基于碑刻与文书文献的清代“北侗九寨”乡村社会治理摭论

On Rural Social Governance of the “Nine Northern Villages of the Dong People” during the Qing Dynasty:Based on an Analysis of Stele Inscriptions and Historical Documents

“北侗九寨”是贵州省锦屏县西北部由九个侗族传统村落通过长期的交往交流而形成的典型的侗族山地文化区。历史上该地长期为自组织的传统社会,即通过非正式制度,特别是“款”“联款”组织以及寨老、款(团)首等乡绅的作用实现乡民社会的治理。清代,面对动荡的时局和诸多影响地方秩序的社会问题,基于力量对比、秩序维系和图存发展等方面的考量,“北侗九寨”地方“精英”引入国家力量,在特定时期实现了前所未有的相向互动及资源的有效整合,从治理秩序乱象以宁村社环境、修路建桥以利内外交通、兴起团练联防以御外患护家园、开展婚俗改革以纯社会风气和保护生态环境促进人与自然和谐共生等方面,对九寨一带的乡村治理及其秩序重构进行梳理。以碑刻与文书文献呈现出的清代西南民族乡村社会治理为个案分析,撷取可借鉴的经验,以期为当下实现民族乡村的有效治理、推进乡村振兴进程提供一定的参考和启示。

During the Qing Dynasty,it is generally understood that an informal system rooted in village-specific value norms,communal authority,customs and habits,religious beliefs,and social networks,dominated the rural order and governance structure within ethnic societies in Southwest China.However,amidst specific historical circumstances where the informal system faced difficulties solely shouldering the heavy responsibility of governance,formal state power(authority marked by a formal system),gradually infiltrated the“self-government structure”.All this involved the interaction and integration with the informal system,acting together on governance and order reconstruction of ethnic villages.The case study of the“Nine Northern Villages of the Dong People”in the Qingshui River Basin exemplifies this dynamic amidst social problems and governance.The“Nine Northern Villages of the Dong People”can be considered a typical mountain cultural area of the Dong Ethnic Minority formed by nine traditional villages in the northwest of Jinping County,Guizhou Province due to long-term mutual exchange.Because this place was situated at the junction of Jinping,Tianzhu,and Jianhe counties,it had been a necessary thoroughfare from east to west and contested military terrain.The upheavals during the reigns of Emperor Xiefeng and Tongzhi of the Qing Dynasty,notably the Zhang Xiumei and Jiang Yingfang uprisings,rendered the“Nine Northern Villages of the Dong People”particularly susceptible to conflict due to its special geographical location.Faced with internal strife and external pressures,records attest local“elites”introduced state power to mitigate challenges.Meanwhile,the local government also effectively leveraged local governance resources.The two forces thus achieved unprecedented mutual interaction and effective integration of resources in a specific period,and facilitated unprecedented socioeconomic stability and governance as well as order reconstruction in the“Nine Northern Villages of the Dong People”region,forming a rural governance system that combined formal and informal institutions.This article concludes that the single case study of the“Nine Northern Villages of the Dong People”not only shows a historical trajectory of the informal system s evolution in ethnic rural areas and its function of ethnic rural governance,but also a generative logic of the formal system s integration into the governance structure of ethnic villages,hereby demonstrating significance of state authority in rural society.Moreover,it showed how resources of both systems could synergize and interact,be it in a“bottom-up”or“top-down”approach in the face of social governance and order maintenance,thus influencing reconstruction of ethnic and rural societal frameworks.In sum,this article posits that the analysis of this case of the social governance of the southwestern ethnic villages during the Qing Dynasty,drawing on stele inscriptions and archival documents,holds an inherent value for realizing the effective governance of ethnic villages and advancing rural revitalization efforts in at the present era.