The Ritsuryo system was a system for embodying the idea known in Japanese as odo omin (or odo oshin) and meaning 'the sovereign's land, the sovereign's people,' where 'the land and the people are placed under the rule of the emperor,' which had been had been held as an ideal since ancient times in China.
律令制とは、古代中国から理想とされてきた王土王民（王土王臣とも）、すなわち「土地と人民は王の支配に服属する」という理念を具現化しようとする体制であった。