晚清底层经营地主生活中的纠纷及其应对——以福建苏怀墀日用账《生财大道》为中心的考察

The Solutions of Disputes in the Living Accounts of Landlords at the Bottom—Centered on Shengcaidadao by Su Huaichi of Fujian Province in the Late Qing Dynasty

家庭日用账《生财大道》是晚清底层经营地主苏怀墀对自己一生所用钱项的详细记载,为我们了解晚清基层社会纠纷提供了可能,也能从当事人的角度直接考察晚清民间社会健讼与否。有助于研究者回答下述问题:从经济方面考察什么级别的纠纷会进入诉讼渠道?没有进入诉讼渠道的纠纷是如何解决的?当事人对纠纷的级别是如何认定的?认定之后采取的方式和手段都有哪些?效果如何?最终纠纷的化解是依靠外界的权威还是当事人的个人修养?从《生财大道》来看,根据纠纷性质、标的物价值大小、救济难易程度等,苏怀墀所采用的应对策略各不相同,分别为柔忍、投公、打官司,三种救济方式的比例分别为38%、43%、19%。其中救济成本值得关注,《生财大道》中,一场官司的费用大概相当于晚清一个普通工匠两三年的工资,比起在宗族内部解决的费用增加百倍不止。因此,虽然投公不是打官司的必要前置程序,但当事人出于成本高低、便利与否、维持长远关系等考量,倾向于先投公,再诉讼。

Shengcaidadao,a household daily account in the Qing Dynasty,is a detailed record of Su Huaichi's money used in his life.It makes it possible for us to understand the disputes at all levels of civil society,and also to directly investigate whether civil society is litigious or not from the perspective of the parties.That is to say,from the economic point of view,we can quantitatively investigate what level of disputes will enter the litigation channel,how to solve the disputes that have not entered the litigation channel,how the parties identify the level of disputes,what methods and means are adopted after the identification,and what's the result.The final settlement of disputes depends on the external authority or the personal cultivation of the aggrieved(or the beneficiary)and other aspects of order issues can be investigated in individual cases.According to the nature of the dispute,the value of the subject matter,and the difficulty of relief,Su Huaichi adopted different coping strategies,namely,forbearance,intermediation within the clan,and litigation.The proportions of the three relief methods were 38%,43%,and 19%,respectively.The cost of relief is worthy of attention.The cost of a lawsuit is roughly equivalent to two-three years of wages of an ordinary craftsman in the late Qing Dynasty,and is more than 100 times higher than that of intermediation within the clan.