Army Commander, Zhu De
Political Commissar, Mao Zedong
[Xingguo Xian] Land Law
(April 1929)

1. Confiscate all public land and all land belonging to the landlord class, and
turn ownership over to the government of the congress of workers, peasants, and
soldiers of Xingguo, which should redistribute it to the landless peasants and
peasants with little land, for them to cultivate and use.
2. Further purchase and sale of all public land and land belonging to the
landlord class are prohibited once it has been confiscated and redistributed by the
government of workers, peasants, and soldiers.
3. The quantitative criteria for land redistribution are:

a) using the number of people as the criterion, and redistributing an equal
amount of land to men, women, the old, and the young;
b) using labor power as the criterion and giving twice as much land to those
who can work as to those who cannot.

Of the above two criteria, the first is to be the primary one. In places where
special circumstances prevail, the second criterion may be applied. The reasons
for adopting the first criterion are:

i) before the facilities for caring for old people and children are in place, the
old and the young, if they are given too little land, will certainly not be
able to make a living;
ii) it is relatively simple and convenient to use the number of people as the
criterion for land redistribution;
iii) very few families do not have old people or children. At the same time,
although the old and the young are not capable of tilling the land, local
governments should, after land redistribution, also assign them appropriate
public services to perform, such as communication duties.
4. The administrative criteria for land redistribution are:

a) using the township as the unit for land redistribution;
b) using several townships as the unit for land redistribution (as was done in
Xiaojiang District in Yongxin [xian]);
c) using the district as the unit for land redistribution.
Our source for this document is the 1941 edition of Nongcun diaocha, pp. 125-27. The
text also appears in Mao Zedong ji, Vol. 2, pp.73-75.


Our source for this text is Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 3, p. 47.