Dali 2nd Year Case of Fengxian County Commoner v. Weinan Magistrate over Tenancy Seizure

In the second year of the Dali reign (767 CE) of the Tang Dynasty, a tenant farmer from Fengxian County under Jingzhao Prefecture filed a lawsuit against the magistrate of neighboring Weinan County. The magistrate had forcibly seized the land the tenant was cultivating under a tenancy arrangement. The case was brought before Li Mian, the governor of Jingzhao. Upon investigation, Li Mian found that the magistrate abused his authority to expropriate the leased land without legal grounds. He ruled in favor of the tenant, ordering the return of the land and punishing the magistrate. This case illustrated judicial oversight over local officials in land disputes.

The Jingzhao governor Li Mian ordered the Weinan magistrate to return the seized land to the tenant and imposed disciplinary sanctions on the magistrate.

Whether a local magistrate had the right to forcibly terminate a tenancy and seize land from a tenant under Tang law.

The case reaffirmed the legal protection of tenants' cultivation rights under the equal-field system, curbed abusive land grabs by local officials, and demonstrated that even county magistrates were subject to judicial accountability.