袍哥是清末民國盛行四川的一種民間幫會組織,遍布川西北羌族地區白草河流域,成為當地社會的一種權威和秩序結構,地方民眾廣泛加入其中。袍哥勢力與地方政權深度融合,成為當地羌族社會重要的權威力量,在失序的社會中建構了特定的社會秩序,對國民政府地方政權的虛弱化起到了功能性彌補作用。

The Gowned Brothers( Pao Ge) was a kind of folk gang organization which was popular in Sichuan in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China,all over the White-grass River Basin in the Qiang-inhabited area of northwest Sichuan,symbolizing an authoritative and orderly structure of the local society with many local people as its members. Due to its successful integration with the local regime,it became an important authority of the local Qiang society,and helped the construction of a specific social order in that disordered society,playing a compensatory role in helping the weak local government during the period of the Republic of China.