摘要： 明清时期中国乡村社会背景下的权力结构及其变迁一直为中外学界所关注。乡绅几乎是所有相关研究都无法绕开的关键一环。本文从以往学者对乡绅的不同理解出发，揭示乡绅所具有的权力要素与国家权力之间的紧密关系。探求在国家正式权力对乡村社会的控制力逐渐弱化的前提下，乡绅之治的生成路径。在中国封建社会后期独特的国家与社会的场域中，揭示乡绅之治与国家权力之间的内在联系，即一方面，乡绅之治是国家权力在乡村治理中的延伸；另一方面，乡绅之治是乡村社会防御国家权力的屏障。乡绅之治以保守的姿态，而不是革命的情绪，最终向专制主义国家争得了一个相对自治的乡村社会。

关键词: 乡绅, 乡绅之治, 国家权力, 非正式权力, 明清时期

Abstract: The structure and changes of the power on the background of Chinese rural society in the Ming-Qing Dynas-ties is always concerned by Chinese and foreign scholars. The rural gentry cannot be bypassed almost in all relat-ed research. Starting with the analysis to the rural gentry of various opinions of the previous scholars, this paperreveals the close links between the power elements belong to the rural gentry and the state power. The paperprobes the generating path of the rule of rural gentry on the condition of the weakening of the state formal authoritywhich controls the rural society. In the special field of the state and society in the later period of Chinese feudalsociety, the paper interprets the relationship between the rule of rural gentry and the state power. The conclusionis that the rule of rural gentry is the extending of the state power in the rural governance but it also provides a de-fense against the state power for the rural society. With the conservative posture instead of the revolutionary feel-ing, the rule of the rural gentry had wined a relatively autonomous rural society from the absolute state finally.

Key words: The Rural Gentry, The Rule of Rural Gentry, The State Power, Informal Power, The Ming-Qing Dynasties