The origin of chopsticks lane

Chopsticks Lane looks back fondly on the descendants of immigrants from the two lakes.

News source: Jiangxi Business Daily

Text/Chief reporter Xiong Intern Tu Xiaorong Figure/Business Daily reporter Huang Wei

Chopsticks Lane is hundreds of meters long and 35 meters wide, which is a common alley in Nanchang. However, chopsticks lane is a heavy name for countless descendants of Jiangxi immigrants scattered in Hunan and Hubei. They often look back at this alley in their dreams of remembering their ancestors.

The custom of genealogy refers to the ancestral chopsticks lane.

"I am from Huangpi, Hubei. According to the old man, our whole people moved here from Chopsticks Lane in Nanchang, Jiangxi during Hongwu period of Ming Dynasty. I am convinced of this, because it can be confirmed by genealogy, inscriptions of ancestors in Ming Dynasty, dialects and customs. Is there another place called Chopsticks Lane in Nanchang? Who can tell me the specific location? "

This is a post that the reporter saw on the Internet recently, and there are many similar posts. Chopsticks Lane is a widely circulated place name in Jianghan Plain, Hubei Province. In this vast area, many people firmly believe that Nanchang Chopsticks Lane is their ancestral home.

According to Tian's Genealogy, in the tenth year of Chongzhen in Ming Dynasty, namely 1637, Tian's three brothers Tian, Tian and Tian Xingyi in Chopsticks Lane (now Nanchang) in Jiangxi decided to migrate from Jiangxi to Hubei that spring. Tian Xingyi settled in Liushudian (now Li Ji Village, Yao Ji Town) on the Qinshui River, and became the ancestor of Tian in Huang Bei. Tian Changlin, a famous Chinese-American scientist, is the grandson of Huang Bei Tianjia 18.

In Suizhou in northern Hubei, Dawu and Hong 'an in northeastern Hubei, Yunmeng and Huangpi in Jianghan Plain, once upon a time, rich urban and rural residents used whole pigs, followed by pig heads and pig neck meat, and the poorest also used a piece of tofu, and then put a chopstick with their heads facing southeast Jiangxi, in order to trace back to the chopsticks lane of their ancestral home. Sixty-seven percent of the population of the two lakes are "descendants of Jiangxi"

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Hubei and Hunan were collectively called Huguang Province, which was the main battlefield for the Red Scarf Army, Yuan Army and Zhu Yuanzhang. Therefore, with the escape and mass death of farmers from other provinces, the population here has decreased sharply. After Zhu Yuanzhang unified the Yangtze River basin, Yu Hongwu ordered a large number of Jiangxi immigrants to move nearby. This immigration movement organized by the government was later called "Jiangxi Lake Filling".

According to historical records, The History of Chinese Immigrants written by Ge, a famous immigration research expert, shows that the number of immigrants in Hubei alone reached 6.5438+0.8 million, of which about 6.5438+0.3 million came from Jiangxi. Today, the legend of "Hongwu Kaitan" is still circulating in some places in Hubei, because 50% of the immigrant families from the two lakes moved here during the Hongwu period.

It is estimated that Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangxi from the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River account for about 90% of the total immigrants. Among these 90%, Jiangxi immigrants account for 90%. In other words, 60-70% of the population in the two lakes are descendants of immigrants from Jiangxi. So until now, many rural people in Hunan and Hubei have claimed to be "descendants of Jiangxi" and called Jiangxi people "cousins".

"Living in the home of Chu is mostly due to Zhang Ji."

The immigrants who "filled Jiangxi Huguang" mainly came from Nanchang, Fengcheng, Jiujiang, Dean, Jingdezhen, Leping, Poyang, Yugan, Ji 'an, Taihe and other cities and counties, namely Raozhou, Nanchang, Ji 'an and Jiujiang in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Northern Jiangxi is more than southern Jiangxi. From the basin, the middle and lower reaches of Ganjiang River and the surrounding areas of Poyang Lake were developed earlier, with developed economy and culture and the largest number of immigrants.

There is a local saying in Hunan that "there are more chapters in the home of Chu". Mr. Tan Qixiang, an expert in immigration research in China, said at the beginning of his article "A Study on the Origin of Hunan People" in the early 1930s that most Jiangxi immigrants who immigrated to Hunan belonged to Nanchang. Then he put forward: "Hunan people who live in Xiangyin, Pingjiang, and live in the north, because they are descendants of Nanchang people, have a' Hubei flavor'. Since then, it is conceivable that most people in Hubei Province are also descendants of Nanchang people. "

According to the records of local chronicles and genealogy in zhijiang city, Xiantao and Honghu, some scholars have combed and studied 52 of them, and found that 78% of them were immigrants from Jiangxi, and two-thirds of them moved from Nanchang, which is basically consistent with Mr. Tan Qixiang's estimation.

Chopsticks Lane in Nanchang is the main settlement in ancient times.

It is true that the population of the two lakes originated in Nanchang, Jiangxi, but why are there so many genealogies and legends that the ancestral home of immigrants is only Chopsticks Lane, and there are few other exact place names?

Ling Chong, a young painter in our province who lives in Guangzhou, has done a lot of research on immigrants in Jiangxi history. His analysis is that in authoritative immigration monographs, Chopsticks Lane in Nanchang is listed as one of the top ten immigration distribution centers in ancient China, based on the records of many historical documents. To become a major settlement, we must be more prominent in the number or scale of immigrants. Such a place is naturally easier to be recorded and handed down.

