Overview of Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture — Historical Evolution and Social Change (Part 3)
Section 3: Land Reform. Land was the issue of greatest concern to the laboring masses and the means of survival for the peasantry. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, feudal forces ran rampant in Xiangxi, with landlords and local tyrants colluding with officials and bandits to annex land on a large scale and ruthlessly exploit the peasants. According to incomplete statistics, in Tujia-concentrated areas such as Yongshun, Longshan, Dayong, and Sang...
This article has been compiled from historical materials in the "Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network" (33519.com · City Overview section). Some administrative divisions, population, socioeconomic data, and policy information may be outdated and are for reference only; for the latest situation, please refer to official releases by the local government and scenic areas.
Section III Land Reform
Land was the issue of greatest concern to the broad laboring people and the condition on which the broad farmer masses depended for survival. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, feudal forces ran rampant in Xiangxi. Landlords and local tyrants colluded with officials and bandits, wildly annexing land and cruelly squeezing and exploiting farmers. According to incomplete statistics, in the counties concentrated with Tujia people such as Yongshun, Longshan, Dayong, and Sangzhi, the landlord population was only 5%–7% of the total population, but they occupied 40%–50% of the total land area, and in some places as much as 70%; the poor peasant population was about 60% of the total population, but occupied only about 10% of the total land area. In the Miao-concentrated counties of Fenghuang, Jishou, Huayuan, Luxi, Guzhang, and Baojing, the landlord population was about 10% and occupied 25% of the land, and in some places reached 50%; the poor peasant population accounted for 40%–50% of the total rural population but occupied only about 10% of the land. Relying on the land they occupied, landlords and local tyrants carried out cruel exploitation of farmers through land rent, usury, deposits, hired labor, gift collection, and unpaid labor. Of the grain farmers obtained through bitter labor, they often had to hand over six or seven tenths to landlords. In years of disaster, farmers begged for food and fled famine, selling their sons and daughters, finding it hard to survive. "Farmers have two knives on their bodies, heavy rent and high interest; three roads lie before them, flee famine, hang themselves, or go to prison"—this was a true portrayal of the miserable lives of the broad masses of farmers.
In October 1949, the People's Republic of China was born. The laboring people of all counties in the prefecture turned over and were liberated, and the laboring masses who had suffered and endured exploitation and oppression for generations stood up and became masters of their own affairs. But New China had just been founded, and everything was awaiting development. Tasks such as suppressing bandits and pacifying the people, reducing rent and opposing local tyrants, production to tide over famine, banning opium and drugs, and democratic construction of political power were urgent and heavy, so solving the land problem could only be postponed. By March 1950, in areas where bandit suppression had basically ended, the counties of the prefecture took the lead in mobilizing farmers to launch the movement to reduce rent and oppose local tyrants, initially crushing the political prestige of the ruling faction of the landlord class and dealing a heavy blow to the landlord class economically. This raised the class consciousness of the broad masses of farmers, solved the difficulties of the broad masses of farmers in spring plowing and the summer famine, and created favorable conditions for land reform.
In order to thoroughly abolish the feudal land ownership system, realize "land to the tiller," fundamentally eradicate the roots of exploitation and oppression suffered by the laboring people, and liberate the productive forces, the Xiangxi Administrative Office implemented the 1950 Land Reform Law of the People's Republic of China, the Regulations on the Organization of Peasants' Associations, the Decisions on the Division of Rural Class Status, and the Hunan Provincial Implementation Rules of the Land Reform Law of the People's Republic of China, promulgated by the Central People's Government, and began pilot land reform in the central districts. In December, the second special-county liaison meeting was held, focusing on the integration of land reform and production. It was decided to establish land reform committees from top to bottom, under the unified leadership of the CPC committees, with divided responsibilities: the party committee secretary serving as chairman of the land reform committee, and the commissioner and county heads as vice chairmen. All party and government cadres, except those in banking, grain, trade, and taxation, participated in the land reform work. The land reform was carried out in three batches. The first batch was from the winter of 1950 to April 1951; the second batch from June to September 1951; and the third batch from October 1951 to April 1952. From the winter of 1952 to the spring of 1953, the follow-up work of land reform and the land reform review were all completed.
