明末・楊嗣昌の地域防衞案について

Abstract

In the Ming dynasty, from Chongzhen 崇禎 10 to 12 (1637-1639), Li Zicheng's 李自成 rebellion was entering a period of weakness and division, while on the other hand, local rebellions linked to him, the "Kuang bandits" 礦賊 and others were gaining in strength. Moreover, the wave of rebellion did not stop at such areas of North China as Honan, but spread through Hubei and Hunan into Central and Southern China. The central government official Yang Sichang 楊嗣昌 (Grand Secretary of the East Hall, Minister of War) responded to the bandits with the "Ten sided net" encirclement campaign and the policy of "extermination and provision", and developed a program of local defense systems that was to stop the spread of the uprisings. First, in Honan, he devised 4 articles for the organization of local militia with the aim of acquiring talented men as commanders. Next, in Hunan and Hubei, he planned six articles that among other things were to: 1) develop a fighting core made up of "extra males" (yuding 餘丁) using the "encampment tax" (jue i tunzu 絶溢屯租) to fund their training, 2) repair walls and dykes by appropriating the "silver for maintaining post stations" (yi-cai-yin 驛裁銀) (or else by using "contributions" from local gentry), and 3) set up stores of "relief grain" for the poor by means of "subscriptions" (juan shu 捐輸) from the gentry. Then, for the provinces of the south (Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Guangdong and Fujian), he further devised 8 articles that 1) established a surtax based on the land tax and the "commercial tax" (shang shui 商税) that was to supplement funds for city wall repairs (presumably with the cooperation of the gentry), 2) maintained order through a bao-jia 保甲 system under gentry leadership, and 3) organized local troops made up of servants of the gentry and inhabitants that received yamen runners' "public rations" 工食. These items taken together were designed to carry out the 4 policies concerning local defense articulated by the Chongzhen emperor. These were: Repair, Readiness, Training and Provision. (xiu, bei, lian, zhu 修, 備, 練, 儲), namely: a) repair walls and moats, b) build up ramparts, c) train local militia, and d) store up provisions. An essential element of the policy was to stimulate economic assistance from the gentry and to develop local leadership. As a plan to combat local rebellion, it attempted to realize the Chongzhen emperor's policy by utilizing the strength of the local gentry. However, the Chongzhen emperor himself did not completely trust the idea of gentry leadership, and wanted to see them only in the role of providers of economic assistance. In contrast, it is generally thought now that the scholars of the Donglin 東林 faction regarded even economic assistance from the gentry to be a problem. Because of these developments and others, Yang Sichang's local defense policies were not successful.