明代 福建 新縣의 社會ㆍ文化的 變化 ― 縣城을 중심으로 ―

Abstract

During the middle of Ming, the walled district cities of the new districts in Fujian, became nucleuses newly rising in the areas remote from the existing walled district cities. As a regional center, the status of each walled district city varied according to the land size it controled, and the number of towns in it, and its location and land size were marked on maps. On the maps, each district was marked by a symbol of wall like existing districts, and it was listed along with the name of its district school, which made it clear that it was not only a independent unit of tax collection but also a unit of social education producing students and praying for Confucius and saints. In a walled district city, there were city walls, a district office, and a district school, and each of them was its geological, political, and cultural center, so it functioned as a symbol of civilization, a cultural center, an embodiment of national authority, and a shelter in times of troubles. They could be possible because, of all things, its wall marked its boundary and functioned as its defence measures. The seat of a district, when it had not been protected by walls, had lacked the measure for its defence, which had brought social unrests, decrease of population, and consequently no social education had been possible, thus it had been called 'vulgar district'. But once the walls were constructed, owing to construction of social overhead structures such as roads and bridges, establishments of social welfare systems, increase in the number of streets and markets, with growth in population and various people composing it, it became the center of economy and welfare, and all of these show the features of the walled district city. The center in walled district city was the district office and school, and its leader was called district magistrates. As the emperor's representatives, district magistrates had powerful influence on politics and culture in the district, but their governing power was limited because of their regular transfers, and a system which banned the appointment of officials to their native areas, and short financial resources. So they utilized the local influentials such as the upright people or the gentry when doing construction or building works or in relieving the sufferers and the indigent, and they prompted their voluntary participation by granting them tax exemption charters or praising them by setting their name tablets in the district shrine of honor or listing their names in the chapters of biographies in the history of the district, and all of these facts show aspects of the relationships between them. In turn the local influentials had chances to participate in various works, consequently they were granted authority from the government powers. They raised their status in the new district while intensifying their lineal unity so that they could even defy the government authority. Thus, district magistrates tried to maintain stable governing by practicing bad-cop measures, the laws and authority, symbolized by the district offices, aiming to suppress strong-influentials and local-officials, as well as good-cop measures, the spread of confucian culture through education, symbolized by schools. There are lots of books which lay great importance on the district magistrates's personal abilities and emphasizing not only their humane-governing but also courteous-governing, and it shows the situation that district magistrates had faced. The union between the government authority and local influentials brought out the emerging of a group of people called the gentry, and as the influentials in the community, they became the spearheads in the district in carrying out the national policies and spreading the confucian cultures. It was the gentry who diffused the confucian way of funeral, and 3 years attendance on the parent's tombs. Their role could be seen in the fact that the diffusion of confucian culture had been feeble in the areas where the formation of groups of the gentry was weak such as the Shouning district. Also as seen in the case of the Zhangping district which showed how the existence of district wall and appearance of bandits affected the area, the socoial-economical stabilization and development was the basis for the development of the class of the gentry and the spread of confucian culture. Thus, district magistrates strived to spread the education and culturalization, promote welfare systems, build up social security, collect taxes fairly, reform the social orders, maintain buildings and facilities, and expand the economic basis. District schools were the center drawing the voluntary obedience from the people by producing pools of future officials, and by spreading confucian principles through education and religious ceremonies. Once school were opened in the new district, the district areas, where it had been difficult to produce the gentry, could access the school easily and came to produce the gentry, and consequently confucian courtegy became an important standard in maintaining the orders in the community. For that reason, even in 1 or 2 generations after the foundation of the new district, local prestigious families appeared, and they came to have the authorities as the leaders in their community, making it a social trend for lots of men to go into the way of learning. Also when the selections for officials came to be centralized among the ones who had passed national tests and the district school student's entry into the public services came to be limited, the function of the schools changed from the institutions as a basis producing future officials to the ones for the students to get the qualifications for national tests, or just to receive scholarships and get the qualifications for tax exemption. Because of it, the private educational institutions such as private academy, lineage-school, family-school gained more importance. The expanding private education institutions were a result of the people's growing concerns for education and the diffusion of confucian culture into basic community, but they were also stimuli for them.