Page 45 - 《社会》2022年第5期

社会·2022·5

Bao’s study of the Choni chieftain system， this paper offers a systematic analysis of
power transition of Choni chieftain and its sociological mechanism. Xie Di， the first
chieftain of Choni， relied on the power of witchcraft to obtain his throne， and through
sacrifices to the local Mountain鄄God a myae brag dkar， gained the right to control the
tribal warrior group. Choni chieftain system in this period was typical of the New鄄Age
group of kingship. During the Kangxi Period of the Qing Dynasty， with the powerful
legislative process of the central government in the frontier， Choni chieftain experienced
a series of political and religious reforms such as the publication of the Tripitaka， thus
turning its system to a more rational and judicial form of Old鄄Age group. After that， the
chieftain consisted of patrimonialism and military fiefdoms. The former refers to the
relationship between the chieftain and the twelve Zhang’ga （affiliated groups living in
the county seat of Choni）， whereas the latter was the forty鄄eight highly autonomous
military鄄production organizations named Qi. These two parts were linked together by
means of the Qi electoral system. By comparing with other forms of kingships， this paper
argues that it is insufficient to understand the kingship system just from tribal leaders and
chiefs. The essence of the kingship lies in the encompassing of social diversity. The
priest鄄based hierarchy and the judicial鄄based peace are the key to kingship. During the
frontier peace movement in the Kangxi Period， Choni chieftain established a relatively
complete hierarchical system by publishing the Tripitaka and expanding the diocese of
Chanding monastery. However， it still failed to curb the tendency of the subordinate
members to secede， and the judicial rulings of the central government were the
fundamental basis for Choni chieftain to maintain power and status. Neither witchcraft
nor judicial kingship could exercise full control of the warriors as kingship only a partial
part of the political system. Lastly， this paper points out that， for any society， there are
both the tendency of social integration and the tendency of secession by identity groups.
It is the tension between these two tendencies that provides crucial evidences for scholars
to understand social structure and its dynamics.
Keywords：kingship， Choni chieftain， frontier peace， Charisma

1944 年， 从魁阁回到兰州大学工作的谷苞先生迅速投入对卓尼藏
区的田野调查中。 基于这次田野工作，谷苞先生撰写了 30 余篇学术论
文，其中，《卓尼藏区的土司制度》和《卓尼藏区朱扎七旗的总承制度》
两篇文章是中国民族学与人类学第一次以民族志的方式来呈现中国西

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