Land Law
Promulgated by the
Chinese Revolutionary Military Commission
(August 1930)1
Chapter One: Confiscation and Redistribution of Land
Article I. Following the overthrow of the political power of the despotic
gentry and landlord class through armed uprising, all land, hills, woods, ponds,
and houses owned by all private individuals or groups--the despotic gentry,
landlords, ancestral halls, temples, societies, and rich peasants--must be im-
mediately confiscated, turned over to public ownership by the soviet govern-
ment, and redistributed by the soviet to landless peasants, peasants with little
land, and other needy people for their use. Where there is only a peasant associa-
tion, and a soviet has not yet been set up, the peasant associations can also carry
out confiscation and redistribution. 2
Article 2. The families of the despotic gentry, landlords, and reactionaries,
after undergoing investigation by the soviet and receiving permission to reside in
the countryside, may receive an appropriate amount of land when they have no
other means of supporting themselves.
Article 3. Officers, soldiers, and porters of the Red Army currently in military
service and those engaged in revolutionary work shall also receive redistributed
land; moreover, the soviet shall assign people to help their families farm the land.
Article 4. Rural residents who can make a living through other lines of work,
such as industry, commerce, and education, shall not receive redistributed land.
Those who cannot make ends meet may receive a suitable amount of land, no
more than enough to make up the shortfall in their income.
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Article 5. Farm laborers and unemployed vagrants, if they are willing to
receive redistributed land, should be given land. But those vagrants who receive
redistributed land must rid themselves of evil addictions such as to opium and
gambling, otherwise the soviet will take back their land.
Article 6. Those who have traveled to other areas and do not live in their
native villages shall not be given land.
Article 7. Land shall be redistributed taking the township as the unit. The
peasants of a given township pool the farmland they till in their township and in
neighboring townships, and redistribute it jointly. If three or four townships are
adjacent to each other, some of them having more land and the others less, and if
circumstances are such that when land is redistributed using one township as the
unit, the townships with less land cannot support themselves, and have no other
form of production to support themselves, three or four townships may be com-
bined into one unit to carry out the redistribution. The township soviets must,
however, make a request, and obtain the approval of the district soviet.
Article 8. In order to meet the demands of the majority of the people and
enable peasants to receive land quickly, land should be redistributed according to
the number of people in the countryside; men, women, the old, and the young
should receive equal shares. The method of distribution taking labor power as the
criterion shall not be adopted.
Article 9. In principle urban businessmen and workers are not eligible to
receive redistributed land. However, unemployed workers and members of the
urban poor who request redistributed land may be given an appropriate amount
of land when circumstances permit.
Article 10. In order to destroy the feudal forces rapidly, and strike a blow at
the rich peasants, land redistribution should follow the principles of drawing on
the plentiful to make up for the scarce, and drawing on the fat to make up for the
lean.3 Landlords and rich peasants are not allowed to conceal their land and not
declare it, nor to retain fertile land. After the land has been redistributed, the
soviets shall make wooden markers and place them in the fields to mark the yield
of the plot and the name of its current tiller.
Article 11. All land deeds of the despotic gentry, landlords, common land
owned by ancestral halls, and temples must be surrendered to the township soviets
or township/district peasant associations within a specified period to be burned in
public.

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505
Article 12. After land is redistributed, the xian soviets or district soviets are
to issue cultivation permits.
Article 13. The redistributed land of all those in the countryside who have
died, changed their occupation, or gone elsewhere will be taken back by the
soviets for further redistribution. As for newcomers and newborn babies, the
soviets should find a way to give them land, but only after the harvest.
Article 14. When land is redistributed following an armed uprising and after
sowing by the peasants, the crops harvested belong to the peasants to whom the
land has been redistributed; the original tillers are not allowed to lay claim to the
harvest.4
Article 15. Vegetable gardens, dikes, and uncultivated land (which can be
used to grow miscellaneous cereals)5 should be redistributed. Large ponds that
are not easy to redistribute are placed under the management of the soviet, or
leased out by the soviet at a fixed price.
Article 16. Hills on which bamboo and Chinese catalpa grow must be con-
verted into land units according to the yield of their products and redistributed
together with fields. But if hired labor was previously employed, and manufac-
turing facilities were previously established there, thus giving them an industrial
capitalist character, they may be leased out in their entirety by the soviet and
need not be redistributed.
Article 17. Pine and China fir forests are to be managed or leased out by the
soviet government. However, when people of the township need lumber to repair
dams and irrigation canals, build public properties and houses, or repair the
houses burned down by the reactionaries, they may make use of them upon
obtaining permission from the district soviet government.
Article 18. Large firewood-producing hills shall be closed or opened to the
public [for collection of firewood] by the soviet government.
Article 19. In order to meet the demands of the impoverished peasants, all
confiscated land should be completely redistributed to them; the soviet need not
keep any. Under certain circumstances, however, the soviet may use the undistribu-
ted portion to establish model farms, or lease it out on a temporary basis. At the same
time, the soviet shall reserve some houses to be used for public purposes.
Chapter Two: Cancellation of Debts
Article 20. No debts owed by workers, peasants, and poor people to the
despotic gentry, landlords, and rich peasants are to be repaid. Notes and debt
certificates must be turned over to the soviet or to the peasant associations
within a specified time to be burned.
Article 21. Debts owed by the despotic gentry, landlords, and merchants to

