This chapter explains the economic foundation of individual families. In agricultural societies, the most typical livelihood is that of a small farming family, and the most typical basis of life is land ownership. Land frequently changed hands to accommodate the shifting dynamics within each family. Land ownership claims were made by presenting documentation evidencing the transfer of “management rights (guanye 管業)” from previous managers. When a family becomes landless after selling their property, there are two options: individual family members could seek employment elsewhere, or the entire family could cultivate the land of another prosperous family. The former veered toward resembling human trafficking as dependence on employers increased. In the latter approach (tenant farming), various arrangements were possible, such as tenant families integrated as laborers into landlord management, collaborative labor and land contributions between tenants and landlords, and tenant families assuming land management alongside rent obligations. As the tenancy shifted from one tenant to the next with compensation, it became recognized as a kind of “management right” alongside the landlord’s management right (the right to collect rent), thus giving rise to the Chinese type of multiple ownership.