The changes of the Minyue people

The earliest name of Fujian was "Min", and its indigenous residents were historically called Min people. The ancient Seven Min tribes and the Chu State were both southern peoples known as "barbarians". Qi Min is distributed over a wide area, including all of today's Fujian, the Chaomei area in eastern Guangdong, and the three prefectures of Jiuwen, Taiwan, and Chu in Zhejiang. The ancient Fujian people worshiped snakes as their ancestors. This folk custom is still preserved in some places today.

In the thirty-fifth year of the Zhou Jin Dynasty (334 BC), the seventh descendant of the Yue King Gou Jian, Wujiang, fought against the Chu Wei King, but failed and was killed, and the country fell to Chu. The Yue royal family then sailed to Fujian, and the Yue people moved to Yueqian Mountain (now Changle County, Fujian). The physical characteristics and living habits of the Yue people are very different from those of the Chinese people in the Central Plains. The Yue people have short bodies, short faces, few beards and hair, broad noses, and round eyes. They are accustomed to living near water, like water fighting, and are good at driving boats. There is also the custom of "breaking hair tattoos". However, Gou Jian claimed to be a descendant of Xia Yu, and he actually had the same national consciousness as the Qi, Lu, Jin and Wei in the north. The people of Yue are good at smelting. Yeshan and Jianchi in the north of Fuzhou City are where Ou Yezi forged swords.

After the Yue people entered Fujian, they merged with the seven Fujian natives and spread the Wuyue and Central Plains culture in Fujian, thus forming the Minyue people.

Wujiang passed on to Wuzhu seven times, proclaimed himself the king of Minyue, and became the leader of the Minyue tribe. Together with King Yao of Yuedong Hai at that time, he was a descendant of King Goujian of Yue. After Qin Shihuang occupied Fujian, he abolished the royal title of Wu Zhu and Yao and demoted him to the rank of emperor, but he still stayed in central Fujian. Qin did not send a captain to rule Fujian like it did to South Vietnam. Qin Shihuang established Minzhong County in Fujian, but it was only in name and did not implement rule. Minzhong County is the earliest organizational system in Fujian, and its jurisdiction is basically the same as Qi Min (in fact, it also includes today's Qianshan County in Jiangxi Province).

In order to strengthen its control over central Fujian, the Qin Dynasty moved a large number of Minyue people to what is now northern Zhejiang, Anhui, and Jiangxi; on the other hand, it also exiled criminals from the Central Plains to central Fujian. Come. This policy objectively created conditions for the mutual integration of various ethnic groups and the sinicization of the Minyue people.

A peasant uprising broke out at the end of the Qin Dynasty. Wu Zhu led his troops from central Fujian to the north. The Minyue army trekked through Guanshan and penetrated deep into the Central Plains. They participated in the peasant uprising in Zhongzhou and the Chu-Han War for eight years. As a tool for spreading the culture of the Central Plains, Chinese had a great influence on the Minyue language at that time. In 202 BC, Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty granted him the title of King of Minyue due to his lack of merit.

After the Minyue Kingdom was re-established, the country became increasingly powerful, expanded its territory many times, and became a powerful enemy of the Han Dynasty. In the first year of Yuanfeng, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (110 BC), Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Zhu Maichen to lead a large army, and the troops were divided into four groups to attack Minyue. Wu Zhu's successor, King Yu Shan of East Yue, built a city in central Min to resist the Han army. Yu Shan was defeated, and Min Yue was defeated. There was a mutiny within Yue and Yu Shan was killed. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty moved the Minyue aristocratic bureaucracy, the army, and some of the Minyue people to live in the Jianghuai area. This ended the 92-year rule of the Minyue Kingdom.

In 111 BC, the Han Dynasty established Jieyang County, which governed the entire Chaoshan, Xingmei and some places in southern Fujian and southern Jiangxi. In 85 BC, the Han court established Ye County in Fuzhou, which belonged to Kuaiji County. This was the first in Fujian history. The first county. When Ye County was established, the household registration was less than 10,000. It was mainly concentrated in the mountainous areas of eastern Fujian and northern Fujian. The residents were mainly Fujian and Yue survivors, as well as a small number of Wu (Han) people who went south.

Due to the migration of Fujian and Vietnam to the north, people in Quanzhou were left empty. However, the descendants of the Qin people who could not return due to the fall of Qin and the rise of Han began to build their own homes in Quanzhou that were free from outside interference. By the Western Jin Dynasty. Around 280 AD, the Central Plains were in chaos and the Five Husties were in chaos. The Jin people continued to migrate southward. They came to the banks of the Jinjiang and Luoyang rivers to recuperate and became the largest group of Heluo immigrants in the Central Plains. The indigenous people in Chaoshan and Xingmei areas were not relocated. Rebellions still occurred from time to time, affecting Zhangzhou, but their numbers were few. Even in the early Tang Dynasty, the total population in Zhangzhou was only about 3,000, while the population of Qingyuan County (today's Quanzhou) had reached 160,000. The Han people who came to Quanzhou spoke the Quanzhou dialect. key to its formation.

From the establishment of Ye County in the Western Han Dynasty to the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty when He Qi entered Fujian (AD 196), it lasted for more than 300 years. Central Fujian has been peaceful for a long time, with few wars and disputes with the outside world. This not only makes people living in Quanzhou The Heluo people developed relatively independently, which also prompted many Han people from the Central Plains and Jiangdong to enter eastern and northern Fujian and mingle with the Minyue people who had fled the mountains and came back. According to statistics from Zhu Weibo's "Manuscript of the History of Fujian", the number of households in Fujian had grown to about 100,000 by the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.