How many countries are the Hakka people distributed in the world?

According to statistics, the Hakka people living in mainland China are mainly distributed in Hainan, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Fujian, Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and other regions, with a total population of 5,000. More than 10,000 people account for 5% of the Han population. Abroad, Hakkas are mainly distributed in more than 80 countries including Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore in Southeast Asia, Japan and North Korea in East Asia, the United States, Canada, and Brazil in the Americas, and the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, and Austria in Europe. countries and regions, with 10 million people.

Hakka

Hakka, also known as Heluolang. The Hakka people are a Han ethnic group with distinctive characteristics. They are also one of the Han ethnic groups with the widest distribution range and the most far-reaching influence in the world.

History of the Hakka people

The ancestors of the Hakka people originated from the Central Plains and migrated from the Central Plains to the south. They are a branch of the Han nationality in southern China. Because he was in a foreign land, he was nostalgic for his hometown Heluo (the Luo River Basin with Luoyang as the center) and called himself "Heluo Lang". On the one hand, Hakka culture retains the mainstream characteristics of Central Plains culture, and on the other hand, it accommodates the cultural essence of the local ethnic groups. Hakka people often use those talented men as role models to inspire and educate their children and grandchildren, and learn from their meritorious and successful predecessors. Some people say: Wherever there is the sun, there are Chinese people, and wherever there are Chinese people, there are Hakkas. Others say: Wherever there is sunshine, there are Hakkas; wherever there is a piece of land, Hakkas will gather together, work hard, and reproduce. Because Hakkas travel all over the world, immigrate to the world, and have many successful people in overseas business circles, they are called "Oriental Jews".

The first southward migration was during the era of Qin Shihuang. After Qin Shihuang unified China in 221 BC, he sent 600,000 troops to "conquer Baiyue in the south" for political and military needs. The Qin army moving south entered Jieling (i.e. Jieyang Mountain, 150 miles north of today's Jieyang County) from the border of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi, and reached the border of Xingning and Haifeng counties. In 214 BC, Qin Shihuang sent another 500,000 soldiers to "garrison the Five Ridges in the south" (today's Guangdong and Guangxi regions). These soldiers "garrisoned the five mountains and crossed the mountains" for a long time. After the fall of Qin, the two groups of Qin soldiers who went south stayed in the area and became the first batch of Hakkas.

The second migration to the south was during the "Five Husties" period in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. At that time, some Central Plains residents moved to the Fujian-Guangdong-Jiangxi border area in order to seek refuge. Later, due to the confrontation between the north and the south, about 960,000 people from the Central Plains moved south to both sides of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Some of the population flowed into southern Jiangxi, and some entered the Fujian and Guangdong regions via Ningdu and Shicheng.

The third move southward was during the Huangchao Uprising in the late Tang Dynasty. First, the Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty brought huge disasters to the people and forced a large number of Han people from the Central Plains to flee south. During the Huangchao uprising at the end of the Tang Dynasty, a large number of Han people from the Central Plains fled into the Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi regions. For example, the clan member Li Meng moved from Chang'an to Bianliang, and then to Gubi Township, Ninghua, Fujian. Wang Xu and Wang Chao from Gushi responded to the Huangchao Uprising and led five thousand peasant uprising troops from Guangzhou and Shou Prefectures to Jiangxi, causing the population in the Fujian-Jiangxi border area to increase.

The fourth southward migration was the Southern Song Dynasty and the late Song Dynasty. The Jin people invaded and built the Yannan Crossing, and some officials and people migrated to the Taihu Lake Basin. Another part of the scholars either crossed the Dageng Mountains southward and entered Nanxiong, Shixing, and Shaozhou; or they traveled along Hong, Ji, and Qianzhou, and then from Qianzhou to Tingzhou; or they stayed in counties in southern Jiangxi. At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Yuan army moved south in a large scale, and a large number of Song people from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Jiangxi fled from Putian to Chaoshan along the coast of Guangdong to Hainan Island.

The fifth southward migration was in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. At that time, the Hakka people living in southern Jiangxi, eastern Guangdong, and northern Guangdong migrated to Sichuan, Hunan, Guangxi, and Taiwan, as well as central and western Guangdong, due to the population proliferation and the lack of land. This large-scale migration is called the "Westward Movement" in the history of Hakka immigration. The Hakkas in Sichuan basically originated from this "Westward Expansion Movement". At that time, Sichuan's population dropped sharply due to war, plague and natural disasters. The Qing government particularly encouraged immigrants to "fill Sichuan from Huguang".

