清代國家政權僅及於縣、廳一級，縣、廳之下的廣大鄉間如何治理，引起學者廣泛的討論。本文擬以清代宜蘭爲討論的對象，作貫時性的探討，以瞭解清代基層治安組織－保甲制及爲補其不足而來的清庄聯甲組織的發展。本研究發現，宜蘭從嘉慶15年(1810)設治之初即未按十進法編查保甲，以地保負責保甲事務。道光初年行政區劃的堡與編查戶口單位的保合而爲一，改由宜蘭拓墾組織的結首爲保甲首領，保甲制流於形式，結首制在設治後仍在地方發揮作用。至於道光初年施行的聯庄或聯甲制，筆者認爲有常設及爲維護治安而臨時組成者，後者的功能大抵爲清查匪徒並共同防衛。總結清代宜蘭保甲制與清庄聯甲之施行，可以看到國家企圖以十進法之人爲組織伸入地方社會，惟實際上不可行。爲維持治安，地方官不得不結合地方既有勢力，變通更張保甲制，新開發的台灣既無強宗巨族，亦乏勢力龐大的士紳階層，各地街庄頭人遂爲地方官利用的對象，蓋其爲保鄉衛土上，與官方的利益是一致的，而其勢力僅及街庄，亦無尾大不掉之慮。

The local administrations of Qing dynasty merely reached to the county (縣) or subprefecture (州) level. The question that how and by what means could the local officials control the vast countryside, has aroused an extensive discussion. This study, choosing Qing I-lan as a case, attempts to describe, analyze and interpret the development of the bao-jia system and the 'qing-zhuang lian-jia' (cleansing villages and linked jias, 清庄聯甲) organization of the frontier area of Qing Taiwan. After this study, we found that the Qing government did not adopt the decimal system to organize people into security units (bao-jia system) from the beginning of setting up authority in I-lan. During the early Dau-guang (道光), the administrative division unit, bao (堡), and the household unit, bao (保), became one. The local officials of I-lan appointed the leaders of land developing organization, the Jie-shous (結首) of Jie-shou system, as the heads of bao-jia. Till then, the bao-jia system had become formalistic while the Jie-shou system still remained active as the local functional organization. As regard to the "Qing-zhuang lian-jia" system, we thought that there were two kinds of this system, one was a permanent organization, the other was a temporary one which was organized when local society was not secure and it would be dissolved when the peace reached. We found that the state was trying to use an artificial decimal system of bao-jia to extend its control into local society, while the situation made it difficult to do so. For the security's sake, local officials had no choice but to cooperate with the local elite, and to accommodate the boa-jia system. In frontier Taiwan, there was no strong lineages nor powerful gentry stratum existed; therefore, the leaders of towns and villages became a reliable force on behalf of the local officials to carry out government decrees not only because those local leaders shared the common interests with the officials, but also they were not powerful enough to constitute a menace to the officials.