淸代 乾隆ㆍ嘉慶 연간 土弁의 등장과 역할 ― 四川 土屯과 湘西 苗弁을 중심으로 ―

초록

This study examines the establishment and operation of the Tǔbiàn system in the southwestern frontier during the Qing dynasty and reconsiders it as a distinct mechanism of frontier rule that emerged after the decline of the Tǔsī system. Rather than viewing Qing frontier administration solely through the binary framework of abolishing native chieftaincies and replacing them with regular bureaucratic rule, this article argues that the Qing state relied on intermediary institutions to maintain effective control over local society after the implementation of gaitu guiliu. In this context, Tǔbiàn refers to local ethnic elites who were incorporated into the Green Standard Army system and granted such ranks as Tǔqiānzǒng and Tǔbǎzǒng, enabling them to function as low-level agents of military, policing, and local governance. Particular attention is paid to the institutional precedents established after the Jinchuan Wars during the Qianlong reign and to their later development in Xiangxi after the Miao Rebellion of the Jiaqing reign. In the aftermath of the Jinchuan campaigns, the Qing court introduced the Tǔtún system, granting military-settlement posts to surrendered frontier populations and assigning them responsibilities for cultivation, defense, and local administration. More than a temporary postwar arrangement, this policy served as an effective means of stabilizing frontier society and became an important model for governing other non-Han regions. In Xiangxi, this earlier experience was adapted into the Miáobiàn system. Initially drawn from local Miao leaders who had rendered military service or submitted to the Qing during and after the rebellion, Miáobiàn assumed a wide range of responsibilities, including mediating disputes within Miáozhài, facilitating communication between villages and officials, maintaining public order, recovering weapons, and assisting in the reorganization of local society. In this way, they compensated for the practical limitations of direct rule by dispatched officials. At the same time, the Tǔbiàn system was fundamentally a transitional strategy shaped by the demands of post-rebellion frontier governance. As social order gradually stabilized and the boundary between Han and Miao became less rigid through increased interaction, the administrative usefulness of Miáobiàn declined. By the post-Jiaqing period, proposals to reduce their numbers reflected this changing context. The Tǔbiàn system was therefore not simply a residual form of native office, but a pragmatic institutional device through which the Qing state incorporated local elites into its own framework of rule while selectively transforming earlier structures of indigenous authority. By interpreting Tǔbiàn as a crucial interface between state power and local society, this study shows that Qing frontier governance was shaped not by unilateral centralization alone, but by processes of negotiation, adaptation, and incorporation rooted in regional conditions.

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