中国传统县域治理体系探微

On the Traditional County Governance System in China

中国传统的县域治理体系存在于整个皇权帝制时代,有着两千多年连贯的历史。考察历史上的县域治理体系,能够为今天的乡村治理提供一些借鉴和启示。中国传统的县域治理体系是按照皇权统治逻辑,伴随着整个国家治理体系即皇权统治体系的构建而产生的,是其末端组成部分。县衙及其派出机构和准官方组织以及充斥于其中的县级长官、杂职官、所属员吏、差役和乡里精英,构成了县域治理体系。这套体系主要依靠县级官府对散户的控制和掠夺机制以及县级官府与乡里精英的“支持—回报”机制来开展县域治理。传统县域治理体系从属于皇权统治体系,其构建逻辑是错误的,很难被看成是一种治理体系,这是今天需要引以为戒的。如果去除统治的目的和功能,传统县域治理体系以县级官府为中心来治理乡村并灵活设置多样化的派出机构,这种体系构造值得今天吸收借鉴。不过,传统时代的所谓乡村自治基本属于想象,加之中国广大农村地区早已发生巨变,因此于今没有多少启发和借鉴价值。

China's traditional county governance system runs through the whole imperial era,with a continuous history of more than 2000 years.Investigating the county governance system in history can provide some reference and enlightenment for today's rural governance.China's traditional county governance system follows the logic of imperial rule and is the end part of the whole state governance system.County Government,its agencies and quasi-official organizations,as well as the county-level officials,miscellaneous officials,subordinate officials,runners and rural elites,constitute the county governance system.This system mainly relies on the control and plunder mechanism of the county government over the individual households and the"support-return"mechanism between the county government and the rural elites to carry out the county governance.The traditional county governance system is subordinate to the imperial power system.With the wrong construction logic,it is hard to be regarded as a governance system,which is a lesson to be learned today.Regardless of its purpose and function,that the traditional county governance system takes the county-level government as the center to govern the countryside and flexibly sets up diversified agencies is worth learning.However,the so-called rural self-governance in the traditional era is basically imagination.In addition,great changes have taken place in rural areas,so there is not much enlightenment and reference for today.