How many people are there in the modern Han ethnic group?

The Han nationality is based on the pre-Qin Huaxia nationality and formed a unified nation during the Qin and Han dynasties. By 1840, it had experienced a development process of more than two thousand years under the feudal autocratic monarchy system; after 1840 By 1949, it achieved new development in the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle; after the founding of New China in 1949, it gradually developed into a socialist nation together with the people of all ethnic groups in China.

In 221 BC, Qin Shihuang annexed the six countries. In the "Great Unification", the Chinese nation also moved from dispersion to unity. After the establishment of the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shihuang took a series of measures to unify and stabilize China by implementing the system of prefectures and counties, stipulating that "books have the same writing", unifying currency, weights and measures, "cars on the same track", "traveling on the same track", and building the Great Wall. nationality. For the first time in Chinese history, a unified authoritarian centralized feudal state was established. Under the condition of national unification, the Han people formed a unified nation.

After the unification of Qin, the clan name of Huaxia was still used. However, the people who originally belonged to the six countries in Shandong (east of Mount Wei) have become the "heads of Guizhou" in the Qin Dynasty. Although the Qin Dynasty was short-lived, the ethnic groups in the Western Regions (including present-day Xinjiang) and the Xiongnu still called the Central Plains people Qin people until the Han Dynasty. The Han Dynasty lasted for more than 400 years from the Western Han Dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty, which provided the historical conditions for the name of the Han Dynasty and the name of the Chinese nation.

In addition, the Han Dynasty was so powerful that in foreign exchanges, other ethnic groups called the Han Dynasty’s troops “Han soldiers,” the Han Dynasty’s envoys “Han envoys,” and the Han Dynasty’s people “Han people.” Therefore, when the Han Dynasty conquered the Western Regions, conquered the Xiongnu, pacified the Western Qiang, conquered Korea, conquered the southwestern barbarians, conquered Fujian, Guangdong and southern Guangdong, and had unprecedentedly frequent exchanges with surrounding ethnic minorities, the name of the Han Dynasty was called by other ethnic groups. It is the name of the Chinese nation. Lu Simian said: "The name of the Han people came from after Liu Bang became emperor."?

After the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Central Plains was in chaos. The centralized feudal country was torn apart. Feudal separatism was everywhere, and there were disputes and wars everywhere. During the great division, great melee, and great turmoil, various ethnic groups or tribes moved around. The Xiongnu, Xianbei, Wuwan, Di, and Qiang from the north entered the Central Plains one after another. This was known as the "Five Husties Chaos in China" in history. Some barbarians from the Jianghan area also flocked to the Central Plains. Enter the Central Plains.

In the Central Plains, a situation was formed in which the Han people intermingled with the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Wuwan, Di, Qiang and barbarian peoples; while the Han people in the north moved south in large numbers; it was known in history as the "Southern Crossing of Clothes", and in the Yangtze River and The Pearl River Basin has formed a situation where Han people and southern ethnic minorities or tribes such as Man, Li and Liao live intertwinedly. But most of them have been assimilated by the Han nationality, lost their national characteristics, and become part of the Han nationality.

Extended information:

Historically, there have been several large-scale migrations of the Han population from the Yellow River basin and the north of the Huaihe River to the south of the Yangtze River and Pearl River basins. When the Qin Dynasty unified the six kingdoms, a large number of powerful clans from Guandong moved into Guanzhong. Similar immigration activities also occurred during the Western Han Dynasty. However, the economic development at that time determined that the counties in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River were the most densely populated areas in the country.

For example, if the Qinling Mountains and the Huaihe River are used as the boundary to divide the counties and counties into northern and southern parts, in the Han Dynasty, the northern part accounted for about 80% of the total household registrations at that time, and the southern part accounted for about 20%. From the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the northern separatist regimes started to fight, and people began to migrate southward. During the "Yongjia Rebellion" at the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, people in the Yellow River Basin migrated south on a large scale to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and the Han River Basin.

After the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the population continued to move southward, causing the population in the Yangtze River Basin to continue to increase, but it did not change the distribution situation of more people in the north than in the south. However, if we compare the total population of the southern counties in the late Sui Dynasty and the Western Jin Dynasty, the population in the Yangtze River Basin and Lingnan has more than doubled.

In the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties period, the northern population once again showed a trend of migrating southward. By the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, Jin soldiers invaded the south, and there was a second climax of population migration southward. The population in the south has increased significantly, mainly in the Sichuan Basin and around large lakes such as Dongting, Poyang, and Taihu Lake, and in the Yangtze River and Pearl River delta areas.

These places have become densely populated areas, with a higher population density than the northern states. In addition to the above two large-scale population migrations southward, there have been several other large-scale population migrations southward. The southern economy has developed rapidly since the Eastern Jin Dynasty. By the Song Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, China's economic center of gravity had moved southward. Not only was the population density in the south higher than that in the north, but the total Han population had also exceeded that in the north by the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

The Han people have experienced thousands of years of interaction and migration with various ethnic groups in China, resulting in the most developed agriculture in the Songliao Plain and the basins of major rivers such as the Yellow River, Huaihe River, Yangtze River, and Pearl River. It is concentrated in regions and cities, and is characterized by the intermingling of various ethnic groups in the border areas and local areas.

In the long-term historical development process, a considerable number of Han people have emigrated overseas. Some of them took root and developed in the country of immigration and became local Chinese, while others retained their Chinese nationality and became overseas Chinese scattered around the world.