Like the feudal system which forms the legal and organizational framework of feudal society as well as the shoen system, the shoen structure was also not a certain universal phenomenon in the society which was characteristically feudal.
封建社会の法的・組織的な枠組みを荘園制とともに形づくる封建制がそうであるように、荘園構造もまた、封建的な特徴を示す社会に普遍的な一定現象であるとは言えない。