Fujian people often say, "Chen Lin is half the world, Huang Zheng is all over the street." What does it mean?

Chen Lin is half the world, Huang Zheng is everywhere? This is a saying spread in Fujian, which means that Chen, Lin, Huang and Zheng are the four major surnames in Fujian, and their descendants are prosperous in Fujian. According to the analysis of population data in 2016, there are 14.16 million people with the surname Lin in mainland China, making it the fourth largest surname in the South, including 4.72 million people in Fujian.

However, investigating the origin of the Lin family found that: first, the Lin family originated from the surname Zi, and the ancestor of the surname was Lin Jian, the son of Bigan, a famous minister in the late Shang Dynasty, in the area north of Weihui City, Henan Province today. Secondly, the Lin family is derived from the surname Ji, Ji Kai, the youngest son of Ji Yijiu, King Ping of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. His descendants take his surname "Lin" as their surname. It originated from the Luoyang area in present-day Henan. The Lin surname is called Henan in the genealogy Lin; thirdly, when Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty moved the capital to Luoyang, he changed the Xianbei and other people whose original surname was Qiulin to Lin, and registered them as people from Luoyang, Henan.

Therefore, the surname Lin should have originated from Henan in the Central Plains, but it took root and blossomed in the south, especially Fujian.

According to historical records, there have been many waves of immigrants in Fujian. The larger and earlier ones date from the late Western Jin Dynasty. The Western Jin Dynasty was established by Sima Yan, Emperor Wu of Jin, who usurped Cao Wei. After completing the great cause of unification, more than ten meritorious officials with the same surname were enfeoffed as kings. After Sima Yan's death, his successor, Emperor Hui of Jin Dynasty, Sima Zhong, was said to have intellectual problems and was unable to govern the country. His queen, Jia Nanfeng, made political decisions arbitrarily. The kings of the Sima family were dissatisfied with the Jia family's exclusive power in the court, and they all wanted to kill Jia family and take over the power alone. , various kings competed for status and fought with each other, so the Western Jin Dynasty quickly fell into the "Eight Kings Rebellion" of internal strife within the ruling group.

In the fifth year of Yongjia in the Western Jin Dynasty (311 AD), the Xiongnu captured Luoyang and abducted Emperor Huai. In 316 AD, the last emperor of the Western Jin Dynasty, Sima Ye, was captured, announcing the demise of the Western Jin Dynasty. During the Jianwu period of the Jin Dynasty, Sima Rui, the king of Langya, a relative of the Western Jin Dynasty, moved southward at the suggestion of Lin Lu, who joined the army, and later Prime Minister Wang Dao, to avoid the war and develop his power. The Central Plains Han nobles and other subjects followed him and fled southward. It is known in history as? Yongjia Rebellion, Yi Guan traveled south? Sima Rui relied on the northern nobles who crossed south to unite the powerful Jiangdong and established the Eastern Jin Dynasty. According to the "Fuzhou Prefecture Chronicles" recorded during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty: "The eight ethnic groups who first introduced clothes and hats to Fujian were Lin, Chen, Huang, Zheng, Zhan, Qiu, He and Hu. ?

In "Three Mountains Chronicles", "During the Yongjia Rebellion, Yiguan migrated southward, and the first eight tribes entered Fujian". It is recorded in the "Preface to the Lin Family Genealogy" written by Lin Ying of the Song Dynasty that the Lin family came from the surname Zi and was passed down to Sun Jin'an County Wang Lu, who was the ancestor of Minlin. In Bandang, Zhongzhou, there were eight ethnic groups who moved to Fujian to live in Fujian. They were Lin, Huang, Chen, Zheng, Zhan, Qiu, He and Hu. ?Ming Qiu Jun's "The Lin Family's Ancestral Hall of Xiaoyou in Quexia"? Since the Yongjia Rebellion in Jin Dynasty, eight surnames entered Fujian, and Lin ranked first among them. ?

The ancestor of Minlin

Lin Lu made great contributions to consolidating Sima Rui's political power in Jiangdong and was highly regarded. He served successively as General Zhaoyuan, Changshi of Sanqi, Governor of Hepu and Jin Dynasty. He held the title of Taishou An, etc. In the third year of Taining (AD 325) of Emperor Ming of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, his family settled in Jin'an (today's Fuzhou) and became the most prominent Lin family in Fujian. In the context of the emphasis on family reputation at that time, other branches surnamed Lin also joined the family one after another, and the family further developed. Since then, the surname Lin, which originated in the north, began to flourish in the south and gradually developed into a popular surname in the south. Lin Lu is therefore known as the ancestor of the founding of Fujian with the surname Lin.