<論説>隋代郷里制に関する一考察

Abstract

開皇九(五八九) 年に陳の平定とともに実施された隋の郷里制は、「五百家の郷正」に重点が置かれ、それにともなって郷も具体的な統治機関として機能していたことに注目されなければならない。つぎの唐朝では郷里制そのものは踏襲されたにもかかわらず、郷正の存在は姿を消し、郷もひとつの単位としての意味をもつに過ぎなくなっていることを考慮すれば、隋でみられた郷と郷正の問題は、隋朝が直面し解決を迫られていた当時の状況と密接な関係にあったと想定できる。すなわちこの郷里制は、隋朝治下に現われる旧北斉地域の動向と深く関わっていたのであり、郷村再編成を通じて、山東貴族勢力を存立せしめる基盤を奪い取り、一方その地の民衆の動きを抑えこんで社会の隅々にまで支配を及ぼすことを意図していたのである。郷正は、統治機構の一端に位置を占め、強力な権限を賦与されることによって、国家の意思を体現し郷村社会にそれを貫徹させる存在であった。

The Sui neighborhood system which had been put into effect with the pacification of the Ch'en 陳 in the ninth year of the K'ai-huang 開皇 period (589 A. D.), included the important feature of the "Headman of Five Hundred Households" (wu-pai chia hsiang-cheng 五百家郷正). Accordingly, one must take note of the fact that the neighborhood (hsiang郷) functioned as a concrete governmental organ. In the succeeding T'ang dynasty, despite the fact that the neighborhood system was followed, the neighborhood headman (hsiang-cheng 郷正) disappeared, and the neighborhood came to have no practical meaning other than as an entity in itself. When we consider the problem of the neighborhood and the neighborhood headman as seen in the Sui, we may suppose that it was closely related to contemporary conditions which the Sui directly confronted, and which demanded a solution. That is, the neighborhood system was deeply related to tendencies in the area of the former Northern Ch'i 北斉 dynasty which came under the rule of the Sui. On the one hand, through the reorganization of the villages, the basis of power of the Shantung 山東 aristocracy was seized. On the other hand, it was intended to curb the activity of the masses in this region, and to extend governmental control into every corner of the society. The neighborhood headman occupied a place in the governmental structure, and because he was given broad authority, he articulated the will of the state, and realized it throughout village society.