The Origin of Hakka People

Hakka, also known as Heluolang. Hakka is a distinctive Han nationality and one of the most widely distributed and far-reaching Han nationalities in the world.

▲ Hakka history

The ancestors of Hakkas originated in the Central Plains and migrated from the Central Plains to the south, which is a branch of the Han nationality in southern China. Because I am in a foreign land, I call myself "Heluolang" because I am attached to my hometown Heluo (Luohe Valley centered on Luoyang). On the one hand, Hakka culture retains the mainstream characteristics of Central Plains culture, on the other hand, it contains the cultural essence of local ethnic groups. Hakkas often follow the example of talented men, inspire and educate their children and grandchildren, and learn from their predecessors who have made great achievements. Some people say: Where there is the sun, there are China people, and where there are China people, there are Hakkas. Others say: where there is sunshine, there are Hakkas; Where there is a piece of land, there are Hakkas who live in groups, work hard and reproduce. Hakkas are called "Oriental Jews" because they travel around the world, emigrate to the world, and there are many successful people in overseas business circles.

The first migration to the south was in Qin Shihuang's time. After Qin Shihuang unified China in 22 1 BC, out of political and military needs, he sent 600,000 troops to "explore the south". South of Qin Jun, it enters Ling Jie (namely Jieyang Mountain, now north of Jieyang County 150) from the border of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi, and reaches the border of Xingning and Haifeng counties. In 2 14 BC, Qin Shihuang sent another 500,000 troops to "defend South Wuling" (now Guangdong and Guangxi). These soldiers have long been "guarding the five ridges and living in miscellaneous places." After Qin's death, two groups of Qin soldiers who went south stayed in the local area and became the earliest Hakkas.

The second southward migration was in the period of "Five Chaos in China" in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. At that time, in order to take refuge, some Central Plains residents moved to the border areas of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi. Later, due to the confrontation between the north and the south, about 960,000 people from the Central Plains moved south to both sides of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Part of the population flows into Gannan, and part of it enters Fujian and Guangdong through Ningdu and Shicheng.

The third southward migration was during the Huang Chao Uprising in the late Tang Dynasty. First, the Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty brought great disasters to the people, forcing a large number of Han people in the Central Plains to flee south. During the Huang Chao Uprising in the late Tang Dynasty, a large number of Central Plains Han people fled to Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangxi and other places. For example, the imperial clan Li Meng moved from Chang 'an to Bianliang, and then moved to Gubi Township in Ninghua, Fujian. In response to the Huang Chao Uprising, Gushi people Wang Xu and Wang Chao led 5,000 peasant rebels from Guangzhou and Shouzhou to Jiangxi, resulting in a sharp increase in the population along the border between Fujian and Jiangxi.

The fourth southward migration was in the late Southern Song Dynasty. Jin people invaded and built Yan, and some officials and scholars moved to Taihu Lake basin. Another part of the cremation or crossed Dagengling in the south and entered Nanxiong, Shixing and Shaozhou; Or along Hong, Ji and Qianzhou, and then from Qianzhou to Tingzhou; Or stay in counties in southern Jiangxi. At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Yuan Army went south in a big way, and a large number of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Song people fled from Putian to Chaoshan, Guangdong Province, and fled to Hainan Island.

The fifth southward migration was in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Because of the large population and limited land, the Hakkas living in southern Jiangxi, eastern Guangdong and northern Guangdong migrated to Sichuan, Hunan, Guangxi, Taiwan Province, central Guangdong and western Guangdong. This large-scale migration is called "Westward Movement" in the history of Hakka immigrants. The Hakka dialect in Sichuan is basically derived from this "westward movement". At that time, the population of Sichuan decreased sharply due to wars, plagues and natural disasters, and the Qing government especially encouraged immigrants to fill Sichuan from Huguang.

The sixth southward migration was during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the middle of19th century. At that time, in order to escape the war, some Hakkas migrated to South Asia, and some were lured into indentured labor and taken to Malaysia, the United States, Panama, Brazil and other places.

In addition to the above six large-scale relocations to the south, some Han people in the Central Plains also moved to the south due to droughts and floods, and some settled in the border areas of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi because of relegation, business and study tours by officials in previous dynasties. However, not all the Han people who moved south became Hakkas, and only people from Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi departments and their own departments were called Hakkas.

According to statistics, the Hakkas living in Chinese mainland are mainly distributed in Hainan, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Fujian, Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, Taiwan Province and Hong Kong and Macao, with a total population of over 50 million, accounting for 5% of the Han population. Abroad, Hakkas are mainly distributed in more than 80 countries and regions such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore in Southeast Asia, Japan and North Korea in East Asia, the United States, Canada and Brazil in America, and Britain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Austria in Europe, with a population of100000.

