漢代以來,士大夫的生活圈大體可以分為四個層次:家族、閭里、邦國(州郡)、天下(四海)。其中閭里與邦國即本文所說的鄉里,因此也可簡化為三個層次。除家族生活外,「居鄉」與「出仕」一直是士大夫生活的兩個重要層面。鄉里是祖宗根本所在,鄉里介於家族與天下之間,跨越公、私兩個領域,反映了古代社會的重要面相。晉南北朝時代的鄉里關係非常複雜。一方面漢以來形成的地望觀念,不但未因動亂而破壞,反由流離加強了地域認同,大量地理書的出現即為例證。另一方面也由於動亂流離,士大夫「事新鄉如故鄉」,形成原貫與僑居雙重地域觀念。本文解析當時鄉里觀念,指出地方傳統的凝塑,地域山川、人物、文化的認同都是同鄉關係的另一面。本文探討同鄉網絡在武力結合、選舉品敘、仕宦交援、政軍行動中如何運作,以及鄉人因公私關係(如選舉、政爭)而產生的合作與衝突。從上述幾方面看來,同鄉之情是晉南北朝政治社會上的顯著現象,論其實質,實為家族關係的擴大,是五倫中的「長幼」一倫的反映。鄉人之齒序輩分,正同宗族之父老子弟,這種私人關係形之於公領域,遂出現公私的揉雜,在許多關鍵事件中影響了歷史的進程。
After the Han Dynasty, the social world of scholars can be divided into four levels: family, district, province and world (although for the purposes of this essay, district and province are lumped together as ”community” (hsiang-li 鄉里), thus making for three levels instead of four). In addition to the family, ”staying at community” and ”taking office” were two important aspects of a scholar’s life. The community, being the ancestral home and positioned between the family and the world, involved both the public and private areas and reflects core features of ancient society.The community relationship during the Chin, Southern and Northern dynasties is very complicated. On the one hand the concept of regional identity, formed since the Han Dynasty, had not been destroyed by wars but instead was strengthened, as evidenced by the enormous amount of geographic works that were produced. On the other hand, being refugees of wars, scholars therefore treated their new hometowns as their old ones, thus forming the dual regional concept of birthplace and place of immigration. This essay analyzes the community concept of that time and points out that the aggregation of local traditions and geographical, personal, and cultural identification are flip sides of the community relationship. This essay also focuses on how the community network worked in relation to the integration of military force, the system of recruitment and assessment, the exchange of assistance between government officials, and the political-military operations, and the cooperation and conflicts arising from public and private relations (e.g. recruitments and political disputes).From the above, the community relationship is seen as being a significant phenomenon both in the politics and society of the Chin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. It was in fact essentially an extension of family relationships reflecting the concept of seniority in the ”five human relationships” of Confucianism. The seniority and ranking in the same community were recognized similar to those in families. This extension of private relationships into the public realm ended up causing many complications and seriously influencing the course of history for many crucial events.