从“连坐”看传统中国的群己关系

On the Collective-Individual Relationship in Traditional China through the Lens of Collective Punishment

连坐亦称株连,泛指因当事人犯罪而连带惩罚其所有特定关系人的制度,它包括缘坐、伍坐和职坐三种基本形式。缘坐指因当事人犯罪而惩罚与其有血缘关系之人,伍坐指因当事人犯罪而处罚与其有邻里关系之人,职坐指因当事人犯罪而处罚与其有职务关系之人,它们分别体现了传统社会中个人与家族、个人与邻里,以及个人与同僚的关系。连坐是因个人犯罪而对特定共同体内具有连带关系者的集体处罚,它是君主专制的伴生物和重要制度安排,其根本目的就是通过残暴的群体性惩罚来扑灭任何对现存政权的重大威胁。更进一步说,连坐反映的是一种特定的个人-群体关系模式,它清晰地折射出了传统中国以家族本位、忠孝一体和家国同构为基本特征的集体主义群己关系。连坐制度极大地强化了血缘关系、地缘关系和业缘关系对个体的束缚,是造成中国传统社会中严重人身依附的结构基础。

Broadly speaking,collective punishment is a disciplinary method that involves the punishment of not only the criminal but also those in the latter's close circles.It has three major types in traditional China,namely,yuanzuo("缘坐"),wuxuo("伍坐")and zhizuo("职坐").Under yuanzuo,wuzuo,and bizuo,certain relatives,neighbors and colleagues of the criminal would respectively be punished alongside with the criminal himself.Thus,Juanzuo,wuzuo and zbizuo shed light on the essence of relations between individuals and their clans,between individuals and their neighbors and between individuals and their colleagues respectively in traditional China.Both an outgrowth and an important institutional pllar of the absolutist monarchy,collective punishment functions to nip any potential threat to the autocratic regime in the bud.Moreover,collective punishment mirrors a special type of collective-individual relationship.Specifically,it reveals the collectivist nature of individual-collective relationship in traditional China that is featured with the fundamental role of clan,the synthesization of loyalty and filial piety and the same structure shared by Chinese families and the Chinese state.