Tang Dynasty (618-907): “Equal Field” System and Taxes

Sources

Before the Tang. Large landholdings were controlled by the great families in the later Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.-220 C.E.). This concentration of land contributed to the collapse of the regime. Realizing that uneven land distribution was a key cause of dynastic decline, regimes that followed the Han implemented policies to solve this problem. One solution was to nationalize land and then distribute it to the taxpaying peasantry. The government of the Northern Wei (386-535) first tackled this problem in 485, when it instituted an “equal field” system, which assigned agricultural lands in equal amounts to all adult peasants. Upon the death of a peasant or the passing of the age limit at around sixty, the land was to be returned to the government. The equal field system, though it was only applied to free peasants, helped slow down the flow of land and peasants into the protection of the great fami-lies and stabilized the financial situation of the central government. The Sui dynasty (589-618) continued to practice this system and applied it to the entire country. They forced the great families to become part of the system by assigning their holdings as “rank lands,” parcels that were not to exceed the maximum amount of 1,370 acres for the highest rank.

Categories. During the Tang dynasty the equal field system was further implemented. Land was generally divided into four categories. First, the rank lands, similar to those adopted by the Sui dynasty, were assigned to the great families. Second, “official lands” were granted to government functionaries; these parcels varied in size according to the specific government office that the recipient held. The third category, “official fields,” were used to support the organs of local government. The bulk of land, the fourth level, was divided equally among male peasants between the ages of eigh-teen and fifty-nine, with each man receiving about 13.7 acres. Only about one-fifth of the land could be permanently owned as “mulberry” land, on which were grown mulberry trees for feeding silkworms, or other tree crops.

Taxes. Supported by the equal field land, a peasant in return paid the government taxes of three types—2 piculs of grain, 20 feet of silk or hemp, and twenty days per year of corvee labor for the central government, as well as other periods of labor for the local government. (A picul was the equivalent of roughly 133 pounds.) The corvee could be paid with textiles or money. In addition, peasants who were selected to provide military service were exempted from other taxes and levies. To ensure that the system worked effectively, the Tang government carried out, fairly systematically, a census and land register throughout the country. Remaining records of these land surveys indicate that specific categories of land were allotted to individual taxpayers. The equal field system worked well, to a large degree, for about a century; the taxes collected through this system supported the Tang government during a brilliant period in Chinese imperial history.

System in Practice. In theory the equal field system depended on the periodic redistribution of land among the taxpaying farmers. It is, however, questionable that the land was ever equitably redistributed. A long period of peace resulted in population growth that surpassed the increase of natural resources, thus upsetting the population-to-land ratio. Moreover, most of the land tilled by the peasants was registered as permanent pos-sessions. Meanwhile, imperial grants of property further reduced the total quantity of land available for redistribution. After a century and a half in operation, the system began to break down.

Revenue. The equal field system resulted in significant agricultural production; vast amounts of fallow land were brought under cultivation. During the early Tang period the central government received stable and ample revenue, much larger proportionally than in any previous dynasty. According to one government record the tax income of the central government amounted to more than 52 million silver units. In addition, government also utilized the free labor and military service provided by the taxpaying peasantry.

Reasons. The economic prosperity enjoyed by the Tang dynasty was the result of several factors. First, advances in agricultural technology helped increase productivity. Irrigation systems were improved, and better seeds and fertilizers were used. Second, the administration, at least during the early period of the dynasty, was effective. The country was centralized and divided into a uniform system of tao (provinces), zhou (prefectures), and xian (districts). The bureaucracy was staffed by officials who were selected through the merit-based civil service examination system. Third, the great population growth in the Yangzi Valley contributed to prosperity. The primary breadbasket of the country did not stay long in the dry millet- and wheat-producing lands of the North China Plain, but shifted to the wet rice paddies of the lower Yangzi region. Fourth, the Great Canal, constructed during the Sui dynasty (589-618), provided an efficient transportation system that linked the agriculturally rich south with the capital and the frontier areas in the north.

Sources

Woodbridge Bingham, The Founding of the T’ang Dynasty: The Fall of Sui and Rise of T’ang, a Preliminary Survey (Baltimore: Waverly, 1941).

John K. Fairbank and others, East Asia: Tradition and Transformation (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973).

Herbert Franke and Denis Twitchett, eds., The Cambridge History of China, volume 6, Alien Regimes and Border States, 907-1368 (Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994).

Witold Rodzinski, A History of China, 2 volumes (Oxford & New York: Pergamon, 1979, 1983).

Arthur F. Wright and Twitchett, eds., Perspectives on the Tang (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1973).