“闽揽”与明中后期入澳闽商的“污名化”现象——以《盟水斋存牍》若干案例为中心

“Minlan” and the Stigmatization of Fujian Merchants in Macao in Late Ming Dynasty— Focusing on Several Cases of Mengshuizhai Cundu

葡萄牙人在1557年居留澳门之后,带来了中西贸易的新突破。闽商利用澳票制度入澳经营,成为葡萄牙人的商业伙伴。闽商的商业行为既有合法正当的经济活动,也有“违禁走私”等越轨之举。后者触及地方政府和官绅的经济利益的经济行为。官方文献由此以“闽奸”“闽揽”等指称闽商群体,产生了“污名化”现象。《盟水斋存牍》的相关案例显示,闽商“污名化”原因大略可总结为:一是广东地方官与地方士绅从王朝正统和义利观念出发歧视闽商,以“揽”和“奸”来表述与葡萄牙人进行商业活动的外来商业群体,出现“闽揽”“闽奸”等特有贬称。二是随着全球化经济利益的扩大,闽商群体内部的分化和分歧现象也逐渐严重,商业形象被极度恶化,“污名化”具有了被表述的事实依据。三是明中叶之后社会经济变迁所致,商品经济繁荣引发了身份秩序转变,士绅庶民产生了身份焦虑性,常常以“污名化”方式塑造对立面或替罪羊,演变成为一种普遍心态。入澳闽商虽被广东的官方文献贬之为奸滑险恶之徒,但在福建地方公共事务中扮演着重要角色,被视为地域社会的精英人物。

After the Portuguese settled in Macao,they brought a breakthrough in Sino-Western trade.Via the “Aopiao(”“ 澳票”) system,Fujian merchants could trade in Macao and became business partners of the Portuguese.They carried on legitimate economic activities,as well as illegal ones like prohibited smuggling.The latter infringed the economic interests of local governments and officials.Therefore,official documents referred to Fujian businessmen as “Minjian”(“ 闽奸”) and “Minlan”(“ 闽揽”),resulting in the phenomenon of stigmatization.The relevant cases in Mengshuizhai cundu(《 盟水斋存牍》) showed that the reasons for the stigmatization of Fujian businessmen were:First,local officials and gentry in Guangdong discriminated against Fujian businessmen from the concept of dynastic orthodoxy and Yili(“ 义利”),and used “Lan(”“ 揽”) and “Jian(”“ 奸”) to describe the foreign business groups that did business with the Portuguese,so that there were unique derogatory names such as “Minlan” and “Minjian”.Second,with the expansion of the economic interests of globalization,differentiation and disagreement within the Fujian business group have gradually become serious,and their business image has extremely deteriorated.The third is due to social and economic changes after the mid-Ming Dynasty.The prosperity of the commodity economy triggered the transformation of the identity order.The gentry and the common people became anxious about their identity.They often shaped the opposition or scapegoat through stigmatization,which gradually evolved into a common mentality.Although Fujian merchants were looked down upon as treacherous and sinister people by official documents in Guangdong,they played an important role in local public affairs in Fujian and were regarded as the elites of the local society.