Feoffment
In the Middle Ages, especially under the European feudal system, feoffment /ˈfɛfmənt/ or enfeoffment was the deed by which a person was given land in exchange for a pledge of service.The word feoffment derives from the Old French feoffement or fieffement; compare with the Late Latin feoffamentum.Gradually the delivery of this deed to the new owner replaced the symbolic act of delivering an object representing the land, such as a piece of the soil.[4] The feoffee (transferee) was henceforth said to hold his property "of" or "from" the feoffor, in return for a specified service (money payments were not used until much later).The practice continued into the Han Dynasty, with people such as Cai Lun who was enfeoffed as the lord of a small village, Longting [zh], for his services in papermaking innovations.