从侯方域《额吏胥》看晚明基层政治中的“吏胥之害”

A Discussion on the Harm of Junior Officials of Late Ming Dynasty From Hou Fangyu's "E Li Xu"

清初士人普遍产生了对明亡原因的反思,在关于晚明政治失败的议论中比较突出的命题之一,即是基层政治存在的"吏胥之害"。吏胥是中国古代政治结构中最基础、最底层的管理人员,往往掌握着实际的地方事务管理权。侯方域在《额吏胥》《正百姓》《重学校》等系列政论文中主要剖析和批判了晚明基层政治的弊端,特别是就吏胥选拔不公、数量冗大、对于地方政治的侵害,以及学校制度弊病等问题进行了深刻论述。究其文章立论的根源应该与崇祯十五年归德府发生的官衿结仇事件不无关系,当地青衿学子与地方吏胥过分纠缠于利益和意气之争中,最终导致了归德大哄的恶性冲突,进而间接酿成了李自成归德大屠的惨痛悲剧,造成当地士绅伤亡无数。

In the early Qing Dynasty, scholars generally had a reflection on the reasons for the demise of the MingDynasty. Most of them thought that the dereliction of duty of junior officials was one of the important reasons leadingto the political failure in the late Ming Dynasty.The junior officials were the most basic and the bottom managers ofthe political structure in ancient China, Although they had no high status, but they actually managed local affairs.Hou Fangyu deeply analyzed and criticized the malpractice of the grassroots politics in the late Ming Dynasty in hispolitical essays, such as "E Li Xu", "Zheng Bai Xing", "Zhong Xue Xiao" and so on. Especially,he criticized theproblems of unfair selection, large number of redundant officials and the violation of local politics. In addition, therewas a serious conflict between students and local officials of Gui De city in Chongzhen fifteen years, and then this in-cident indirectly led to Li Zicheng's army easily occupied the city, and slaughtered a lot of gentry. Therefore, HouFangyu criticized the matter severely in his article.