｢士大夫」から華人へ --淸代後期同安縣の寺廟に對する寄付事例より

Abstract

This paper analyzes the contributions to the temples in Tongan 同安 county, in the area around Amoy, during the late Qing period. It reveals the kind of money that was used, the characteristics of such contributions, the group of contributors, and their changes over time. As for the contributions around Amoy, a vast majority of them were denominated in silver dollars. Although this result is consistent with the conclusion of previous studies, the concentration of silver dollars denominated contributions was more predominant in Amoy than in the cases of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou. Amoy served as an international trading port since the 1680s and became one of the treaty ports following the Opium War, thereby becoming a route of silver inflow, and emerging a difference between the status of Amoy and its hinterland ; that is, Quanzhou and Zhangzhou. As for the distribution of contributions, a considerable disparity existed within the contributor groups. Judging from the increase in the number of contributions that followed the establishment of treaty ports, the number of contributors also increased, suggesting that the growing contributors group represented a growing “middle class, ” which expanded after the opening of the port. Among merchants in the group of contributors, yanghang 洋行 and shanghang 商行 played a major role in the early 19th century, but have declined since then, and jiao郊were not conspicuous as a group of contributors. Conversely, there were many native contributors who bought eligibility of investiture up until the 1860s. In terms of the geographical reach of the contributors, contributions from coastal areas of China other than Taiwan were minimal. However, contributions from Chinese in Southeast Asia were conspicuous, predating the opening of the treaty ports, and became quite substantial in the 1870s. Beginning in the 1870s, the group of contributors who bought eligibility decreased, whereas the weight of Southeast Asian Chinese contributions and the number of contributors from Southeast Asia increased. Some Southeast Asian Chinese contributed large amounts of money. Wealth disparities in donor groups appear to be the result of the unification of contributors in Southeast Asia and around Amoy.