Retained Land: Relationship Between the State and Farmers from the Perspective of Distribution

“Retained land” (firest as self-retained land) consisted of small amounts of land (mainly referring to vegetable and garden plots) that the state allowed farmers to retain the right to operate independently during the period of agricultural collectivization in China. Its origin and changes reflected the distribution relationship between the state and farmers. This distribution contained two levels: one was that “retained land,” as a material form of land resources, represented the state’s distribution of land use rights to farmers; the other was that “retained land” served as a private space for farmers to be independent and was free distributed by the state during the special era of collectivization. The absolute advantage of “retained land” in terms of system, production form, and distribution benefits compared to “collective land” gradually broke the collective distribution method, and farmers instinctively created a “household contract responsibility system,” forcing the state to reform the agricultural production distribution system. When the era of agricultural collectivization became historical, “retained land” also lost its original historical function and instead became synonymous with freedom and autonomy.