Real estate sales contract in Song Dynasty?

1. Ask your neighbors before buying or selling real estate. "If you want to sell, you have to rely on real estate. You have to ask your real relatives first, but the real relatives don't want it, and the neighbors don't want it. Others have to trade." Among the four neighbors, there is also a rule that neighbors are the first and neighbors are the second. The east and south are neighbors, and the west and north are neighbors. In the late northern song dynasty, it was changed to ask only relatives and neighbors.

2. Seal the deed to the government and pay the deed tax.

3. Excessive logging and slavery. The contract must specify the target tax and service fee, and the government can only affix its official seal after the tax books of both parties are changed and registered. Violators, the land is returned to the owner, and half of the price is owned by the government. Because the punishment for offenders was not severe enough, it was very common for landlords to annex a lot of land in the Song Dynasty, but they tried their best to avoid taxes.

4. Leave the business. During the Renzong period of the Northern Song Dynasty, it was specially stipulated that after the sales contract was concluded, the possession of the land must be transferred, and the seller must leave the business, and the seller was not allowed to rent the land, so as to prevent the decrease of yeoman farmers and the increase of tenant farmers, which was beneficial to the government to collect taxes and reduce land disputes. This provision was repeatedly emphasized in the Southern Song Dynasty.

The above four elements have a great influence on the subsequent sales contract system and become the basic content of real estate sales contracts.