In ancient China, why were the clan forces in the south so powerful?

There is a big TV series "Action to Break the Ice", which is about the clan named Lin, who accounts for the vast majority of the population in Tazhai Village, Dongshan, Guangdong Province, collectively making ice. The play highlights that the Dongshan clan is extremely powerful, and the Lin clan, under the leadership of Lin Yaodong, collectively produces drugs, which is impenetrable, and it is extremely difficult for the anti-drug police to enter the investigation and collect evidence. Lin Yaodong colluded with local officials to form an umbrella, but his biggest dream was to build the largest and best Lin ancestral temple.

The realistic prototype of Tazhai Village in TV series is Boshe Village in Lufeng City, Shanwei City, Guangdong Province. As in the TV series, it happened in Guangdong, where the clan was powerful and it was difficult for the police to intervene. In South China of China, especially in Guangdong and Fujian provinces, clan power is particularly strong, even shaking the government's jurisdiction. Ancestral temples and ancestral temples are very common in southern settlements, and clan forces have a great influence. But this is rare in the north. Why is this?

The stills of the TV series "Action to Break the Ice", a large number of plots took place in the ancestral hall

1 The history of southern China has formed the tradition of living together

The center of ancient civilization in China is in the Yellow River basin. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Chu developed the south, but the political center of Chu was still relatively north. After Qin Shihuang destroyed the six countries and achieved reunification, he sent troops south, especially hundreds of thousands of troops to the Baiyue area in the southeast, before the southeast coastal areas were brought under the jurisdiction of the central unified empire. During the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty also used troops many times, and a large number of Vietnamese people were forced to move northward to the Jianghuai area.

since the Han dynasty, the civilization of the central plains has been expanding to the outside world, and various immigrants from the north and the central plains have gradually poured into the south, especially the southeast coastal areas. The local indigenous people were either wiped out or wandered among the mountains, while the immigrants often took the family as the unit and gradually became the masters of all parts of the south. These families came from the north and brought the concept of clan gate valve; In the process of migration, hold a group to keep warm and save yourself; Facing the new environment, unity, unity and exclusion have laid a tradition of living together in the south, especially in South China.

2 The topographic conditions in the south limit people to live together

The topographic map of the southeast

Besides historical factors, the topographic factors are also extremely important, which are concentrated in Fujian and Guangdong along the southeast coast. Fujian is located on the southeast coast, with mountains facing the sea at its back. The Wuyi Mountain Range, which is more than a thousand miles long, separates Fujian from Jiangxi and Zhejiang in the north, forming a unique topographic region. In the long history of China, Fujian has long been a place where the government has little influence.

so is Guangdong. Guangdong was called "Luliang Land" in ancient times, also known as "Lingnan". It is because there are five ridges in the north and Guangdong is located in the south of the five ridges, which is isolated from the Central Plains, so it is called "Lingnan". Wuling, like a girder on land, is isolated from the two places, so it is also called "Luliang Land". Guangdong and Fujian are very far away from the central government, and there are endless mountains to cut off traffic. In such an isolated environment, the people in the southeast live in groups, and it is difficult for the unified government forces to intervene.

3 Living in groups can avoid the control of a unified regime

The geographical conditions of the south far from the central government and the tradition of living in groups can avoid excessive interference by government forces. In the history of China, the central dynasty, which is a big * * *, and the local clan power, which is a small * * * *, have changed. In order to consolidate the rule, the unified central dynasty will inevitably suppress the powerful local clan forces. Therefore, in the north where the central dynasty is powerful, the clan forces are relatively weak, mostly manifested as small families and many yeomen. In the south, however, there are many clans, and most of the land is collectively owned by clans.

The large-scale ancestral temple in Guangdong

One of the most important measures of Shang Yang's political reform in China's history is to require men to live separately when they grow up, otherwise the tax will be doubled. On the one hand, the purpose of this policy is to increase the source of taxes and enrich Qiang Bing; on the other hand, it can divide powerful clan forces and strengthen the control of the government. Only under such a policy can a powerful centralized empire emerge.

in the history of China, the central dynasty also tried to deeply control the clan forces in the south. For example, during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, there was a large-scale movement to destroy and ban genealogy. Genealogy records the origin and members of a family and plays a vital role in the cohesion of a family. Destroying genealogy is actually interfering with the clan by centralization, restraining and dividing the clan forces, but it has little effect.

to sum up, many areas in the south are far away from the control area of the central dynasty, and the terrain is blocked. In addition, a large number of immigrants moved south, forming a tradition of living together. These immigrant families huddled together to keep warm, moved to new places, and even formed a system of collective ownership of ancestral temple land with family as a unit, which formed a powerful clan force in the south. Even today, there are still a large number of remains of ancestral temples, indicating that period of history.