东汉后期士大夫社会拯救活动述论

东汉自和帝始,外戚宦官交替专权,政治腐败,社会危机严重,代表社会、象征国家的皇权被两派势力异化,士大夫集团的权力和利益被严重剥夺,统治岌岌可危.作为专制政权组织基础的士大夫对此忧心忡忡.为匡时救世,他们开展了一系列社会拯救活动,大致可分为舆论层面政治批判和实践层面对弊政进行的直接或间接的纠治和打击活动.士大夫的社会拯救活动对改善黑暗政治和维系东汉的统治起到了一定作用.因缺乏对君主专制制度本质的认识,士大夫对现实政治的批判很少触及深层政治结构.但其批判时弊精神使专制制度在实际运行中保持一定的舆论开放和相对独立的批评、监督力量,降低了专制制度的封闭性和随意性.

A Discussion on the Social Rescuing Activities Carried out by the Scholars-Officials in the Late Period of East Han Dynasty

From the period of Emperor Huodi of the East Han dynasty, the relatives of emperors and the eunuchs held powers alternatively; politics was corrupt; the social crisis was serious; and the royal power that stands for society and the state was in danger. As the foundation of the autocratic political power, the scholar-officials were very anxious about this matter. In order to make right existing evils, they launched a series of social rescuing activities, which may be roughly divided into political criticism in public opinion respect and direct or indirect rectification of or struggle against the current malpractices in practical respect.. These activities exerted certain actions on the correction of the dark politics and maintained the rule of emperors. But as the scholar-officials were short of understanding the essence of the monarchy system, their activities seldom touched the deep political structure. Nevertheless, their critical spirit still made the monarchy system keep certain open of public opinion and correspond independent criticism and supervising force, as well as decreased the closed nature and hidden nature of the monarchy system.