The Han Chinese are one of the ethnic groups in China and a member of the extended Chinese family.
It is true that after the establishment of the Han Dynasty, the term Han began to appear. But it was not the people who suddenly appeared in the flat land.
The Han Chinese have existed for a long time, but the names are different.
We know that Chinese is the descendant of Yan Huang, and since the Yellow Emperor Yan Emperor, Chinese was born. However, at that time, the Chinese could only be said to be the Chinese nation, and there was no concept of Han Nationality.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Chinese did not have a unified title, and the people of the Qin State were called Qin people, and the people of the Chu State were called Chu people.
This theory of distinguishing people according to the state is deeply rooted, and Zhang Fei, the general of the Three Kingdoms, wrote in Luo Guanzhong's pen, because he was born in Baoding, Hebei Province, and also called himself "Yanren Zhang Yide".
However, after the Qin Dynasty unified China, all the people who lived in the territory of the Qin Dynasty were collectively referred to as "Qin people" by the outside world.
After the death of Qin Shi Huang, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang rose up, and Xiang Yu and Liu Bang also responded, and the King of Chu Huai met with the heroes of the world, "'The first to enter the guanzhong is the king'". Liu Bang led his troops to attack Xianyang, the capital of the King of Qin, and was naturally made the king of Hanzhong by Liu Bang, Xiao Heyi analyzed that the name ''Han'' was good, it was the meaning of Tianhe, so he took ''Han'' as the name of the new regime.
But with the rise of the Han Dynasty, its influence has also grown, and the Han Dynasty, as a dynasty that has ruled China for more than four centuries, is unprecedented in terms of territory, economic, cultural and military strength.
In addition, the Han Dynasty was powerful, and in foreign exchanges, other ethnic groups called the Han Dynasty's army ''Han soldiers'', the Han Dynasty's envoys ''Han envoys', and the Han Dynasty's people 'Han people''. It provided historical conditions for the name of the Han Dynasty and the name of the Chinese nation.
Therefore, during the reign of the Han Dynasty, the Han people and the Han nationality have become synonymous with the main ethnic groups of the Han Dynasty, and have become the collective names of the people in the Central Plains and surrounding areas.
Lu Simian, a famous historian of modern China, said: "The name of the Han nationality began after Liu Bang became emperor. ''
Lü Zhenyu, a big man in contemporary Chinese history, said: "The Chinese people have been called Han since Emperor Xuan of the former Han Dynasty. ''
Therefore, it can be said that the name Han was born in the Han Dynasty.
However, some historians believe that Before the Ming Dynasty, China did not explicitly emphasize the term Han and Han. The reason why the Han people were proposed as a nation was forced out by the Mongol rulers.
The Yuan Dynasty was the first unified foreign regime to occupy the Central Plains, and under the historical conditions at that time, it was a foreign regime for the Han Chinese. Moreover, after the Mongols obtained the Central Plains, they divided the people of the world into four classes and engaged in racial discrimination: the pure Mongols were the first-class ethnic group, the Semites were second-class ethnic groups, the Jurchens, Han chinese, and Dangxiang people in the Central Plains were third-class people, and the Han and ethnic minorities in the Jiangnan area were the lowest-class people.
In this case, in order to overthrow the reactionary rule of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang set up a united front, pulled all the people living in the Central Plains to his side, collectively called the Han people, and called on everyone to work together to resist the oppression of the Mongols.
Zhu Yuanzhang, with the assistance of his own think tank, was indeed very great in engaging in this united front, turning all the ethnic groups that had taken root in the Central Plains, including the Liao, Western Xia, Xiongnu, Jin, and Miao, into Han Chinese, strengthening his own strength, and isolating the Mongol rulers.
However, when Zhu Yuanzhang was in his inception, his master was a Mongol, who had once served as an official in the Yuan Dynasty, taking the Yuan Dynasty's Feng Lu and being a migrant worker in the Yuan Dynasty. One day is the Lord, and one life is the King. After Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, in order to unite all the forces that could be united, he no longer regarded the Mongols as outsiders.
It is a pity that after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the Han people were once again ruled by foreign races and became slaves of the Manchus. During the hundreds of years of Qing rule, the Han elite had long regarded the Manchus as their legitimate rulers, sparing no effort and dedication to serve them. From Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang to Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong and Yuan Shikai in the early period, this is no different.
It was Sun Yat-sen who really fought for the Han people, who put forward the slogan of "expelling the Tartars and restoring China", completely overthrew the reactionary rule of the Manchu Qing, and the Han people really became the masters again.
In the past, many ethnic minorities, including zhuang and Manchu, have been integrated into the big family of the Han people, and their writing, language, clothing and beliefs are almost indistinguishable from the Han people, and they have lost many characteristics of their own ethnic groups.
After the founding of New China, in this big family in China, no matter what ethnic group is equal, no matter whether it is high or low, noble or low.
As the song goes: Fifty-six nationalities, fifty-six flowers, fifty-six brothers and sisters are one family, fifty-six languages, combined into one sentence - love me China.
Therefore, all nationalities are as close as one family, have a common name, called the Chinese nation, and all strive for the rejuvenation of the nation and the prosperity of the motherland.