gongtianfa 公田法, law on the purchase of private land by the government

The "Public land law" (gongtianfa 公田法), full title Jingding gongtian fa 景定公田法, was a fiscal policy realised in the late years of the Southern Song period 南宋 (1127-1279), the Jingding reign-period 景定 (1260-1264). It enacted the compulsory purchase of private land by the government. During the Southern Song period, powerful landowners aggressively acquired land and evaded taxes, making it difficult for the state to maintain its revenues. The new measures were primarily supported by grain purchasing (hedi 和糴) and the issuance of paper money.

In 1263, Liu Lianggui 劉良貴, the prefect (zhifu 知府) of Lin'an 臨安, and Wu Shiqing 吳勢卿, the transport commissioner (zhuanyunshi 轉運使) of Zhe-Xi 浙西, presented a plan to the purchase of private land. This proposal was endorsed by the Counsellor-in-chief, Jia Sidao 賈似道 (1213-1275), who recommended it to the imperial court. The purpose of the law was to limit private land holdings. It mandated that one-third of any land exceeding the prescribed limit in official households be reclaimed for public land.

The law was first implemented in six regions: Pingjiang 平江 (modern-day Suzhou 蘇州, Jiangsu), Anji 安吉, Jiaxing 嘉興, Changzhou 常州, Zhenjiang 鎮江, and the military prefecture of Jiangyin 江陰. The price the government paid for the land was geared to the tax rate. Land with a tax rate of more than 1 dan 石 of grain per mu 畝 was sold at a price of 200 strings of silver (guan 貫); land with a tax rate of 9 dou 斗 per mu was bought at a price of 180 strings; the price of land with lower tax rates declined accordingly. The law stipulated that only landowners with more than 200 mu of land possessions were eligible to sell land to the government but in fact, even households with just a hundred mu were not spared.

Moreover, the government did not pay out this money in cash or silver, but half in in paper notes (huizi 會子) and half in office certificates (guangao 官告, with tax exemption) or tax exemption certificates for the clergy (dudie 度牒), leading to a real purchase price of no more than 40 guan or one-fifth of the nominal price. Paper notes suffered inflation, and the other certificates could not be sold on the financial market. Moreover, the obligatory purchase was often exacted under high pressure.

The government bought more than 3.5 million mu of land, which was then used as 公田莊 and rented out to yield profits from the rents. In 1275, after the assassination of Jia Sidao, the law was discontinued.

However, when the Yuan dynasty 元 (1279-1368) took over the country, these government-owned lands built the basis for the office lands (guantian 官田) of the Jiangnan region 江南.