«楚游日记»所见明末湘南盗匪研究

On the bandits in southern Hunan during the late Ming Dynasty as written in The Diary of Chu Journey

崇祯十年(1637年)正月,徐霞客开始游历楚地。楚游期间,徐霞客多次遇盗,将遇盗见闻写入《楚游日记》。根据《楚游日记》记载盗匪活动的时空范围、作案手法、劫掠目标等特征,可以判定盗匪主要身份是以临武县、蓝山县矿夫演变而来的“沙贼”。沙贼起义过程中,联合湘南、粤北瑶民,同时吸纳部分土寇与流民,四处劫掠,成为制造湘南社会动乱的主要元凶。湘南特殊的地理环境、错综复杂的地方矛盾、行政区划设置的纰漏、基层治安能力下降等问题都是诱发盗匪横生的原因。严重的匪患从微观层面凸显了湘南地区社会动荡不安的现状,进而揭示出明末江河日下的统治图景。

In the January of the tenth year of Chongzhen(1637),Xu Xiake began to travel in Chu.During the journey of Chu,Xu Xiake encountered bandits many times and wrote his experience of bandits into The Diary of Chu Journey.According to the characteristics of the space-time range,modus operandi and looting target recorded in the diary of Chu journey,it can be judged that the main source of the bandits is the“Sha-zei”who evolved from the miners in Linwu and Lanshan counties.During the Sha-zei uprising,they united with the Yao people in southern Hunan and northern Guangdong.At the same time,they accepted some native bandits and refugees,looting everywhere and becoming the main culprit in creating social turmoil in southern Hunan.The special geographical environment of southern Hunan,the complex local contradictions,the mistakes in the setting of administrative divisions and the decline of grass-roots public security ability in southern Hunan are the reasons for the rampant occurrence of bandits.The serious banditry highlights the current situation of local social turmoil in southern Hunan from a microscopic level,and then reveals the picture of the declining rule in the late Ming Dynasty.