The Farmland Property Transaction System: A Study on Dian

In China’s history, land rights transactions have taken various types, each with its own characteristics and connectedness, structuring a hierarchical and inherently logical system of land rights transactions, which includes: taijie (loan through the land as collateral), zudian (tenancy), yazu (rent deposit), dian (conditional sales), diya (mortgages), huomai (revocable sales), and juemai (irrevocable sales). If we examine the classification of dian in the Qing Dynasty from the perspective of land rights stratification and transaction, we find that dian refers to a transaction between the land management with all of its proceeds and interest in an agreed period, rather than the so-called offset of rent and interest (zuxi xiangdi). The redemption mechanism, which includes the use of dian, huomai, and yazu, had effectively preserved the willingness of peasant households to secure and resume their land ownerships and reduced the space for easy property transfers caused by juemai, or diya of a usurious nature. A multi-layered land rights transaction system enables peasant households to make choices according to market prices and risk appetites, cater to their own needs, and help to achieve cross-time regulation between current and future yields, thereby facilitating the combination of land circulation and productive factors and improving economic efficiency.