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And, most of all, it's autonomous.
重要的是，大多數的農民是有自主權的，
The peasants of Europe worked essentially as low-paid slaves of an aristocratic landlord, with little control over their own destinies.
在歐洲的農民只能從他們所屬的貴族那里得到一點微薄的報酬，而且他們幾乎無法主宰自己的命運。
But China and Japan never developed that kind of oppressive feudal system, because feudalism simply can't work in a rice economy.
但是中國和日本的體制有所不同。西歐的體制不適合稻田農業文化，
Growing rice is too complicated and intricate for a system that requires farmers to be coerced and bullied into going out into the fields each morning.
種地是件很復雜的事，體制無法強迫或威逼農民每日很早起床去田里干活。
By the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, landlords in central and Southern China had an almost completely hands-off relationship with their tenants:
在14世紀到15世紀，中國中部和南部地區的地主同租戶的關系已不具有所屬關系。
they would collect a fixed rent and let farmers go about their business.
地主只收取固定的土地出租費用，其他的事情全部都由農民自主決定。
"The thing about wet-rice farming is, not only that you need phenomenal amounts of labor, but it's very exacting," says the historian Kenneth Pomerantz.
“對于種植水稻來說，不僅僅是需要很多的人力，而且還是件很吃力的工作，細微的差別就會造成產量上很大的差異。”歷史學家肯尼思·波馬雷茲說道，
"You have to care. It really matters that the field is perfectly leveled before you flood it.Getting it close to level but not quite right makes a big difference in terms of your yield.
“澆水的時間也非常關鍵。
It really matters the water is in the fields for just the right amount of time.There is a big difference between lining up the seedlings at exactly the right distance and doing it sloppily.
插秧時，秧苗的距離和力度對產量也會產生很大的影響。
It's not like you put the corn in the ground in mid-March and as long as the rain comes by the end of the month, you're ok.
這不是你想象的那么簡單——只要在3月中旬，把種子灑在地里，然后在月底的時候下場雨就可以等待收成了，
You're controlling all the inputs in a very direct way.
你必須按部就班地點進行每項作業。
And when you have something that requires that much care, the overlord has to have a system that gives the actual labor some set of incentives,
對于需要特別關注的田地，地主就會通過一定的獎賞制度來激勵農民。
where if the harvest comes out well, the farmer gets a bigger share.
如果收成很好，那么農民也會得到更多的分成。
That's why you get fixed rents, where the landlord says, I get twenty bushels, regardless of the harvest, and if it's really good, you can get the extra.
這就是為什么地租是固定的。地主會說，不管收成如何，我都要收20擔糧食，因此如果收成超出地租需要交納的糧食，你就會有收獲很多余糧。