Hakka ancestors first lived in the north, then moved to the south of the Yangtze River, and lived in Jiangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, Hunan, Taiwan Province, Qiong and other provinces, and gradually spread abroad, all over the world. Gannan is the first stop for Hakka ancestors to move south, and it is also one of the areas where Hakka people live most intensively. The origin of the term "Hakka" is related to the migration of Hakka ancestors. As far as their place of residence is concerned, these people are "guests" who moved from other places. It can be said that without migration, there would be no title of "Hakka".

There are many reasons for Hakka immigration. The early days were mainly due to the pressure of disasters. Such as cruel wars, floods, droughts, insect pests and other catastrophic natural disasters and the epidemic of plague. Almost every large-scale war in the history of China has caused a great migration of Hakkas. According to historical records, there was a great migration of Hakka ancestors during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Imagine, in the long years, the "Five Hus and Sixteen Countries" were constantly at war and filled with sorrow. Can you survive if you don't escape? It is said that our ancestor Chen left his native land in western Henan at that time, moved to Jiangxi and finally settled in Ganxian. "The moonlight at home is how bright!" At first, our ancestors may just want to stay for a while, but they will get used to it. So he built houses, cultivated fields, raised pigs and cattle, and lived for a long time. From temporary residence to permanent home. In this way, you will always be a Hakka!

It is worth mentioning that there is also a special way of migration. It is said that in order to build Epang Palace, Qin Shihuang drove tens of thousands of "wooden guests" to Gannan to cut trees and rejuvenate the country, but they stayed there before they were exhausted. This is probably the earliest ancestor of Hakka people in Gannan.

The process of migration must be difficult and dangerous. Help the old and carry the young, travel across mountains and rivers, and settle in different places. Hakka ancestors cut through thorns and overcome many obstacles, "opening roads on every mountain and bridging bridges when encountering water." They finally survived and formed a thriving ethnic group with tens of millions of people today.

The last procedure of migration is to build houses and settle down. A Hakka elder said: "The most important thing to settle down is to determine the location of the house. How to decide? It depends on feng shui. This feng shui is not the superstitious feng shui that Mr. Geography said. Mainly take sunshine, look at the wind direction, close to the water source, close to the hard mountain, and choose the highland. It is an ideal choice to sit facing south, facing the sun and leeward, with firewood near the water and wide vision. "

People often admire Hakka people for their diligence, courage, perseverance and wit. As a clan group, Hakkas have naturally experienced more diverse and deeper social reality and production reality than other groups due to the long-distance migration of their ancestors, and they are bound to be tempered and nourished and accumulated more experience in dealing with the relationship with nature and social interpersonal relationships. As a result, a large number of politicians, scientists, writers and entrepreneurs have emerged in Hakka communities. ...

▲ There are many theories about the origin of Hakka, mainly including the theory of Hakka Central Plains and the theory of Hakka Native Land. 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". Since the Song Dynasty, the Han nationality in the Central Plains moved southward on a large scale, passing through southern Jiangxi and western Fujian to Meizhou, and finally formed a relatively mature and stable Hakka family. Since then, Hakkas, based in Meizhou, have moved abroad in large numbers and moved to the whole country and even the rest of the world. The "three Hakka States" are Jiaying, Ganzhou and Tingzhou.

Speaking of Hakkas, the most famous is their tulou. If you search for Hakka on the Internet, there will be many entries about Tulou at the same time. If you are a stamp collector, you should have noticed that one of the Fujian houses in the China house stamps is the Hakka Tulou. Because most of the Hakkas lived in remote mountainous areas or deep forests, at that time, not only were building materials scarce, wolves, tigers, leopards and thieves noisy, but also they were afraid of being harassed by local people, so Hakkas built "defensive" castle-like buildings similar to earth buildings. In Fujian, earth buildings are divided into square earth buildings and round earth buildings, and round earth buildings are rare.

There is a joke about tulou. It is said that in the 1960s and 1970s, American spy satellites took photos of China, and they were surprised to find many unknown large buildings, round or square, distributed in the mountainous areas of Fujian Province. After analysis, they are considered as "missile launching bases", and China's military strength should not be underestimated. It was not until the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States that Americans knew that the so-called "missile launching base" was actually a typical Hakka residence-Tulou.

Of course, Hakka tofu is also famous: Hakka fermented bean curd, Sichuan Mapo tofu and Hunan stinky tofu. The latter two can only be regarded as side dishes and snacks, and only Hakka people have upgraded tofu into a big dish and a main course. Even their songs about new houses have tofu. For example, there is a song that goes like this:

Newly bought millstones, round bells,

Buy ground soybean milk wholeheartedly,

At midnight, grinding bean curd,

Right, right, right, right.

