The peasant struggle led by the proletariat continues to develop and intensify. Despite the frenzied resistance of the imperialist warlords, the Soviet movement is steadily growing and expanding, arming the Chinese peasantry and organizing the Red Army. County after county, peasants who have for millennia been oppressed by feudal landlords and local gentry are now being liberated; the land of these oppressors is being confiscated and redistributed, the feudal system is being overthrown, the Kuomintang regime is being swept away, and workers’, peasants’, and soldiers’ Soviets are being established. This Soviet power is capable of completing China’s anti-imperialist and agrarian revolutions.  The First All-China Congress of Workers’, Peasants’, and Soldiers’ Soviets has approved the confiscation of land belonging to landlords and other large private owners. In order to establish a unified system for the confiscation and distribution of land, the Congress, acting in the fundamental interests of the broad peasant masses and the future of the revolution, adopts the following Land Decree as the best guarantee for resolving the land question.

Article 1: All land owned by feudal landlords, local gentry, warlords, bureaucrats, and other large private proprietors—whether cultivated by themselves or leased out—is hereby confiscated without compensation. The confiscated land shall be distributed by the Soviets among poor peasants and middle peasants. Former landowners shall have no right to receive any share of the redistributed land. Tenant laborers, day laborers, and working peasants, regardless of gender, shall enjoy equal rights to land allocation. Unemployed independent laborers in rural areas may also be allotted land with the consent of the peasant community. The aged, infirm, disabled, and the lonely and destitute—those unable to work and lacking family support—shall be provided with social assistance by the Soviet government or, alternatively, shall be allocated land.

Article 2: Members of the Red Army, as advanced fighters upholding Soviet power and striving to overthrow imperialism, shall be entitled to land, whether or not a Soviet has yet been established in their locality or whether their region remains under reactionary rule. The Soviet government shall arrange for this land to be farmed on their behalf.

Article 3: Wealthy farmers in China are characterized by their dual role as semi-landlords or usurers; their land too shall be confiscated. The land of the middle peasant class, however, shall not be touched. After confiscation, wealthy farmers may be allotted “inferior labor plots,” provided they undertake to cultivate such land themselves.

Article 4: The property and land of all organizers of counterrevolutionary activities, leaders and active participants in White Army armed bands, shall be confiscated. However, poor and middle peasants who have been unwittingly misled into opposing the Soviets, and who are absolved of responsibility upon certification by the local Soviet, shall be exempt. Their ringleaders, on the other hand, must be dealt with unconditionally in accordance with this decree.

Article 5: The First Congress deems that the equitable distribution of all land is the most thorough means of abolishing all feudal relations of servitude and severing the bonds of landlord private ownership. Nevertheless, local Soviet governments must never impose this measure by force or issue top-down commands. Instead, they should diligently explain the policy to the peasantry from every possible angle, implementing it only when there is genuine willingness and direct support among the basic peasant masses. If the majority of middle peasants do not wish to participate, they need not join the equal division.

Article 6: The Soviet government must strive to transfer all ancestral halls, temples, and other communal lands to the peasants without condition. In carrying out and administering these lands, however, it must secure the voluntary consent of the peasants, taking care not to offend their religious sentiments.

Article 7: Any attempt by wealthier farmers to allocate confiscated land according to their means of production is, in the view of the First Congress, a reactionary maneuver by wealthy farmers aimed at obstructing the progress of the agrarian revolution and advancing their own interests. Such practices must be sternly suppressed. Local Soviet governments should, based on the specific conditions of each village, choose the principle most conducive to the interests of poor and middle peasants: either distributing land in proportion to the number of able-bodied members in each household while also considering total population size—that is, employing a mixed approach—or allocating land equally per capita to middle peasants, poor peasants, and tenant laborers, with wealthy farmers receiving shares based on their labor capacity (in areas where land is divided equally per person, each able-bodied member of a wealthy farming family shall receive an allotment equal to the per capita share). Population figures shall serve as a supplementary criterion for distribution. When allocating land, attention must be paid not only to its area but also to its quality, particularly its yield potential. Moreover, land redistribution should, wherever feasible, be combined with broader land reform measures designed to eliminate the vestiges of feudal fragmentation—narrow strips, isolated patches, and the intricate network of field boundaries.

