Does the Jing Tian system mentioned in the classic Mencius really exist?

Well-field system is a land system implemented in the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties in Confucian legends, and it is an important content of the last three generations of kings. History textbooks in primary and secondary schools are convinced of this.

Is there really a well-field system in history? I tend to think that the well-field system is just a legend: on the one hand, there is no archaeological data to prove the existence of the well-field system, on the other hand, the existing records can not prove its existence.

(1) Mencius first advocated the restoration of the well field system.

Mencius was probably the earliest thinker who advocated the restoration of the well field system in ancient China. "Mencius on Teng Wengong" recorded his description of the well field system is:

"Square well, well nine hundred mu. Among them, it is a common land, eight private houses are owned, and the common land is raised. After the official business is over, dare to manage private affairs again. "

He also pointed out according to a sentence in the Book of Songs, Datian, Xiaoya, "It rains, so I am public, so I am private." Eight families have public fields as wells, which should be the well field system. Due to the extreme lack of information, Mencius strongly advocated it, but he was vague. Therefore, Yang Zebo pointed out in Mencius Justice that Jing Tian's book is just an ideal reconstructed by Mencius based on limited historical materials (see page 167 of the book).

The other two classics involving the well-field system are Gu Liang Biography and Zhou Li.

Gu Liang Zhuan is similar to Mencius in the theory of well field system. In the fifteenth year of Gong Xuan, the first tax mu said: "The ancients took 300 steps as the inside, which was called a minefield. The mine field is 900 mu, and Gongtian is one of them. " However, although Gu Liangzhuan is said to have been written by Xia Zi's disciple Gu Liangchi, it was definitely written much later. His description of the well field system was probably inspired by Mencius.

The description of Zhou Li's Jingtian system, known as the Biography of the Duke of Zhou, is more detailed (the description of Zhou Li's Jingtian system will be discussed below). However, according to modern research, not only was Zhou Li not written by the Duke of Zhou, but also the time when it was written had nothing to do with the Zhou Dynasty. This book was written by people in the early Han Dynasty (see Peng Lin: A Study on the Subject Thought and the Time of Writing, China Social Sciences Press, 199 1 Edition, p. 247). So the relevant conclusions of this book may also be based on Mencius' point of view.

(B) Song literati love to discuss the well field system.

Well-field system has never existed in history, but Confucian scholars have always advocated the method of three generations of holy kings. Scholars in Song Dynasty, in particular, always wanted to surpass Han and Tang Dynasties and revive three generations, so the discussion about Jing Tian system was very heated.

The first representative is Li Gou. Li Gou attached great importance to the well-field system and thought it was the basis for solving social problems, so he made a detailed study of it. When he was young, he wrote a political article "Hidden Book", proposing to implement the well-field system to protect people's livelihood:

"I know the method of well and land now. What is the balance between strangers? When the well is built, the fields will be leveled, and the cultivators will have food and the silkworms will have clothes when they are full. No farming, no silkworms, no hunger or cold. " (Li Gou: A Book Collection, Li Gou Collection, page 2 14)

In Tu Ping Shu, which was written a few years later than Qian Shu, he made a detailed investigation of Zhou Li's positions as a big Stuart, a small Stuart, a master and apprentice, a Sui man and a craftsman, and gave an idealized description of the mining field system in the Zhou Dynasty. According to the Book of Rites, he restored the well field system as follows:

(1) Territorial division: centering on the capital, according to suburbs (also divided into outer suburbs), Dian, Shao, county and Tai, and taking a hundred-mile unit, it spreads outwards in a circular way (its pattern is similar to the traffic loop in Beijing today).

(2) Administrative system: six townships are established in the suburbs according to their families, nationalities, parties, prefectures and townships; Shop has six counties according to their neighbors, neighbors, neighbors, neighbors, neighbors, neighbors, neighbors, neighbors, counties and neighbors.

(3) Dubi (outside the suburban temple, land was expropriated for Wang and doctor), and the society was organized according to the well field system. Under the Jing Tian system, land was divided into wells, cities, hills, counties, cities and towns. Between plots, the drainage system is built according to sui, ditch, river, river and river; There is also a transportation system according to the path, field, road and road.

(4) It is common to educate people according to the division of labor. Each household is divided into five mu of homestead and farmland, "100 mu of hard-won land, 200 mu of easy land and 300 mu of easy land" (page 202 of Shu and Li Gou Ji). For Wang's food city and Dr. Gong Qinggai's land acquisition, we should also limit the scale according to their grades.

(5) Sima recruited soldiers from the residents of Hunan and Suiyuan to establish the Sixth Army.

(6) The tax system of the Zhou Dynasty was considered by Li Gou as "taxpayers have no public land" (see the previous section for details), and the tax rate was roughly between one twentieth and two tenths.

Regarding the importance of leveling the land, Li Gou pointed out in the preface: "The trip of the ancient king must start from now." He believes that the fundamental way to solve people's living problems is to let them own land:

"The way to make people eat is great. Those who have a country have never heard of this theory before, and the ancient Chinese know its origin. I don't know its source, but seek its end. Although I try my best, I can do it for myself. Therefore, the land, this also; Until the harvest, there is no end. It is better for the tiller to have no land and fight with his bare hands. "

Protecting human life is the premise of education. You don't always have a heart if you don't have enough food. Although you are polite, the people can't get it. Teach it. "Even yao shun didn't also the way. Therefore, he proposed that the well field system should be implemented, "in another week. "

Another advocate of the Jingtian system is Zhang Zai, a generation of great scholars, who vowed to "stand for heaven and earth, stand for the people, serve as a link between the past and the future, and make the world peaceful." Interestingly, both Zhang Zai and Li Gou are from Fan Zhongyan's family.

