Page 222 - 《社会》2022年第4期

传统乡约的现代性转换：杨开道的乡约—自治思想研究

Modern Transition of Traditional Township Covenants（“Xiang
Yue”）: A Study of Yang Kaidao’s Thoughts of “Xiang Yue” and
Autonomy
DI Jinhua HOU Dongyi
Abstract： During the Republic of China， some Chinese sociologists began to shift to the
“internal” perspective of history/tradition and internal structure after a period of
studying Chinese society from the “external” perspective as its disciplinary approach.
This “inward鄄turned” change makes it necessary for contemporary sociologists to
reinterpret their research texts in conjunction with the social history in which these
sociologists live. This paper takes Yang Kaidao’s study of “Xiang Yue”（乡约）as the
starting point to explore how he transformed traditional Chinese “Xiang Yue” culture
into modern governance resources in response to the democratic demands of China in a
period of modern transition. It divides the concept of “Xiang Yue” into two parts of
“Xiang”（township） and “Yue”（covenants）. “Xiang” can be understood as a
governance unit， and “Yue” as governance rules. The evolutionary process of“Xiang”
and “Yue” in Chinese history was examined as well as the practice of local autonomy
during the time of the Republic of China since Yang hoped his research would provide
guidance to such autonomy. It also analyzes Yang’s thinking on the basic units and
norms of local autonomy， and its ideological and social basis. Yang Kaidao advocated
the spirit of democratic autonomy in the traditional “Xiang Yue”， but he did not blindly
exclude the role of official rule， instead he argued for its power to be used as an
institutional guarantee. Even though the spirit of enlightenment contained in the
traditional “Xiang Yue” can be seen as somewhat interconnected with the imported
spirit of democratic autonomy， it is quite difficult to bridge the two in actuality because
of the discrepancies between the “group views” of China and the West. Governance units
should also be coordinated with historical traditions， local folk customs and governance
tasks. In addition to institutional norms， the guiding role of political leaders is also
indispensable in grass鄄roots governance. Through the analysis of Yang Kaidao’s“Xiang
Yue，” this paper has explored a research path that integrates interpretation of academic
history with the analysis of social history as a way to understand how an academic
concept comes into existence.
Keywords：Xiang Yue， local self鄄government, Yang Kaidao, moral governance

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