If you take clue from Hibernate:
Hibernate reads/writes Object's state with its field. Hibernate also maps the Java Bean style properties to DB Schema. Hibernate Access the fields for loading/saving the object. If the mapping is done by property, hibernate uses the getter and setter.
It is the Encapsulation that differentiates means where you have getter/setters for a field and it is called property, withthat and we hide the underlying data structure of that property within setMethod, we can prevent unwanted change inside setters. All what encapsulation stands for...
Fields must be declared and initialized before they are used. Mostly for class internal use.
Properties can be changed by setter and they are exposed by getters. Here field price has getter/setters so it is property.
class Car{
private double price;
public double getPrice() {…};
private void setPrice(double newPrice) {…};
}
<class name="Car" …>
<property name="price" column="PRICE"/>
</class>
Similarly using fields, [In hibernate it is the recommended way to MAP using fields, where private int id; is annotated @Id, but with Property you have more control]
class Car{
private double price;
}
<class name="Car">
<property name=" price" column="PRICE" access="field"/>
</class>
Java doc says: Field is a data member of a class. A field is non static, non-transient instance variable. Field is generally a private variable on an instance class.