What are the Hakkas like?

When it comes to Hakkas, northerners will be puzzled, as if they have never heard of the existence of this nation, but southerners will be familiar with it, because Hakkas have lived in Guangdong, Jiangxi and other places in the south for hundreds of years, and the whole nation has a population of about 50 million and has its own language and writing. Compared with other ethnic minorities, it has developed very well.

Why do they call themselves Hakkas? This is because they, a minority, have often moved to find new homes since the Han Dynasty. In ancient Chinese, "Hakkas" means immigrants. The ancestors of Hakka people experienced a large-scale migration of nearly 10 from the Han Dynasty, from north to south, all the way south, and gradually lived in the southern region until the Qing Dynasty.

In the south of China, there are a large number of Hakkas living together. Among them, Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Jiangxi provinces have the most. Hakka is a title. Many people know Hakka dialect, but they don't know how Hakka dialect came from and whether Hakka people are ethnic minorities. More strangely, most Hakka genealogies record that their ancestors came from Jiangxi. What is the reason? To understand this problem, we have to start from the beginning.

Yellow Emperor

First of all, it must be clear that Hakkas are not ethnic minorities, they belong to a branch of the Han nationality. Strictly speaking, Hakkas are authentic Han Chinese, that is, Hakkas call themselves "old men". The earliest birthplace of the Han nationality is the Weihe Plain in the Yellow River Basin, which belongs to the descendants of the Chinese people. After the Yellow Emperor, Dayu was born, and Dayu's son established the Xia Dynasty. People in Xia and Shang Dynasties called themselves "Rangers" and "Huaxia", and Huaxia nationality was the earliest Han nationality.

More than a thousand years later, Qin Shihuang unified the world, and Qin Ershi died. After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, the title of Huaxia nationality was replaced by Han nationality, and the title of Han nationality spread all over the world. With the change of the natural environment in the Yellow River Basin and the influence of wars such as the Eight Kings Rebellion and the Five Rebellions in the Western Jin Dynasty, Han people living in the Yellow River Basin began to move south. The first batch of Han people went south from Shanxi and Shaanxi, passed through Nanyang, Henan, and entered Xiangyang, Hubei. After that, it entered today's Anhui and Jiangsu areas along the Hanshui River, and a few moved to Jiangxi and Hunan.

After the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty turned from prosperity to decline, the north was in war for years, and the population began to move south again.

As Hakkas are immigrants, they are called "overseas Chinese boarders" by people in Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian, which is later commonly known as Hakkas. Of course, the migration of Hakkas in Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian in the Southern Song Dynasty was not completed at one time, but experienced nearly a thousand years of history. After the middle period of Qianlong, a large number of Hakkas entered Guangdong and Guangxi. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the contradiction between natives and foreigners intensified, because a large-scale struggle broke out between them in land, water and marriage, which eventually triggered the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement.

Hakka wedding

Generally speaking, the migration history of Hakkas has experienced five great migrations: Western Jin Dynasty, Late Tang Dynasty, Southern Song Dynasty, Early Qing Dynasty and Late Qing Dynasty. After five great migrations, Hakkas went all the way south, and after nearly a thousand years of reproduction, this formed the distribution pattern of Hakkas today.

Up to now, the total number of Hakkas is about 80 million, and overseas is about 654.38+0.5 million. Mainly distributed in Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Fujian, Hong Kong, Macao and other places, overseas Hakkas are distributed in Vietnam, Singapore, the United States and other places. Historically, Hakkas have produced many heroes and talents and made great contributions to the development of China.

Hakka people live together.

This is the origin of Hakka, which is also the reason why Hakka genealogy records that their ancestors came from Jiangxi.