The formation and characteristics of Hakka culture in western Fujian

Hakka is an important and special ethnic group of Han nationality, which is now distributed in southern provinces of China and even around the world and rooted in the Central Plains. Now it is estimated that there are about 65.438+0.2 billion Hakkas at home and abroad, and one third of the Chinese in Hong Kong are Hakkas. One fifth to one quarter of the people in Taiwan Province Province are Hakkas. On the mainland, in addition to Fujian, Jiangxi and Guangdong provinces, there are also a considerable number of Hakkas in Hunan, Guangxi and Sichuan provinces. There are many Hakkas overseas, in Southeast Asian countries, Australia, the United States and Canada.

According to the relevant results of Hakka studies and Hakka genealogy, before the Middle Ages, the main residences of Hakka ancestors were in the south of the Yellow River basin, north of the Yangtze River basin, west of the Huaihe River basin and east of the Hanshui River basin, that is, today's Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi and Shaanxi areas. Because of war and famine, they migrated south from this vast area once called the Central Plains, until today's Hakka distribution.

Although the migration of Hakka ancestors to the south began before the Jin Dynasty, there were not many people at that time. They really moved out of the Central Plains on a large scale and evolved into a unique Hakka ethnic group after the Jin Dynasty. During this period, although there were countless sporadic immigrants, there were about five immigration waves. The first time in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the second time in the late Tang Dynasty, the third time in Du Nan, Song Gaozong, the fourth time in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasty, and the fifth time in the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty. These five great migrations were all caused by the unbearable wars of the Central Plains people.

Western Fujian is the birthplace of Hakka culture in China. According to countless precious historical materials and genealogical data, almost every place and surname respects the ancestors who moved to western Fujian as the ancestors of the south, and takes western Fujian as the end point for Hakka ancestors to bid farewell to the Central Plains and become the starting point for Hakka people. Western Fujian is a typical relatively remote mountainous area in history. According to archaeological excavations and historical records, before the influx of Hakka ancestors, western Fujian was a region with deep trees, miasma and wild animals. The natural environment is very bad, and only a few She and Yao people live in it. Because of this, there have been wars in the Central Plains in history. Even in the late Tang Dynasty, Huang Chao's army swept across the Central Plains to the east of South China, and western Fujian was still a paradise and relatively peaceful. Therefore, it became an ideal and realistic place for Central Plains immigrants to escape from the war and rebuild their homes until the formation of Hakka clans. Every time Hakka ancestors moved south from the Central Plains, many people went straight from the Central Plains to western Fujian.

With Hakka immigrants moving out of the Central Plains for five times, the Central Plains culture reached a highly mature and brilliant stage after the heyday of Han and Tang Dynasties. The splendid culture of the Central Plains and the gathering of outstanding talents in the Central Plains have survived and developed in the relatively closed space where Hakka ancestors lived in western Fujian, southern Jiangxi and western Guangdong. The performance of its cultural activities determines that its culture not only absorbs local culture for a long time because it adapts to and transforms the new environment, but also objectively promotes the persistence and inheritance of the cultural tradition of the Central Plains. Therefore, despite thousands of years' history, Hakka's diet, language, folk customs and architecture can be seen everywhere in the Central Plains.