The sixth southward migration was during the Taiping Rebellion in the mid-19th century. At that time, some Hakkas migrated to South Asia to avoid the war, and some were lured into indentured labor and taken to Malaysia, the United States, Panama, Brazil and other places.

In addition to the above six large-scale southward migrations, there were also Han Chinese in the Central Plains who fled southward due to droughts and floods, and there were also those who were officials, demoted, businessmen, and students of the past dynasties and settled in the border areas of Fujian, Guangdong, and Jiangxi. Not all Han people who migrated south became Hakkas. Among them, only those from the Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi ancestry and those originating from this ancestry were called Hakkas.

According to statistics, the Hakka people living in mainland China are mainly distributed in Hainan, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Fujian, Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and other regions, with a total population of 5,000. More than 10,000 people account for 5% of the Han population. Abroad, Hakkas are mainly distributed in more than 80 countries including Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore in Southeast Asia, Japan and North Korea in East Asia, the United States, Canada, and Brazil in the Americas, and the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, and Austria in Europe. countries and regions, with 10 million people.

The ancestors of the Hakka originally lived in the north, but later moved to the south of the Yangtze River, living in the provinces of Jiangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, Hunan, Taiwan and Qiong, and gradually dispersed abroad and spread all over the world. Gannan was the first stop for the Hakka ancestors to migrate south, and it is also one of the areas with the largest number of Hakka residents. The origin of the name "Hakka" is related to the migration of the Hakka ancestors. To the place where they live, these people are "guests" who have moved from elsewhere. It can be said that without migration, there would be no such thing as "Hakka".

There are many reasons why Hakka people migrate. In the early days, it was mainly due to the coercion of disasters. Such as cruel wars, floods, droughts, insects and other special natural disasters and epidemics of plague. Almost every large-scale war in Chinese history resulted in a great migration of Hakka people. According to historical records, there was a great migration of Hakka ancestors during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Just imagine, in the long years, the "Five Hus and Sixteen Kingdoms" have been in constant war and mourning is everywhere. Can you survive if you don't escape? It is said that our ancestors of the Chen family left their homeland in western Henan during that period, traveled to Jiangxi, and finally settled in Gan County. "The moon is the brightness of my hometown." At first, the ancestors may only want to stay here temporarily for a while, but they gradually got used to it. So they built houses, cultivated fields, raised pigs and cattle, and lived there for a long time. From a temporary guest to a permanent home. Just like that, we will be "Hakka" forever!

It is worth mentioning that there is a special way of migration. It is said that in order to build the Afang Palace, Qin Shihuang drove tens of thousands of "wooden guests" to the south of Jiangxi to cut wood for the rejuvenation of the country. Those who did not die from exhaustion later stayed there. These were probably the earliest ancestors of the Hakkas in southern Jiangxi.

The process of migration is definitely difficult and dangerous. Support the old and the young, travel across mountains and rivers, and settle down to live in a strange place. The ancestors of the Hakka people overcame obstacles and obstacles, "making roads in the mountains and building bridges in the water." They finally survived and formed a prosperous ethnic group with tens of millions of people today.

The last step of migration is to build a house and settle down. An elderly guest said: "The most important thing about settling down is the location of the house. How to decide? It depends on Feng Shui. This Feng Shui is not the superstitious Feng Shui that Mr. Geography talks about. The main thing is to get sunlight, look at the wind direction, and be close to water sources. , close to the hard mountain, choose a high ground. It is an ideal choice to sit in the north, facing the south, facing the sun, close to the water, and with a wide view."

People often praise the Hakka people for their diligence, bravery, perseverance and resourcefulness. . As an ethnic group, the Hakkas have naturally experienced social reality and production reality in a more diverse and deeper way than other groups due to their ancestors’ long-distance migrations for several generations. Therefore, they must have been tempered and nourished more, and accumulated more Gain more experience in dealing with relationships with the natural world and social interpersonal relationships. Therefore, a large number of politicians, scientists, writers, and entrepreneurs have appeared in the Hakka community...

There are many theories about the origin of the Hakkas, the main ones are the Hakka original theory and the Hakka indigenous theory. The Hakka original theory believes that the main body of the Hakkas are immigrants from the Central Plains, while the Hakka indigenous theory believes that "the Hakka homogeneous body is the homogeneous body produced by the mixing of the Han people who migrated to the south and the ancient Yue immigrants in the Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi triangle areas. The main body is the Guyue people living on this land, not the few Central Plains people living in this area."

