历史时期地权分配研究的理论、工具与方法——以《中国传统农村的地权分配》为中心

Land Ownership Distribution in Historical Periods:Theory,Tools and Method

历史上的地权分配有着重要的理论价值和现实意义,一向为学界所关注。20世纪80年代以来,有学者借鉴经济学的洛伦兹曲线、基尼系数等分析工具和方法,通过对鱼鳞册、黄册、实征册、编审册、土地调查报告等资料的量化研究,得出了有别于传统认识的新观点。赵冈的《中国传统农村的地权分配》一书最具代表性。该书对宋代至民国时期的地权分配进行了纵向考察,认为地权分配显示出越来越分散的长期趋势。本研究发现,赵冈的基尼系数计算方法存在重大错误,导致所统计的历史时期地权分配基尼系数普遍偏低,经过数据修正,76%的基尼系数在0.5以上,47%的基尼系数在0.6以上,因此,从宋代到民国时期地权分配越来越分散的认识需要重新讨论。

The distribution of land ownership in historical periods has important theoretical value and practical significance and has always been of concern to the academia. Since the 1980 s,some scholars have used Lorenz Curve,Gini coefficient and other analytical tools from economics to conduct quantitative research on various historical archives,including Fish-Scale Inventory,Yellow Household Registers,Local Tax Registers,Assessment Registers,Land Surveys,etc.,and have reached new conclusions that challenge traditional understandings. The most representative is The Distribution of Land Rights in Traditional Chinese Rural Areas written by Zhao Gang.Zhao's book examines the history of the distribution of land ownership from the Song Dynasty to the Republic of China and suggests that the distribution of land ownership shows a long-term trend of increasing fragmentation. Our study finds that there are major errors in Zhao Gang's calculation of the Gini coefficients,resulting in sweepingly low Gini coefficients of land ownership distribution over the historical period studied. After data correction,76% of the Gini coefficients are found to be above 0.5,and 47% above 0.6. Thus,the claim about increas-ing fragmentation of land ownership distribution from the Song Dynasty to the Republic of China needs to be reexamined.