The Land Law of the Jinggang Mountains
Compiled from the merged Wikisource corpus; dating follows the standard catalogue. See Guide · Editions & Language for the sourcing rule.
Introduction
This is a written land statute, dated to the Jinggangshan base-area period of December 1928. Nine articles set out, in order, the confiscation and distribution of land, the two distribution standards of population and labour power, the regional standards of township and district, the handling of mountain forests, the levying of the land tax, and the method of allotting fields to handicraft workers and Red Army personnel. Throughout, the Soviet government is named as the sole confiscator and distributor of land.
1. All land is to be confiscated and become the property of the Soviet government, and shall be allocated by one of the following three methods:
(1) Allotment to individual peasants for cultivation;
(2) Allotment to the peasants for joint cultivation;
(3) Cultivation on model farms organised by the Soviet government.
Of the three methods above, the first is the principal one. Where circumstances are exceptional, or where the Soviet government has the capacity, the second and third may be used alongside it.
2. Once all land has been confiscated and allocated by the Soviet government, its sale and purchase are forbidden.
3. After the land has been allocated, everyone must labour under compulsion, except the old and the young, those unable to cultivate through illness, and those performing public service.
4. The quantitative standard for allocating land:
(1) By population: an equal share for every man, woman, adult and child.
(2) By labour power: those able to work receive twice as much land as those unable to work.
Of the two standards above, the first is the principal one. Where local conditions are exceptional, the second standard may be applied. The reasons for adopting the first standard:
(a) Until provision for the aged and for infant care is complete, if the old and the young were allotted too little land they would be unable to sustain themselves.
The base text is the Wikisource version: nine articles, with no implementing rules and no issuing authority named. The date 'December 1928' comes from common cataloguing; the body of the base text carries no date. The whole is written in articles, each subdivided into clauses.
(b) Allocating land by population is comparatively simple and convenient.
(c) Households with neither old nor young are few. Moreover, although the old and the young have no strength to cultivate, once they have received land the government may assign them suitable public duties, such as carrying messages.
5. The territorial standard for allocating land:
(1) Allocation with the township as the unit.
(2) Allocation with several townships as the unit (as in the Xiaojiang district of Yongxin).
(3) Allocation with the district as the unit (as in the Huang'ao district of Suichuan).
Of the three standards above, the first is the principal one. Where circumstances are exceptional, the second and third standards may be applied.
6. Rules for the allocation of hill land:
(1) Tea gardens and firewood hills are to be allocated, in the same manner as farmland, for cultivation and use, with the township as the unit and on the principle of equal distribution.
(2) Hills of bamboo and timber belong to the Soviet government, but peasants may make use of the bamboo and timber with the Soviet government's permission. Taking fewer than fifty stalks requires the permission of the township soviet government; fewer than one hundred, the permission of the district soviet government; one hundred or more, the permission of the county soviet government.
(3) All bamboo and timber is to be sold by the county soviet government, and the proceeds shall be disposed of by the higher soviet government.
The text names three levels of Soviet government — township, district, county — and gives the example of Xiaojiang district in Yongxin county and Huang'ao district in Suichuan county, addressing the administrative divisions of the Hunan-Jiangxi border base area. Articles four through six give, in turn, the population standard, the regional standard and the mountain-forest provisions, showing the order in which land distribution proceeded.
7. Collection of the land tax:
(1) According to conditions of production, the land tax is levied in three grades: first, 15 per cent; second, 10 per cent; third, 5 per cent.
Of the three methods above, the first is the principal one. Where circumstances are exceptional, the second and third may be applied respectively with the approval of the higher soviet government.
(2) In the event of natural disaster or other exceptional circumstances, exemption from the land tax may be granted upon report to, and approval by, the higher soviet government.
(3) The land tax is collected by the county soviet government and handed over to the higher soviet government for disposal.
8. Rural handicraft workers who themselves wish to receive land may be allotted one half of the quantity received by each peasant.
9. Officers and soldiers of the Red Army and the Red Guards, and all persons serving in the government and in every other public institution, are to be allotted land in the same quantity as the peasants, with the Soviet government hiring labourers to cultivate it in their stead.
Beyond article nine there is a separate clause: landless handicraft workers in the villages who voluntarily take fields receive half the amount a peasant receives; Red Army and local-militia officers and men, and those serving in the government or other public bodies, are also allotted land, with the Soviet government hiring others to farm it for them.