The orange border between the farms resembles the character for well (井)

Well-field system (井田制度 Pinyin: Jingtian zhidu) was a Chinese land distribution method since at least 9th century BC (late Western Zhou Dynasty). It is named after the Chinese character for well (井), which represents the theoretical appearance for a piece of land under such an organization: the eight surrounding outer blocks being private (私田), and the central one block being communal or public (公田).

The entire fields are aristocrat-owned, but the private fields' produce is entirely the farmers'. The communal farms are worked on by all eight families, and the produce went to the aristocrats.

The system was first suspended by Shang Yang in the state of Qin; other states followed suit. It was practically eclipsed by land privatisation during the Warring States Period.

As part of the "turning the clock back" reformations by Wang Mang during the short-lived Xin Dynasty, the system was restored temporarily and renamed to the King's Fields (王田).

The practice was more or less ended by the Song Dynasty, but scholars like Zhang Zai and Su Xun were enthusiastic about its restoration and spoke of it in a perhaps oversimplifying admiration, invoking Mencius' frequent praise of the system.

Whether a pure well-field system ever existed is controversial.

See also: sharecropper, tenancy