机遇与错失:宋朝国家法律书籍印售管控及对法律发展的影响

The Creation and Lost of Opportunity: The Control over Printing and Distribution of Legal Books in Song Dynasty and Its Impact on Legal Development

在中国古代社会发展史上,宋朝拥有重要位置,史学界有"唐宋变革""近世"之说。宋朝法制建设中呈现出明显的转型,其中法律书籍由于印刷技术的发达导致商品化,让法律知识传播出现革命性的转变。在法律知识能够较好获得下,皇帝、官吏和民众对法律的依赖都在不同程度地增加。宋朝不同群体在追求"法律化"治理时,各自存有不同的目的。皇帝对"法律化"的需求是基于通过法律对官员滥权的约束和对民众治理中"法律驯化"的实现;官吏对法律知识的获取是基于自己权力和权利的保障,为让自己在皇权与民众中获得更多的"知识力量";民众获取法律知识是作为与国家、政府、官吏和他人"争利""争权"时较量的言说依据和对抗官吏滥权的手段。宋朝法律书籍的出版、销售普及带来的治理转型为国家重塑"国"与"民"的关系提供了机遇,但由于国家对法律书籍传播采用严格管控及对利用法律知识抗争群体实行污名化、标签化应对,于是让这种机会错失。宋朝"法治"建设中的困境是中国古代帝制专制体制内在制度性问题之一。

The Song Dynasty marked a major epoch of Chinese ancient societies. Just like the Tang,it was a high point of classical Chinese social innovation and transformation. It has been considered an era of the beginning of modern time of China. The commercialization of legal books caused by the advancement of printing,among other transformations of legal system construction,led to a revolutionary change to disseminate information of laws. With the easier access of legal knowledge,the reliance on law by emperors,government officials and the general public was,by and large,growing. While pursuing the legal governance of the nation,the three social groups carried with them different motives. The emperors intended to adopt legalization so as to fulfill inhibition of abuse of power by administrators and enslavement of the public. The officials acquired legal knowledge so as to empower themselves in the conflict between the public and imperial powers,thus securing their authority and advantages. The general public,on the other hand,tried to equip themselves with legal knowledge as a means to strengthen their discourse power when combating the nation,the government and the bureaucracy as well as against abuse of administrative power. Despite the fact that the publication and wide distribution of legal books in the Song generated great a opportunity to reform state-people relationship,the authorities missed out the opportunity due to their rigid control of distribution of these books as well as stigmatizing or mislabeling those who defended themselves with legal knowledge. To sum up,the predicament of legal construction in the Song Dynasty is the reflection of one of the intrinsic institutional problems of ancient Chinese imperialism.