Institutions over timeAD 687 – 195017 events
Changes in the Land System
From nogeup to the end of office land — how the rights granted to officials shrank, and gave way to modern land ownership
At a glance
| System | When · ruler | Content | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Office land; nogeup abolished | Silla, Sinmun 687 · 689 | Rent rights only; nogeup ended | Nobles weakened, king stronger |
| Jeongjeon | Seongdeok 722 | Land granted to commoners | State control of farmers |
| Nogeup restored | Gyeongdeok 757 | Nogeup back in place of office land | Nobles regain strength |
| Yeokbunjeon | Goryeo, Taejo 940 | By merit and character | Reward for unification |
| First jeonsigwa | Gyeongjong 976 | Rank + character; serving & retired | Rent from farm & firewood land |
| Revised jeonsigwa | Mokjong 998 | Rank only, 18 grades; serving & retired | Character dropped; civil favoured |
| Final jeonsigwa | Munjong 1076 | Serving only; smaller grants | Less bias against military |
| Nokgwajeon | Wonjong 1271 | Land in 8 Gyeonggi counties | Made up for unpaid salaries |
| Gwajeon Law | Gongyang 1391 | Serving & retired; Gyeonggi only | Base of new scholar-officials |
| Jikjeon Law | Joseon, Sejo 1466 | Serving only; widow/orphan land ended | Rent abuses grew |
| State collection → office land ended | Seongjong 1470 → Myeongjong (mid-16th c.) | State collects, pays → salary only | Rent grants end; landlordism grows |
| Land reform | Republic of Korea 1949 | Compensated purchase & sale; 3-jeongbo cap | Landlordism ended; owner-farmers |
The theme on the map
17 events in this theme
King Sinmun granted office land to civil and military officials by rank; holders could collect only the land tax from it.
- AD 689Abolition of the Nogeup
King Sinmun abolished the nogeup stipend villages of aristocratic officials and paid them an annual grain stipend instead.
King Seongdeok for the first time granted jeongjeon fields to the common people.
- AD 757 – AD 759Gyeongdeok Restores the Nogeup and Sinicizes Names
King Gyeongdeok abolished monthly salaries and restored the nogeup stipend villages; the same year he gave place names, and soon offices and titles, Chinese-style forms.
Having reunified the Later Three Kingdoms, Taejo Wang Geon granted land to those who had served in the wars, by merit and character.
- AD 976 – 1076The Jeonsigwa Land System
Goryeo granted officials, by rank, the right to collect rent from farmland (jeon) and firewood land (si).
- AD 998Revised Jeonsigwa
Mokjong revised the jeonsigwa, dropping character as a criterion and granting land to serving and retired officials by rank alone, in 18 grades.
Munjong revised the jeonsigwa again, granting land to serving officials only, reducing the amounts and narrowing the gap between civil and military officials.
With the jeonsigwa in ruins and salaries hard to pay, Wonjong granted officials land in eight counties of Gyeonggi as salary land.
- 1391The Gwajeon Law
Yi Seong-gye and the new scholar-officials abolished the magnates’ estates and enacted the Gwajeon Law, granting officials rent rights to land in Gyeonggi only.
- 1466Jikjeon Law
Sejo limited the grant of tax-collection rights to serving officials and abolished the grants to officials’ widows and orphans.
Seongjong barred officials from collecting rent on their office land themselves; local governments collected it and passed it on to them.
Under Myeongjong, with no land left to grant, office land ceased and officials received only salaries — ending the grant of rent rights.
- 1898 – 1904Gwangmu Land Survey and Land Titles (Jigye)
The Korean Empire set up a land survey office to survey land nationwide and issued jigye, modern certificates of land ownership.
- 1910 – 1918Land Survey Project
Claiming to establish modern land ownership, Japan surveyed all land in Korea. Unreported land and royal and government land passed to the Government-General.
The North Korean Provisional People’s Committee confiscated land without compensation and distributed it free to farmers.
- 1949 – 1950Land Reform
The government bought farmland above 3 jeongbo per household and sold it to tenant farmers, to be paid off in instalments.
Key people
- King SinmunAD 692
Munmu's son and 31st king of Silla, who crushed Kim Heum-dol's revolt and strengthened royal power through the National Academy, the nine provinces and office-land grants
- King Munjong1019 – 1083
Eleventh king of Goryeo, whose reign marked the height of the dynasty; father of Uicheon
- King SeongdeokAD 737
33rd king of Silla, who granted jeongjeon fields to commoners and restored relations with Tang
- King GyeongdeokAD 765
35th king of Silla, who sinicized official titles and place names but restored the nogeup stipend villages; Bulguksa and Seokguram were begun in his reign
- Taejo Wang GeonAD 877 – AD 943
Songak magnate who served Gung Ye, took Naju, overthrew Gung Ye to found Goryeo in 918 and reunified the Later Three Kingdoms in 935–936
- King GyeongjongAD 955 – AD 981
Fifth king of Goryeo, who created the first jeonsigwa land-grant system in 976
- King Wonjong1219 – 1274
Twenty-fourth king of Goryeo, who made peace with Kublai and returned the court to Gaegyeong in 1270
Taejo (Yi Seong-gye)1335 – 1408Founder and first king of Joseon, formerly a general who fought Japanese pirates and the Red Turbans
Jeong Do-jeon1342 – 1398Neo-Confucian architect of the new dynasty who named the palace and capital gates; killed in the First Strife of Princes
- King Gongyang1345 – 1394
Last king of Goryeo, placed on the throne by Yi Seong-gye’s faction; the Gwajeon Law was enacted in his reign