清代中期(1681-1853)的江南社會向被認為文風最盛，禮教影響最為充分，即地方性文獻中所說的「覃敷文德、以道化成」，以往研究似多注意上層精英推行的禮教下滲，所謂「君子尚禮，庸庶敦龐」，本文通過對鄉村日常生活的考察，探討「君子尚禮」與「庸庶敦龐」之間到底有什麼關聯，即鄉村社會如何對禮教下滲進行接受和回應。本文認為在這一地區禮教之所以有如此充分的下滲，關鍵在於鄉村社會形成了自己的接受管道，即通過民間私學、鄉村語文和民間信仰在日常生活中對鄉民浸潤漸漬，起主要作用的也是與鄉民生活接近的下層讀書人，而不是以往研究較多注重由官方推行的教化措施。與之相應，在這一過程中權力的加強和限制作為一種並置性的發展，也不是僅僅體現為以往研究較多強調的官方意識形態和士紳文化霸權對民眾的控制。再就更廣泛的社會生活層面來看，相關的發展還有鄉村社會各種文化和人際關係的調整，以緩和貧富之間的階級對立，所以禮教下滲的影響也就具有隨歷史變動而變動的相對性。在這個意義上，中國傳統歷史語境中的「禮俗相交」作為本土化的歷史認知，在地方性知識開掘的層面上，對現有來自西方經驗的分析框架當有一定的修正和補充意義。

Based on a documentary observation of Jiangnan village life in 18th and 19th centuries, this paper argues that Confucianism penetrated villager’s everyday life mainly through private schools, folk discourses, and popular religion. In this ways, Confucian ideas, in a sense, began to influence their everyday life in the village. Accordingly, rather than scholars who focused on official propaganda and education, low-stratum intellectuals, who led lives similar to those of the villagers, played a central role in communicating Confucianism to commoners. Similarly, in this process power was simultaneously being reinforced and restricted in ways not only visible in the controls of the official ideology and gentry’s cultural hegemony over the people that previous scholars have emphasized. As well, from a broader view of social life, related developments included adjustments in different kinds of village social cultures and social relations that ameliorate class conflict between poor and rich. Therefore, the effects of the penetration of Confucian norms into village life corresponded to historical changes. In this sense, the “ harmonization of ritual propriety and popular custom” of traditional historical discourse in the China might serve as a native historical category that could correct or supplement current conceptions that are principally derived from the Western historical experience and encourage the exploration of local knowledge.