Information obtained during a research tour of communes in rural China in the summer of 1979 clarified, among other things, the structure of grain marketing by production teams and other basic units of production. Explanations advanced by officials at various levels above and within the communes Showed that the grain sold by units to the state included a tranche, named “ discussion grain ” (yigou), Which was unfamiliar to us although it was said to have been introduced generally in 1972–73, and in Guangdong Province as early as 1963. We obtained the following understanding of the system currently in operation throughout China.