Starting from the Song Dynasty, Han people from the Central Plains migrated southward on a large scale, passing through southern Jiangxi and western Fujian to Meizhou, eventually forming a relatively mature and highly stable Hakka ethnic group. Since then, the Hakka people have used Meizhou as their base and moved to other parts of the country and even the world in large numbers. The "Three Hakka Prefectures" are Jiaying Prefecture, Ganzhou, and Tingzhou.

Speaking of Hakka, the most famous thing is their earth buildings. If you search for Hakka on the Internet, many entries about earth buildings will appear at the same time. If you are a philately enthusiast, you should have noticed that one of the Fujian houses in the Chinese residential stamps is a Hakka earth building. Since most of the Hakka people lived in remote mountainous areas or deep forests, they were not only lacking in building materials, but also noisy with wolves, tigers, leopards, and thieves. In addition, they were afraid of being harassed by local people. Therefore, the Hakka people built "defensive" castles like earth buildings. style residential building. In Fujian, there are two types of earth buildings: square earth buildings and round earth buildings, while round earth buildings are relatively rare.

I guess everyone still remembers a joke about Tulou: It is said that in the 1960s and 1970s, American spy satellites conducted photo reconnaissance on China and were surprised to find that there were many earth buildings scattered in the mountainous areas of Fujian Province, my country. Many unknown large-scale buildings, either round or square, are considered to be "missile launch bases" after analysis. China's military strength cannot be underestimated. It was not until China and the United States established diplomatic relations that Americans learned that those so-called "missile launch bases" were actually earth buildings, typical Hakka dwellings.

Of course, Hakka tofu is also very famous: Hakka Yong Tofu, Sichuan Mapo Tofu, and Hunan Stinky Tofu. The latter two can only be regarded as side dishes and snacks. Only the Hakka people have elevated tofu to a main dish or main dish. vegetable. Even their wedding songs include tofu. For example, one song goes like this:

I bought a new grinding stone,

I bought it to grind soy milk,

Grinding tofu in the middle of the night, grinding it until dawn.

1: Hakka origin

Hakka is a huge ethnic group of Han Chinese, with a long history and a large number of people. According to the data, the total number of Hakka people is now 55 million, including about 45 million in China. Among overseas Hakkas, most live in some countries in Asia, including about 1.25 million in Malaysia, about 4 million in Indonesia, about 500,000 in Thailand, about 300,000 in Vietnam, 200,000 in Singapore, and Myanmar. 100,000...Others are distributed in America, Europe, Australia and other places.

The Hakka ancestors came from the Central Plains. They were people who migrated directly from the Central Plains on a large scale due to wars in the past dynasties, or who moved in through time, or who settled there because of officialdom, relegation, or business. The migration of their ancestors occurred in the following periods:

(1) The Qin and Han Dynasties unified China, and immigrants from the Central Plains began to move south.

1. In the twenty-fifth year of the First Emperor of Qin (222 BC), the Qin army destroyed 600,000 Chu "the king of Baiyue in the southern expedition". The Qin army gathered in Yuganzhishui, and in 221 BC After the Minzhong County was established in 1988, he divided his troops and went south, from the border of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi to reach Jieling, that is, Jieyang Mountain. It is 150 miles north of present-day Jieyang County and reaches the border of Xingning and Haifeng counties.

2. In the thirty-third year of the First Emperor of Qin, 500,000 people guarded the Five Ridges, that is, Zhao Tuo "generated troops to garrison the crossing." Judging from this, there are two Qin armies garrisoning on the border between Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi, one garrisoning the border of Nanye and the other garrisoning Jieling.

3. In the thirty-fourth year of the First Emperor of Qin, Zhao Tuo built a city two miles across the river to control the Wu River, and built a city of ten thousand people on Zhongsu Mountain. Zhao Tuo built a city in Longchuan again. The number of these city builders is unknown, but during the same period, those who moved to the northern border counties to build cities could be estimated to be as few as 30,000 households and as many as 50,000 households.

4. In the thirty-sixth year of the First Emperor of Qin, it is estimated that the Qin garrison immigrants stationed in the borders of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi accounted for more than one-third of the local population.

5. In the fifth year of Yuanding (115 BC), Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, a large number of soldiers from the Central Plains went south to garrison Lingnan and were stationed in counties, counties and military strategic points.

6. In the first year of the Han Yuan Dynasty (110 BC), the Minyue people in central Fujian and Jieyang (Chao and Meigu were the Minyue areas) all moved away, leaving only the Qin people in the area. Descendants of immigrants from Zhong County. This shows that from then on, the residents of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi border areas were mainly immigrants from the Central Plains.

