本文由地方菁英的研究視角出發，藉由清朝地方政府檔案，企圖瞭解清末北臺灣“總理”在鄉莊組織運作中的角色。總理是非正式的地方行政人員，大多經由地方人民向官府推舉後，經官府核准產生，目的在於協助官府推行政務。但本文從斥革總理的角度切入後發現：總理一職常是地方勢力所欲角逐標的，可以說是地方勢力鬥爭後的結果。就目前資料可知，十九世紀的北臺地區總理多為地主出身，這些地主常為自己爭取獲得官方肯定的總理職位，並利用總理身份在地方上建構其影響力，因此不得過分強調總理全然作為協助官府行政而設；加上總理源出於地方社會，不時要在官府與地方社會的利益間加以權衡。然而官府在總理人選決定上，則會考慮是否有助於其政務之推展，但也會順應地方社會的實際情形與族群結構做出調整。隨著近代日本殖民政權的到來，總理在十九世紀末期被吸納入屬於官方的正式體系之後，其自治性格及與地方社會的關係勢必產生質變。

The article tries to use the viewpoint of local elite and the local government archives under the Ch'ing dynasty to find out the function of Zongli (總理) in northern Taiwan during nineteenth century. The characters of Zongli were the unofficial position. The Zongli was first elected by local people, and then approved by the local government. In the eyes of the officials, the Zongli was seen as the cooperator of the government and was expected to help carry out the policies in local society. But from the viewpoint of deposing Zongli, it showed that Zongli was an aim which many local factions desired to get. We also could look on as the outcome of the conflict between the local factions. The most Zongli were rising from landowners. And they usually strived to occupy the position of Zongli which was approved by the authority. But we can not overemphasize that the Zongli was the cooperator of local administrations. Zongli maybe used this position to establish his effects in local society. Because the Zongli of local society had to maintain the benefits of his homeland, Zongli maybe contravened the administrations of government. Zongli sometimes had to concern about how to balance the benefits between local society and the government. The authority selected a suitable Zongli to assist the government affairs. And the government maybe changed the choice of persons because of the social demands, such as social atmospheres and ethnic problems. However, under the rule of modern Japanese government in late nineteenth century Zongli was absorbed into bureaucratic system. There were unavoidable changes in the autonomous characters of Zongli.