苏序救荒考:北宋前期一个蜀中乡村富民的行善与处世

An Exploration of Su Xu s(苏序)Famine Relief Activities:The Beneficence and Philosophy of Life of a Rural Wealthy Man in Shu(蜀)Area in Early Northern Song Dynasty

苏序是三苏的父、祖。身为北宋前期眉山乡村的一个普通富民,苏序曾有两次救荒活动:其中一次卖田救荒见于正式文献,另一次更为重要的救荒活动仅见于苏轼私下谈话记录。分析这两次救荒活动的具体内容,可以对应北宋前期四川地区两次饥荒的局部状况。更为重要的是,通过对第二次救荒活动的考证,我们发现其中存在牟利行为,这是苏家后人有意识掩饰此事的原因。事实上,苏序兼顾牟利的赈济活动更符合富民的行事逻辑,其慈善活动既是经营之道,也是处世之道。其中,经营之道主要表现为财富自限——不肯过多兼并土地,做到义利兼顾;处世之道主要表现为谦抑待人——不与人争竞,并乐善好施。采取此种生活策略的原因一方面源于眉山苏氏长期以来形成的传统家风,另一方面也源于眉山地区轻财富积累而重门第传统的社会评价体系。总体上看,苏序时代频繁的慈善活动虽造成了家族经济状况的波动,但眉山苏氏的社会地位却不断得到提升,完成了从富民之家到士大夫之家的转型,这为我们理解彼时富民的生活实态提供了有价值的个案材料。由此出发,可以增进我们对宋朝富民行善与处世之道的了解,继而对富民的慈善书写、社会作用及富民群体分化等问题做出后续思考。

Su Xu(苏序)who was the father of Su Xun(苏洵)and grandfather of Su Shi(苏轼)and Su Zhe(苏辙)was an ordinary wealthy person who lived in a village in Meishan(眉山)in the early Northern Song Dynasty.He has engaged in famine relief activities twice:one was to sell farmland to relieve the famine,which had been recorded in in official documents,but another important effort to relieve the famine can only be found in Su Shi s private conversation records.This paper intends to analyze the specific contents of these two famine relief activities,so that the local situation of Sichuan region during the two famines in the early Northern Song Dynasty could be partially revealed.More importantly,by examining the second famine relief activity,we can find that Su Xu had profited from the relief,which is the reason why the descendants of the Su family consciously hid the second famine relief activity.As a matter of fact,Su Xu s profit-making relief activities are more in line with the logic of the rich,whose charity activities are not only the way of management,but also the philosophy of life.Among them,the way of management is mainly manifested as the self-limitation of wealth,namely refusing to annex farmland too much,taking into account both interests and justice,the philosophy of life is mainly manifested as modesty,namely no competing with others but being benevolent.There are two reasons for Su Xu s behavior:on one hand,it originates from the family tradition inherited by the Su family for years;on the other hand,it also results from the social evaluation system of Meishan which emphasizes family reputation over wealth accumulation.In general,Su Xu s frequent charitable activities caused fluctuations in the Su family s finance,but gradually enhanced the social status of the Su family,transforming Su family from an ordinary rich family into one of literati.Therefore,Su Xu s famine relief activities not only serves as a case in point for us to penetrate into the real life of the rich,but also enriches our understanding of people s code of charity and philosophy of life in Song Dynasty,which in turn provides new ways to reevaluate the phenomena of charity writing,social function and group differentiation of the rich.