Edict on equal allotment of land
The Wei shu basic annals record that on the dingwei day of the tenth lunar month of Taihe 9 (AD 485) an edict sent envoys to tour the provinces and commanderies and, with the governors, allot the land of the realm equally (均給天下之田), its grant and return to be fixed by life and death, and to encourage farming and sericulture.
What this does and does not establish
An official history compiled 551-554 by Wei Shou under the Northern Qi from Northern Wei records; the English is an AI working translation. The annals give the edict only; they do not describe how or how far it was carried out.
- Read through an AI working translation.
- Region
- East Asia
- Theme
- Economy and exchange
- Kind of record
- Placed in a year. A source places this in one year. It is listed under that year; no day precision is invented.
How it is dated
- Date reference
- 太和 9 (太和九年 as numbered by the annals), lunar month 10
- How we use it
- Year assigned from the lunar month under which the Wei shu annals enter the item; the sexagenary day was not converted to a Julian day.
The date reference is this project’s reading of the source’s date. It may give an era name, a reign or a calendar in a normalised form rather than in the source’s own words; the dating notes say what the source prints.
Dating notes from the research record
Lunar month 10 of 太和 9 = Julian 485-10-25 to 485-11-22, per Academia Sinica 兩千年中西曆轉換 year table(s) 太和9.html (sha256 d0cb78d29eae…); the whole month lies in AD 485.
File names and line numbers in these notes, and in the limits above, refer to the project’s retained copies of the cited sources. Names such as calendar_headers are the project’s calendar look-ups, and “the investigator” is the research step that prepared the record.
Sources and quoted text
Line and character numbers under “Location” refer to the project’s retained copy of the source. For database rows, “Edition” names the batch of rows that was fetched together.
Source 1 · Supports the statement
Wei shu (Book of Wei), basic annals
Wei Shou (魏收), Northern Qi court historian
The credit or link shown here was corrected after an audit of the retained source.
Quoted text (Classical Chinese)
冬十月丁未，詔曰：「朕承乾在位，十有五年。每覽先王之典，經綸百氏，儲畜既積，黎元永安。爰暨季葉，斯道陵替，富強者并兼山澤，貧弱者望絕一廛，致令地有遺利，民無餘財，或爭畝畔以亡身，或因飢饉以棄業，而欲天下太平，百姓豐足，安可得哉？今遣使者，循行州郡，與牧守均給天下之田，還受以生死為斷，勸課農桑，興富民之本。」AI working translation into English; not official or authoritative
Winter, tenth month, dingwei day: an edict said: "We have received Heaven's charge and been on the throne fifteen years. Whenever We read the statutes of the former kings, [We see that] they ordered the hundred clans, stores were accumulated, and the common people were lastingly secure. Coming to the later ages, this way declined: the rich and strong annexed hills and marshes, while the poor and weak lost hope of a single plot, so that the land had unused profit and the people had no surplus wealth; some lost their lives fighting over field boundaries, some abandoned their livelihood because of famine. Wishing for the realm to be at peace and the people well provided for under such conditions, how could it be achieved? Now We send envoys to tour the provinces and commanderies and, together with the governors, allot the land of the realm equally; its return and receipt shall be determined by death and life. They are to encourage farming and sericulture and promote the foundation of enriching the people."
Source credit and reuse conditions recorded for this source: Source: Wei shu, juan 7上, zh.wikisource transcription (revision 2460668). English renderings are AI working translations, not published translations.
Exact source version
0693886d2723ee4e12db21f31cf59563aaf7f1fb88dc5612ba1a810632fc49ebChecks and changes
Source checked 2026-11-05. An independent AI evidence review supports this bounded, attributed wording. That review does not guarantee historical truth. How records are checked
No correction has been made to this record’s statement or limits.
Revision s1h_485_wei_2
Exact revision fingerprint
763e70a67a2c870598e600317360d9eedf7ee06e4e4e1e584bceb6561f7a2076