Stories on paper
——A special piece of Jilu-Yu deed paper
Song Yongxin
Among the more than 50 pieces of land deed paper in different counties (districts) of Hebei, Shandong, and Henan, there is one that is very special.
This is a 36th year of the Republic of China (1947), signed by the Hebei-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border District Government, marked with the words "Qingfeng County West Office", with legal effect of the land contract document.
In this year, Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping were leading the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army to forcibly cross the Yellow River in southwest Shandong, fiercely fighting the "Sheep Mountain", and leaping thousands of miles into the Dabie Mountain. Under the leadership of county magistrate Zhai Lindong, the people of Qingfeng actively carried out the "anti-traitor and revenge" campaign on the one hand, and carried out the land reform review campaign on the other hand. This contract document is a product of this era.
Qingfeng County, now part of Puyang City, Henan Province, is the core area of the revolutionary base area in the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border Region, and as early as the beginning of 1940, the anti-Japanese democratic government of Qingfeng County led by the Communist Party of China was established. Dangui Village, Shuangmiao Township, was once the headquarters of the Northern Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Hebei-Shandong-Henan (Plain) Branch of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and the Headquarters of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region of the Eighth Route Army.
The land contract in the Hebei-Shandong-Henan border area, judging from the physical objects collected so far, is roughly two-fold, one is the two-fold type, which is "contract paper" (buying, supplementing, exchanging, pawning, dividing, etc.) and "contract paper". Among them, the content and format of the "contract paper" are basically the same, while the "contract paper" is not the same, most counties are standardized printing formats, but some counties, such as: Dong'e County, Zhuxian County, for a period of time, are basically replaced by handwritten "draft deeds". The other is also a double-linked type, called "land return license", mainly concentrated in Hebei Qinghe, Zaoqiang, Jingxian, Gucheng, Hengshui area, most of the current collection is single, the other one is almost all handwritten draft deeds.
There are two types of land deeds, the first one is issued in the name of the "Hebei-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border District Government of Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border District", and the red seal is dazzling; The latter is mostly issued in the name of the county government, the village peasant association, and the village office. Although the issuing authorities of the two types of land contracts are at different levels, there are records of tax payment in accordance with regulations on the contracts, which objectively shows that both types of contracts have the same legal effect. The first type of contract is relatively common and is not difficult to collect, while the second type of contract is very rare, and it should be said that each one is extremely precious.
From the time this contract was discovered, I felt that it was relatively unusual, whether it was the third style of the Jiluyu contract, to be determined by experts, but at least in some formats and contents, it was different from the first two contracts. If I have to compare, I personally believe that it should absorb the main content of the first two types of contracts, and innovate a new form of contract according to the needs of land reform work at that time. Because before that, the land contract in Qingfeng County was basically the same as that of other counties in Hebei, Shandong, and Henan, regardless of format and content.
"Returning land to home" is a profound land reform movement with special connotations under the leadership of the Communist Party of China for the people of the liberated areas. Although the time was short, it played an irreplaceable role in safeguarding the interests of the peasants, overthrowing the reactionary rule of the Kuomintang, and establishing New China. According to historical records, in the autumn of 1947, after the end of the land reform review campaign in Qingfeng County, the people recaptured more than 190,000 mu of land from the landlords and rich peasants, and the per capita land of poor hired peasants and martyrs' dependents increased from 1.6 mu before the land reform to 3.2 mu. The masses of the people, especially the poor hired peasants, shouted the slogan of "supporting the Communist Party and joining the Communist Party," and more than 7,000 outstanding peasants in the county joined the Communist Party of China.
This deed, which was issued in May and June 1947 with the words "Land for Home", is undoubtedly the best record and evidence of this movement.
What makes this contract special is that the order of adhesion is reversed. It is customary to have a two-joint contract, generally the "contract paper" is on the right, and the "contract paper" is on the left, but this contract is just the opposite. Second, the content of the "contract paper" has appeared in the "land return movement", which is something that has never happened before and is of great significance. Third, the content is written in a different way from the convention. It is stated that the land was allocated to Kou Jusheng for cultivation as a business ...... by "Zhao Peijie, Kou Yinzeng, members of the village land distribution committee, and the masses discussed with them", and "Kou Jusheng of Zhao Kou Village received the real estate under the name of Kou Ketian in his village", and the land circulation was completely different from the usual trading, pawning, analysis, etc., and truly reproduced the historical scene of the Communist Party leading the peasants to fight the landlords, divide the land, and turn over to become the masters. Fourth, the existence time is very short, and the rare "Qingfeng County West Office" is impressively listed. According to historical records, the West Office of Qingfeng County was established in November 1946 and changed to the "Weihe" boundary in the summer of 1947, which existed for less than a year.
In addition, the deed paper also indicates in detail that the amount of deed tax is 50 yuan per mu, which is calculated according to 5 cents, 3 cents and 4 millimeters of seventh-grade land, and a total of 27 yuan should be taxed. With just a few strokes, I got a glimpse of the difficulty of collecting taxes back then, and my admiration for my predecessors arose.
The "Zhao Kou Village" of the year could not be found on the map, and the characters in the contract may have long been gone, but the things recorded in the contract, I think, we must not easily forget. Land is always the lifeblood of farmers!
Pieces of paper have stories, collections have surprises, and exploration is happier!