臺灣契約文書的蒐集與研究，近年來頗受矚目。在各方努力下，目 前所挖掘出的契約文書數量，已遠超過前人的預估。面對空前豐富的資 料，契約分類學很自然地浮現出來。本文回顧近一百多年來，研究者蒐 集和分類臺灣契約文書的歷程。希望藉由往昔的經驗，提供來者思考的 基點。 我們將從日本時代殖民者對臺灣「舊慣」的調查開始——這是臺灣 蒐集民間契約文書的濫觴，更深刻影響後人對古文書的認識。此處我們 特別集中在岡松參太郎對契約的觀點，以及《臺灣私法》中的分類。接 下來，則沿時間順序，依次討論戰後幾波蒐集民間文書的經過，包括戰 後初期，1970-1980年代、1990以後等三個時間點。最後則分析戰後整理 者所採取的分類體系。 本文指出，多數契約文書的整理者著眼的並不是分類的普遍法則， 而是針對手中所握有的資料，進行彈性調整。這種由下而上的分類，是 務實的作法，卻很難形成普遍適用的原則。而且當需要分類的對象，從 幾百件、幾千件，突然成為幾萬件時，內部錯綜複雜的程度相對增加， 要理出頭緒的困難度自然也大幅上升。原本的分類，便因此失去了普遍 的適用性。臺灣契約的分類學，尚待集思廣益。

The collection of land deeds in Taiwan gained increasing popularity in recent years. The known number of land deeds has been far more than previously assumed. Facing an unprecedented wealth of resources, researchers nowadays also encounter a new problem：the taxonomy of land deeds. This paper investigates how researchers collected and classified land deeds in Taiwan in the past hundred years. We start with the colonial period when several Japanese scholars began to collect land deeds in order to study “old customs”in Taiwan. Their achievements and viewpoints had a profound impact on future generations. Here, we focus particularly on Okamatsu Taro, a Japanese jurisprudence, and his works before discussing several phases of collecting land deeds in postwar Taiwan. We also investigate different perspectivesof classifying land deed in the postwar period. The major argument of this article is that most scholars handling with the problem of classification did not seek a system universally applicable. Thus,while facing tens of thousands of land deeds, we have to rethink the taxonomy of land deeds.

契約文書；古文書；分類學

land deeds；collection；taxonomy