Structure and Characteristics of Land laws(田令) in the Early Goryeo Dynasty
Land laws is the law which prescribes the procedures concerning the land such as the land area, the land provision and the land use and benefits. It is part of hundreds of tho ...
Structure and Characteristics of Land laws(田令) in the Early Goryeo Dynasty
Land laws is the law which prescribes the procedures concerning the land such as the land area, the land provision and the land use and benefits. It is part of hundreds of thousands of provisions, but one dynasty’s Land laws clearly shows how the dynasty operated the land the most structurally.
The restored Land laws of the early Goryeo Dynasty has 48 provisions. It consists of 1 provision of jeonjeok(田積), 5 provisions of yangjeon(量田), 1 provision of jeonpum(田品), 23 provisions of the payment and operation of jeonsigwa(田柴科), 1 provision of hoonjeon(勳田), 4 provisions of gonghaejeon(公廨田), 4 provisions of doonjeon(屯田), 2 provisions of sawonjeon(寺院田), 2 provisions of sangmyo(桑苗), 2 provisions of gweonnong(勸農), and 3 provisions of hwangpejeon(荒廢田).
The land system of the Goryeo Dynasty accepted system of Song(宋) on the basis of system of Tang(唐), and made considerable changes. In Goryeo’s Land laws, the biggest difference from Tang Dynasty is that there was no land allocation for farmers. This is relevant to the fact that minjeon(民田, private land), which established peasant ownership at the stage of yangsebeop(兩稅法, taxation) after the collapse of Equal-field system(均田制), first appeared in the Goryeo period. Instead, the allocation of land for bureaucrats and dominant institutions was central.
Jeonpumje(田品制) which was not seen under Equal-field system appeared after yangsebeop(taxation), and Goryeo’s jeonpumje was affected by the Song Dynasty. Jeonjeokje had a different unit area from Song and Tang Dynasties and Japan but the same dongjeokje(同積制). China and Japan under dongjeokje implemented sujokwon bungeopje(收租權 分給制, Land Distribution System) different from Goryeo. The dongjeokje was changed to ijeokdongseje(異積同稅制) at the late of Goryeo Dynasty. This change implies that sujokwon bungeopje(Land Distribution System), in which the state delegated the sujokwon of minjeon to the bureaucracy, was implemented at the stage of kwajeonbeop(科田法) in the late Goryeo Dynsty.
The jeonsikwa in the Goryeo Dynasty embraced the land system of two branches of kwaninyeongeopjeon(官人永業田) paid to government officials and jickbunjeon(職分田) that had the complementary meaning of stipends in the Tang Dynasty. Goryeo’s jeonsikwa changed from kwaninyeongeopjeon to jickbunjeon going through sijeonjeonsikwa(始定田柴科), gaejeongjeonsikwa(改定田柴科) and gyeongjeongjeonsikwa(更定田柴科). However, it can be seen that the purpose was mainly to give economical preference to officials in relation to overall land distribution since gongeumjeonsije(功蔭田柴制) was established along with the foundation of geongjeonjeonsi during the period of King Munjong. However, unlike the claim that the management was to classify sujokwon of minjeon, it is thought that the government implemented the system of recruiting farmers to cultivate the land while paying the taxes to the bureaucracy like jikbunjeon of the Tang Dynasty.
Meanwhile, in Tang’s Land laws, the provisions of doonjeon was a whopping 25%, whereas Goryeo’s accounted for 8% only. Tang’s doonjeon was not merely a military purpose, but a function of providing land for the maintenance of Equal-field system. On the other hand, in Goryeo, it was conducted mainly for the purpose of military or local office administration. This is closely related to the absence of the land distribution system for farmers in Goryeo.