著者

辻 大地

出版者

東洋文庫

雑誌

東洋学報 : 東洋文庫和文紀要 (ISSN:03869067)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.98, no.4, pp.454-430, 2017-03

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This article discusses the influence of the suspension of local autonomy by Yuan Shikai (袁世凱) in February 1914, focusing on the irrigation project in Jiangnan (江南). As the summer of that year was marked by drought through Jiangsu (江蘇省) province, an irrigation project involving dredging and so on had to be conducted in both the Jiangnan and Jiangbei (江北) regions. After the suspension of local autonomy, the Jiangnan Irrigation Bureau (Jiangnan Shuili Ju 江南水利局) was established to bring the project into effect, which marks the starting point for this article's examination of local government administration at that time. A part of the research done to date suggests that, after the Third Revolution (第三革命), the provincial assemblies were revived, but local autonomy on the prefectural level was not restored, as the prefectural administrators (xian zhishi 県知事) strengthened their power by continuing to deny local autonomy. However, the author of this article has found that the irrigation project, conducted as one facet of governance at the local level in Jiangnan, were operated as before by the local gentry, in cooperation with authorities such as prefectural administrators and the Jiangnan Irrigation Bureau. In the amidst of political instability after the Xinhai Revolution (辛亥革命), the Beijing (北京) government found itself in fiscal difficulties, and was forced to rely in part on capital funds raised at the local level not only for such public works as the irrigation project, but also for the maintenance of law and order by armed vigilance committees (tuanfang 団防). Consequently, although reforms in legal institutions were carried out from the top down by the central government, public works at the local level still depended as before on local autonomy. In the case of Jiangnan in 1914–15, the importance of the role played by the prefectural gentry in basic echelons of society at the local level continued to be recognized, while the authorities―the prefectural administrators, who had taken on the role of the prefectural administrators in Dynastic China (zhouxian guan 州県官)―were crucial in the affairs of local governance. That being said, after the suspension of local autonomy, the Jiangnan Irrigation Bureau that was established in Suzhou (蘇州) brought together the prefectural gentry. Therefore, although the importance of provincial level administrative offices did increase from that time on, the prefectural gentry still continued to play a very important role in local governance.