Cultural changes in the Kanto and Tohoku regions

In the three hundred years from the beginning of the Qing Dynasty to the founding of New China, the population of Guannei (mainly north China) migrated to the northeast region, commonly known as "breaking into the Guandong". It is "one of the largest population movements ever recorded by mankind", a miracle in the history of world migration, which American scholars have called "an unprecedented move in all recent history" (Oriental Magazine, Vol. 25, No. 24, p. 49, 1928). As a magnificent historical and cultural phenomenon, the large number of immigrants who broke into the Kanto region has promoted the exchange and integration of various ethnic groups in the northeast region, and has also promoted changes in all aspects of the culture of the northeast region. Han culture and minority culture learn from each other and absorb each other, and eventually form a cultural form with the characteristics of northeast China.

One

The word "intruder" vividly indicates that this migration was carried out in private under most circumstances at that time, and was an act of deviance and prohibition. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the population of Guannei was free to go to the northeast and did not need to "break in". In the first year of Shunzhi (1644), the Qing court moved the capital to Beijing, about 900,000 people "entered the customs from the dragon", and the Liaoshen area was temporarily wild without farmers, no merchants on roads, sparsely populated, and withered livelihood. In order to restore and consolidate the rear area of the northeast, in the tenth year of Shunzhi (1653), the Qing court promulgated the "Regulations on the Reclamation of The People in Liaodong" to the whole country, attracting the population of Guannei to the northeast in the form of rewards. The introduction of this policy kicked off the prelude to the migration of the population of Guannei to the northeast in the Qing Dynasty. Encouraged by the reclamation policy, a large number of immigrants moved into the Liaoshen area. Unfortunately, this policy was only implemented for 15 years, and in the seventh year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1668), the Qing Dynasty issued the "Order for the Permanent Suspension of Recruiting Officials in Liaodong Province", which no longer rewarded officials who recruited immigrants, and began to restrict immigrants from moving to the northeast, but at this time did not completely prohibit immigrants from entering. It was not until the fifth year of Qianlong (1740) that the Qing Dynasty officially banned the northeast. The three dynasties of Jiaqing, Daoguang, and Xianfeng continued to implement the policy of banning, until the last year of Xianfeng, the Qing Dynasty was forced by internal and external troubles to lift the ban in the northeast region, and by the beginning of the 20th century, the ban was completely lifted, and a large number of immigrants poured in like a tide.

However, even during the period of lockdown, a complete ban was never achieved. Forced to make a living, the farmers in Guannei took a desperate risk, broke through the ban, and entered the northeast region. In the year of great disaster and famine, the rulers adopted a tacit attitude and took the initiative to release the victims. In the last years of the Kangxi Dynasty, there were more than 100,000 Shandong people in the northeast region, and in the forty-first year of Qianlong (1776), the number of immigrants exceeded one million. These immigrants basically entered the northeast illegally through various channels during the lockdown period, so they were called "breaking into the Kanto" and have been used by the world since then. So, in the final Qing Dynasty, how many Guannei people entered the northeast region? At that time, there were no survey statistics, and the number of immigrants could only be estimated by the growth of the population in the northeast region. In the third year of Xuanun (1911), the total population of the northeast region was 18.41 million, of which at least 10 million immigrants from Kannai. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China government continued to implement the policy of immigration, and the number of immigrants continued to increase, with the total number of immigrants in the northeast region during the entire Republic of China period being 19.83 million, of which 9.1 million settled in the northeast. It can be seen that from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, about 30 million immigrants invaded the Kwantung, of which about 20 million settled in the northeast.

Immigrants from Guandong mainly come from Shandong, Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi and other provinces in North China, of which Shandong has the largest number of people, reaching more than 80%, followed by Hebei and Henan. Most of the immigrants in Kannai who came to the northeast were unable to survive in their hometowns, and the victims, refugees and extremely poor people who "forced the Mountains to go down to the Kanto Mountains" were therefore mostly engaged in agricultural production, and later gradually expanded to labor services, industry and commerce, etc. More and more immigrants were absorbed into labor along the factories, mines, docks, and railway lines, providing sufficient labor for the rise of industry and mining in the northeast and the construction of railways. In addition, there is a small group of immigrants operating businesses in the northeast. Merchants in the modern northeast region are mainly from Guannei, and gradually formed the Shandong Gang, Hebei Gang, Shanxi Gang and other gang forces, and their strength in the northeast is very strong, "the trade between the Han people and Jiang province, with Shanxi as the earliest, the city has been wanton for more than a hundred years, and the profits are also thick" (Xu Zongliang: Guangxu", "Outline of Heilongjiang", Heilongjiang People's Publishing House, 1985 edition, page 83). During the Republic of China, the business scope of Merchants in Guannei spread throughout the qianzhuang, grain stack, goods warehouse, pawnshop and other industries, which promoted the rise and development of commercial trade in northeast China in modern times.

