This study investigates the aims and development of the juntian 均田 ("equal field")system of the Northern Wei 北魏, focusing on the allocation of land to slaves.The author has already, through a critical study of the historical source Wei shu 魏書 (Standard History of the Wie), pointed out that while the juntian system of the ninth year of Taihe 太和 (A.D.485) was aimed at peasant males, by the statues of the sixteenth year of Taihe(492), land grants to slaves were added as a secondary provision.This study is a continuation, to shed light on the reason for the secondary provision of land grants to slaves, and later development. Up to now, the aim of the juntian system has been taken to be the levying of a grain tax after raising productivity with grants of land to the entire labor force.Through the sanzhang 三長 system, which was put into practice just before the juntian ststem, however, provision for those commoners under the control of powerful families made responsible for military service was put into effect;and to this end, there was a compensatory lowering of grain taxes.Accordingly, the aims of the juntian system were both to make commoners self-supporting by wider distribution of farmland and to obtain a more extensive pool of persons liable for military service. On the contrary, the reduction of grain taxes on the peasantry resulted in an uncertain food supply to cities and led to largescale famine in the capital of Pingcheng 平城.Thereupon, the state, as one tactic to supplement the deficiency, implemented grants of land to slaves.The allocation of land was implemented according to the sequence xian pin hou fu 先貧後富, that is, the poor first and the rich last, so while land was bound to be granted to males liable for military service, whether or not slaves were granted land and how much they were granted was governed by this provision. After the splitting up of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and the relaxation of the juntian system, in reality the allocation of land to slaves was more widespread.Thus in the Northern Qi 北斉, by the statutes of the third year of Heqin 河清 (564), in response to the position within the imperial court, while an upper limit was place on the number of slaves granted land, at the same time, large manors were recognized.Then again, by contrast, the Northern Zhou 北周 abolished allocation of land to slaves, the reason being that it, lacking military strength, needed to make rather more commoners liable for military service to counter the Northern Qi. After the unification of northern China by the Northern Zhou, its successor, the Sui 隋, following the reversal of the Northern Qi, revived the allocation of land to slaves, but when the amounts of land grants were fixed according to official status, with the abolition of land grants to slaves, their historic mission was at an end.

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