边境管理视阈下清朝西南边境土司的存废

Reserving or Abolishing Chieftain in Southwest Border from the Perspective of Border Governing

清朝政府将西南边境的土司作为国家藩篱,赋其边境管理之责,以巡查边境,维护边境的安全秩序,防范和打击边境地区的各种犯罪和非法活动,搜集边防情报等。由于西南边疆恶劣的自然环境、滞塞的交通,以及熟悉民情、能耐烟瘴的流官缺员等因素,清朝政府不得不任用土司戍边,既解决了边地兵源不足、军心不稳的问题,又减少了国家财政支出,缓解了边疆流官不足的压力。清朝西南边境的土司也有废除现象,废除原则主要是看其能否有效行使边境管理的职能。即使西南边境的土司有所违背律例,惩罚也较内地土司为轻。清朝政府在废除土司时持慎重态度,有的土司虽被改流,但迫于瘴气等环境因素几年后又予以复设。总地来看,清朝政府任用边境土司行使边境管理职能,是一种低投入、高收益的治边方式,清朝西南边境的土司在维护国家领土和主权完整、维护边疆安全和边境社会秩序稳定中起到了重要的作用。

The Qing government appointed the task of border governing, patrolling the border and keeping the security order,preventing and striking crimes and illegal activities. For the factors of wicked natural environment,gridlocked traffic, and familiar with the local conditions and the lack of officials and staffs, the Qing government had to appoint the chieftains to deal with the problems of sources of troops, morale of instability and to reduce fiscal expenditure and relieved the pressure of insufficient of flow officers, even some illegal incidents occurred, the punishment on them would be gentle than that on other officers. The Qing government was very careful with the problem of reserving or abolishing the chieftains, some of them were transformed but would be re-established after several years. All in all, it was a kind of border governing way with low input and high output. The chieftains there played a role on maintaining national sovereignty and territorial integrity, border security and social stability.