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The article discusses different perspectives regarding the ownership of land on the Jianghan Plain of China. The author discusses how Chinese leader Mao Zedong used the uneven distribution of land between landlords and peasants as a rationale for land reforms enacted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and notes objections by some scholars to CCP propaganda regarding inequalities in land ownership. He notes surveys which indicate that over half of rural households on the Jianghan Plain owned land and reveal different classifications for the social classes of peasants.

This article examines the economic behavior of the peasants on the Jianghan plain faced with population pressure, environmental degradation, and market expansion. Focusing on crop choices and the domestic textile industry, it explores how villagers reacted to the environmental change caused by extensive dike construction and frequent inundation in the Jianghan plain in the Qing and the Republic and how they contended with the worsening problems of waterlogging. The article argues that under these circumstances, the environment, rather than the market, was the paramount factor in shaping peasants' economic behavior in the Jianghan plain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]