Just as the so-called fallen leaves return to the roots, Chinese is probably the most patriotic people in the world, perhaps because of the long history, Chinese is very interested in where they come from. Chinese the feeling of "searching for roots and asking ancestors" is deeply imprinted in the hearts of every Chinese. In recent years, the "root-seeking fever" in the land of China has set off a wave of waves.
Once the word "root searching" is mentioned, it is never possible to avoid the place of "Shanxi Hongdong Big Locust Tree". Even in folk songs, people have been singing for generations, "Ask where my ancestors are?" Shanxi Hongdong large locust tree. Why is the big locust tree that has stood in Hongdong for more than 2,300 years become the root of people's search for roots? How many Chinese surnames were migrated from the shanxi locust tree?
Shanxi large locust tree
Most of these ancestors who came out from under the locust trees in Shanxi actually did not leave their homeland voluntarily, but were forced to leave their hometowns under the environment of forced immigration under feudal rule. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, wars broke out, Yan Zhao Luyu and other places, "white bones were exposed in the wild, and there was no chicken chirping for thousands of miles".
The reason why such a tragic image was formed was first, because of the war, and second, because of the famine, the Central Plains had already lost its former prosperity after experiencing war. However, in the land of the Three Jins at that time, it was a prosperous scene. According to historical records, in 1381 AD, the population of the Central Plains, that is, Henan and Hebei provinces, was less than 4 million, but the population of Shanxi was as much as 4.03 million.
Immigration notices in film and television dramas
The land of Shanxi is covered by the Taihang Mountains as a barrier to the east, the Lüliang Mountains to the west to shield the wind and rain, coupled with the Yellow River, the natural closed environment, so that this land has escaped large-scale war. Coupled with the fact that in those years, the wind and rain on this land were smooth, and a large number of displaced people who had escaped from war moved here, Shanxi Province actually became a "paradise" for living and working in peace and contentment at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and the population of Shanxi became the crown of the northern provinces.
In order to quickly restore the population and economy of the whole country, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, decided to relocate the surplus people in shanxi to various parts of the country, thereby strengthening the population of various parts of the north, which naturally greatly strengthened the state's rule over the localities and was also conducive to the rapid recovery of the local economy caused by the war.
Of course, standing on the stand of different people, the so-called homeland is inseparable, and people are naturally unwilling to give up their rich lives and the land where they have grown for many years. However, in feudal society, with the order of the ruler, whether he wanted to or not, this migration was imperative.
Immigration routes
In order to ensure the successful migration, the Ming court can be said to have exhausted the means, when the Ming rulers promulgated the immigration regulations as follows: a family of four can only keep one person, six people stay two, eight families stay three, so the family was demolished.
Not only that, if they are people with the same surname, they cannot move to the same place when they migrate. Although the imperial court rewarded these migrants with great rewards and made every effort to prepare, it was still difficult to compensate for the physical and mental devastation caused by their background departure.
Find your roots and ask your ancestors
This great migration began in the third year of Ming Hongwu and basically ended in the 15th year of Yongle, and in this nearly 50 years, the number of large-scale migrations reached 18 times, and the places of migration spread across 18 provinces and as many as 498 counties (cities). According to the "Ming Shilu" and "Hongdong County Chronicle", the total number of surnames of immigrants reached 882.
However, in the ancestral hall of the big locust tree, all the surnames of immigrants recorded in the cupboard reached a total of 1230, and some surnames recorded their migration directions in detail, the purpose of which was to facilitate the return of these descendants to their homeland again.
Ancestral worship hall
It is said that immigrants who moved out of Dahongdong, Shanxi, in order not to forget their roots, planted locust trees in front of and behind their houses every time they went to a place to remember the place where they left.
There is also a legend in folklore that if the small fingernails are in the shape of two petals, they are the descendants of Hongdong County; the reason why there is such a saying is that the immigrants at that time were homesick, escorted their officers and soldiers, afraid that these people would escape, they cut their little thumbs in half to mark, and all those who came out of the locust tree in Shanxi retained this feature.