What is the memory under the pagoda tree and the migration process of millions of Shanxi people?

In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang faced a huge social problem. At the end of Yuan Dynasty, farmers fled, the land was abandoned, and the population dropped sharply because of natural disasters and wars. A large number of people are scattered all over China. At this time, the country seems to be prosperous, but in fact the national economy is vulnerable. If it coincides with the disaster, the dynasty will have no future. How to restore the vitality of the country in a short time, we must reunite these refugees who fled to safe and prosperous areas to those barren places.

An imperial edict of Zhu Yuanzhang opened the curtain of migration.

The wars and natural disasters in the late Ming Dynasty led to the exile of a large number of people with reduced population. From the perspective of war, it took more than ten years from the uprising of Liu Futong Red Scarf Army at the beginning of the war to the reunification of Zhu Yuanzhang, and then the Ming Dynasty also struggled with the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty for many years. The blow to the people these years is unimaginable. At the end of Yuan Dynasty, floods, locusts and plagues also occurred one after another. For example, there were many floods in the Yellow River and Huaihe River at the end of Yuan Dynasty, which caused serious floods in China? Countless people died, and many villages and cities became waste markets. It has dealt a fatal blow to agriculture along the Yellow River.

At the same time, according to Yuan Shi? According to the statistics of Wuxing Zhi, there were nearly 20 large-scale locust plagues recorded at the end of Yuan Dynasty, which once appeared? Eat crops, plants, trees, cover the sky, hinder people from walking, fill holes and cut. At the same time, it is recorded that during the twelve years in Zheng Zheng alone, 716,980 people went hungry. At that time, people's life was very hard, with no food and clothes, and even cannibalism appeared in many hardest hit areas.

After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), the war-torn areas were sparsely populated. Even Yangzhou, once a famous town in the south of the Yangtze River, has less than 18 households in the city. Shandong, Hebei and other places are also barren and sparsely populated. At first, Zhu Yuanzhang didn't think too much. Although his imperial edict often contains sentences of sparsely populated and barren land, on the whole, he did not take any substantive action. Faced with such a situation, Zhu Yuanzhang also lost in thought. If people in these places are allowed to develop and breed slowly, since we can't just rely on the ability of natural development, we can only rely on the power of the government. At this time, the benefits of ancient imperial rule are reflected. Zhu Yuanzhang directly launched the largest immigration action in human history. This planned migration involved one-fifth of the population at that time, with more than 3 million immigrants/kloc-0.

Where did you come from and where did you go?

Ask me where my ancestors came from, the locust tree in Hongdong, Shanxi. What's the name of the ancestral home, the old man's nest under the big locust tree? This folk song has spread to a certain extent in all parts of the country, from which we can see that most of the immigrants came from Shanxi, so why was Shanxi still populous when other places were sparsely populated at that time?

Shanxi's geographical position is very unique, especially between Taihang Mountain and the valley in the middle reaches of the Yellow River. According to the Records of Five Elements, from the Yuan Dynasty to the first year of Mindfulness, there were serious floods in China every year. Two whole years? It's ugly in June. At night, Jinan's mountains and rivers skyrocket, and things rush, flowing into Xiaoqing River, Montenegro, Tianma, Shigu and other villages and Wolong flowing into Daqing River. There are only a thousand houses floating up and down, which is not considered drowning.

In the fourth year, the Yellow River flooded again. At that time, the water level of the Yellow River was as high as two meters above the ground, and people could not survive at all. The old and the weak die in the same place, while the young and middle-aged are exiled. At that time, people were driven out by the flood and had nowhere to live. The flood also brought a lot of sediment and debris. Wherever the flood went, the people had nowhere to live, and even those who survived were left in the plague after the disaster.

During the Yuan Dynasty 100 years, the exploitation and repression of the people were extremely harsh. At the end of Yuan Dynasty, faced with successive years of natural disasters and increasingly heavy exploitation policies, the people finally broke out and started a large-scale peasant uprising. From the end of Yuan Dynasty to the establishment of Ming Dynasty, after 17 years of war, the thin camel was bigger than the horse. Even though the Yuan Dynasty was in the stage of surviving, its strength was not as good as before, but the suppression of officers and men by the Yuan Dynasty still brought great casualties to the peasant army. However, no matter how cruel the repression is, it can't resist the continuous outbreak of peasant uprisings. At that time, the main battlefield was in the lower reaches of the Yellow River and Huanghuai Plain. After Zhu Yuanzhang became the biggest leader of the rebel army, he led the army to the northern expedition, occupied Shandong and recovered Henan. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty were suppressed and finally the war in the whole country was put down. The military disasters of the past twenty years have dealt a great blow to the people. Basically, people in the war-affected areas have a hard life and are displaced.

