LAND REfORM: COMPROMISES 303of property among sons, the surplus lands of the "good farmers" would even-
tually be reduced to the 50 myo plot.
"If a 'good farmer' does not want to sell his surplus land, he should wait for
his sons and grandsons to grow up and then divide it lamong them]. The offi-
cials will not seize their property and earn their resentment. They should be given
some leeway, and then naturally things will hit the mark by themselves in a good
system. "9^1
Yu cited Ch'en Liang who praised Lin's plan and assured his readers that "It
is only necessary to have a brave and dauntless ruler who can especially stand
up and adopt [his plan] to carry out a grand reform .... "9^2 Yu also referred to
the praise of Chu Hsi and Lii Tsu-ch'ien for Lin's ideas, but ultimately he con-
cluded that Lin's plan departed from the well-field model in two respects:
"What a pity rLin's proposals] were not studied and put into practice. The
only problem with what he says is that he does not take rectification of land
boundaries 1 chong kyiinggye] as the first order of business. He prefers to allow
purchase and sale of land temporarily so that you would still have obstruction
and problems that would prevent the complete implementation lof a well-field
model]."91
Yu's opposition to toleration of purchase and sale appears to reflect his ani-
mus against private property, but it did not necessarily indicate his support for
confiscation of land from the landlord class as a means of achieving the well-
field ideal. Yu, however, did address this question directly in the discussion of
his own land reform program, which will be taken up later.
The land limitation plans that Yu selected for discussion shared certain points
in common. Though directed toward the limitation of private property, all were
governed by a fear or dislike of confiscation. Although land limitation itself pre-
supposed the preservation of private property, there was no bias against state
intervention and regulation at the expense of private right. It was assumed that
the skillful creation of an institutional structure would lead gradually to a rela-
tively equal distribution of land and tax burdens. Although it might take gener-
ations to achieve the desired end, the gradual transition would preclude any
political opposition to be expected by a sudden imposition of an egalitarian model
accompanied by confiscation.
Chu Hsi: Pessimism about Land LimitationBy the same token Yu omitted treatment of Chu Hsi's pessimistic views about
the limited-land plan. Chu believed in the historical existence of the well-field
system, held Shang Yang of the Ch'in responsible for introducing private prop-
erty as a means of maximizing production, praised the equal-field system of the
Tang as a elose approximation of the well-field ideal, and criticized Yang Yen
of the late Tang for dismantling the early T'ang tax system and replacing it with
the double tax. Chu Hsi praised Lin Hsiin's limited-field scheme to one of his