Rebuilding the Great Migration: Land of Abundance

Government-organized migration has also had a far-reaching impact on the population distribution in China. The revival of Sichuan, a land of abundance, benefited from this.

China's official forced immigration appeared in the Three Kingdoms period. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the forced migration of the government made the population distribution in China more even. Among the policy immigrants in the past dynasties, the most representative and far-reaching is the long-term immigration movement at the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty: Huguang filling Sichuan.

Sichuan was at the forefront of national economy and culture in the Tang Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, the Bashu area, with a population of about 23% of the country's total population, accounted for 1/3 of the country's fiscal revenue and military supplies, so people at that time lamented that "the death of Shu means the death of Song". However, the war between the late Southern Song Dynasty and the Yuan and Ming Dynasties caused the Bashu people to suffer the most cruel catastrophe in history. According to official statistics, there are only 70,000 people left in 1668 Chengdu, while there are only about 600,000 people left in Sichuan Province. At the end of Yuan Dynasty, Ming Yuzhen took Hubei as the main body and led more than 100,000 troops into Sichuan, followed by many farmers, which started the prelude of "Huguang filling Sichuan". The Ming government also intended to arrange for Huguang immigrants to enter Sichuan.

The real immigration climax appeared in the Qing Dynasty. In view of the ruin of Sichuan, Emperor Kangxi issued an imperial edict to recruit people to fill Sichuan in the thirty-third year of Kangxi, ordering large-scale immigration from Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Guangdong and other places to Sichuan. This migration lasted for more than 100 years, and more than100000 people poured into Sichuan. In Chengdu and counties of western Sichuan plain, the floating population accounts for more than 90% of the total population, while the floating population from Sichuan accounts for about 70% of the total population.

A large number of immigrants into Sichuan not only brought sufficient labor, but also brought rich production technology and culture. Since then, the land of abundance has been revived, and it is more inclusive in economy and culture.