(2) From Jian'an in the late Han Dynasty to Yongjia in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the people of the Central Plains took refuge, and some people moved into the Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi border areas.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, people from the Central Plains took refuge in Jiaozhou, which set off a climax. The southward migration mainly came by sea.

During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, when the north and the south were in conflict, the Central Plains people once again migrated south on a large scale, with a population of about 960,000. Most of them settled on both sides of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Some of them entered Jiangxi and southern Jiangxi, and some entered through Ningdu and Shicheng. Fujian and Guangdong border counties.

On the occasion of Yongjia, many gentry from the Central Plains flowed into Fujian.

(3) The Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty brought huge disasters to the people, and a large number of people in the Central Plains fled south.

(4) During the Huangchao Uprising in the late Tang Dynasty, a large number of Central Plains people fled into Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi. For example, the clan member Li Meng moved from Chang'an to Bianliang, and then to Gubi Township, Ninghua, Fujian. Wang Xu and Wang Chao from Gushi responded to Huangchao's uprising and led 5,000 peasant uprising troops from Guang and Shou prefectures to Jiangxi. From the end of the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, the population of Fujian and Jiangxi border areas increased sharply.

(5) During the Southern Song Dynasty and at the end of the Song Dynasty, a large number of people from the Central Plains fled to central Guangdong and the border areas of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi.

After Jianyan crossed to the south, some officials and people moved to Hangzhou, Xiu, Su, Chang, and Hu, that is, the Taihu Basin. The other part, and most of it, followed Long Huangtai through Hong, Ji, and Qianzhou, and Huangtai returned to Lin'an. These scholars did not have the conditions to follow the Queen Mother, and they were unable to return north, so some of them crossed the Dageng Mountains southward and entered Nanxiong, Shixing, and Shaozhou. Part of it went from Qianzhou to Tingzhou. Some were stranded in counties in southern Jiangxi.

At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Yuan army marched southward in large numbers. A large number of Song people in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Jiangxi fled from Putian to Chaoshan along the coast of Guangdong to Hainan Island.

(6) In addition to the large-scale southward migration due to wars mentioned above, people from the Central Plains fled south due to droughts and floods. There are also people who have been officials, demoted, businessmen, and study tours in the past dynasties and settled in the border areas of Fujian, Guangdong, and Jiangxi. .

From the above historical data, the Hakka ancestors mainly came from the Han nationality in the Central Plains. In the process of the formation of the Hakka ethnic system, they continued to absorb southern minority groups such as She, Yao, Dan, and Muke to strengthen the Hakka team.

Two: Hakka etiquette and customs

(1) Traditional wedding customs

Matchmaking In the past, young Hakka men and women, after the age of sixteen, could ask a matchmaker to make a matchmaking introduction. marriage. Usually, the parents of the man's family ask a matchmaker to go to the girl's family to talk. There are also cases where the girl's family asks a matchmaker to visit the boy's family first.

Seeing girls: The male and female families negotiate through the central media. If both parties are interested, they will agree on a time to "see girls."

Writing Geng Tie After both parties agree, they must tell each other their birth dates and horoscopes. After returning home, each of them asked a fortune teller to "calculate their horoscopes". If the eight characters match each other and will not conflict with each other, write out Geng Tie (common name for marriage list) and place them on the incense table. If there are no ominous signs within three days, the marriage will be decided. (If the eight characters do not match, the husband will The female Geng Tie is returned to the female family).

Compiling red slips is also called "red wedding slips" or financial gifts. The man's parents, clan relatives and matchmaker go to the woman's family together and issue the financial gifts that the man wants to give to the woman's family. Some of the red slips also include gifts for the son-in-law, such as hats, silver flowers, clothes, shoes, socks, etc. During the process of opening a red order, both parties will bargain and finally negotiate and finalize. After the red orders are drawn, the men and women also exchange tokens such as rings, handkerchiefs, etc. Finally, the man came back after lunch at the woman’s house.

Engagement is also called "Dazha", which means the marriage is officially confirmed again. The young man and his parents will go to the girl's house and bring pig heads, fish, meat, etc. The girl's parents, brothers-in-law, uncles, grandparents, etc. will all be present. After lunch, the girls will come out to meet each other and call the boy's parents parents, and the parents of the two families will call each other their in-laws and in-laws' mother.

The house-sitting party means that the woman goes to the man’s house to see the family. Some of the time is before the "big wedding", and sometimes after the "big wedding". In addition to the girl and her parents, the people the woman goes to visit are: Aunts-in-law, sisters, etc. were all going, and there were more than a dozen people, big and small. They didn’t bring any gifts, even if they brought some, the groom’s family didn’t dare to accept them.