Zhang Zai also emphasized the goal of balancing the rich and the poor by implementing the well-field system as the beginning of governing the country:

"Benevolence should start from the realm. The inequality between the rich and the poor makes education impossible. Although you want to rule, you are all guilty. The diseases of the world are difficult for travelers. At the beginning, I didn't take the field of the rich as my resignation. However, the legal journey has pleased many people, and it took several years to recover without punishing anyone. Sick people are very sick. " (Lv Dalin: Mr. Hengqu's Behavior, Zhang Zaiji, p. 382)

Therefore, he said that "the rule of the world is not from the mining field, and there is no reason to be flat", and he also said that "Zhou Dao is flat." (Zhang Zai: Confucian Classics and Rites, Zhang Zaiji, p. 248)

Zhang Zai's description of the ore field is also taken from Zhou Li, which is roughly the same as what Li Gou said. But he has his own views on how to implement the well field system. Li Gou's strategy of implementing the well field system is that the government issues a land restriction order, forcing landlords to sell their land, and at the same time driving refugees back to their villages to buy. In fact, this is a compulsory land equalization system, which is bound to be opposed by people who occupy a lot of land and is almost impossible to implement.

Zhang Zai's method is relatively mild, that is, "changing economic status into political status and promoting mining with feudalism" (Li Jiao: A Study of Zhang Zai's Political Thought, p. 107). He pointed out that the implementation of minefields does not need to be compulsory. For people who own a lot of land, "feudalism" can be used to make up for the losses:

"Its many fields make it rich. If the minister claims Hijikata Chizuru, but he is sealed in a 50-mile country, he has passed all; Others are more or less with the same official, so that people with tax collectors don't forget the past. " (Zhang Zai: Confucian Classics and Rites, Zhang Zaiji, p. 249)

The economic losses suffered by people who own many fields can be made up by granting official positions or titles, and the opposition of people who own many fields will be reduced. Then can gradually implement the system of mine field:

"Since the beginning of the city, build its four corners first; One side is square, add a table, and the other side is straight. If so, the land of a hundred miles will be fixed in a few days. Why destroy the graves of the people? " (Confucian Classics and the Book of Rites, Zhang Zaiji, p. 249)

Therefore, he confidently said, "It is easy to mine a field, but it is not up to one person when the court gives an order." (Confucian Classics and the Book of Rites, Zhang Zaiji, p. 249)

Today's scholars talk about the ore field theory of Song people, and often think that they just adopted the idea of flat field, but don't think that they really want to carry out ore field. In fact, Li Gou and Zhang Zai are both faithful followers of Zhou Li. They sincerely believed that the well-field system could be implemented at that time, so they sincerely advocated the well-field system.

Zhang Zai believes in the feasibility of the well field system more than Li Gou. He believes that even if it cannot be implemented globally, it can still be tested in a township. So my fellow travelers and I bought a piece of land, and prepared to divide the field boundaries according to the minefield system contained in Zhou Li, build schools and other supporting facilities, and carry out experiments. Unfortunately, he died before it was implemented.

(C) Zhu's point of view

Although the well-field system is good, it is more troublesome to implement. Wang Mang is a negative example.

Wang Mang is a retro idealist. Referring to the well-field system in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, he promulgated the "Wang Tianling", renamed the land in the world "Wang Tian" and prohibited the sale of land. If there are less than eight men in a family, but the land is more than 900 mu, the surplus land should be handed over to the state and then distributed to the people for farming. In the past, families without land were allocated according to the standard of monogamy of 100 mu. As a result, there was opposition, the world was in chaos, and the country was ruined.

Zhu, a great scholar in the Southern Song Dynasty, has certain political experience and is well aware of the fallacy of the system. He criticized mine theorists:

"In the lecture, to be fair. If you want to do it, you have to have a chance. After the chaos, there was no one in the world, and the land was returned to the people before. ..... If the world is peaceful, it is really difficult. " ("Zhuzi School, Volume 98, Book of Zhang Zi")

In other words, as a theory, the well-field system can be said in lectures, but it can't be really implemented in peacetime because it involves complex property rights and other issues. Equality between the rich and the poor is good, but should or can it be enforced by depriving the rich of their property? Zhu took his actual political experience as an example to say:

"This matter, no one has ever dared to investigate. Now I'm just a servant, and there are thousands of difficulties in Qian Qian. If Mo Dao wants to take his field, will he? "

Only when the country has experienced such great turmoil as dynasty change, the population has dropped sharply and there are many ownerless land, can it redistribute land.

There is no doubt that Zhu has a clearer understanding on this issue. Both Li and Zhang proposed to run a mining field, and their motives were to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor. But if such measures are really taken, it may bring more chaos to society. After that, fewer scholars discussed the well field system. (This article is a question and answer for Zhihu)