Editing Well-field system

{{short description|Chinese historical land distribution method}}
{{redirect|Jingtian|the actress|Jing Tian}}
[[File:Well-field system-en.svg|170px|right|thumb|The brown border between the farms resembles the character for ''well'' (井)]]

The '''well-field system''' ({{zh|c=井田制度|p=jǐngtián zhìdù}}) was a Chinese [[land redistribution]] method existing between the eleventh or tenth century BCE (Western [[Zhou dynasty]]) to around the [[Warring States period]]. Though [[Mencius]] describes examples from the Xia and Shang dynasties, these could be mythological or imagined, and credited [[King Wen of Zhou]] as one of the persons enacting the system.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mencius |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oXcjJbxcUsoC&q=mencius+book |title=Mencius |date=2004-10-28 |publisher=Penguin UK |isbn=978-0-14-190268-5 |language=en}}</ref> The name comes from [[Chinese character]] [[wikt:井|井]] (''jǐng''), which means 'well' and looks like the [[number sign|# symbol]]; this character represents the theoretical appearance of land division: a square area of land was divided into nine identically sized sections; the eight outer sections (私田; ''sītián'') were privately cultivated by farmers, or nong in Chinese, one of the occupations of the [[four occupations]] system; and the center section (公田; gōngtián) was communally cultivated on behalf of the government, or in some cases, the landowning aristocrat or duke.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Zhufu|1981|p=7}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Mencius |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oXcjJbxcUsoC&q=mencius+book |title=Mencius |date=2004-10-28 |publisher=Penguin UK |isbn=978-0-14-190268-5 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Well-field system {{!}} Qin Dynasty, Irrigation & Agriculture {{!}} Britannica |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/639289/well-field-system |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}} Note that this source only corroborates basic details of the paragraph it is used as a reference for.</ref>

While all fields were  government- or aristocrat-owned, the private fields were managed exclusively by farmers and the produce was entirely the farmers'. It was only produce from the communal fields, worked on by all eight families, that went to the government for famine distribution or the aristocrats and which, in turn, could go to the king as [[tribute]].

However, in Mencius it is said that all people in office got 50 mu (about half an acre).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mencius |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oXcjJbxcUsoC&q=mencius+book |title=Mencius |date=2004-10-28 |publisher=Penguin UK |isbn=978-0-14-190268-5 |language=en}}</ref>

As part of a larger [[fengjian]] system, the well-field system became strained in the [[Spring and Autumn period]]<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Zhufu|1981|p=9}}</ref> as kinship ties between aristocrats became meaningless.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Lewis|2006|p=142}}</ref>  When the system became economically untenable in the [[Warring States period]], it was replaced by a system of private land ownership.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Zhufu|1981|p=9}}</ref>  It was first suspended in the state of [[Qin (state)|Qin]] by [[Shang Yang]] and other states soon followed suit, though King Hui of Wei and King Xuan of Qi did think about restoring it after Mencius talked to them. They ultimately did not. <ref>{{Cite book |last=Mencius |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oXcjJbxcUsoC&q=mencius+book |title=Mencius |date=2004-10-28 |publisher=Penguin UK |isbn=978-0-14-190268-5 |language=en}}</ref>

As part of the "turning the clock back" reformations by [[Wang Mang]] during the short-lived [[Xin dynasty]], the system was restored temporarily<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Zhufu|1981|p=12}}</ref>  and renamed to the King's Fields (王田; ''wángtián'').  The practice was more-or-less ended by the [[Song dynasty]], but scholars like [[Zhang Zai]] and [[Su Xun]] were enthusiastic about its restoration invoking [[Mencius]]'s frequent praise of the system.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Bloom|1999|pp=129–134}}</ref>

It is mentioned in the [[Book of Rites|book of rites]] and it is said most anciently that the farmers only had to work the government fields 3 days a year; though it is unknown whether this is true, it is also said that the most ancient had houses given away, and 3 days was all that was required. In addition, it was stated the market of the goods would not be taxed; only a small fee for a stall, and travelers weren't taxed. It is later said in other texts that taxes were put on the market goods when a merchant was looking from side to side and people thought he was plotting.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Confucius |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cu3qDAAAQBAJ&q=book+of+rites |title=Delphi Collected Works of Confucius - Four Books and Five Classics of Confucianism (Illustrated) |date=2016-08-29 |publisher=Delphi Classics |isbn=978-1-78656-052-0 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Mencius |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oXcjJbxcUsoC&q=mencius+book |title=Mencius |date=2004-10-28 |publisher=Penguin UK |isbn=978-0-14-190268-5 |language=en}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{div col|colwidth=23em}}
* [[Agriculture in China]]
* [[Economic history of China]]
* [[Ejido]]
* [[Equal-field system]]
* [[Sharecropper]]
* [[Tenancy]]
{{div col end}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

=== Bibliography ===
*{{citation
|last=Bloom
|first=I.
|year=1999
|chapter=The evolution of Confucian tradition in antiquity
|title=Sources of Chinese Tradition
|volume=2
|editor-last=De Bary
|editor-first= William Theodore
|editor2-last=Chan
|editor2-first=Wing-tsit
|editor3-last=Lufrano
|editor3-first=Richard John
|editor4-last=Adler
|editor-first4=Joseph| display-editors = 3
|place=New York
|publisher=Columbia University Press
}}
*{{citation
|last=Lewis
|first=Mark Edward
|year=2006
|title=The Construction of Space in Early China
|place=Albany
|publisher=State University of New York Press
}}
*{{citation
|last=Zhufu
|first=Fu
|year=1981
|title=The economic history of China: Some special problems
|journal=Modern China
|volume=7
|issue=1
|pages=3–30
|doi=10.1177/009770048100700101
|s2cid=220738994
}}

== External links ==
*[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/639289/well-field-system Encyclopædia Britannica]

[[Category:Agriculture in China]]
[[Category:Chinese inventions]]
[[Category:Economic history of China]]
[[Category:History of agriculture in China]]
[[Category:Ancient Chinese institutions]]