Two

People are the carriers of culture, and the displacement of population in space is actually the flow of culture carried by population, so the migration movement is essentially a kind of cultural migration. Population migration not only causes the spatial displacement of various cultural elements, but also inevitably leads to the exchange and integration of different cultures in the immigrant area, and the result is the emergence of new cultures. As one of the three large-scale population migrations in China's modern history, the cultural impact of breaking into the Kanto is undoubtedly enormous. The changes in the culture of the northeast region caused by the entry of Han immigrants are mainly manifested in two aspects: one is that the regional culture with the Manchu as the main body is gradually assimilated by the Han culture; the other is that the minority culture also has an important impact on the Han culture, and the traditional culture of the Han nationality has been enriched and developed.

From the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, with the large number of immigrants from Guannei entering the northeast region, the Han nationality gradually became the main body of the northeast population, accounting for more than 80 percent, and the indigenous peoples with the Manchus as the main body "lived, ate, dressed, and spoke, all assimilated with the Han people" (Bo Qin: "A Glimpse along the Heilongjiang River", "Middle East Economic Monthly" 1931, vol. 7, No. 4, 5, p. 199), Shandong people "changed customs and customs, made the northeast completely Sinicized, and made the northeast fully Sinicized, and the merits were particularly great" (Huang Zecang, ed., Shandong, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1935 edition, p. 112).

Before the Qing Dynasty, Manchu, the official lingua franca, was in its heyday, and almost everyone, from the ruling class to the common people, could speak Manchu. Han officials who did not speak Manchu could not participate in political affairs. After entering the customs, with the large number of immigrants in Guannei, the Han population exceeded the Manchu population, and the dominant position of the Manchu language was gradually replaced by Chinese. Although from the Qianlong period onwards, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty successively took various measures to maintain the "Chinese riding and shooting", and imposed a ban on the northeast region for nearly two hundred years, these did not stop the cultural exchange and integration between the Han and ethnic minorities. Han immigrants have been producing and living in the northeast for a long time, and have frequent exchanges with the local Manchus, gradually changing the Manchu language environment, and the number of People who use Manchu is gradually decreasing. The decline of manchu in northeast China is consistent with the pace of immigration, with Fengtian being the earliest, Followed by Jilin, and Heilongjiang at the latest. During the Tongzhi period, Manchu and Chinese were still used together, and by the time the northeast was completely lifted in the early 20th century, the lingua franca of the northeast had changed from Manchu to Chinese.

The winter climate in the northeast region is cold, and the ethnic minorities living here rely on gathering fishing and hunting for a living, and in order to adapt to the climatic needs of the alpine zone, animal fur is mostly used as the main raw material for clothing. For example, Sauron and Dahur "take the roe deer head as a hat, and the ears are straight, like the horns of life, and they are dressed in roe deer clothes, yellow and misty, rare and strange, rarely look forward to it, but also the poor decorate it like this." Under the influence of Han immigrants, the Manchus and other ethnic minorities learned to use cloth to make clothes, "the natives made robes with folded cloth, or used cocoon silk, the color is still blue and gray, and the sauce is second, all of which are missing plackets." There are also those who wear silk, only two or three out of ten, and their obtains are not easy to know" (Xiqing: Jiaqing", "Heilongjiang Waiji", Heilongjiang People's Publishing House, 1984 edition, pp. 62-63). This shows that the Manchu costumes in Northeast China underwent great changes in the Qing Dynasty, and gradually accepted Han costumes. For example, the kan shoulder was originally dressed by the Han people, and after entering the customs, the Manchus also used the kan shoulder as the clothing style of their own ethnic group. By the time of the Republic of China, the Manchus had basically converged in clothing.