Article 8: All movable and immovable property of feudal lords, warlords, landlords, and local gentry—houses, warehouses, livestock, farm implements, and so forth—shall be confiscated. Wealthy farmers, once they have received their land allotments, shall likewise surrender any surplus housing, tools, livestock, and water-powered mills or oil presses. The local Soviet, in the interests of poor and middle peasants, shall assign the confiscated buildings to house homeless poor and middle peasants; some may be converted into schools or clubhouses for use by the local Soviet, the Party, the Youth League committee, the Red Trade Union, the Poor Peasants’ Association, and other organizations. Livestock and farm implements may be distributed among poor and middle peasants by group or household, or, at the peasants’ initiative, a preliminary cooperative may be formed to manage the confiscated equipment. Alternatively, with the approval of the Soviet, a livestock and implements management office may be established to supply these resources for cultivation by poor and middle peasants. Such offices shall be administered by the local Soviet, and peasants shall pay a modest usage fee according to prescribed regulations. A small percentage of this fee will be set aside to cover repairs to the equipment, the salaries of the office staff, and the purchase of new tools and livestock.

Article 9: Alongside the confiscation of the property and land of landlords and local gentry, all oral and written tenancy agreements must be annulled, thereby releasing peasants from any obligations or debts pertaining to such property and land. All forms of usury and indebtedness are hereby declared null and void. Any arrangements previously made between landlords and peasants for the voluntary repayment of debts are strictly prohibited by revolutionary law. Peasants are likewise forbidden from returning portions of the land to landlords or repaying even part of their outstanding debts.

Article 10: All water resources—rivers, lakes, streams, forests, pastures, and mountain woodlands—shall be placed under Soviet administration and developed for the common benefit of poor and middle peasants. Mulberry groves, bamboo forests, tea plantations, fish ponds, and similar lands may be allocated for use by the local peasant community on the same voluntary basis as paddy fields and wheat fields.

Article 11: In order to effectively and thoroughly advance the interests of the agrarian revolution, the First All-China Congress of Workers’, Peasants’, and Soldiers’ Soviets declares that unions of tenant laborers, unions of day laborers, and the Poor Peasants’ Association are indispensable organizations, serving as the firm pillars upon which the Soviets can build the agrarian revolution.

Article 11: The First Congress holds that, under Soviet rule, the nationalization of land and water resources constitutes a decisive step toward completely eradicating all feudal relations in the countryside and, in fact, lays the foundation for a rapid and sustained development of the rural economy. However, the practical implementation of this measure is possible only when the agrarian revolution has achieved victory in key regions of China and enjoys the steadfast support of the basic peasant masses. At the present stage of the revolution, the Soviet government should continue to explain the benefits of land and water nationalization to the peasantry. Meanwhile, leasing and sale of land remain permissible; concurrently, the Soviet authorities must rigorously prohibit speculative practices by wealthy farmers and the repurchase of former holdings by landlords.

Article 13: Local Soviets, where environmental conditions permit, may undertake the following initiatives: first, reclaim wasteland; second, organize resettlement programs; third, improve existing irrigation systems and construct new ones; fourth, carry out afforestation projects; and fifth, accelerate road construction and promote industrial development to stimulate the rural economy.

Article 14: This decree applies not only to existing Soviet territories but also to non-Soviet areas and to regions newly seized by Soviet forces. Within each Soviet district, land already distributed in accordance with the principles of this decree need not be redistributed; if it does not conform to these principles, however, re-allocation shall be required.

Presidium of the First All-China Congress of Workers’, Peasants’, and Soldiers’ Soviets: Standing Chairmen: Xiang Ying, Zhou Yilu, Zeng Shan, Deng Fa, Zhang Dingcheng, Chen Zhengren; Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Chinese Soviet Republic: Mao Zedong; Vice-Chairmen: Xiang Ying, Zhang Guotao. November 1, 1931.  Fifty-two copies published by the Chinese Soviet Research Society and Zhonghua Bookstore (Shanghai), 1932.