Labour Service for Irrigation Embankment in Su chou 蘇州 in the Age of Sung 宋

Abstract

The basic official policy of the Sung dynasty with regard to repairing embankments of yu t'ien 〓田 was characterized by consistent noninterference, leaving it to cooperative works of those who owned yu t'ien inside yu. Direct state interference and control were unnecessary because a system of labour service for embankment called chao t'ien chu tzu 照田出資 had been established as a traditional practice in the villages in this region. On occasions the authorities availed themselves of this system when they found necessity of embankment works. According to this system every owner of yu t'ien in a yu contributed to common funds his money assigned to him correspondingly to the size of his land, .and members of his household provided labour necessary for the embankment works. The system was the fairest and the most reasonable method in order to repair common banks with the least trouble because it could minimize conflicts of classes of people that arose from the difference of wealth. It is to be noted that there were two ways in which t'ien hu 佃戸, tenant farmers participated in embakment works. In one way they took intiative in undertaking repair works without any compulsion of their landlords, and carried out the works offering free service of their family labour. They did this because maintenance of embankments in good condition was directly connected with their crop and was their vital concern not to be neglected. But there was another more important reason for it, namely economic circumstances of the owners of yu t'ien; that is to say, the landowners could not afford to carry out chao t'ien ch'u tzu which required contribution of large amount of money. In the other way, when the works were carried out on the basis of the practice of ahao t'ien ch'u tzu, t'ien hu were employed and given money out of the common funds contributed by the owners of yu t'ien. The conditions of their employment were the same as those on which members of yu t'ien-owners' households of various classes and many other labourers outside the yu were employed" It was not that their social status as t'ien hu meant that they were compelled to labour at the embankment works by their landlords, but that they were willingly engaged in the works for the purpose of supplementing their family budgets. Although their wages in general were low since, the nature of the work was simple and required neither skill nor intellect, the rate of the wages were determined in keeping with supply-demand relation, different social customs of villages, or the wages paid by the authorities to the labour at such public works as building or repairing pei t'ang 〓 dams.