302 LAND REFORM
and prohibition of purchases above the limit. Like Li Kou, he hoped to force
people back into agriculture by prohibiting commerce. Liu Yen wanted to com-
bine a program of limited fields with the Northern Sung square-field system lfang-
t'ien, pangjlJn in Korean) of accurate registration and progressive taxation
(so-called tax equalization).
Yang Chien also sought to achieve the well-field ideal by the use of a land
limitation plan that would establish a liberal quota and allow landlords to sell
but not buy land. After a generation or two had passed and the average holding
had been reduced in size, the state could set new, lower, limits on ownership.
Since landowners could be counted on to alienate their property either through
sale or division among heirs, the eventual equalization of landownership would
be assured.^88
Although Yu had not surveyed all the Sung proposals for land limitation thor-
oughly. he did cite a number of views that represented land limitation plans. Fan
Tsu-yii. who assisted Ssu-ma Kuang in compiling the Tzu-chih t'wzg-chien and
later opposed Wang An-shih's "new laws," remarked that even though the rulers
oflater states were not able to restore the system of antiquity, they were at least
able to plaee limits on the possession of land (chlJmjlJn yu han) to enable the
poor to sustain themselves.x9
Yu quoted at great length the land limitation plan of Lin Hsiin of the early
Southern Sung (after 1126), the most complex system of all the Sung writers.
Lin sought to guarantee a basic plot of 50 myo of land to each peasant or peas-
ant family, but he opposed the use of force and confiscation of land from large
owners. He worked out a compromise with the status quo in the following fash-
ion. He divided the population into three categories: "good farmers" (yangnong)
who owned more than 50 myo, "secondary farmers" (eh 'anong) who owned less
than 50 lIlyO. and landless peasants, vagrants, "lazy people," and those engaged
in minor occupations. Fifty myo of the land of the "good farmers" would be set
aside as their "regular fields" (ehOngjon). Land held in excess of this amount
would not be confiscated; instead the landless peasants would be recmited to
cultivate it as "attached peasants" (yenong). Similarly "secondary farmers" who
owned less than 50 myo of their own would be allowed to cultivate the surplus
lands of the "good farmers" up to the limit of 50 myo, to fill in their basic land
allotment. In addition, the "good farmers" would not be allowed to use their
wealth to purchase more land than they currently owned.^90
Lin did not specify whether the attached landless peasants or secondary small-
holder peasants who were to cultivate the surplus lands of the "good farmers"
would pay rent to the latter. but one can presume that this was the object of the
plan. This situation was designed to be a temporary arrangement, combining a
limitation on the ability of wealthy landowners to increase their holdings and a
system of state-enforced tenancy and serfdom (which has been documented for
the Sung pcriod) to guarantee a minimum plot of 50 myo for cultivation pur-
poses to the tenants and serfs. Lin believed that through the process of division