遗嘱与当代华北乡村家产制的变迁——财产自由处分和赡养的再结合

Testaments and Changes of Family Property in Contemporary Rural North China—— A Recombination of the Freedom to Dispose of Property and the Requirement forOld-Age Support

本文利用河北省李镇20世纪90年代至今的司法所档案,及对《中国农村惯行调查》所载的其中一个村庄——侯家营村的六次回访调查。借助档案中的遗嘱文书、问答记录和田野材料,考察了遗嘱继承在当代华北乡村的逐渐生成,以及遗嘱—赡养的结合。遗嘱文书显现出父母对财产自由处分的形成,而问答记录恰好提供了审视遗嘱生成背后的赡养问题,田野材料则为两者的连接提供了背景材料和相关事实,显示了遗嘱(财产自由处分)—赡养的相互勾连这一全新的经验事实,遗嘱—赡养的结合又进一步证实了村民普遍将赡养作为财产继承的前提。遗嘱代表着不同于清代和民国时期乡村的财产处分和继承形式,但是它却与赡养极好地结合在一起。民国至今,伴随着政治经济的变迁,法律也发生了巨大的变化,但在财产继承上不变的是,财产和赡养的紧密缠绕关系。这既不能为继承习惯延续一说所概括,也不能被现代的“个人财产权”所解释。至于其未来变化的趋势,还有待于材料的进一步挖掘和持续的观察。

Based on the judicial archives of Li Town,Hebei Province from the 1990s to the present,and six re-investigation of the houjiaying village,one of six villages that KC(Mantetsu surveys of the 1930’s and 1940’s)recorded,this article specially uses the testamentary instruments and fieldwork research to reveal how testamentary succession were gradually formed through the intertwined relationship between property and old-age support in contemporary rural North China.Testamentary instruments indicate the parental rights to dispose of their property and questions-and-answers interview files reveal the old-age maintenance consideration that lie behind the provisions of the testaments.The fieldwork material plays a key role in connecting these two aspects by providing backgrounds and relevant facts.The new empirical finding further confirms that the old-age support is always considered a prerequisite to property succession.Testamentary succession differs from traditional modes of disposing of property and of succession forms in Qing and Republican China,but merges well property inheritance with concerns for the maintenance of the elderly.Although the law had undergone tremendous changes along with the political and economic change,the tight intertwined relationship between property and old-age support remains unaltered on the whole.Neither the simple continuation of traditional succession forms,nor the newly introducted modern concept of“individual property rights”could provide an explanation for this persistent relationship between property inheritance and old-age support.