Our ancestors all came from Jiangxi, so was Hunan uninhabited before?

Many people think that Hunan is a big immigrant province, because Hunan used to be the main battlefield of many wars in history, with a serious population loss. In order to fill the population of Hunan, the imperial court often adopted the policy of encouraging people from other provinces to move to Hunan. Among them, Jiangxi people migrated to Hunan the most, which is why the ancestors of Hunan people all came from Jiangxi. This statement only shows that Jiangxi people moved to Hunan in large numbers, not that Hunan was a barren land before. Most of the early aborigines in Hunan were ethnic minorities and actively sinicized. In order to get rid of the identity of ethnic minorities, they often use the identity of Jiangxi people as an excuse when compiling genealogy, thus giving people the illusion that the ancestors of Hunan people are all Jiangxi people.

At the end of Yuan Dynasty, Hunan became the main battlefield with heavy population losses. At the end of Yuan Dynasty, Hunan became the main battlefield of peasant uprising army and Yuan army headed by Zhu Yuanzhang, and a large number of Hunan people died. After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, in order to redevelop Hunan, the policy of encouraging Jiangxi people to move to Hunan was adopted. As a result, the number of Jiangxi immigrants to Hunan has soared, and Jiangxi people have become the main part of the Han nationality in Hunan.

Hunan's indigenous minorities became Han nationality under the guise of Jiangxi identity spectrum. After several wars in Hunan, a large number of people died and some fled, but many aborigines still live in Hunan. Most of these aborigines are ethnic minorities and have no habit of compiling their own genealogy. Since the Han people from Jiangxi came to settle in Hunan, the speed of sinicization of ethnic minorities has accelerated. In order to get rid of the identity of ethnic minorities, they adopted the method of recognizing Jiangxi people and became Han Chinese.

In view of the above two reasons, there is a saying in Hunan that the ancestors are all from Jiangxi, but in fact quite half of them are descendants of Hunan aborigines. Of course, it doesn't matter whether our ancestors are native to Hunan. The important thing is that we are from Hunan now, and we should contribute to the construction of Hunan.