Where do the Hakkas come from?

As a clan of Han nationality, there are many opinions about the origin of Hakka people, mainly including the theory of Hakka Central Plains and the theory of Hakka ancestors. 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".

It is generally believed that Hakkas are a Han nationality who migrated to the south from the end of Tang Dynasty to the middle of Ming Dynasty and gathered in the border area of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi. They merged with the local She nationality, Yao nationality and other aborigines and have unique dialects, cultures and characteristics different from other Han nationalities. It is dominated by the Han nationality, and at the same time includes the She nationality and other ethnic minorities who have been integrated and customized. Hakka people are mainly Han people, and the main characteristics of their culture show that they have inherited the Han culture in the Central Plains, so they should definitely be a branch of Han people. But this clan is not pure Han descent, and its culture is not pure Central Plains Han culture. Therefore, as a group, its members should include members of different nationalities who are integrated with each other and enjoy the same cultural characteristics. Therefore, the term "Hakka" is a Han appellation, not a racial concept, but a cultural concept.

Hakka immigrants

Five Central Plains Immigrants Theory

As for the migration of Hakkas, researchers represented by Luo Xianglin, a master of Hakka studies in A.D. 1930 believe that since the Jin Dynasty, Hakkas have experienced five large-scale migrations and developed in these five migrations. The general process of these five great migrations is:

The first time was during the Jin Dynasty, when a large number of people from the Central Plains moved south to the Yangtze River basin.

The second time began in the Tang Dynasty, a large number of northern Han people moved to relatively peaceful areas of Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong to avoid the Anshi Rebellion, and became the first Hakka ancestors.

The third time in the Song Dynasty, the northern nationalities invaded, and groups of Han people moved to Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong, and gradually merged with the local ethnic minorities such as She and Yao, eventually forming the Hakka clan.

The fourth time was in the late Qing Dynasty. Due to the ravages and plagues of Manchu rulers, the population of southern Jiangxi decreased sharply, while that of western Fujian and eastern Guangdong expanded. The Qing government ordered coastal residents to squeeze inland, and some Hakkas moved back to Gannan and some moved to Sichuan.

For the fifth time, in modern times, many Hakkas moved to the coast from eastern Guangdong and western Fujian, and some moved overseas.

Theory of Six Movements of Central Plains

Later, Hakkas from overseas (Malaysia, the United States and other places) obtained the following six main migration periods from the genealogy statistics of various ethnic groups (reference: [1]):

The first time was when Qin Shihuang unified the whole country. In order to consolidate the newly acquired southern territory, Qin Shihuang sent a large number of soldiers and civilians to northern Guangdong. Later generations called Beijiang Hakka. This is the first appearance of Hakka appellation.

The second time was the Yongjia period in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Han people from Shanxi, Hebei and Henan crossed the Yellow River, crossed the Yangtze River from Anhui and passed through the northwest of Jiangxi.

The third time, in the second year of Emperor Xuanzong's reign, because of the Huang Chao Rebellion, residents in northern Jiangxi moved to western Jiangxi, southern Fujian and northern Guangdong.

The fourth time was in the late Southern Song Dynasty, which was a crucial period for Hakkas to move south to Guangdong. With the southward advance of the Mongolian army, Hakka ancestors from Jiangxi and Fujian entered eastern and northern Guangdong with the defeated Song royal family.

The fifth time, due to the policy of filling Sichuan with Huguang, a large number of Hakkas from Guangdong and Fujian moved to Sichuan and Chongqing.

The sixth time was in the middle of Qing Dynasty, the population of Hakka areas in Guangdong gradually increased, and a large number of Hakka people immigrated to Nanyang and Taiwan Province Province.

The origin of Hakka names

The name Hakka comes from the struggle between locals and tourists in the middle and late Qing Dynasty. Later, new immigrants from the north were called Hakkas to distinguish them from the local aborigines.

The original meaning of "Hakka" should refer to foreigners, that is, compared with locals, Han people living in the south are foreigners. But now the word "Hakka" refers to Hakka, which is the abbreviation of Hakka. The "guest" here is the "mountain is the main thing, so I am a guest".

However, some scholars believe that "Hakka" is not a simple outsider compared with "master", and it is different from the Han families such as Guangfu family and Fulao family, which are both moving south of the Central Plains. Historically, all ethnic groups of Han nationality in South China formed earlier than Hakka, basically in the same administrative region (some of them are only partially extended), while Hakka formed later, not in the same administrative region. Another special phenomenon is that the original aborigines or owners in this connecting area, in addition to a very small number of Guyue people, also include "Shanke", "Muke" and "Xieke". Most of them are also "outsiders". These "Hakkas" and later "Hakkas" have lived together for a long time and merged with each other, giving birth to unique language and cultural characteristics. (It can be considered that the ethnic group was initially formed at this time, but there was no official name. However, these unique people moved abroad, such as Fulao, Guangfu and other residential areas, and were called guests, customers and Hakkas by local hosts. Moreover, this title was called by different ethnic groups along the coast of Fujian and Guangdong, and it should be regarded as a kind of "* * * song" for people with the same cultural characteristics (that is, Hakkas later determined) from the cultural connotation. Whether this is related to the "Hakka dialect" of the aborigines in the border areas of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi, or whether the residents in these places have spoken "Hakka dialect" (although there is no written record), it is still difficult to determine. At present, the origin of Hakka names is to use "He Shuo" as a metaphor for "claiming". "He said" in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Claiming that time began in the middle of Qing Dynasty. But this does not mean that the Hakka clan was formed at this time. "He said," It was the Fulao people along the coast of Fujian and the Guangfu people along the coast of Guangdong who first "said" it. "Claiming" is self-identification. Because the history of Hakka before the formation of clan system has always been the migration history of visiting other places. People have no derogatory meaning for titles, and at the same time, they are in line with their own history; I agree.