朝衰、和珅及咸與維新之意識型態

Dynastic Decline, Heshen, and the Ideology of the Xianyu Reforms

本文檢視西元1799 至1805年間嘉慶皇帝於剷除和珅後所執行之朝廷改革──咸與維新。以往對此事件之探討係著重其儒家模式及其無力阻擋十九世紀王朝衰退的挑戰，本文則著重於探討其意識型態及畏懼改變所衍生之契機。嘉慶朝為了穩固權力及促進革新，運用和珅所代表之道德及行政崩散形象來定義衰退，並藉此刺激公眾情緒，經由製造出和坤（衰退）及嘉慶（興起）兩極端對比（反映陰陽／宇宙力量之衝擊），合理化其對和珅的攻擊，並清除更多的官僚主義。嘉慶朝執行了與和珅時期全然不同之革新，塑造此維新之重點及型式，並藉以選擇價值、重新定位政體。戚與維新不但未被傳統所束縛，反而極有創意地運用了傳統。

This article examines the 1799-1805 Xianyu Reforms, a period of governmental reform in the wake of Emperor Jiaqing's purge of the powerful minister Heshen. Previous accounts of this event stress its Confucian form and inability to avert nineteenth century challenges of dynastic decline. This paper, however, focuses on ideology and how new change offered not an obstacle, but an opportunity. In securing power and advancing reform, the Jiaqing court manipulated a caricatured image of Minister Heshen-and, more broadly, moral/ administrative breakdown in order to define decline and galvanize public sentiment. Creation of a polemic, classics based vision of Heshen (decline) vs. Jiaqing (revival), reflective of a clash of cosmic forces, legitimated the attack on the minister while offering an alternative to a larger bureaucratic purge. Posing new reforms as the mirror opposite of the 'Heshen Regency,' in turn, molded the shape and the focus of new reform, orienting it pragmatically toward select values and broader political incorporation of polity. The Xianyu Reforms, that is, were not shackled by tradition; they used tradition creatively.