47．田部 land; field

井well田land制system

In the Western Zhou Dynasty西周, all land were owned by the emperor’s family. In order to make it easy to loan the land to the Nobility, the land was divided into thousands of square pieces. Nine plots of land together were referred to as “one well” because they looked like the shape of a square Chinese well (井). The Nobility had the right to use the land, but not to sell or transfer it to others. They also had to pay a tax to the imperial family for using the land. The Nobility, of course, forced their peasant slaves to work in the fields. The well-field system has become a symbol of the oppressive feudal system in Chinese history.

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