Huguang fills in Sichuan's top ten surnames.

Among the immigrants from Huguang to Sichuan, Li, Wu, Wang, Zhang, Liu, Deng, Ran, Xia, Dong and Gan have the largest number of surnames.

During the war between the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Qing Dynasty, Sichuan experienced a period of great population decline. In order to rebuild and preserve Sichuan, the Qing government implemented a series of "filling Sichuan" policies to attract a large number of immigrants from other provinces to enter Sichuan. The Qing government gave land from other provinces to these immigrants, which attracted a large number of poor people.

It is worth noting that in this immigration, the surnames were Li, Wu, Wang, Zhang, Liu, Deng, Ran, Xia, Dong and Gan, which became the top ten surnames among immigrants at that time.

Among them, Macheng is one of the important sources of immigrants, especially the immigrants surnamed Xiang, Ran and Yuan, most of whom come from Macheng. Therefore, people surnamed Xiang, Ran and Yuan in Sichuan are probably from Macheng, Hubei. There is a saying: Huguang fills Sichuan, and Macheng accounts for half.

Immigrant culture

First, the relatively centralized management of the floating population in Macheng, Hubei Province. For example, Yunyang, "The city is divided into north and south banks. During the Hongwu period, people from the south bank migrated from Xiaogan, Macheng, Huguang and other places. People from the north bank were all expatriates in Kang Yong, but there were more people from Hubei and Hunan." (Xianfeng's Yunyang County Records) For naturalized immigrants, strengthen household registration management, print receipts, and incorporate them into Jiabao to make them feel at ease in farming.

Second, introduce new crops and planting techniques. For example, crops and technologies such as sweet potato, sugarcane, sericulture and tobacco planting in Macheng were all introduced to Sichuan by immigrants.

Third, promote business development. Macheng businessmen operate key industries such as mountain products and grain, and also trade in iron pots, cloth shops, hemp shops, wine shops, pig shops, porcelain, miscellaneous grains and other commodities.