Report on Garrison Farms陳屯田事宜。啓

The one matter of garrison farms (屯田) has very many who speak for it, and weighing the situation of the time it cannot be left undone. Only, there are three kinds of garrison farm.

One is to station troops on the frontier and, in the intervals when there is no fighting, have the troops posted there join their strength to plow and sow, so as to lessen the burden of carrying from within; such were Zhao Chongguo (趙充國) and Zhuge, Marquis Wu (諸葛武侯). One is that, after a war, the fields lie waste and the drifting people are many, so they are called together into one place, the fields divided among them and seed given them, with the grain to eat while they farm (農糧), the farming tools and the oxen supplied, and a man found and put in charge; such was Cao Cao's (曹操) setting Zao Zhi (棗祗) to make garrison farms in the land of Xu (許), by which he got some tens of thousands of seok of grain and in the end thereby brought the realm together. One is to look to what suits the high ground and the low and let the people plow for themselves, taking the tax of it, as in the recent instance of having the people plow and work the land.

Outside these three there is no other good plan. For the two above, there must be the grain before people and troops can be gathered; for the one below, even without the grain the people plow for themselves and the profit is likewise much. In this the office concerned has only to look to the situation and weigh its strength and dispose of it early, so that the season be not missed. This is the charge of the Ministry of Taxation (戶曹); would it not be well to have the Ministry of Taxation take all these plans together, find what can be carried out and dispose of it in haste, and also weigh the places fit for plowing on the sea islands, reported the other day, and make them into articles (事目) to be carried out, and then settle it again in deliberation with your servants?