清朝中央与地方政府对育婴堂态度探析——以扬州育婴堂和京师育婴堂为例

Research on the Attitudes of the Central Government and Local Government Towards Foundling Homes in Qing Dynasty——Taking Yangzhou Foundling Homes and Jingshi Foundling Homes for Examples

古代官方的儿童社会救济从宋代开始设置,发展到清代,育婴堂已成为儿童救济的专门机构。本文以清代扬州育婴堂和京师育婴堂的建立与发展为切入,通过个案研究对清朝育婴堂的经费来源、普及情况以及发展动因等方面进行剖析,可以分析出育婴堂的性质:形式上是官府监督管理,实际上核心力量仍是士绅阶层,而中央和地方政府对育婴堂的态度最为"微妙",官方主张有威望和资产的士绅帮扶育婴堂,却对社会保障不制定律令法规,默认其为"细枝末节",这就使得育婴堂的救助效果大大降低。

Official social relief for children was begun in the Song Dynasty, and foundling homes became a specialized agency for children's relief in Qing Dynasty. Starting from the establishment and development of Yangzhou foundling home and Jingshi foundling home in Qing Dynasty, this paper analyzes the source of funding, popularizing situation and development driving force of foundling homes through case study and finds the nature of foundling homes: supervised and managed by government on the surface but run by the gentry class actually. The central government and local government had a subtle attitude towards the foundling homes in that the government wished the gentry with money and authority to help the foundling homes, but they didn't formulate laws or regulations to safeguard them, regarding it trivial, which greatly reduced the relief effect of the foundling homes.