The National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences selected a batch of outstanding National Social Science Fund achievements and compiled them into the “Selected Works of the National Social Science Fund Series” for publication. This series is the first selection of 100 representative and original outstanding National Social Science Fund achievements launched by the National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences. A Study on Peasant Land Property in the Evolution of European Civilization (9th–20th Centuries) by Hou Jianxin, senior professor at Tianjin Normal University and dean of the Institute of European Civilization, was selected. The book was co-published by the People’s Publishing House and The Commercial Press in 2026. The achievement previously won the First Prize of the 10th Ministry of Education Award for Outstanding Research Achievements (Humanities and Social Sciences) and the First Prize of the 19th Tianjin Municipal Award for Outstanding Achievements in Social Sciences.

Focusing on the relationship between peasants and land—an enduring theme in human civilization and a foundational element of civilization—the book puts forward the clear viewpoint that a modern land property rights system with clearly defined boundaries is not a historical norm, and Europe is no exception. At the same time, by tracing the history of peasant land rights in Europe, it provides an important academic research paradigm for Chinese academia to explore “evolution of civilization from the perspective of land systems.” The book is divided into three parts: “The Era of Manor–Village Community (9th–16th Centuries),” “The Era of Land Property Transformation (16th–18th Centuries),” and “The Establishment of Modern Land Property (18th–20th Centuries).” It covers core topics such as changes in conceptions of property rights, royal power and land rights, the mixed manor–village community, tenant farmers and land rights, the great land reclamation, the Enclosure Movement, and social problems and countermeasures in land rights reform, constructing a complete analytical framework for the evolution from the manor community to the modern property rights system.

The book is one of the landmark achievements of the major project The Evolution of European Civilization (16 volumes) of the National Social Science Fund, which Professor Hou Jianxin leads. Professor Hou Jianxin serves as the chief expert of the project and editor-in-chief of all volumes, and independently completed the writing of this book. The project took 17 years and was completed through collaborative efforts by 11 universities and research institutions at home and abroad, totaling nearly 7 million Chinese characters. It is the first large-scale academic work outside the Western-language world to be written under the leadership of Chinese scholars and to systematically and comprehensively interpret European civilization. The Evolution of European Civilization (16 volumes) won The Commercial Press’s 2025 “Top Ten Books” (Academic Category) and was selected as a release achievement at the “National Outstanding Achievements in History Release Conference.”