Research On Jiangnan Rural Property Rights Transaction In The Late Qing Dynasty

The writ of contract for land and house transaction scattered in the ancient villages,is a certificate of property rights of the peasants at that time.Although these writs of contracts are not official legal documents,just customs followed by the folk and do not belong to the written system,but the systematic arrangements,such as the change and its possession,utilization,income distribution and disposal of ownership of the property rights which is represented by these folk writs of contracts,are of legal or written system effect recognized both by the government and folk.The nongovernment writ of contract is the original record text remains left by the ancient villages in the process of social production,distribution and operation.It is not only the precious archival documentation for the study of rural economic system history,legal history and social history,but also it has important value of taking history as a mirror,to deepen the reform of rural collective property rights system,and implement the suggestion on the improvement of separation of rural land ownership right,contracting right and management right just issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council.Taking the 93 pieces of writs of contracts for farm land,houses,forest,hilly land transactions recorded in the General Ledger for house and land of Nanyang Mingde Hall in Zhuge village(hereinafter referred to as the General Ledger for house and land)as the study objective,the paper has cast thorough textual research and in-depth interpretation of all writs of contracts.On the basis of the relevant data analysis and research,the purpose is to better understand the wording form and its constitution components of folk writ of contract of the Jiangnan villages in the late Qiang Dynasty.Furthermore,it could rehabilitate and reveal the systematic arranges such as the change and its possession,utilization,income distribution and disposal of ownership of the property rights of the peasants in the transactions of rural property rights in the Zhuge Village in the late Qing Dynasty,and it could appreciate the variation when the rural property rights transaction system is converged with blood,patriarchal clan and folk customs,thus sum up the common features of rural property rights transaction system in the Jiangnan villages in the late Qing Dynasty.It could provide with the historic experiences to deepen the reform of rural collective property rights system,and improve the system on the separation of ownership rights,contracting rights and management rights of the rural collective land.The paper first introduces the research background,significance and technical route,carries out review and comprehensive comments on the relevant research through literature research methods.Secondly,through field investigation and oral history,it sorts out the economic and social background documents.On this basis,it performs the classification and conclusion of the General Ledger for House and Land recorded by Mingde Hall in Zhuge Village,and analyzes the wording form and constitution components of the writ of contract.Thirdly,it highlights the analysis of differentiation and transaction of land property rights of Zhuge Village in the late Qing Dynasty,and analyzes the characteristics of house and other property rights transactions by examples.Finally,it draws a conclusion of the features of rural property rights transaction system in Jiangnan villages in late Qing Dynasty,and its enlightenment to the reform of the rural collective property rights system and the system of the separation of three rights.The preliminary conclusion of this paper is that:(1)the property rights transaction deed and its contract system of the peasants in Zhuge Village is of the common features of Jiangan rural property rights transaction activities in late Qing Dynasty,and it has strong regional characteristics,reflecting the Jiangnan rural common habits.After the folk property rights transaction system is converged with village blood,patriarchal clan and folk customs,not only the systematic arranges such as the change and its possession,utilization,income distribution and disposal of ownership of the property rights have relatively complete systems,but also the contracts have strong execution.(2)In the late Qing Dynasty Jiangnan Rural land property rights has a high degree of differentiation.The land ownership,possession rights and utilization rights are separated and the boundary is clear.In the long-term and guaranteed clan village,various land property right after the differentiation could be freely traded,but does not harm the interests of associated parties.These highly differentiated land property rights and free trade market is the effective way to protect the rights of peasants to produce wealth and activate the allocation of rural resources.(3)Jiangnan rural houses in late Qing Dynasty and other peasant's properties can be traded freely,and can be bought and sold or mortgaged.In the real estate transaction,the sale of house property and land property is not divided,so the house is sold with the foundation of the house.(4)In the late Qing Dynasty Jiangnan rural property transactions have a comparable value evaluation mechanism,and it is determined based on the prescribed trade price and also according to the land,irrigation conditions,areas and land tenancy price.(5)In the late Qing Dynasty Jiangnan rural property sale,due to war,banditry or cycle economic damage to the environment,natural disasters,non productive shortage of funds,and other factors results in the loss of landless peasants.The war,banditry,famine family main labor casualties and other factors,are important factors threatening rural development.The enlightenment obtained from the research of Jiangnan rural property rights nongovernment transaction system is that:(1)The ownership,possession right and utilization right are dividable,and each right can be traded in the market,and do not harm the interests of the associated parties.The ancient village property nongovernment trading rules,can be used as the establishment of rural property rights trading market,further improve the rural land “three rights separation” system,and has an important references.(2)The ancient village house transaction has an important relationship with the land property rights transaction.If the land property rights trading market is open,the scope of rural land circulation line shall be also expanded suitably,thus activating effectively the peasant's homestead usufruct.(3)Value evaluation system to establish and improve the rural property rights is an important prerequisite for rural property transactions.(4)Rural property rights need to further improve the rural social security system to protect.The innovation of this research is to be faithful to the “historical facts” recorded by the writ of contract,and put it into that era that the the writs was produced to understand and interpret the society where the blood village lives.It is hereby to explain that due to the certain chance of obtainment of the writ of contract scattered in the fold,so only a small amount of existing materials have been obtained for interpretation and analysis,which could be confined in a village in a period of time,leading to the failure of relative comparison research.