Research On Immovable Property Agreement Of Ningbo Area In Qing-dynasty

Chinese ancient history leaves behind a lot of agreements which play an important role in surveying the socio-economic, political and cultural aspects of each times comprehensively. Furthermore, the book"the collection of Ningbo agreement of Qing Dynasty"edited by Pro. Wang wanying and published on 2008 mainly focus on land agreements and contains 414 estate agreements of Ningbo form the 4th year of Qing Daoguang to the 31st year of Guangxu. Those agreements provide valuable first-hand information for the study of estate transactions in Ningbo in the legal historians.The first part of my essay introduces the history administrative division of Ningbo which confines the agreement of this essay to Ningbo district. Based on this, this part tries to revert the geographical style, custom, economic development of Ningbo. According to historical records, the Ningbo area densely populated, coupled with strategic location and belong to an important trade ports. Furthermore, the profits in agriculture are much lower than business and handicrafts, all these factors make more and more people give up agricultural land, and gradually move to cities and towns, and a considerable number of people engage in business. In this process, other parts of the population migrate to Ningbo area, which lead to frequent real estate transactions in this area. Apart from the above reasons, the heavy tax burden and sacrifice, burial customs and the existence of such extravagance is another factor that people sell the land.The second part investigates the different between the estate transactions of Ningbo and special customary of other areas in the late Qing Dynasty. Apart from"Qing Law","the Ministry of the cases"and such laws and regulations, the local government of Qing Dynasty also regulate real estate transactions in the province of cases, notices and articles of association. Such as"The law of Jin government", which had been divided into 13 article and including accounts, land tax gate of the nation, harvest, field, small grain, the flag, the cultivation, pasture, etc.; another example is the mortgage cases in Fujian government law in twenty-five years of Qianlong, contain specifications, written, and major issues of mortgage contract; Another example is the enforcement of"the law of mortgage contrat", which is made by Xu wenjun of Jurong government in the late Qing. Such government actions and ?customaries lead to the colorful style of estate transactions.Until now, there is no article to distinguish between the contract and agreement. However, through the instrument of comparison, it could be found that the so-called contract is used in the description, reaffirmation and confirmation of the fait accompli when the so-called agreement is used for record of the transaction process. The agreement in Ningbo usually begins with contractual reasons. Although the reasons are broad, the application of some words catches much attention. Due to the ceremony and other local bad customary, some people had to seal their land. Moreover, the function of sponsor is so slight in this area that all these factors lead to the special agreements in Ningbo. Based on this reason, the end of the agreement normally only needs the signature of first name but not last name.The third part tries to find the features of estate transactions of Ningbo in the late Qing dynasty form the contents. The traditional view is that the women in ancient china can not put a rein on family property due to the moral standards. However, it is not true for the women in Ningbo area based on the contents of agreements. It has been found during the process of agreements that widows could freely transfer property whether they had children. Meanwhile, widows could have the same status as uncles, that is to say, under this condition, the widows take over her husband's role. The transaction not only includes sell but also mortgage. Sometimes, it argues that the mortgage and the live sell is the same. But, this view in fact ignored that the mortgage transferred the use and income right, whereas the other transferred ownership. The information of Ningbo is good for analysis of the differences. As to the subject of the transaction, it has been found that the house foundations could separate sale, even under community condition, it could be sale with the house or be left by shares. Moreover, there are unique characteristics under other community conditions.This essay may be biased due to that it is mainly based on the agreements of one house called Mao kunshan. Anyway, the study of estate transaction in Ningbo area of the late Qing still needs further exploration.