Does it have the impression that of all the ethnic groups in the world, only the Han nationality has the most tenacious vitality and the largest population? Why is there such an impression?
To figure this out, we must first solve a very vague question, what is the Han nationality? In a general sense, a nation refers to a group of people who are different from other groups of people in terms of language, culture, and history, and this group of people can be defined as a nation, which is a concept that has existed since recent history.
As the name suggests, the Han name originates from the Han Dynasty and refers to the ethnic groups that have lived in the Central Plains since the Han Dynasty. Even so, the history of the development of the Han people is by no means limited to this, in fact, from the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, all the way to the Xia Shang Wednesday Dynasty, and then to the Qin and Han Dynasties, it has continued, but before the Han, the indigenous people of the Central Plains called themselves the Huaxia, and the Huaxia and Han were the same concept, the names of different periods.
Once the boundaries between han Chinese are clarified, it is easy to understand why the Han people have become the most populous and vigorous ethnic group in the world.
Enclosed environment
Why the Han people began to develop from the Central Plains is not without rules. Looking around the entire Asian continent, only East Asia has a very complete plain, with fertile land and suitable climate, which is simply an agricultural mecca.
Coupled with the western mountains and the protection of the eastern Pacific Ocean, the entire Central Plains region was surrounded in the middle, protected from foreign invasion. In this state, as long as there is no war, the country is stable, and no natural disasters occur, the population will expand with it.
This feature is in stark contrast to nomadic peoples, who move with the seasons and are undergoing large-scale migrations anytime, anywhere, with no place to live and a difficult population to grow. From another point of view, the migrating nomadic peoples, the population can not be gathered, like customs, languages, festivals will also undergo some changes, under the long-term accumulation, the same nation gradually evolved into different different ethnic groups, such as the current Western European peoples, and then like the division within the nation, which is reflected in the Middle East nations and religions.
Backward compatibility
To use the old saying, the Han Chinese have the strongest inclusiveness in the world, this sentence may not be accurate, I personally prefer to understand this sentence as downward compatibility. Because before the modern history of the Han people, this kind of inclusiveness is aimed at the majority of nomadic people, or vassal countries, the final situation is that the Han people will generalize it, or they will localize and improve the culture of the Han people, which can be found in japan, South Korea, Vietnam and other countries, and even retain it better than ourselves.
Another example is the integration of the remnants of Xia with the Shang Dynasty, and the shang dynasty immigrants in the integration of Zhou. After the feudal society, the Han dealt with the Xiongnu and incorporated the Hexi Corridor into the territory, and the Xiongnu in the Hexi Corridor area merged with the Han.
In addition, during the Wuhu Chaohua period, in the northern regions occupied by ethnic minorities, they began to learn Chinese again, wore Han costumes, and gradually integrated into the Han nationality. Later, Liao, Jin, Paul Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures, etc., all integrated into the Han nationality.
Why did they become Han Chinese and not Han Chinese become their ethnic group? Man goes low, water flows high, and this has been the truth of inconvenience since ancient times. After all, too much life of riding horses on the desert grassland every day, or want to find a place to plant land, wife and baby hot kangtou. Over time, they became Han Chinese.
It should be mentioned here that the Han nationality is a cultural identity, as long as it identifies with the culture of the Han people and integrates into it, it can be called a Han chinese.
Of course, this can not become the strongest guarantee for the tenacious vitality of the Han people, and the Han people have another characteristic.
Continuity
Counting the powerful nations that have appeared in the past dynasties, the Xiongnu, xianbei, Khitan and other nationalities, after a period of prosperity, have completely disappeared into the long river of history, which is very illustrative of a problem, although these nationalities have emerged under the leadership of a certain generation, but after encountering resistance, there is no resilience, resulting in weak continuity of the nation, and finally after several generations, completely disappeared in the long river of history.
The four ancient civilizations, look at the other three, none of the civilizations can continue to this day, all of them have been invaded or assimilated by other peoples, and the ancient civilizations can only do ancient.