Yoshiso - Giso

In China, a method was used to provide economic assistance through the tax payments made by a family by setting up rice fields shared by the family. It is said to have started when Fan Zhongyan, deputy prime minister during the reign of Emperor Renzong (1022-63) of the Northern Song Dynasty, purchased over 1,000 mu (1 mu is approximately 544 square meters) in his hometown of Suzhou in southern China. The distinctive feature of this system was that rice was given equally to all family members, regardless of their relatives or wealth. The Fan family's Yizhuang system developed except for a brief period during the Ming Dynasty, and other government officials who followed their example also appeared in various places. During the Southern Song Dynasty, many of them appeared in southern China, mainly in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and also appeared in northeastern China, and continued into the Ming and Qing dynasties. Also, from the Southern Song Dynasty onwards, this was often limited to the elderly or poor, and sometimes extended to the cost of communal religious rites and education.

[Tadao Aoyama]

"A Study of the Chinese Family Property System" by Morimitsu Shimizu (1949, Iwanami Shoten)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

中国で一族共有の田土を設け、その租入で経済的扶助を行う方法。北宋(ほくそう)の仁宗(じんそう)（在位1022～63）時代の副宰相范仲淹(はんちゅうえん)が華南の郷里蘇州(そしゅう)に1000余畝(ほ)（1畝は約544平方メートル）を買って設けたのに始まるといわれる。その特色は、族人に親疎貧富の別なく平等に米を与えることにあった。范氏の義荘は明(みん)の一時を除けば発展する一方で、これに倣う官僚も各地に現われ、南宋の世には江蘇、浙江(せっこう)を中心に華南に多く生じ、華北東部にもみえ、明(みん)・清(しん)に及んだ。また南宋のころから孤老や貧乏な者に限る場合が多く、共同祭祀(さいし)や教育費などに及ぶこともあった。

［青山定雄］

『清水盛光著『中国族産制度攷』（1949・岩波書店）』

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