However, war and disaster are relative. Compared with Shanxi and Anhui, Henan, Shandong and other places at that time, Shanxi was almost a paradise on earth. At that time, Shanxi not only escaped years of war because of its unique geographical location, but also enjoyed favorable weather, bumper harvests and steady economic development in most parts of Shanxi. In addition, a large number of people who fled neighboring provinces fled to Shanxi to avoid disasters, and Shanxi was even densely populated. At that time, the population of Shanxi was close to the total population of Ming Dynasty. According to historical records such as Ming History and Rizhilu, the people who immigrated to Hong Tong Sophora japonica were distributed in 30 provinces and cities and more than 2,000 counties and cities, among which the neighboring provinces of Shandong, Hebei and Henan had the largest population.

Stories and legends on the road to immigration

Under the background of ancient society, the administrative power and authority of the government are absolute, and the people are full of awe of the government. After the imperial court issued the immigration order, the Shanxi government first sought the opinions of the people and naturally offered favorable conditions. For example, people who immigrate voluntarily can enjoy tax exemption for three years, and then put up a notice under the big locust tree in Hongdong, Shanxi. Voluntary immigrants go to Guangji Temple to accept distribution, and those who don't want to immigrate have to intercede or explain the reasons under the big locust tree. China people have always attached great importance to the situation in rural areas, and the custom of returning leaves to their roots is no longer a day or two. Most people still don't know.

Almost all the people here were surrounded by officers and men and threatened to behead them if they didn't obey. At that time, the people looked at the old man's nest on the tree head and cried, saying that even birds have nests, so where can we live? Some strong-willed people clung to the big locust tree, and finally the big locust tree was cut down by officers and men with a knife. Finally, people have no choice but to leave with scattered branches of Sophora japonica. Since then, Sophora japonica has become a symbol of Shanxi people's exile. In order to keep the memory of their hometown forever, the immigrants planted a big locust tree at the door of the place where they moved in. Every year, they will burn incense and offer a tribute to the pagoda tree as a sacrifice to their ancestors. Not only that, but also created a lot of legends and folk sayings on the way to immigration.

relieve oneself

The scale of this large-scale migration planned by Zhu Yuanzhang is unprecedented, but after all, there are so many people involved that it is difficult to ensure that everyone is willing to accept the arrangement of the government on the way. So in order to prevent people from fleeing halfway, dozens of immigrants will be tied to a rope and implicated by the escort officer. People's third urgency is unavoidable for everyone. If anyone wants to go to the toilet in the meantime, inform the escort to untie the rope in his hand. As long as the ordinary people untie the rope for me, they will know that he is going to go to the toilet. Then it gets easier and easier, and finally there are only hands left. Later, immigrants brought this habit to their destination. This habit has also been passed down by local people and has become synonymous with going to the toilet now.

Cauldron Niu

At that time, government immigrants did not transport all the people to a fixed place. Usually, a family of many people will be sent to several different places, so people also think of many ways to recognize their relatives. It is said that at that time, when five brothers named Niu broke up under the big locust tree, they broke the pot at home, and each of them took a piece of time to disperse, so that future generations had the opportunity to recognize each other when they met, and playing the pot cow became synonymous with family recognition. Until now, many people surnamed Niu always say "don't hit the pot, hit the pot" when greeting. If they get a confirmed reply, it means that the two sides separated from each other under the old pagoda tree, although everyone knows that this is like being a family 500 years ago, just to narrow the distance between people.

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The migration of Sophora japonica in Ming Dynasty was the longest, widest and largest migration in China history. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the country at that time was probably the most declining situation in the period when the dynasties had just been established. However, the national economy developed rapidly because of immigration, and it climbed directly to the peak of the Ming Dynasty in a short time, which was completely an anecdote of the feudal era. At the same time, the migration of Sophora japonica is also a direct embodiment of the policy of vigorously advocating and rewarding land reclamation in Ming Dynasty. At that time, Shanxi immigrants saw that a large number of fertile fields were barren and rushed to reclaim them, from which we can also see the achievements made by the Ming Dynasty in restoring economic development. Ming dynasty? Huaihua immigrants? He was a successful immigrant, which promoted the economic recovery and development in the early Ming Dynasty and had far-reaching significance and influence in the history of population and social development in China.