Abstract: The imperial edict for “Renaming the Land”issued during the Kangxi reign was a continuation and adjustment of the related regulations that the Shunzhi emperor had issued. Scholars have paid much attention to the Kangxi emperor’s policies however, few of them have discussed the Shunzhi. Constituting a“blind spot”in historical research. This article analyzes the evolution of the institution of disposing the or the imperial estates and landholdings of meritorious Ming officials in the early Qing dynasty based on combing through the historical materials such as archival records. This article has three viewpoints. First, the confiscation of the estates of the meritorious officials and the imperial relatives in Ming dynasty evolved over time. At first the imperial court accepted the nominal ownership to the property by peasants who occupied the land. Later the land was appropriated and incorporated into estates for the Eight Banners. Over time, the government levied taxes, turned the field into farmlands, and stopped the enclosure. The institution changed depending largely on its specific target. Secondly, to increase revenues and turn the official fields into private fields, the Qing imperial court also sold the estates of the meritorious Ming officials and imperial relatives. However, constricted by various historical elements, the imperial court had to recruit laborers, which formed a dual system—selling out property and recruiting laborers. Thirdly, lacking relevant regulations, the disposition of households was not very effective in early Shunzhi. It was not until the twelfth and thirteenth years of the Shunzhi reign ( 1655－56) , that the Ministry of Revenue had formulated a systematic regulation governing the property，which provided a stable guarantee of ownership. These regulations created the foundation for the enactment of the Kangxipolicies．