With the arrival of immigrants, Kannai diet was also introduced to the northeast. The Manchu meat-based diet structure has been changed, and they have also begun to eat grain crops such as millet, corn, barley, and wheat, and have mastered various cooking methods such as roasting, roasting, stewing, boiling, and stir-frying, and some special foods have gradually become diets with the local flavor of the northeast. In the 20th year of Guangxu (1894), Li Liangui of Luan County, Hebei Province, came to Lishu County, Siping City, Jilin Province, and opened a butcher shop here, adding traditional Chinese medicine and other raw materials to make bacon. Later generations retained this production process and made bacon flatbreads with unique flavors, that is, Li Liangui bacon flatbreads that swept the country. Traditional Han chinese food, such as Shangyuan Tangyuan, Duanyang Jiaohuang, Mid-Autumn MoonCake, etc., are also accepted and loved by the Manchus.

The traditional way of living of the Manchu and other ethnic minorities in northeast China is a simple dwelling such as horse frame and shack, which is generally built with birch bark and grass. Since the Qing Dynasty, it has been influenced by the Han nationality and has gradually changed. With the continuous deepening of Manchu-Han exchanges, its house architectural style has also changed, and some traditional architectural forms of the Han nationality have influenced the design and construction of houses in Northeast China. For example, the courtyard is a well-known ancient architectural form. After the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the courtyards in the northeast became the main housing buildings. At the same time, immigrants from all over the world also brought the custom of building houses to the northeast. Han people attach great importance to building houses, generally ask Mr. Yin and Yang to come to see feng shui, according to the yin and yang gossip and other directions, choose a good day on the auspicious day on the beam, when the beam also put firecrackers, relatives and friends come to gather, congratulations. Under this influence, when the Manchus put on beams in their houses, they also liked to set off firecrackers to celebrate, and they also sang songs to sacrifice the gods.

From the top, the northeast culture, from language and writing to food, clothing, housing and transportation, has been deeply imprinted by immigrants, and all aspects have shown a tendency to sinicize.

Three

While the Han immigrant culture assimilated the indigenous culture, it was impossible not to be influenced by the original local culture, and at that time some people lamented that the Han people who came to the northeast "after their rebirth, assimilated with the Manchurians" (Wang Shunan, Wu Tingxie, Jin Yudi, etc.: The Republic of China's "Fengtian Tongzhi", Shenyang Antique Bookstore, 1983 photocopy edition, p. 2280). While Chinese gradually became the dominant language in Northeast China, Manchu culture did not die out, and a large number of Manchu cultural relics are still preserved in Northeastern dialects, place names, mountain ranges, and river names. In the long-term production and life, the Manchus have created a large number and variety of Manchu vocabulary, nouns such as "sticky", "Jing", "Galaha", verbs such as "rare" and "Zagu", adjectives such as "sloppy", "Teller", "Laku", etc.; "Changbai Mountain", "Xing'anling", "Guanda Mountain", "Heilongjiang", "Songhua River", "Tumen River", etc. are Manchu mountain ranges and river names. With the exchange and integration of Manchu and Chinese language and culture, Chinese has absorbed and retained a large number of Manchu words, which have become indispensable words in the daily lives of the people of Northeast China today.

The qipao was invented by the Manchus, and after the Manchus entered the customs, the Han people also liked the qipao. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Manchu men, women and children wore cheongsams all year round, with round necks, arrow sleeves, twisted plackets, and wide waists, with a simple structure, but the qipao worn by people at different levels was inconsistent. The qipao is respected by the four-open robe, and the left and right sides of the ordinary people's clothing are opened, and there are also robes that do not open, commonly known as "a wrapped circle". There is a belt around the waist, on which hangs small miscellaneous items such as waist knives, fire sickles, spoons, and purses. In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, the Manchu and Han dynasties lived in mixed and influenced each other for a long time, and the aesthetics of the Manchu qipao began to change. The placket of the robe has changed from long to short, the narrow cuffs have become fat, and the waist knife and other items originally worn on the belt have gradually been replaced by cigarette bags and spice bags because they no longer adapt to daily production and life. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the people, the west wind gradually moved east, the people were no longer bound by the Qing government's clothing system, whether it was Manchu or Han, women loved to wear qipao, and the style of qipao gradually changed. The hem of the women's cheongsam began to be embroidered with floral patterns, a straight collar appeared, and the sleeves were also narrowed from wide to narrow, with long and short sleeves. And from the straight barrel type to the tight waist type, it has become a representative costume for Chinese women.

