淸代の鄕村組織と地方文獻 : 蘇州洞庭山地方の鄕村役を例にして

Abstract

This paper discusses how the rural clerks functioned and maintained the social system in the Dongting Shan district of Suzhou by referring to the three local documents, Dongting Shan Jinge Xianzong An 洞庭山禁革現總案, Taihu Beikao 太湖備考, and Taihuting Dang-an 太湖廳檔案. In 1766 the local government prohibited the xianzong 現總, the rural clerk system that had many times been abolished but reestablished, and instead put the general affairs of rural communities into the hands of a new rural clerk system called dizong 地總. The dibao 地保 described in Taihuting Dang-an appear to have devoted themselves to the interests of the village people and do not suggest the traditional villain. In effect, such rural clerks had the same nature as the dizong. What the people in the Dongting Shan district expected of the rural clerks in the mid-18th century was to revive the rural system and thus ensure stability. The local documents studied here demonstrate that the structure remained fundamentally unchanged until the end of the Qing period.