井田

井田制 was an idealized Zhou-era land system: a square of land was divided like the character 井 into nine plots - eight families each farmed an outer plot and jointly cultivated the central public plot to pay tribute. Mencius romanticized it; modern historians debate whether it was ever actually implemented.

The character 井 is literally a picture of the grid pattern - eight surrounding fields plus one central well. The shape gives the system its name.