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the government, or to workers, peasants, poor people, or the petty bourgeoisie
must be repaid in full regardless of whether they are old or new.
Article 22. Old debts owed by workers, peasants, and poor people to mer-
chants as a result of commercial transactions occurring before the armed uprising
are not to be repaid regardless of whether they are commercial high-interest
loans or merely principal.
Article 23. In principle, debts incurred between workers, peasants, and poor
people themselves before the armed uprising are also not to be repaid. Only
interest-free loans made for the sake of friendly assistance and willingly repaid
by the borrower are exempt from this rule.
Article 24. As for articles and houses pawned by workers, peasants, and poor
people to the despotic gentry, landlords, and pawnshop owners, the collateral
must be returned unconditionally.
Article 25. Credit unions and grain associations are to be abolished without
exception.
Article 26. Usurious loans are banned under the soviet regime; xian soviets
set appropriate interest rates according to local financial conditions. These rates
must not exceed the amount of returns obtained by ordinary capital under normal
local economic conditions.
Chapter Three: Land Taxes
Article 27. In order to meet the needs of overthrowing the coun-
terrevolutionaries (for example, maintaining and expanding the Red Army and
the Red Guards, and maintaining the organs of political power) and increase the
benefits for the masses (for example, setting up schools and clinics, providing
relief to the handicapped, old, and young, and repairing roads and irrigation
canals), the soviet must collect land taxes from peasants.
Article 28. The principle of levying land taxes is to protect the poor peasants,
build ties with the middle peasants, and attack the rich peasants. They may be
collected only after the soviet has been established, the masses have received
actual benefits, and permission is granted by higher-level soviets.
Article 29. Land taxes are to be collected progressively according to the
quantity of rice harvested by the peasants each year from redistributed land:
I) Those who receive, per person, land that yields less than 5 Dan of rice are
exempted from tax.
2) A tax rate of 1 percent is levied on those who receive, per person, land that
yields 6 Dan of rice.
3) A tax rate of 1.5 percent is levied on those who receive, per person, land
that yields 7 Dan of rice.
4) A tax rate of 2.5 percent is levied on those who receive, per person, land
that yields 8 Dan of rice.

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507
5) A tax rate of 4 percent is levied on those who receive, per person, land that
yields 9 Dan of rice.
6) A tax rate of 5.5 percent is levied on those who receive, per person, land
that yields 10 Dan of rice.
7) A tax rate of 7 percent is levied on those who receive, per person, land that
yields 11 Dan of rice.
8) A tax rate of 8.5 percent is levied on those who receive, per person, land
that yields 12 Dan of rice.
Each additional yield of 1 Dan of rice is accompanied by an increase of 1.5
percent in the land tax rate.
Article 30. Land tax revenues and expenditures are subject to the unified
control of higher-level soviet governments. Lower-level governments are not
authorized to collect taxes or to make expenditures at their discretion. The scale
of expenditures is determined by higher-level governments according to the
amount of tax revenues and the degree of urgency of the needs of the governments at various levels.
Chapter Four: Wages
Article 31. Rural artisans, workers, and farm laborers whose previous wages
were too low should get a raise. Future wages are to be set by the soviet according to two criteria: fluctuation in the cost of living and fluctuation in the
peasants' harvests. Wage rates set by township and district soviets must be
approved by the xian or provincial soviets.

---

Notes

Our source for this text is Mao Zedongji, Vol. 2, pp. 179-84, where it is reproduced from
a collection of captured Communist documents published by the Guomindang in 1931.

--- Notes

I. On the relation between this land law and that of February 7, 1930, see above, the
Introduction to this volume. In assessing the evolution of Mao's agrarian policy during the
summer and autumn of 1930, the resolution of June 1930 on the problem of the rich
peasants should also be consulted.

2. The relative moderation of Mao's line at this time is underscored by the omission,
in this text, of the article in the February 7 law providing for the distribution of the land of
owner-peasants if the poor peasants demanded it.

3. As indicated in the note to the law of February 7, 1930, above, that law provided
only for quantitative equalization of landholdings, through "drawing on the plentiful to
make up for the scarce," i.e., taking from those who have ample land to give to those who
do not have enough. This law adds a prescription for qualitative equalization, "draw-
ing on the fat to make up for the lean," i.e., taking good land from the more affluent
peasants to complement the generally inferior land of the poor peasants. These two
slogans are characteristic of Mao's approach to land reform; he restated them fre-
quently from this time forward.

4. For some extended discussion of this point, see below, the text of November 15, 1930,
”The Problem of Dividing up Green Crops and Renting Land."

5. I.e., crops other than the staple foods of rice and wheat