<論説>同化と異化 : 明代広西の「猺獞」と土官岑氏一族 (特集 : 民族)

Abstract

明清時代、華南地方の山地一帯には猺獞と呼ばれる人々が暮らしていた。彼らは、官府当局からはしばしば現地の治安秩序を脅かす敵対勢力とみなされたが、同時に山間の田地を耕す農業労働者として漢人社会と密接なつながりをもち、漢人の中にもこれと積極的に交わろうとする人々もあった。一方、広西西部の府州県には土人と呼ばれる人々が広く分布していた。彼らは漢地一般の民とは種族を異にするものとみなされたが、土官に服する良民として、猺獞とも一線を画する存在であった。ただし、猺獞は狼兵として土官支配下に組み込まれることで、土人へと同化していった。土官たちは互いに領土や継承問題をめぐって抗争に明け暮れており、省三司や総督巡撫はこれを問題視してしばしば改土帰流を試みたが、常に成功を収めたわけではなかった。それは、土官が猺獞の馴化と土人社会の安定を担う機構として、官府にとっても土人たちにとっても必要な存在だったからである。

During Ming and Qing times, there lived a group of people called Yao-Zhuang 猺獞, also known as the Yao and Zhuang, in the mountain districts of the Huanan area. They were sometimes taken by the government officials as barbarous aliens, who threatened the social stability of the region, but at the same time they had quite close relationships with Han society, living as peasant-workers for Han land owners. In contrast there was another group of people called Tu-ren 土人, the people of the land or natives, whose communities were spread through the counties and prefectures of western Guangxi Province. Speaking a language belonging to the Tai-Kadai family and ruled by local chieftains, called tuguan 土官 or tusi 土司, who were granted the right to inherit certain official titles by the central government, the Tu-ren were regarded as a specific ethnic group that differed from both the Han and the Yao-Zhuang. On the other hand, the Lang 狼 people, who were organized as soldiers under the tuguan, were very similar to the Yao-Zhuang and virtually identical to the Tu-ren. As is demonstrated in this article, the complex relationships among ambiguously delineated and overlapping ethnic groups such as the Yao, Zhuang, Han, Tu and Lang, were much more complicated than the simplified ethnic demarcations of today would suggest.