头人为什么造土司的反:王权视角下对清末民国西南边疆的再认识

Why did the Headmen Revolt Against the Native Chieftains (Tusi):A Reconceptualization of Southwest Frontier Politics in the Late Qingand Republican Periods from the Perspectives of Kingship Theory

清末及民国年间川康藏区改土归流之际或之后,头人群体崛起并反对、挤压乃至取代土司是颇为常见的地方军事政治景观。受神性王权理论的启发,基于现有社会历史调查资料及地方文史材料,本文指出土司是地方社会认知中的王,而头人则应归为百姓群体,二者属于“陌生人-王权”观念中的外来统治者与土著二元范畴。头人造反是土司制度消亡之际,边疆地区维持社会活力、寻求群体内部完整性和对外独特性的一种尝试。关于王权神圣化的讨论,本文指出土司权力受到多重限制,土司制度已经成为自上而下地容纳、调谐从王朝正统意识形态到边疆社会独特性的容器。这一重新理论化的努力,既回应王权理论中对王权危机约束机制不足的问题,也为理解边疆社会的历史进程和社会治理提供历史洞见。

During and after the reforms to the native chieftain system that took place during the periods of late Qing and the Republican in Sichuan and Western Kham’s Tibetan areas,it was quite common in political field to see the headmen rise up and oppose,squeeze and replace the native chieftains(Tusi).Inspired by theories of divine kingship and based on available materials of Social and Historical Survey of China’s Ethnic Minorities in the 1950s and the local cultural and historical materials(especially published by the local CPPCC),this paper points out that the Tusi were the kings in the perception of local society,while the headmen should be classified as part of the people,they respectively referring to the foreign rulers and indigenous people in the concept of“stranger-kingship”.The revolt of the headmen was an attempt to maintain the social vitality,and to seek the internal integrity and external uniqueness of the frontier societies at the time of the demise of the Tusi system.The discussion of the sacralization of kingship points out that the power of the Tusi was subject to multiple limitations and that the Tusi system had become a vessel for accommodating and reconciling both the dynastic orthodox ideologies and the uniqueness of frontier societies.This effort of re-theorization of Tusi system as kingship partly solves the deficiency of the kingship theory and also provides insights for understanding the historical process of reforms to the Tusi system and social governance of frontier societies.