ABSTRACT
In traditional Chinese society, “land quota” was often proposed as an ideal scheme to ease social crises and consolidate governance at times when rapid expansion of privately owned land led to land annexation and social conflict. The private ownership of land established in Qin was carried over to the Han Dynasty. Problems of land annexation and possible solutions received further consideration in the Eastern Han. The Song Dynasty marked an important transition in the land system in ancient China with the abandonment of a nationwide policy. Land issues were discussed from several perspectives. The severe economic crisis in rural areas during the 1920s prompted renewed interest in ideas about land systems of previous dynasties. The feudal society of China presented a periodic cycle of the alternation between peace and upheaval, which led to the periodic cycle of land annexation. A condition for the implementation of a land quota system was therefore a strong and powerful government.