From the winter of 1950 to the spring of 1951, the first batch of land reform was carried out in the central districts of Luxi, Dayong, Yongshun, and Guzhang, generally ending around Qingming and transitioning into spring plowing. In order to do a good job in land reform in remote mountainous areas and Miao areas, and to fully implement the Party's ethnic policies, both the administrative office and the special office conducted in-depth investigations and studies, visited poor farmers, listened to opinions from all sides, and clarified the class situation in Miao areas and the demands of farmers. In Miao areas, landlords accounted for about 3% of the total rural population, with some villages reaching 5%; rich peasants accounted for 4%; middle peasants 30%; and poor and hired peasants about 60%. The vast number of landless and land-poor farmers urgently demanded land reform, to realize land to the tiller and achieve complete economic liberation. Zhou Xiaozhou, secretary of the CPC Xiangxi District Committee, based on the investigation and study, wrote an investigation report and work plan and submitted it to Chairman Mao Zedong, which was approved by Chairman Mao. In late October 1951, the CPC Xiangxi District Party Committee held its first party congress to deploy land reform work, correctly implement the Party's line, principles, and policies, take into account ethnic characteristics, respect the customs and habits of ethnic minorities, and do a good job in land reform in ethnic areas. In mid-November, Yongshui County (now Huayuan County), where the Miao population accounted for 70% of the total population, began to hold the first batch of land reform work training classes, training 250 land reform work team members, studying the Land Reform Law, the Hunan Provincial Land Reform Implementation Rules, and related principles, policies, and methods. The focus was on grasping and implementing six important links: fully mobilizing the masses, and through recalling bitterness, airing grievances, digging up the roots of bitterness, and calculating exploitation accounts, raising the class consciousness of hired peasants and poor and lower-middle peasants. Accurately understanding and implementing the general line of land reform: "rely on poor peasants and hired peasants, unite with middle peasants, neutralize rich peasants, and step by step and differently eliminate the feudal system and develop agricultural production." Correctly implementing policies, preserving the rich peasant economy, neutralizing rich peasants, and protecting the land and other property that rich peasants cultivate themselves or hire others to cultivate. For land rented out by semi-landlords or rich peasants, if the amount exceeding the land they cultivate themselves or hire others to cultivate is small, only the rented-out portion of land was to be requisitioned. Landlords' exploitation should be thoroughly settled, their land and other property confiscated, but their hidden wealth was not to be dug up, they were not to be driven out of their homes, and they were to be allocated a due share of land, housing, etc. Small and medium landlords and tyrannical landlords should be treated differently, dividing and disintegrating the landlord class, isolating and striking at stubborn landlord tyrants, keeping the scope of attack small, using reasoned struggle, prohibiting arbitrary beating and hanging, and those who must be dealt with according to law were to be handled separately according to law after approval. Organize class ranks and establish grassroots political power. The fruits of land reform victory must be distributed fairly and reasonably through democratic discussion, and must not be distributed equally. Work must be meticulous and must not be done carelessly or as a mere formality. Through the steps of visiting the poor and asking about their hardships, taking root and linking up, publicizing policies, training backbone elements, establishing peasant associations, organizing class ranks to struggle against tyrannical landlords, and determining class status, the land, housing, draft animals, and farm tools of landlords were confiscated and distributed to landless and land-poor farmers. At the same time, according to policy, landlords were left with some land and means of production. In April 1952, land reform in all counties ended victoriously. In the entire region, 268,350 landless and land-poor households received cultivated land and mountain forests of 66,667 hectares, 85,000 houses, 13,000 draft cattle, 230,000 farm tools, and 1.75 million kilograms of grain. In Baojing County during land reform, 1,321 landlord households with 6,532 people were classified; 677 rich peasant households with 3,541 people; 11,266 middle peasant households with 50,487 people; 11,223 poor peasant households with 45,453 people; 2,714 hired peasant households with 7,701 people; 639 small land-renting households with 1,659 people; and 339 other households with 2,991 people.
