Why did someone invite their ancestors to Shanxi Sophora japonica?

"Ask me where my ancestors are? Sophora japonica in Hongdong, Shanxi. What's your ancestral home? The old nest under the big locust tree. " For hundreds of years, this folk song has been handed down from generation to generation in the vast areas of our country, and it is well known to women and children. An ancient locust tree has preserved its soul for generations. For centuries, the ancient pagoda tree site in Hongtong County has been praised as "home", "ancestor" and "root" by many Chinese descendants at home and abroad, and has become everyone's hometown.

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The ancient pagoda tree, also known as Hong Tong pagoda tree, is located in Jia Cun, two kilometers northwest of Hongtong County. Mr. Li Shuping, who came from Hefei, Anhui Province to seek his roots, walked along the potholed concrete pavement and crossed the west Jia Cun in the morning market. On both sides, villagers selling vegetables and meat are in an endless stream. People here have long been used to foreigners seeking their roots and ancestors. Seven or eight children aged around 10 were chasing football crazily in the square in front of the ruins. Although it was fun, the winner imitated the star-like cheers on TV-waving his arms and running wildly, which was quite professional! Behind them is the 600-year-old ancient pagoda tree settlement, which is the largest settlement in China since ancient times and has attracted countless Chinese people.

"For hundreds of years, Guangji Temple and Sophora japonica have been washed away by water, leaving only a few remains of a generation of ancient Sophora japonica (more than 800 years ago). Fortunately, the second generation of Sophora japonica has been bred from the same root about 5 meters east of the site of Sophora japonica. This is the withered tree now, which has a history of more than 400 years. After the second generation of Sophora japonica dried up, 1974 was blown down by the hurricane, and the county allocated special funds for transformation. Since 1999, several anti-corrosion treatments have been done. " Every day, the tour guide will tirelessly repeat this passage to everyone who is looking for their ancestors.

In the ancestral hall, there is a "table of surnames of descendants of Guhuai" on the right. There are more than 800 surnames on the list, and their memorial tablets are enshrined on the front, which greatly exceeds the "hundred surnames". They all immigrated to all parts of the country 600 years ago, and then they were collected, sorted out and made public in order to find their roots. In recent years, both mainland people and overseas compatriots have rushed here to seek roots and worship their ancestors and inquire about their blood relationship with Sophora japonica.

According to Fan, director of the management department of Sophora japonica Root-seeking Ancestor Garden, the first Hongdong Root-seeking Ancestor Festival was held from April 19 1 to 10 (during the traditional Tomb-Sweeping Day in China). Up to now, it has been successfully held for 14, and tens of thousands of tourists from home and abroad participate in the festival every year.

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According to historical records, the migration of Sophora japonica in Hongdong in Ming Dynasty was the largest official migration in China, and it was the focus of migration in Ming Dynasty. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Yuan government used foreign troops year after year and carried out ethnic oppression at home, which led to frequent famines in Huanghuai area and finally aroused the Red Scarf Army uprising that lasted for more than ten years. People in Huaibei, Shandong, Hebei and Henan died ten times, seven or eight times, so that "a hundred people stayed behind, and there were no crows thousands of miles away." The wounds of the war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty were not healed, and the "Battle of Jingnan" followed in the early Ming Dynasty. Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Anhui and other places have suffered greatly, and almost all of them are uninhabited. During the war at the end of Yuan Dynasty, Shanxi, which was ruled by Chahan timur and his son, was a different scene. Relatively stable, bumper harvest every year. Compared with neighboring provinces, it is prosperous in economy and population. A large number of refugees from other provinces flowed into Shanxi, and Shanxi became a densely populated area. After the Yuan Dynasty was destroyed in the Ming Dynasty, in order to consolidate the new regime and develop the economy, eight large-scale immigration activities were organized in the nearly 50 years from the early years of Hongwu to the fifteenth year of Yongle, involving 882 surnames in more than 490 counties and cities in 18 province. Mainly distributed in Henan, Hebei, Anhui, Shandong and other provinces.

Jinnan is a densely populated place in Shanxi, and Hongdong was the largest and most populous county in Jinnan at that time. According to legend, in the Ming Dynasty, there was a Guangji Temple on the west side of Jia Cun, two miles north of Hongdong. This temple is magnificent and full of pilgrims. There is a locust tree next to the temple, surrounded by trees, one acre at a time. Old storks on Fenhe beach nest in trees, which is very spectacular. The Ming government set up bureaus in Guangji Temple and Dahuaishu to deal with immigrants in a centralized way, and under the Dahuaishu became a gathering place for immigrants. When the immigrants left, they stared at the ancient pagoda tree, and the old stork who lived among the branches kept moaning, which made the immigrants who had left their homes cry and could not bear to leave. To this end, the locust tree has become a symbol for immigrants to bid farewell to their hometown. In the early Ming Dynasty, the immigrants from Hongdong and other places in Shanxi mainly distributed in Henan, Hebei, Shandong, Beijing, Anhui, Jiangsu and Hubei, and a few moved to Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia. Immigrants who moved from Shanxi to the above places later moved to Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Xinjiang and northeast provinces. Such a long-term, large-scale and organized large-scale migration is rare in the history of our country, and it is only an example to scatter people around us.