▲ Hakka origin

Hakka is a huge ethnic group of Han nationality in China with a long history and a large number of people. According to the data, there are 55 million Hakkas, including about 45 million in China. Most of them live in some Asian countries, including about 6.5438+0.25 million in Malaysia, about 4 million in Indonesia, about 500,000 in Thailand, and about 300,000 in Vietnam and Singapore.

The ancestors of Hakkas came from the Central Plains. It is because of the large-scale direct migration from the Central Plains in the past dynasties, or moving in, or being an official, relegated, doing business and other reasons. Its ancestors migrated in the following periods:

(A) Qin and Han Dynasties unified China, and Central Plains immigrants began to move south.

1, in the twenty-fifth year of Qin Shihuang (222 BC), 600,000 people destroyed Chu, the king of all lands in the north, and set up Minzhong County in 22 BC1year, that is, they divided their troops south and entered the mountain from the border of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi, which is now Jieyang Mountain, 150 miles north of Jieyang County, and reached Xingning and Xingning.

2. In the thirty-third year of Qin Shihuang, 500,000 people guarded the Wuling Mountains, that is, Zhao Tuo "led troops to guard Yue". From this point of view, there are two Qin Jun garrisons on the border of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi, one is the border of Ye Nan and the other is Ling Jie.

3. In the thirty-fourth year of Qin Shihuang, Zhao Tuo built a city in Erli, across the river, controlled Wushui, and built a city of ten thousand people in Zhongshu Mountain. Zhao Tuo built another city in Longchuan. The number of these builders is unknown, but the number of people who moved to the northern border counties in the same period can be tested, ranging from 30 thousand to 50 thousand.

In the thirty-sixth year of Qin Shihuang, it was estimated that the immigrants stationed in Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi accounted for more than one third of the local population.

5. In the fifth year of Emperor Ding Yuan (BC 1 15), a large number of soldiers from the Central Plains were stationed in Lingnan in the south, in counties and military strongholds.

6. In the first year of Han and Yuan Dynasties (BC 1 10), all the people from Fujian and Jieyang (Chao Gu and Meigu were Fujian and Vietnam respectively) moved away, leaving only the descendants of immigrants from Qinzhong County. This shows that the residents in the border areas of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi are mainly immigrants from the Central Plains.

(2) During the period from Jian 'an in the late Han Dynasty to Yongjia in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, people in the Central Plains took refuge, and some people moved to the border areas of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the people of the Central Plains took refuge in Jiaozhou, which once set off a climax. The southward migration mainly came from the sea.

During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, when the North and the South confronted each other, the people of the Central Plains moved southward again on a large scale, with a population of about 960,000. Most of them settled on both sides of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, some of them entered the south of Jiangxi, and some of them entered the border counties of Fujian and Guangdong through Ningdu and Shicheng.

On the occasion of Yongjia, the gentry of the Central Plains flowed into Fujian.

(3) The Anshi Rebellion and the war disaster in the Tang Dynasty brought great disasters to the people, and a large number of people in the Central Plains fled south.

(4) During the Huang Chao Uprising in the late Tang Dynasty, a large number of people from the Central Plains fled to Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi. For example, the imperial clan Li Meng moved from Chang 'an to Bianliang, and then moved to Gubi Township in Ninghua, Fujian. Gushi people Wang Xu and Wang Chao responded to the Huang Chao Uprising and led 5,000 peasant rebels from Guangzhou and Shouzhou to Jiangxi. From the late Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, the population of Fujian and Jiangxi provinces surged.

(5) At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, a large number of Central Plains people fled to central Guangdong and the border areas of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi.

When Jian Yan went south, some officials and scholars moved to Hangzhou, Su Xiu, Suzhou, Changzhou and Taihu Basin. The other part, and most of it, followed Tai Huang along Hongzhou, Jizhou and Ganzhou, and Tai Huang returned to Lin 'an. These scholars could not return to the north according to the conditions of the Queen Mother, so some people crossed the ridge south and entered Nanxiong, Shixing and Shaozhou. Part of it entered Tingzhou from the former state. Some of them are trapped in some counties in southern Jiangxi.

At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Yuan Army went south in a big way, and a large number of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Song people fled from Putian to Chaoshan, Guangdong Province, and fled to Hainan Island.

(6) In addition to the large-scale southward migration caused by the above-mentioned war, the people of the Central Plains fled to the south due to drought and flood, and some officials were relegated to the border areas of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi to do business and study.

Judging from the above historical data, Hakka ancestors mainly came from the Han nationality in the Central Plains. In the process of the formation of Hakka clans, the southern minorities such as She, Yao, Dan and woodcut have been continuously melted and absorbed, and the Hakka team has grown.