Historical Background of Immigrants of Sophora japonica in Hong Tong

During the Spring Festival holiday, I visited the Sophora japonica Garden in Hongdong and saw the ancient Sophora japonica trees in Hongdong. Every year from April 1 to April 10, Sophora japonica in Hongdong will hold a large-scale root-seeking ritual activity, leaving many legends about immigrants handed down from generation to generation. When we went after the Spring Festival, the root-seeking ritual activities had not yet begun.

? The largest, widest and longest-lasting migration in the history of China was the locust tree migration in Hongdong, Shanxi Province in the Ming Dynasty. The historical background of the migration of Sophora japonica in Hongdong, at the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty, was the period with the most natural disasters in history, and frequent wars made the lives of ordinary people the most miserable. The background of immigrants at that time can be traced back to the Yuan Dynasty:

First of all, years of war

Since the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, its nomadic life has always been a conquering attitude in governing the country, implementing hierarchy and slavery. Yuan rulers not only regarded farmers as slaves, but also turned farmland into pasture.

Under the sharp conflict between farming civilization and nomadic culture, the anti-Yuan momentum is increasing day by day. In the Central Plains, there are many insurgents on the land of Jianghuai. Mongolian aristocrats were very cruel in suppressing the insurgents and adopted the policy of "pulling out the land to kill the city". Seven or eight out of ten people were killed at that time.

It was not until the victory of Zhu Yuanzhang's uprising and the establishment of the Ming Dynasty that the war was gradually extinguished. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang clearly realized that the Central Plains was the foundation of the country, and those who won the Central Plains won the world, while those who lost the Central Plains lost the world.

Second, there is famine everywhere.

? During this period, floods, droughts, geological disasters, plagues, insect disasters and other disasters were the most serious periods in all dynasties in historical records. Under the attack of various disasters, the population of the Central Plains has been greatly reduced. Coupled with decades of war, the fields in the Central Plains are barren and devastated, and the once rich Central Plains has become sparsely populated and full of thorns.

Third, Shanxi has good weather and dense population.

? At this time, there was not only no war in Shanxi, but also no floods and droughts in most areas. Shanxi's original terrain is easy to defend but difficult to attack, with the majestic Taihang Mountain in the east, the vast Luliang Mountain in the west, the Great Wall of Wan Li in the north and the surging Yellow River in the south. Shanxi has been known as "mountains and rivers are outside" since ancient times, and it has been easy to defend but difficult to attack since ancient times.

Shanxi's geographical position makes it often become a political center and a refuge for a large number of refugees during the war, thus leading to a stage of considerable economic prosperity. After the disaster, a large number of refugees returned to their homeland, and at the same time, a large number of people stayed to settle down. This repeated migration continued until modern times.

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, wars broke out in the Central Plains, with fertile land and favorable climate in Shanxi, so a large number of refugees flooded into Shanxi, and the population of Shanxi soared. At this time, the population density of Shanxi reached nearly three times that of Henan, and the population of Shanxi alone was 250,000 more than that of Hebei and Henan combined. The contradiction between Shanxi's large population and small land is becoming increasingly prominent.

Pingyang Prefecture is located in the south of Shanxi Province, with the largest population. Hongdong is a populous county in Pingyang Prefecture, and the migration naturally begins from Hongdong.