• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.558-576
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• 1996

Since 1978. China has progressed her reforms of her economy. In this process, refroms in rual area have been operated with top priority. The system of collective economy had been changed into that of private economy. Rural farming and land-use system had been changed also. The household responsibility system took the place of a People's Commune. That was the system that could inspire farm-household with a will to work, and hence, increase the productivity of agriculture. However, with the developement of market mechanism in the later 1980s, that system got inadequate to new situation. For instance, incentives of a will to work slowly decreased, agricultural productivity did not increase, and labor forces were tremendously transferred to non-agricultural sector. This situation created the demand for a new system of rural land policy and use. This paper intends to describe changes of new system of land use in rual China. Those changes are as follows. 1. The system of land-circulation has been spread widely. 2. 'Liangtianzhi' (the system of two kind land-use) divided the land into two kinds, 'kouliangtian' (the land of food) and 'zerentian' (the land of obligation). The one is allocated in proportion to the per capita, and to support farm-household' and function, the other is allocated in proportion to the labor force, in order to increase the commercial function of land. 4. 'Guimojingying' (management of scale): For overcomint the disadvantage of dispersal of land, the relative concentration of land was required. 4. 'Gufenzhi' (a joint-stock system) is practised for the purpose of establishing clear-cut lines of land ownership. 5. 'Sihuangpaimai' (auction the use right of four kinds of wasteland) is for full-using of the wasteland. It can be apprehended that these systems and policies were the process of adaption to market mechanism. In these, rural China could escape form the disorder due to rapid changes, and overcome the existing contradiction.