區田法實施に見る金・モンゴル時代農業政策の一斷面

Abstract

The implementation of the outian system 區田法 as an instrument of agricultural policy in the Jin and Mongol periods can be roughly divided into four periods: (1) during the reign of Zhang-zong 章宗 of the Jin; (2) from the late Jin through the Zhongtong era and to the first year of the Zhiyuan era; (3) until the third decade of the Zhiyuan era; and (4) during the Taiding era. During the initial stage, which corresponds to the reign of Zhang-zong, the outian system was instituted as a reformist measure to overcome drought and increase tax revenue. However, due to the problems of differing customs and conditions and the gap between estimated and actual income, it became impossible to implement on a continuous basis. Following the late-Jin period of implementation, the implementation of the outian system in the third year of the Zhongtong meant a continuation of the Jin system, but the combining its operation with that of the she system 杜制 in the 7th year of the Zhiyuan era shook the system and it was greatly transformed. As a result, as the outian system spread in combination with the she system, a mutually reinforcing system of operation designed to strengthen the she system by the outian system was used, and along with the expansion of the she system, the region for implementation of the outian system extended throughout the entire territory ruled, including Jiangnan. Likewise, "the outian system" conveyed to peasant farmers at the time of redistribution of fields and trees in the seventh year of the Zhiyuan era was printed and published on each circuit throughout the country as the "outian regulations" 區田法度 by the 23rd year of the era. In addition, the Essentials of Farming and Sericulture 農桑輯要, in which the outian system was included, was republished again and again, and the specific contents of the outian system were conveyed to the tillers of the land through technical education that used books on agricultural technology and manuals about outian. In contrast, the manner in which the outian system was accepted as an emergency agricultural method in times of natural disaster that had already become evident in the Zhangzong era of the Jin, could also be seen in the Mongol period, but the fundamental problems of the need for enormous amounts of labor and precise technology that accompanied it, became causes preventing the continuous implementation of the system. However, attention to drought resistance and diversity of appropriate land revived interest in the outian system as a way of fighting famine under the conditions of frequent natural disasters on a nation-wide scale, the outian system was taken up with the intent of reviving agriculture in the heartland on the basis of proposals by Zhao Jian 趙簡 and Miao Haoqian 苗好謙. This corresponds to that fact that many policies to promote agriculture are found in the section of Jiuhuanghuomingleiyao 救荒活民類要 that is related to the outian system, and it can clearly be seen that the implementation of the outian system was consistently used as an anti-famine policy to overcome natural disasters through aggressive promotion of agriculture.