护牛与杀牛:晚清及民国时期中国牛肉经济引起的争议

To kill or not to kill:Controversies over the beef economy and oxen protection in late Qing and Republican China

本文旨在分析晚清及民国时期,中国人与耕牛长久以来的共生依存关系如何随着近代牛肉经济兴起而受到冲击,并探讨政府官员随之而制定的“护牛”政策为何未能够发挥保护耕牛的作用。本文的论点是,民国时期的中央及地方政府虽然站在护牛论述的一方,但就其制定的护牛政策之实际而言,使宰杀耕牛行为合理化之意图高过保护耕牛之意图。因应国外庞大的牛肉需求,中央及地方政府以保护耕牛为名,推出屠宰税,征收高昂的宰牛费。可观的财政收入,令政府成为屠杀耕牛的共谋。

This article analyzes the influence of the burgeoning beef economy in late Qing and Republican China on Chinese people’s centuries-old symbiotic relationship with oxen,and it explains the reasons for the failure of government policies of oxen protection to alleviate the problems accompanied by the excessive killing of oxen.This article argues that the central and local governments in the Republican period levied high taxes on the slaughter of beef cattle in the name of protecting oxen and preserving agriculture.Nonetheless,the significant amount of revenue generated from slaughtering oxen became an incentive for government officials to turn a blind eye to the excessive killing of oxen.Gradually,“oxen protection”became no more than a slogan manipulated by government officials to justify tax revenue drawn from slaughtering cattle.The political authorities ironically played a contradictory role:through strengthening the discourse of“oxen protection,”they contributed to and benefited from the large-scale slaughter of oxen.