The Reasons of Fujian Immigrating to Sichuan during the Kangxi Period of Qing Dynasty

"Huguang filling Sichuan" is a specific title, which refers to the policy that in the early years of Qing Dynasty, the population of Sichuan decreased sharply due to the war, and immigrants filled Sichuan in more than half of China. This large-scale immigration movement began in the late Shunzhi period and lasted for over 100 years until the early Jiaqing period. Among them, the mid-Kangxi period to Qianlong period was the climax of this immigration movement, and most of the ancestors of Sichuanese left their homes and entered Sichuan at this time. At that time, immigrants from more than ten provinces participated in this wave of immigration, such as Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangxi, Shaanxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, Shanxi, Henan and Shandong. This event was named "Huguang filling Sichuan" by historians and folks because there were the most mainlanders who immigrated to Sichuan at that time. The so-called "Huguang" refers to Hubei and Hunan. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Hunan and Hubei were collectively called "Huguang Province".

In the memory of ordinary people, the historical event of "Huguang filling Sichuan" is closely related to "Zhangchuan suppression" in the late Ming Dynasty. Today, there are still many villagers in Sichuan who can tell the horror story of "killing chickens as an example". It seems that the cause of the incident of "Huguang filling Sichuan" was that Zhang killed all the indigenous people in Sichuan. Zhang did cause serious damage to Sichuan, but his stay in Sichuan was only a few years, while the large-scale war in Sichuan in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties lasted for 34 years. Therefore, Zhang undoubtedly became the scapegoat for Sichuan's broken and rapidly declining population in the early Qing Dynasty.

Sichuan deserves to be called "the land of abundance". When more than one million immigrants from eleven or twelve provinces came to settle in Sichuan (in the twenty-fourth year of Kangxi, the population of Sichuan was only 1.8 million, equivalent to more than 90,000 people; But in the thirty-second year of Qianlong, the population of Sichuan has reached more than 2.9 million, and a magnificent and epic era has come. "Strangers" began to dance in this golden land. They brought new species, new production techniques, local operas, customs and dialects from their hometown, and then the Eight Immortals crossed the ocean on this new stage, showing their magical power. With the passage of a long and arduous entrepreneurial process, a sense of happiness that has never been seen before has arrived as scheduled like a raging tide. They gained wealth, gained a new life, won the title of master, and also won the reward of this land.

"Huguang filling Sichuan" had an immeasurable influence on the modern history of China. From the sixth generation of descendants who immigrated to Sichuan, after the integration of multi-culture and multi-nationalities, outstanding figures such as Deng Xiaoping, Zhu De, Chen Yi, Liu Bocheng, Nie, Guo Moruo and Ba Jin emerged in Sichuan. Among them are the "chief architect" of China's reform and opening up, the founding fathers, two-fifths of the country's marshals, and the literary giants who can be called "masters" in the history of modern literature in China ... The reason is that "Huguang fills Sichuan" has a far-reaching impact on Sichuan culture and population quality.

It has been more than 340 years since Shunzhi moved to Sichuan in the late Qing Dynasty. From the perspective of modern people, these three centuries are a long time. What I want to say, however, is that in China's 5,000-year history, these three centuries are still short. We are only twelve or thirteen generations away from our ancestors. How can we be so strange and forgetful about this matter? You know, most of the existing genealogies in Sichuan refer to people who came to Sichuan for the first time to "eat crabs" as "I entered Sichuan as my ancestor". In other words, this person who dares to leave his hometown and devote himself to a new and unfamiliar environment has cut off contact with his hometown and resolutely ran to Sichuan. Therefore, we descendants of immigrants should remember the kindness and courage of our predecessors. 340 years may be a bit long, but if we count from the end of immigration and the beginning of Jiaqing, it is actually only 200 years, which is similar to the time since the American immigration movement.