After the wedding is decided, the man will ask a fortune teller to choose a date for the wedding, including the date and time when the bride will go out, the time when she will return to the groom's house, and the time when the woman will cut a red dress and the man will make the bed. The day must also be chosen at the same time.

Sending vegetables and carrying dowry One or two days before the bride comes to the house, the groom’s family will ask relatives to deliver the betrothal gifts specified in the red list, fish, meat, poultry, noodles and other items to the bride by more than ten people. When you return home, you will take your dowry, furniture, etc. back to your husband’s house.

Welcoming a bride is also called receiving a bride or passing through the door. The day before the wedding, more than ten people from the groom's family will go to the bride's house to pick her up. There will be a drummer band, people setting off firecrackers, some carrying sedan chairs, and some burning incense (they have to go to the bride's ancestral hall, temple, or commune to burn incense), and one person will carry the burden. There is a lead chicken (one male and one female) on one end, wine and pineapple on the other. A woman has to bring the bride's clothes, and two people carry wooden baskets, and they have to carry fish, meat, wine, and cakes. , cigarettes, firecrackers, candles, etc., the matchmaker will also go. Some grooms will go, some will not. If the groom goes with him, the groom will also have to make a sedan chair. The one who sets off the firecrackers is the man's plenipotentiary, and he will bring one or twenty red envelopes with him. indivual.

After arriving at the bride’s house, the bride-to-be will first have snacks, and then two members of the bride’s family will take them to the ancestral hall to burn incense and pay homage to their ancestors. The girl's family will host a banquet at noon or evening.

The bride usually leaves in the middle of the night or at midnight, and the sky becomes brighter as she goes, symbolizing her move towards the light. If she goes out at night, she will not encounter unlucky things such as carrying a coffin. In the front of the wedding procession are the lantern players, followed by the music players, the sedan chair is in the middle, and behind are the people receiving the bride.

When the bride arrives at the groom's house, if it has not yet arrived at the stipulated entry time, she must wait on the square at the gate or in the house next to the door. Entrance is usually at seven or eight or eight or nine in the morning, and some even have to wait until noon. At the entrance moment, the bride has to kick the sedan door, and the groom's bridesmaid will lead the bride out of the sedan, and then "cross the fire" at the gate. The bride steps over the fire made of fir branches before entering the gate.

After the bride enters the hall amidst the sound of drums, she begins to worship. The incense table is arranged in the hall, with parents and elders standing on the east side, relatives on the west side, relatives on the north side, and juniors on the south side. Before the ceremony, the bridegroom's wife should hang a red cloth on the groom's body with a five-foot-long red cloth.

Recite: "Holding a red flag five feet long in hand, I use it to pretend to be the groom. I will pretend that the groom will give birth to a son, and if he gives birth to a son early, he will be the number one scholar." When worshiping, the groom stands on the left and the bride stands on the right. The rituals are: first, worship the heaven and earth, secondly, worship the ancestors, thirdly, worship the high hall, and fourthly, the husband and wife worship each other.

Finally, relatives meet and give red envelopes to the bride. After the ceremony, the bridesmaid leads the bride into the bridal chamber with a red bow, and the bride and groom scatter wedding candies from the door to the hall amidst the sound of firecrackers. Then the bride and groom have a cup of wine. The bridesmaid held a chicken on a tray and said while serving wine: "Reunion is a perfect match, a beautiful couplet", "Avalokitesvara sends a son, and a child will be born early"; "Husband and wife are reconciled and grow old together". (This etiquette is no longer common in the Meizhou area and has been replaced by modern wedding models)

Have a banquet at noon, have a wedding banquet, use loud cannons to invite guests, fire them every half an hour, and fire them when the banquet begins Three rings. Then the etiquette will give a list of names, and there will be two seats at each table. According to seniority and proximity, the seats will be arranged first, and then the others will sit casually. Male and female guests sit separately, and the bride and groom go to the table to toast.

One type of house riot is in the hall, and the other is in the new house. There are also those who make trouble in the hall first and then in the new house. During the riot, firecrackers were set off every few minutes until midnight.

Returning door is also called "revolving door". Usually on the third or fifth day after the wedding, the woman sends the bride’s sisters and other female family members to invite the bride and groom to be guests together. The matchmaker and the groom’s sisters also go with them. There are 7-14 people. After lunch, the wedding will be held on the same day. return.

Giving a full moon. One month after the wedding, the bride's family will come to give a full moon, and at the same time they will bring chickens, vegetables, seeds, grain seeds, beans, etc. to indicate a bumper harvest and a prosperous fortune.