The well-field system was a Chinese land redistribution method existing between the ninth century BC to around the end of the Warring States period. Its name comes from Chinese character 井 (jǐng), which means 'well' and looks like the # symbol; this character represents the theoretical appearance of land division: a square area of land was divided into nine identically-sized sections; the eight outer sections were privately cultivated by serfs and the center section was communally cultivated on behalf of the landowning aristocrat.
