A Research On The Land Of Henan In The Ming Dynasty

This paper mainly discusses the changes of land area of each period in the Ming Dynasty in Henan,and the real state of Measuring Field and Averaging Grains on and Converted Mu implemented in themiddle and late Ming Dynasty in Henan in the Ming Dynasty through the research on the land area of eachperiod in the Ming Dynasty in Henan and Measuring Field And Averaging Grains On and Converted Mu inthe middle and late Ming Dynasty.In the traditional society, the land occupies an extremely important position. Before the human societyentered the industrial society, the most important sector was agriculture. Agriculture can be called theindustry engaged in developing and utilizing land.Henan, located in the central part of China, has been the most developed region in the developmentand utilization of land, as well as the most densely populated region for quite a long time since Chinaentered the civilization stage. In contrast, Henan’s economic status has gradually declined in China and itspolitical status and culture has no longer had powerful influence since the Tang and Song DynastiesHenan suffered a lot from the cruel wars in the late Yuan and early Ming period, so a large amount ofland laid waste. After the natural increase in population, especially of the forced immigration organized bythe Ming Dynasty government, the situation of vast land and sparse population was greatly changed. Thedevelopment and utilization of land was very quick in most of regions with land easy to reclaim. Althoughthe growth of land data recorded in the political books and the local chronicles is not particularly evident,but there was a massive increase in the cultivated land area in Henan. Its growth rate was very large fromnearly440,000hectares in the24thyear of Hongwu Era (1391) to730,000hectares in the31styear of Jiajing Era (1552), and up to nearly1,000,000hectares in10thyear of the Wanli Era (1582). However, thegrowth rate of land of each prefecture in Henan was not synchronous, and mainly Kaifeng Fu’s, NanyangFu’s and Runing Fu’s was growing at surprising rate. The general land use status of Henan has been aprocess from "wasteland"(non-cultivated land) to "arable land"(cultivated land) since the early MingDynasty. In addition, it may be that positioning errors lead the problem of reliability about the data of1,440,000hectares of land in Henan.In the existing historical literature and data, there is no obvious evidence that Yulintuce (an atlaslooked like fish scale used for measuring and registering land) was compiled in the northern areas in theearly Ming Dynasty after a large-scale Lumuqingzhang (making an exact measurement of land) was carriedout. What’s more, there has never been a national law to stipulate that every prefecture and county mustcompile Yulintuce and regularly change the systems.The contradiction that different Mu system has to bear the same tax rate has been gradually intensifiedas the reclaimed land was exhausted since the middle period of Ming Dynasty. In consequence, aspiringmagistrates began Measuring Field and Averaging Grains on. A large-scale movement of Measuring Fieldand Averaging Grains on was carried out in Henan from the beginning of Jiajing period to Wanli period.Accompanied by the movement of Measuring Field and Averaging Grains on, a large-scale movement ofConverted Mu was also implemented. The main purpose of Converted Mu was to adjust tariff on the basisof maintaining the primordial amount of tax. Although Converted Mu encountered some resistance, butcommon people’s continuous strong demand of equal tax and equal corvee was often greater than theresistance. That was the most important reason why the prefectures and counties where Converted Mu wasimplemented continuously increased. The prefectures and counties where Converted Mu was implementedwere more than half of Henan province in the middle and late period of Wanli, and moreover, the complexity and diversity was revealed.