Why are people from Jiangxi called Laobiao?

There are two theories about the origin of "Jiangxi Laobiao": one is that Hunan people believe that their ancestors and Jiangxi people are cousins, so they call Jiangxi people "Jiangxi Laobiao"; the other is that people from Gan area The ancestors believed in Feng Shui and often carried a watch (compass) to help them grasp the direction during migration, so people in Jiangxi were called "Laobiao".

In addition, some immigrants from Jiangxi to other provinces from the Ming and Qing Dynasties to modern times also maintained the title of "Laobiao", such as Hunan, northern Fujian, southwestern Anhui and other places. Extended information

The origin of Jiangxi Laobiao:

1. The title among Hakka people.

It originated from the Hakka area in southern Jiangxi. The Cantonese people who moved from eastern Guangdong called the locals "Lao Biao" (because people in both places are Hakka). Later, it spread to the whole of Jiangxi and became "Lao Biao". Another name.

2. After Zhu Yuanzhang was saved, he was called his old cousin.

It is said that Zhu Yuanzhang was rescued from an accident in Jiangxi when he was not emperor. In order to repay the kindness of the people of Jiangxi at that time, he promised that if he conquered the world, the people of Jiangxi could come to him directly in the name of his old cousin if anything happened.

3. Religious totem belief.

It can be traced back to the totem era. "Biao" often refers to wood in the old days, such as "Xuan Gong Twelve Years": "Tomorrow, to express it, all will be found under the wood again." Du's note: "Biao refers to the wood."

The excavation of the Wucheng site in Qingjiang revealed that the Shang Dynasty red clay altar was "distributed with hundreds of pillar holes of different sizes, mostly arranged in rows or staggered." This is obviously the original worship of the Dongyi ethnic group in the Jianghuai River Basin and the Jiangnan extension area. Fetishism Totem Pole Beliefs.

There were written records of "Lao Biao" from the mid-Shang Dynasty to the end of the Warring States Period. So there is a saying that "Laobiao" is originally a folk saying for totem poles, and it is the memory residue of the totem image among Jiangxi ethnic groups.

4. Women become relatives to each other after marrying outside.

There were many villages in Jiangxi named after their surnames, such as "Wangjiacun, Lijiacun, Zhangjiabao, etc." Most of the men in the village belonged to one clan with the same surname, and there were ancestral halls for kinships built in the villages. It is a custom for women not to marry far away, which leads to more distant cousins ??in neighboring villages. Outsiders jokingly call them "Jiangxi old cousins".