超越概念之外：評陳亞平《尋求規則與秩序：18－19世紀重慶商人組織的研究》

On Chen Yaping’s The Pursuit of Rules and Order: A Study of Chongqing Merchant Organizations from the 18th to the 19th Century

本文是關於陳亞平《尋求規則與秩序：18－19世紀重慶商人組織的研究》一書的書評。陳亞平在書中回應了對於如何重新評價十六世紀以來中國經濟成長以及社會建構的學術反思。作者認為應摒棄以大而化之的理論概念為主導的研究，回到具體的歷史場景中對中國傳統工商業群體作實證考察。透過對巴縣檔案細緻的文本分析，作者描繪清代重慶商人組織與國家間及其內部的互動整合，進而得出結論：十八至十九世紀的中國商人組織，並非是阻礙經濟發展的「封建行會」，也不是以市場力量對抗國王的「公共領域」。

This article is a book review of Chen Yaping’s The Pursuit of Rules and Order: A Study of Chongqing Merchant Organizations from the 18th to the 19th Century. In this work, Chen Yaping responds to scholarly reflections on how to re-evaluate China’s economic growth and societal development since the 16th century. He holds that research based on unexamined theoretical concepts should be abandoned. Scholars should go back to history and conduct empirical investigation into traditional Chinese industrial and commercial groups. Through a careful textual analysis of materials from the Baxian Archives, the author depicts the interaction between and integration of Chongqing merchant organizations and the state in the Qing Dynasty. He concludes that Chinese merchant organizations from the 18th to the 19th century were neither “feudal guilds” that hindered economic development nor a “public sphere” depending on market forces to oppose the ruler.