A shōen was a field or manor in Japan. The Japanese term comes from the Tang dynasty Chinese term `莊園` (Mandarin: zhuangyuan, Cantonese: zong1 jyun4). Shōen, from about the 8th to the late 15th century, describes any of the private, tax-free, often autonomous estates or manors whose rise undermined the political and economic power of the e.....