The Manchus have long lived between the White Mountains and the Black Water, and their dietary customs have greatly influenced the food culture of the Northeast region. Before the Manchus entered the customs, the diet was mainly meat. Later, special diets such as altar stewed meat, white meat blood sausage, pork stewed sauerkraut, glass leaf cake, Su leaf dumplings, donkey rolling and so on were gradually loved by the Han people, and became a popular gourmet dish in urban and rural areas in northeast China and even all over the country.

Winters in the northeast are long and the climate is cold, and local ethnic minorities generally use kang. This custom has a long history, and the Jurchens of the Jin Dynasty have the habit of using the fire kang. The fire is both inhabited and warm. As one of the "Three Monsters of Northeast China", "window paper paste outside" is another feature of Manchu houses. The chimneys used by the Manchus were also very special, and they were isolated from the wall. Shi Zaining Ancient Pagoda "The houses are all southeast-facing, standing on a wall of broken wood, covered with tomass, two feet thick, and the grass roots are cut at the eaves, and the large ropes are tied to it." More pressed with wood, sheltered from wind and rain, out of the tiles. Open more southeast, the earth kang is five inches high, the south and northwest of Zhou are three sides, and the east is empty, and the north and south kangtou are used as stoves. Men and women above and below, each according to the kang side, lying in the south at night is honored, the west is second, and the north is humble. Xiao Qi folded the futon in a corner, covered with felt or green cloth. Guests sit together and do not avoid each other. The southwest window is as large as kang, pasted with Koryo paper, closed in the cold and open in summer. The two compartments are mill houses, warehouses, and buildings. On all four sides of the wooden city, with the fence as the gate, or the birch branches, or the horizontal wood" (Yang Bin: "Liubian Jiluo", Heilongjiang People's Publishing House, 1985 edition, p. 19). What is recorded here is the living customs of the Manchus more than three hundred years ago, which can still be seen everywhere in the countryside of Northeast China today, which shows that the living characteristics of the Manchus have long been accepted by the Han people, and the Manchus and Hans have jointly created a residential culture suitable for the characteristics of the northeast climate.

It can be seen that in the long-term cultural exchanges of various ethnic groups, there is both assimilation and integration. With the passage of time, on the basis of retaining the original regional characteristic culture, the northeast region has also integrated into the Han culture, making a new type of cultural form with immigrant characteristics gradually formed in the northeast. After a long period of development, this new type of immigrant culture has the characteristics of pioneering, openness and compatibility, which is the result of long-term cultural exchanges and integration between various ethnic groups in Northeast China. In the process of breaking into the Kanto Region, countless immigrants moved to various parts of the northeast with their wives and children, breaking through many obstacles, crossing the Great Wall and crossing the Bohai Sea, and experiencing countless hardships. After coming to the northeast, we must establish a brand-new homeland on a new land that is cold and uninhabited, and it is impossible to overcome the harsh environment without the pioneering spirit and quality of indomitable perseverance and courage to move forward. With the arrival of immigrants, the culture of different regions in Guannei spread in the northeast, and after contacting and integrating with the local minority cultures, a unique immigrant culture was formed, showing a state of coexistence of multiple cultures, reflecting the openness of the immigrant culture in the northeast. This open-ended nature is manifested as a regional feature such as open-mindedness, boldness, simplicity, generosity, and minimal exclusivity. Northeast China has been a multi-ethnic settlement since ancient times, farming, fishing and hunting, nomadic and other production methods coexist, nomadic culture, fishing and hunting culture, farming culture, mutual influence, so that northeast immigrant culture has a strong compatibility.

In the three hundred years of magnificent waves to break into the Guandong Has also bred the spirit of "breaking into the Guandong", which is mainly manifested in the spirit of self-improvement and unremitting resistance, the pioneering spirit of hard struggle, the spirit of innovation that bravely moves forward, and the spirit of cooperation hand in hand, which is an important part of the culture of the northeast region, which not only witnesses the process of countless migrants working in agriculture, logging and road construction, and developing frontiers, but also witnesses the cultural exchanges and integration between the Han nationality and other ethnic minorities. This precious spiritual wealth is still of great practical significance.

(Authors: Tan Yuxiu and Fan Lijun, both professors of the School of History and Culture of Jilin Normal University, this article is a major project of the National Social Science Foundation of China "Collation and Research on the History of Migration in Northeast China since the Qing Dynasty [1644-1945]" [17ZDA193] Phased Results)