A Study On The Land Ownership Of The 19th Du Of Lanxi In The Late Qing Dynasty

The Yu Lin Tu Ce is a land register compiled by the government for the purpose of levying taxes and protecting land rights.It contains rich information about the ties between people and land,and also serves as precious firsthand materials for in-depth study of the relationship between rural land rights and living conditions of farmers.Thanks to the integral preservation of the Tong Zhi Lan Xi Yu Lin Tu Ce,a regional study can be carried out on the scope of a "Du".As one of the earliest areas where the land survey was completed during the reign of Tong Zhi in Lan Xi,the 19 th Du is a typical representative of the collected samples with some rare supportive attachments such as "Zhao Hui" and "Fu Hao Lin Ce".According to the 18 volumes(410-427 volumes)of Yu Lin Tu Ce which is related to Tong Zhi Lan Xi 19 th Du,the 19 th Du had 16,600 plots of land,with a total area of1,5708.3687 mu.The land type was dominated by fields where Chi Xi and Da Fu Streams flow through for irrigation.It indicates that residents of 19 th Du primarily lived on farming.Based on different types of owners,the landowners registered in the Yu Lin Tu Ce can be classified as ordinary owners,ancestor owners,ancestral hall owners,club owners,and temple owners,etc.After assigning the land to their owners respectively,a scope of how the land was distributed in different social classes is revealed.It shows that most of the land was occupied by ordinary and ancestor owners in 19 th Du.Then the method of making a further survey into each ordinary landowner and gathering all land belonging to the same property owner together is applied.It is an alternative option for the absence of household registers and actual tax levying registers.In 19 th Du,small landlords were the majority,while the owner of large-area land appeared in the form of clans.In the meantime,there were very few landowners having more than 100 mu.Since the registered household’s name might not be the owner but a name succeeded from their ancestors,the number of households was not guaranteed to be the population.Under a large households’ name,there might be several small households sharing the same name and being levied with money and grains as a group.Therefore,it is irresponsible to make the inference that land ownership was concentrated with the fact that few squires occupied large land,nor to ignore the existence of self-cultivating farmers based on the phenomenon of land concentrating.Based on the Yu Lin Tu Ce,combined with pedigrees,local chronicles,and other supportive materials,the 19 th Du’s economic and social situation is revealed.The evidence found not only supports the study of the distribution of land,people,and clans in Lan Xi 19 th Du during the reign of Tong Zhi,but also shows the situation of land concentration in different levels of administrative division.In the meantime,combined with different characteristics of landowners,a diagram of how the force distributed in different social parties is exposed.This study is a typical case and will facilitate further study of Jiangnan areas in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.