tusi,which are mostly for the purposeof praising the outstanding honor of the ancestors ofthe tusi;2）inscriptions related to the tusis familytemple;and,3 ）inscriptions related to the achievements and significance of the royal governor.These are mostly concerned with the records aboutthe causes,processes and results of pacifying thetusi rebellion. Most of the tusi inscriptions in theWujiang River basin were not inscribed by the tusithemselves,but by Han literati and scholarofficials. Although these tusi inscriptions are relativelyfragmented and cannot fully reflect the tusi systemand the historical events of southwestern tusi,theystill reflect the development,evolution and manyrelated historical events of the tusi in Wujiang River basin. They also include the political and ethnicpositions of the feudal scholarofficials,and explore the concept of ethnicity during the tusi era.At the same time,they lend a certain empiricalvalue to the study of tusi history and geography.Because the Wujiang River basin was a remote and closed area,detailed records in the official historical documents about the historical formation and development of the tusi system are oftenlacking. In addition,due to the lack of reliableearly records and exploration,etc. ,the officialhistorical records of the early tusi in this area werenot only brief and simple,but also contained someerrors. In fact,some of the early tusi stone inscriptions have provided important historical informationfor resolving this problem. This also shows that thetusi inscriptions in the Wujiang River basin havean important historicaldata value for understandingthe formation,development and changes of the tusisystem throughout history in this area.In addition,after conducting a careful studyof the tusi inscriptions in the ethnic regions of theWujiang River basin,we also are able to find somevaluable historical and geographical information.During the Tang and Song dynasties,south of present day Chongqing and north of present dayGuizhou lay an area where the Han and ethnic minority people lived together. There were both jimiprefectures （ prefectures ruled by native officials）and central jingzhi prefectures （ prefectures ruledby officials appointed by the central court） . Thedocuments concerning the areas administrative settings,jurisdiction and its evolution are relativelysparse,and mostly not very detailed. Though onlyvery few stone inscriptions related to the Tang andSong dynasties have been unearthed in this region,some valuable administrative information is foundon them. From the perspective of historical geography,the tusi inscriptions in the Wujiang River basin reflect the geographical information of thesouthwest political region during the Yuan,Mingand Qing dynasties. These inscriptions provide valuable materials for exploring the disputes betweentusi and the Han area,their methods for solvingthem,as well information about ecological and environmental protection in this area. So,these inscriptions are worthy of special attention in thestudy of historical geography of the tusi.To sum up,the tusi inscriptions in WujiangRiver basin are very significant for the study of thesouthwestern tusi system,as well as for its historyand culture. First of all,these tusi inscriptions canbe used as materials to verify official historical records or fill in the gaps of official records. Secondly,these tusi inscriptions found in the WujiangRiver basin provide a lot of empirical data for studying the historical geography of the southwesterntusi. This has a certain cognitive significance forthe research of the early status,administrative adjustment or change,disputes between the Han andethnic people and its resolution in southwest ethnicregion. Moreover,the tusi inscriptions in the Wujiang River basin are empirical materials for researching the geography of the ancient kingdoms ofGuizhou and Yunnan. So,in sum,their academicvalue is worthy of our attention.