Ling Chong also told reporters that in Jiangxi, the place name Chopsticks Lane is not only in Nanchang, but also in fengcheng city, Poyang, Fenyi, yugan county and Yongxiu counties. Spread out the map of Jiangxi, these chopsticks hutongs are located in the middle and lower reaches of Ganjiang River and the surrounding area of Poyang Lake, which is the most populous area in Jiangxi.

"So in the hearts of countless immigrants, Chopsticks Lane is actually a typical symbol. Represents and refers to the middle and lower reaches of Ganjiang River and the surrounding areas of Poyang Lake with Nanchang as the center. Therefore, we can even give this area another name-Pan Chopsticks Lane area. "

■ Expert interpretation

Chopsticks Lane in Nanchang is a post station for Hakka ancestors to move south.

Miao Jie Jun, a native of dingnan county, Jiangxi Province, is the executive vice president, literary theorist and critic of China Popular Literature Research Association. Because he is a Hakka, he has done a lot of research on Hakka history and culture. He told reporters: "I have been to Nanchang many times and walked in Chopsticks Lane many times. But we didn't know it would have such a long history and profound cultural connotation. I didn't really understand Chopsticks Lane until I studied the process of Hakka's southward migration. "

Miao explained that since the "five wild flowers" in Yongjia period of the Western Jin Dynasty, there have been frequent wars in the Central Plains and the people are in dire straits. In order to survive, Hakkas have to leave their homes again and again and embark on a journey of southward migration full of hardships and frustrations. As a result, there was a situation in which "the mighty men fought in the middle of the country and the scholars went to southern Xinjiang". At that time, a group of Central Plains gentry (mostly intellectuals and petty officials) moved their families to the south. This part of the "Liu Si Rain Man" who went south started from the Henan, Hebei and Yellow River basins and reached the Yangtze River via Rushui and Hanshui. It also goes south along the Yangtze River, distributed in Poyang Lake area, and based on Nanchang Gu Jun area.

"Chopsticks Lane in Nanchang, like Wazi Lane in Fujian and Zhuji Lane in Guangdong, is a post station for Hakka ancestors." Miao said that Chopsticks Lane is the home of Hakkas who go south to Nanchang. After a period of rest, some of them went south along the Yangtze River to the middle of Jiangsu and Anhui. Someone went up the Ganjiang River and reached the junction of Guangdong, Fujian and Jiangxi. Some wanted to go back to the Central Plains, so they went back to the Yangtze River to Dongting Lake. But there was no hope of returning, so we had to go to Guangxi and Sichuan via Hunan. Some arrived in western Fujian, and then set out from there to cross the sea to Taiwan Province Province. "So, although people in those areas of Hubei migrated only in the Ming Dynasty, they should also be descendants of Hakkas."

The overall migration of Hakkas is generally divided into five times, of which Nanchang is only related to the first two times. The first time was in the early Eastern Jin Dynasty, and it moved from the Central Plains to Jianghuai, Anhui and Jiangxi, and remained stable for 500 years. The second time was in the late Tang Dynasty, because of the Huang Chao Uprising. It came to southern Anhui, southeastern Jiangxi, southwestern Fujian and northeastern Guangdong, and remained stable for 300 years. The next step is to move to Guangdong or even overseas. According to this migration process, it can be inferred that the life history of Hakka ancestors in Chopsticks Lane in Nanchang should be hundreds of years.

■ Explanation of lane names

Chopsticks Lane is named after Hakka dialect, which means "quick birth"?

Chopsticks Lane is only a few hundred meters long and three to five meters wide, surrounded by hotels, kindergartens, fast food restaurants and grocery stores ... just like other streets and lanes in Nanchang. Perhaps because of several transformations, the chopsticks lane is not as straight as the chopsticks now. The remaining three or two old houses are very old in the early winter sunshine and have been marked as "dangerous houses". Pushing open a wooden door like a mask, we can see the broken stairs and several carved windows piled up at random. Perhaps it used to be a place where Hakkas have been homesick for generations, but now it rents out migrant workers who come to Nanchang to make a living.

The new resident, surnamed Wan, is a native of Xinjian County. He has lived here for six years and has never heard of Hakka people living here. Another uncle Liu, who has lived in Chopsticks Lane for 32 years, doesn't know that this alley was originally the "site" of Hakkas. Maybe it's too long ago, even the neighborhood Committee of Chopsticks Lane can't tell us clearly about the former residents of Chopsticks Lane. They only know that Chopsticks Lane used to be the house of two big families. Later, when I went abroad, I left my house and became state-owned.

Many people say that Chopsticks Lane is named because it is narrow and long, as straight as chopsticks. Miao Jie Jun told reporters: This is just a name of Chopsticks Lane. "Chopsticks Lane" should be the name of the lane called by the Hakkas for generations. There is another explanation: the Hakkas have a complex of carrying on the family line for generations, and the suffering Hakkas have never expected to have their children and grandchildren and change their fate of escape as soon as possible. Therefore, every time I check in, I hope to "have a baby early", so I named my place of residence "Chopsticks", which means "having a baby soon".

It can be confirmed that the name Chopsticks Lane has indeed been used repeatedly. According to research, there are more than a dozen places called Chopsticks Lane in China, including four in Jiangxi. Besides the Chopsticks Lane in Nanchang City, there are also Chopsticks Lane in fengcheng city, Poyang and Fenyi counties. Many of their ancestors moved back to Guangshan and Gushi in Henan from Chopsticks Lane in Jiangxi. Today, there are still quite a few local residents who want to put a pair of chopsticks on three sacrificial animals to show that their ancestors moved from Chopsticks Lane in Jiangxi.