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墨書 Inktalez
I entered middle school not long ago, and the long-standing rural basic system underwent a tremendous change. The collective labor system based on production teams was replaced by the "Household Responsibility System," which, in the words of the farmers themselves, meant distributing land to households.
Born at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, I originally thought that rural areas had always been composed of production teams. It was only through this land distribution that I learned from my parents and even my grandparents that in rural China, especially regarding farmland, land ownership had been a private matter for thousands of years. A small number of landlords owned most of the arable land, while the majority of farming peasants did not have their own land and could only rent from landlords. When harvest time came, they had to pay a significant portion of their produce as rent to the landlords, with only a few farmers owning a tiny bit of land themselves, alongside a small amount of public and clan-owned land.
In our Bamboo Mountain Bay Long Family Courtyard, we didn't have a proper landlord, but the amount of farmland was quite limited. Many people had to rent and cultivate the ancestral land of the Liu family across the courtyard.
It wasn't until the establishment of New China in 1949 that things began to change. The government confiscated all the landlords' lands and redistributed them among the farmers based on population. Although it wasn't as brutal as the Red Army's "seizing land from the rich," it was still a period of tremendous upheaval in history.
According to my grandmother, in the nearby New House courtyard, there were instances where land reform cadres were killed by vengeful landlords. Some landlords, unable to hold onto their ancestral lands that they had bought back for decades or even centuries, chose to end their own lives as a way to repay their ancestors.
The farmers, each cultivating the land allocated by the government, had not been doing so for long when the gradual transformation of the socialist system began. First, mutual aid groups were formed, where several households came together to share tools, labor, and the fruits of their work. Next came the establishment of primary and advanced cooperatives, where all land was collectively owned. This top-down approach resulted in a three-tiered system of collective ownership and labor, consisting of the People's Commune, production platoons, and production teams.
In between, policies such as "public dining halls" were implemented as steps toward communism. However, communism did not materialize as rumored at the time, with tales of it "moving from Shaoyang to Dongkou," nor did it reach Zhu Shan Bay.
Ultimately, what everyone experienced was what I have seen since my birth: farmers working three shifts a day in their production teams under the collective system. Rations were calculated per person, while grain was distributed based on work points. Everyone relied on these rations and work points to sustain their lives.
This time, the distribution of land to households was significantly different from the land redistribution at the beginning of the liberation. The land still belonged to the production teams and other collective entities at the third level; what was being distributed, in economic terms, was merely the right to use it—specifically, the rights to cultivate and harvest. Of course, there were also corresponding obligations, such as delivering requisitioned grain and public grain.
Although we were all attending school, many parents who weren't very good at calculations brought their children along to help with the numbers during such significant events as land distribution. During that period, many teachers also belonged to families in rural areas or were "private teachers" who came from farming backgrounds, which meant that school ended particularly early. Therefore, we can say that aside from not participating in meetings where policies were announced or discussed, we were involved in the entire process of land distribution in our courtyard.
We received our share of land later than several nearby production teams. By the time we started planting late rice, it had already turned green for several days. As a result, no matter how complicated the process of land distribution was, it did not delay any important agricultural tasks.
The older generation all have experience with land distribution. First, they meticulously measured the existing fields. When we say meticulous, it does not mean measuring every inch precisely, but rather categorizing the land based on its location, fertility, and maturity into different grades. High-quality fields required precise measurements for every inch, while lower-grade fields had some adjustments made to their area. For instance, fields adjacent to high paddy fields would have a portion deducted from their area due to shading that affected yield. Similarly, fields that could not be directly irrigated would also see their area reduced by about 20% or 10%.
The tools used for measuring the land were simply the brown rope taken from the farmers' baskets and a borrowed ruler from a carpenter for rough measurements. The length of the brown rope was set at eight feet, although it was originally over nine feet long.
Considering these factors, the entire Zhu Shan Bay Production Team's rice paddies measured approximately 100 acres, which was more than a 30% reduction from the figures reported during the previous production team assessment. Everyone was aware of this discrepancy, but no one spoke up; they prepared to distribute the land based on this new figure.
The second issue to be determined is who can receive a share of the land. This seemingly simple question is actually the most fiercely debated, leading to quarrels and even fatalities in many places. When the central government issued policies, in order to reassure the farmers, it was stated that after the land distribution, it would remain "unchanged for ten years." This ten-year period has led to significant fluctuations in the population statistics. Families with newly married daughters, regardless of whether they are pregnant, all clamor for a share of the land. Furthermore, some people, in order to obtain an additional share of land, immediately start arranging marriages for their sons who are in their twenties or even seventeen or eighteen years old. Even if they cannot marry immediately, they get engaged first. As a result, even if they cannot obtain a share for their future grandchildren, they can at least secure a share for their daughters-in-law.
In addition to those who want to obtain more, there are also those who argue that others should receive less. If a family has a girl over eighteen years old, even if she has not yet found a partner, she may become a target of criticism. Those who have already arranged to get married and leave this winter face even more gossip and criticism.
After much noise and discussion, everyone finally confirmed the population eligible for land distribution in Zhu Shan Bay. After careful calculations, it was determined that a total of 80 households could participate in the land allocation.
The final step was to conduct the land lottery. There is a tradition among the people that "a thousand taels of silver can be decided by a lottery," and at this significant moment of land distribution, only the lottery could ensure that everyone had no objections.
Before the lottery, all the land was divided into several grades. Each household had to draw lots according to these grades to determine which households would receive first-class land, which would receive second-class land, and which would receive the lowest grade. Particularly, those lands widely recognized as good were divided into many portions to give everyone a chance to win a share.
After a long process of three rounds, our family of four (my mother, my younger brother, my younger sister, and I; my father works for the state and cannot share the land) received about five acres of rice paddies. They are scattered within a few miles around the ridge and in the mountains, located in front of and behind the houses of three courtyards: Zhu Shan Bay, Shibaochong, and Maozushan.
For the first-class fields, our family received one-quarter of the large rice field in front of the old courtyard at Zhu Shan Bay, totaling 2.8 mu.
For the second-class fields, we received one-quarter of the large ridge at Jiangqiu, totaling 6.5 mu; one-quarter of the ridge hill next to Shibaochong courtyard, totaling 4 mu; two small fields between Zhu Shan Bay and Changtangchong, totaling 5.8 mu; and a large field by the canal at Elicao, totaling 8 mu.
In the third-grade fields, my family received eight-tenths of a plot in the ridge opposite the Maozu Mountain courtyard and four-tenths in the Deep Water Hill. Across the road, there were two plots of leaking fields on the mountain ridge, measuring three-tenths and two-tenths respectively.
In the lowest-grade fields, my family received a piece of muddy land measuring two-tenths and five-hundredths at Shiye Pond, and another piece of Tianshui Field measuring two-tenths and seven-hundredths above the Ezu Ditch.
Later, for the sake of convenience in farming, my mother exchanged some fields with others; subsequently, my siblings and I gradually left the mountain village to eat "national grain," returning a portion to redistribute to others. After my grandparents passed away, the fields remained unchanged and continued to be cultivated by my uncle, but one portion was registered under my family's name.
At the 40th anniversary of the household land distribution policy, our family still has over 3 acres of rice paddies for 2 members. This includes half an acre and three tenths in Jiangqiu, eight tenths in the large field below the Canal, two tenths and eight hundredths in the big seedling field, two acres and six hundredths behind Zhu Shan Bay, and three tenths and nine hundredths on the beam across the street.
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