Where do the most authentic Hakkas live?

As a clan of Han nationality, there are many opinions about the origin of Hakka people, mainly including the theory of Hakka Central Plains and the theory of Hakka ancestors. The theory of Hakka Central Plains holds that the main body of Hakka people is immigrants from the Central Plains, while the theory of Hakka aborigines holds that "Hakka * * is the same main body produced by the integration of Han people who moved south and ancient Vietnamese immigrants in the triangle area of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi, and its main body is the ancient Vietnamese living in this land, not a few Central Plains people living in this area".

It is generally believed that Hakkas are a Han nationality who migrated to the south from the end of Tang Dynasty to the middle of Ming Dynasty and gathered in the border area of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi. They merged with the local She nationality, Yao nationality and other aborigines and have unique dialects, cultures and characteristics different from other Han nationalities. It is dominated by the Han nationality, and at the same time includes the She nationality and other ethnic minorities who have been integrated and customized. Hakka people are mainly Han people, and the main characteristics of their culture show that they have inherited the Han culture in the Central Plains, so they should definitely be a branch of Han people. But this clan is not pure Han descent, and its culture is not pure Central Plains Han culture. Therefore, as a group, its members should include members of different nationalities who are integrated with each other and enjoy the same cultural characteristics. Therefore, the term "Hakka" is a Han appellation, not a racial concept, but a cultural concept.

Hakka immigrants

Five Central Plains Immigrants Theory

As for the migration of Hakkas, researchers represented by Luo Xianglin, a master of Hakka studies in A.D. 1930 believe that since the Jin Dynasty, Hakkas have experienced five large-scale migrations and developed in these five migrations. The general process of these five great migrations is:

The first time was during the Jin Dynasty, when a large number of people from the Central Plains moved south to the Yangtze River basin.

The second time began in the Tang Dynasty, a large number of northern Han people moved to relatively peaceful areas of Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong to avoid the Anshi Rebellion, and became the first Hakka ancestors.

The third time in the Song Dynasty, the northern nationalities invaded, and groups of Han people moved to Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong, and gradually merged with the local ethnic minorities such as She and Yao, eventually forming the Hakka clan.

The fourth time was in the late Qing Dynasty. Due to the ravages and plagues of Manchu rulers, the population of southern Jiangxi decreased sharply, while that of western Fujian and eastern Guangdong expanded. The Qing government ordered coastal residents to squeeze inland, and some Hakkas moved back to Gannan and some moved to Sichuan.

For the fifth time, in modern times, many Hakkas moved to the coast from eastern Guangdong and western Fujian, and some moved overseas.

Theory of Six Movements of Central Plains

Later, Hakkas from overseas (Malaysia, the United States and other places) obtained the following six main migration periods from the genealogy statistics of various ethnic groups (reference: [1]):

The first time was when Qin Shihuang unified the whole country. In order to consolidate the newly acquired southern territory, Qin Shihuang sent a large number of soldiers and civilians to northern Guangdong. Later generations called Beijiang Hakka. This is the first appearance of Hakka appellation.

The second time was the Yongjia period in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Han people from Shanxi, Hebei and Henan crossed the Yellow River, crossed the Yangtze River from Anhui and passed through the northwest of Jiangxi.

The third time, in the second year of Emperor Xuanzong's reign, because of the Huang Chao Rebellion, residents in northern Jiangxi moved to western Jiangxi, southern Fujian and northern Guangdong.

The fourth time was in the late Southern Song Dynasty, which was a crucial period for Hakkas to move south to Guangdong. With the southward advance of the Mongolian army, Hakka ancestors from Jiangxi and Fujian entered eastern and northern Guangdong with the defeated Song royal family.

The fifth time, due to the policy of filling Sichuan with Huguang, a large number of Hakkas from Guangdong and Fujian moved to Sichuan and Chongqing.

The sixth time, the population of Hakka areas in Guangdong increased gradually in the middle of Qing Dynasty, and a large number of Hakkas immigrated to Nanyang and Taiwan Province Province.