清代「省友」初探

Preliminary Research on “Provincial Friends” in the Qing Dynasty

「省友」係「坐省家人」的別稱，多由有書吏背景者、長隨家人或佐雜差役人等充任，常年株守省城，溝通督撫部院、藩臬二司各房書吏，為州縣探聽信息，包攬州縣交代、錢糧領解、投文解犯、刑命案獄等事務。他們既是州縣的辦事熟手，又是藩臬二司彙辦年例錢糧奏銷與赦案時的傳催對象，在地方行政機構運作中起著居間協調作用。「省友」之所以能夠長期存在，屢禁而不革，除卻各府廳州縣距省窵遠、通訊技術條件有限等客觀因素，更與帝制中國高度集權體制和「小政府」型的統治模式有著密切關係。

＂Provincial friends＂ (shengyou), also called ＂servants in the province,＂ (zuosheng jiaren), mostly consisted of a local official's clerks and personal servants. They were stationed in the provincial capital all year round and were responsible for the contacts with clerks working for the provincial government to acquire information, handle reports and guaranties from the outgoing magistrate to his successor, submit documents, draw salaries and deliver various fees, and hand over convicts to the provincial judge, and so forth. Competent to handle provincial affairs, ＂provincial friends＂ were trusted by the district magistrate. Sometimes they were also summoned by the provincial administration commissioner or provincial surveillance commissioner to act as county representatives to deal with provincial annual expenditure reports and general amnesties, thus playing an integral role in local administrative operations in the Qing Dynasty. Due to the limited communications between the county and provincial capitals, the highly centralized political system, and the ＂small government＂ of the Qing, ＂provincial friends＂ tended to persist in the local government in spite of repeated prohibitions from the central government.