Grant of Jeongjeon Fields

King Seongdeok for the first time granted jeongjeon fields to the common people.

Historians differ on whether jeongjeon were fields handed out by the state to adult men or recognition of the land peasants already farmed. Either way the policy stabilized peasant life and widened the tax base, tightening state control over the people under the principle that all land belonged to the king.

Seongdeok restored relations with Tang, which in 735 recognized Silla’s rule south of the Paegang (Taedong River).