The basic trends and causes of population distribution changes in China in recent 2000 years

There are such people who are called "Hakkas". They are descendants of people who moved from the Central Plains to the South in history.

There have been three far-reaching population movements in history.

(1) Forced population migration highly related to the war; (2) Moderate spontaneous population migration. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the southern Xiongnu Xianbei and other ethnic groups moved to Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi and Hebei, with a population of more than 500,000. Later, due to the oppression of the Western Jin regime, the Xiongnu nobles rose up and destroyed the Western Jin Dynasty. The Kim family crossed the Central Plains to the south, and the people fled everywhere, forming the first population migration in China history. The "Anshi Rebellion" at the end of the Tang Dynasty led to the fall of the Imperial Capital, followed by the eight-year war, a large number of people migrated, resulting in the second great migration in history. History called it "the difficulty of Jingkang" (the first year of Jingkang 1 126), which led to the third great population transfer in China's history and lasted for one and a half centuries.

I. Political needs

In 22 1 year BC, after the Qin dynasty unified China, Xianyang was established as its capital. In order to control Shanhaiguan Pass, it developed into a veritable national political center, with an estimated total population of over 700,000.

In 2 14 BC, Qin Shihuang sent a general Meng Tian with 300,000 troops to capture a large area of Hetao, build a city and set up a county in Hetao, relocate the mainland people there, develop production and strengthen border defense.

In the same year, the Qin Dynasty sent troops to conquer Baiyue people in the Pearl River Basin. The Qin government established Guilin, Nanhai and Xiang Jun there, sent officials to govern them, and moved 500,000 people from the Central Plains to these areas to live with Baiyue people.

In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Bang continued to emigrate from Guandong to Guanzhong on a large scale, with a total of not less than 300,000 people. In the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, with the victory of the Xiongnu War, Emperor Wudi organized a large-scale immigration to the northwest frontier, with a total of more than 700,000 people. In addition, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent people to southwest minority areas to establish counties in Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and other places to strengthen the ties between the mainland and the southwest.

In order to accept the advanced culture of the Han nationality and strengthen the control of the Yellow River valley, Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei moved his capital to Luoyang in 494, thus moving a large number of people from western Inner Mongolia and northwestern Shanxi to Henan.

Since16th century, some European colonists have come to the southeast coastal areas of China to carry out aggressive activities. 1553 Portuguese colonists seized the right of abode in China, Guangdong and Macao. After 1557, they privately expanded their land in Macao, built forts and set up government offices, and began to occupy Macao for a long time. During the Opium War, Britain forced the Qing government to occupy Hong Kong, so a large number of foreigners moved to China to live.

In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, Turks in western Mongolia moved westward to the lower reaches of the Volga River. Unbearable of Russian control and oppression, they launched an armed uprising in 177 1 year under the leadership of the leader Wabashi, and finally returned to the northwest of the motherland after a long journey.

Second, the war fled

In the late Eastern Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, in order to escape the war, a large number of northern residents moved to Jiangnan, bringing advanced farming techniques. Shan Yue, a minority of Wu State, developed the area south of the Yangtze River with the Han nationality.

At the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, many northerners moved to the south to avoid the scourge of war. In 3 17, the bureaucrats, nobles and big landlords who fled to the south of the Yangtze River jointly established the Eastern Jin Dynasty. This process of population migration continued until the Southern Dynasties. Farmers from the north moved to the south, which increased the labor force and brought relatively advanced production tools and technologies to the south. Together with the working people in the south, they developed the Jiangnan area.

During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, Xu Xiang Zhongyuan people migrated to the south of the Yangtze River, which increased the labor force there and promoted the economic development in the south.

At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, due to the war, a large number of northern residents fled to the south to avoid disasters, which further promoted the economic development of the south.

Before the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), many people fled their homes to escape the war because of the warlord scuffle, Japanese aggression and the oppression of the United States and Chiang Kai-shek. Habitual population migration characteristics such as "eastward" (Hebei and Shandong migrated to the northeast), "westward" (Shanxi migrated to Inner Mongolia, Gansu migrated to Xinjiang) and "Xiajiangnan" (Sichuan migrated to Guizhou and Yunnan) appeared. During the 50 years from the beginning of19th century to the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), there were about 30 million people who moved from Guannei to Northeast China.

Third, the economy makes a living

In the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu was divided into two parts. The southern Xiongnu moved to Hetao and Shaanxi and northern Shanxi, where they lived together with the Han nationality and merged with each other, which promoted economic development.

During the Western Jin Dynasty, the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Mangan, Bian and Qiang nationalities lived in the western and northern border areas. They used to be nomadic people in vast areas of northern and western China. Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, they have moved in one after another. By the early years of the Western Jin Dynasty, there were hundreds of thousands of people from Xiongnu, Xianbei and Jack, and more than 500,000 people from Di and Qiang. They live in the vast areas of Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei and Liaoning to the south of the Great Wall.

Since the Tang Dynasty, many Persians and Arabs who believe in Islam have settled in some areas of our country. In the Yuan Dynasty, they moved to China in large numbers. They lived together with the Han, Mongolian, Uygur and other nationalities for a long time, intermarried with each other and gradually merged, and began to form a new nationality-Hui.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the influence of the Qidan nationality (originally living in the upper reaches of Liaohe River) continued to expand, and many people from the Central Plains came to the territory of Qidan, bringing advanced production technology. The Khitan nationality flourished rapidly and later established the Liao State.

After the reunification of the Yuan Dynasty, many Han people came to the border areas and contributed to the development there. All ethnic groups in the border areas, including Mongolians, moved to the Central Plains and Jiangnan in large numbers and lived together with the Han nationality.

Since the Tang Dynasty, many people in China have made a living in Nanyang (Southeast Asia). After Zheng He's voyage to the West, more and more China people went to Nanyang. They brought advanced production technology and cultural knowledge and actively participated in the development and construction of Nanyang. The hard work of overseas Chinese promoted the economic and cultural development of Nanyang.

After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), China's population migration can be divided into two ways: spontaneous migration and organized migration, and gradually formed four main migration places: the lower reaches of the Yellow River, the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Sichuan Province and Hunan Province. In recent years, the population of Heilongjiang Province has moved to the largest province from the past hundred years. Qinghai, Tibet, Xinjiang and other western provinces that have moved in in large numbers have also become emigrating provinces. In recent years, craftsmen and individual traders in southeast provinces such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang have mainly migrated to the west. Since the reform and opening up, the rural population has moved to cities and towns, and the tide of working and doing business has become the main trend of population migration in China.