In October 1952, the CPC Xiangxi District Committee and the Xiangxi Administrative Office, based on some problems existing in land reform, organized and carried out land verification and output assessment work throughout the region. A total of 830 cadres and 1,506 land reform work team members, 451 teachers, 718 intellectuals, and 108 people from other strata were drawn in. The work lasted two months. There were 1,051 townships that underwent general surveying, and 334 townships that used self-reporting and mutual evaluation. The region verified 140,621 hectares of paddy field area and 505,687 hectares of dry land area; paddy field assessed output was 34,360,344 kilograms, with a unit yield of 162.5 kilograms per mu; dry land assessed output was 48,050,671 kilograms, with a unit yield of 63 kilograms per mu. After land verification and output assessment, the region's paddy field area increased by 329,630 mu, an increase of 12%; output increased by 4,925,705 kilograms, an increase of 12%; and the average per-mu yield of fields decreased by 25.5 kilograms, a decrease of 15%. The land verification and output assessment work corrected leftover problems from land reform and reasonably adjusted the burdens on farmers.
After land reform, major changes took place in Xiangxi's rural society, economy, and people's lives. The landlord class as a feudal exploiting class was thoroughly eliminated, and the vast number of farmers fundamentally stood up and realized the desire of "land to the tiller." Farmers who received the fruits of land reform accounted for about 65% of the total rural population.
Land reform liberated rural productive forces, farmers' enthusiasm for production soared unprecedentedly, and living standards improved markedly. According to incomplete statistics, from July 1952 to March 1953, state-owned trade departments sold 22,381 meters of cotton cloth, an increase of 112% over the same period from 1951 to 1952. Before the founding of New China, salt in Xiangxi was expensive, reaching the level of "a dou of rice for a jin of salt." In 1953, a total of 3.755 million kilograms of salt was sold, 4.06 times that of 1950. The thatched huts people originally lived in were gradually replaced by tile-roofed houses. In the First Bao of Xinping Township, Guzhang County, there were 123 households. Before land reform, 57 households lived in thatched huts, 29 households went out to beg for rice, and 14 households made a living by doing short-term and long-term hired labor. After land reform, all changed to tile-roofed houses, and those who had gone out to beg for rice or work as hired laborers returned home to farm and feed themselves.
Eradicating China's feudal land system of several thousand years and carrying out an unprecedented land reform was a sharp and complex class struggle. In this struggle, the feudal landlord class was unwilling to exit the stage of history and tried every possible means to obstruct and sabotage it. They used clan and kinship relations, employed the honey trap of wine and women, and bribed farmers and cadres with low consciousness; used ethnic barriers left over from history, spread rumors, sowed discord, and incited ethnic disputes; organized fake peasant associations or sent henchmen into peasant associations to manipulate and sabotage from within, colluded with bad elements to kill land reform activists; hid property, destroyed farm tools, poisoned draft cattle, and threatened and intimidated the masses; concealed landholdings, attempted to change class status, and evaded struggle, and so on.
In order to win a complete victory in this struggle, under the leadership of the district party committee and government, land reform work teams went deep into the countryside to publicize and mobilize the masses, fully relied on the masses, strictly implemented the general line of land reform, took root and linked up, and guided farmers to dig up the roots of poverty and pour out their grievances, raising their consciousness. At the same time, they vigorously trained peasant backbone elements, formed peasant associations, strengthened class ranks, broke through the shackles of clan, locality, and personal ties, investigated the history of how the landlord class became rich, calculated exploitation accounts, exposed the crimes of landlords squeezing the blood and sweat of farmers and sabotaging the campaigns to suppress bandits, oppose local tyrants, and carry out land reform, and divided class status through the procedures of "self-reporting and public discussion" and "three public listings for final determination," clarifying class lines. On this basis, the masses were mobilized to verify land and assess output, and according to policy, landlord land, mountain forests, houses, and other property were confiscated, and part of the land rented out by rich peasants was requisitioned. With administrative villages as distribution units and townships as adjustment units, land distribution was carried out. On the basis of taking into account original cultivated land, unified drawing and supplementing was implemented, with good land matched with poor land and distant land matched with nearby land. The demands of poor and hired peasants were met as far as possible, and the interests of middle peasants were appropriately taken into account. Farmers who had stood up received land and beat gongs and drums to celebrate the return of land that had been theirs for thousands of years, and every village was filled with joy.