The Jeonsigwa Land System

Goryeo granted officials, by rank, the right to collect rent from farmland (jeon) and firewood land (si).

The first version under Gyeongjong (976) weighed character as well as rank. The revision under Mokjong (998) graded serving and retired officials into 18 ranks, and the final version under Munjong (1076) granted land to serving officials only. Taejo had earlier handed out merit land (yeokbunjeon, 940).

What officials received was not the land but the right to collect its rent, to be returned at death or retirement. Protected land (gongeumjeon) granted to officials of the fifth rank and above could be inherited, however, and together with the eumseo privilege underpinned the aristocratic lineages. Other categories included land for soldiers, local clerks, temples and widows.

Beneath these grants lay minjeon, the land commoners owned by inheritance. It could be bought, sold and bequeathed, and its owners paid a tenth of the harvest as tax to the state or to the official holding the rent right. Most Goryeo farmers tilled their own minjeon or rented others’ land.