ABSTRACT
TTSuiT referred to the open countryside that was some distance from the capital and was alternatively known as nyehn里子or np iTT^ . Residents of the TThsiangTf were called Mkuo-jenn 固 人 ；they were free people and had the r ig h t to partic ipa te in
political activities and be considered for appointments and the obligation to perform m ilitary and labor services. Residents of the ns u iTT were called nshu-jen”無ん o r ” yeh-jen t T 人 and were slaves under the exploitation of the well-field system. The TTwell-fieldn system consisted of the appropriation of fields, the neat layout of which was in the square form of the Chinese characte r fo r "w e ll” 「ch ing幷 ] • ( 1 ) The TTw e ll-f ie ld TT con sisted of the so-ca lled "mutual-dependence fie ld ” [ c h i - t fien 傷 同 ] o r ” public fie ld n [k u n g -tTien 公 田 ] on which the m u lt i tude of TTshu-jen ft were forced to perfo rm unpaid labor fo r the slave owner - a ris toc r at s . The produce from a slave owne r fs tTch i-tTienT was his main income from exploitation, and thus th is method of exploita tion was known as ffmutual dependencen fchii^*] or Ttmutual-aidTt f chu助 ] . At the same time, the slave ow ner-aristocrats also carried out a kind of nc h i-l iM し through which they s t r ic t ly supervised the la bor serv ice of the Ttshu-jenM to ensure the im plem entation of the tTchiTt method of exploitation. Under the supervision of the a ris to c ra ts ，a ll ” shu-jen” were obliged to perfo rm unpaid la bor at designated Ttc h i-tTien .Tt Th is meant that an o ff ic ia l cen sus of the Ttshu-jenTT could be ca rrie d out at the same tim e that a Mchi-lin took place. (2)
During the period of the slave system ，land came under the ownership of the state of the slave o w ner-a ris tocra ts . W ith in the h ie ra rch ica l system of the slave o w n e r-a ris to c ra ts , both the land and its people were granted by owners of one rank to the one below it. The Son of Heaven granted land to the feudal lords, who in turn granted land to their m inisters and high officials. The purpose of this hierarchical order in distributing land and people was to provide salaries for a ris to crats of lower ranks by aristocrats of higher ranks. The size of a fief was determined by conventions and had to be appropri ate to the rank of the owner. Thus, there were certain limits on the amounts of nwell-fieldTT that the various noblemen could
L in -fen in Shansi) to I-yang 堂 j?曰(to the southwest of today1 s I-yang in Honan), and in 376 B.C., a fte r i t had conquered the state of Cheng, it fu rthe r moved its capita l to Hsin-cheng豸ケ郝 (todayfs Hsin-cheng in Honan). In 362 B.C., Wei moved its capita l from A n - i to Ta -liang . The reasons why the various large states moved th e ir capita ls during the ea rly W arring States period were to gain an advantage in s tra teg ic position and to move away from the clutches of the forces of the old a ris to c ra ts .
