Land Issues in Shanxi Province before the War of Resistance against Japan (抗战前山西土地问题新探)

Abstract

Using Gini coefficients of land distribution, the proportion of small landowners, and the size of landholdings of large landowners in rural Shanxi before the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, this article shows that, overall, land was not concentrated but rather fragmented among all classes and that small landowners (mainly owner-cultivator peasants and semi-owner-cultivator peasants) predominated. In addition, the data presented here indicate that tenancy relations were also relatively unproblematic. Most of the tensions and contradictions in rural Shanxi were between the government and the common people, who bore the dual burden of state oppression and heavy taxation. The intense population-to-land pressure also contributed to Shanxi’s rural poverty.通过对山西部分农村地权分配基尼系数的测算和小土地所有者比例及大地户占地情况的统计，可知在抗战前的山西农村，土地在总体上是比较分散的分配在各个阶层的，以自耕农和半自耕农为代表的小土地所有制占据主导地位，在此基础上的租佃关系比较缓和。乡村社会的矛盾和冲突更多地体现在官民之间，即农民负担过重，受压榨太甚。此外，紧张的人地关系亦是造成农村普遍贫困的一个重要因素。