皇權、法律與社會控制──以清代秘密社會為中心

Abstract

本研究以秘密社會（秘密宗教、秘密會黨）為例，觀察清朝政府透過敕令、上諭、奏摺御批等代表皇權的展現，以及律、例等法律條文之間的交錯運用，呈現出清代政策與社會控制手段的變化。清初官方政策與法律條文乃至於案件審判上，再再呈現出對秘密社會零容忍的態度；至清中期政權逐漸穩固，除了邊疆地區外，對於秘密社會的態度轉趨寬容；及至清中後期，朝廷中開始相繼出現「不問教不教，只問匪不匪」和「不問會不會，只問匪不匪」的聲音，甚至正式頒布上諭，只究其為匪，不問其為會，這是清代官方對秘密社會態度上重要的轉變。但此一態度出現的前期，是因政權逐漸穩固，而後期則因社會變動劇烈，因而採行的權宜之變；至清末期過渡至民國初年時，清代官方所制定的法規範與其政權弱化，並處於幾近瓦解的狀態。國家劇烈變動下，既有的法規範無力控制地方社會秩序，而地方社會處於法規範幾近真空狀態下，卻保有一定的秩序，除了原先地方社會的宗族規範力量外，取代國家法規範的竟為原先受法規範認定危害社會秩序而將其壓制的秘密社會，成了另類穩定社會秩序的特殊現象。同時，秘密社會的一些行為仍多有對社會造成嚴重侵蝕，因此，在民國建立後，秘密社會不因參與革命運動有功，而有所轉型躍升，得到政權接納，反而再次成為政權取締查禁的對象，重回下層社會。This study takes secret society, including secret religious sects and secret association, as examples to observe how the government of the Qing dynasty show their imperial power through decrees, edicts, and memorials to the throne, as well as the intertwined use of laws and regulations, displaying the changes in policy and social control of the Qing dynasty. In the early Qing Dynasty, official policies, legal provisions, and even case trials showed zero tolerance towards the secret society. In the mid-Qing Dynasty, the regime was gradually stabilized. Except for border areas, attitudes towards secret society gradually became more lenient. In the middle and late Qing dynasty, voices of “religious or not, the only thing that matters is bandit or not” and “association or not, the only thing that matters is bandit or not” started to appear in the imperial court. Official edicts were even announced just to find out whether one was a bandit, not caring about whether they were part of social association. This is an important change in the attitude of the Qing Dynasty towards the secret society. However, the early stage of this attitude was due to the gradual stabilization of political power, while in the later period, violent social changes resulted in adjustments in strategy. By the end of the Qing Dynasty to the transition to the early years of the Republic of China, the laws and regulations formulated by the government of the Qing Dynasty and its regime weakened and were in a state of near collapse. Under the drastic changes of the country, the existing laws and regulations were unable to keep local social order under control. However, even though the local society was in a near-vacuum state under the laws and regulations, a certain order was maintained. In addition to the original clan power of the local society, it was the secret society which was originally suppressed by the law and was determined to endanger social order that replaced the national law, turning into a special phenomenon of stable social order. At the same time, some acts in secret societies were still detrimental to the society. Therefore, after the establishment of the Republic of China, even though the secret society participated in the revolutionary movement, they did not undergo transformation and leap forward, nor did they gain acceptance by the regime. Instead, the secret society was once again banned by the regime, falling back into the lower class of society.