In the Ming and Qing dynasties, there was a very interesting saying: "Who is the person under the ancient locust, the little toe of the two feet is carapace-shaped." "It tells the story of people checking the shape of the nails on the little thumbs of two feet under the ancient locust tree, which is full of picture and very curious. Legend has it that this is the story left by the Shanxi immigrants launched by Zhu Yuanzhang.
In 1388, the newly established Ming Dynasty was devastated by years of war in various places and sparsely populated. In order to restore the economy of various places more quickly, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to emigrate from the populous Shanxi. In order to distinguish between immigrants and natives, the imperial court gathered Shanxi immigrants under an ancient locust tree and drew a knife on each person's foot thumb nail as a distinguishing mark, thus leaving the story behind.
The fingernails of the little thumb of the foot cut by a knife will split in two, soft on one side and the other, but this is just a story left by folklore. People who actually possess this little thumb nail are called "tartard toes" in modern medicine. This parting of the nails rather than the whole is said to be due to long-term foot strain, but is more often thought to be due to genetically specific nails.
As a rare trait, various experts do not consider it to be a gene unique to the Han nationality. This gene should exist with a group of peoples that were once nomadic and have merged with the Han Chinese. According to historical records, Li Yuan's mother, DuGushi, had such a small thumb, and Li Yuan's wife Empress Dou was also the same. What dugu and empress Dou have in common is that they both come from the Xianbei clan.
The Xianbei are a nomadic people with fierce folk customs born in the Mongolian plateau, according to the Eastern Han Hu Guang's "History of Suoyin", "Xianbei, Donghu is a different species." The Xianbei people originated from the Donghu people who were defeated by the Xiongnu, active in the Wei and Jin Dynasties of China, and their influence on China was second only to that of the Xiongnu in history.
The Xianbei have been very good at riding and shooting for generations, have very high combat skills, and maintain a traditional grassland culture that believes in totems. In 45 AD, Xianbei went to war with the Xiongnu and the Eastern Han Dynasty, which was the first contact between the Xianbei people in the Central Plains. With the eastern Han Dynasty breaking the Xiongnu, in 49 AD, the Xianbei became a vassal state of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Xianbei's interior has been in a very chaotic situation, with nearly 200 years of fierce infighting, frequent divisions and population losses. It was not until 220 that the Xianbei were unified during the Three Kingdoms period and submitted to Cao Wei, but in 235, the Xianbei chief Kebineng died, and the various tribes were once again divided.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Two Jin Dynasties, as the largest nomadic people in the north, the divided Xianbei established their own states and became emperors in the north, and began to have a deeper intersection with the Central Plains. With the continuous development of commercial trade, Xianbei also had many caravans entering the Central Plains, which made the cultures of the two collide and laid the foundation for Xianbei immigrants to enter the Central Plains.
As a nomadic people of the north, Xianbei has their own unique language. According to the Sui Shu Jing Bi Zhi, the language of the Xianbei people at that time was called Hu language, and through the strength of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Xianbei language also had a very large number of speakers in the Central Plains, and the scope was extremely large. In 583, after Yang Jian led an army to destroy Northern Zhou, the Xianbei state was completely destroyed.
As all ethnic groups moved to the Central Plains to settle down, the remnants of them began to slowly merge into the Central Plains. Due to the wide applicability of the Xianbei language, the relationship between the Xianbei and the Han people did not encounter too many obstacles. However, due to the heavy cost of the war, the Xianbei population has been extremely sparse, and eventually it has slowly disappeared with the integration with the Han people and the passage of time.
It is recorded in the "World Speaking New Language and False Truth", "Yellow beard is a humble slave. Most of the Xianbei people have the appearance characteristics of modern West Asian Caucasians, with golden hair, and some people's pupils show different colors. In the "Book of Jin and the Chronicle of the Ming Emperor", it is also written that the humble mother of the Jin Ming Emperor had such characteristics.
After the Sui and Tang dynasties, the Xianbei clan has almost disappeared, but there are still many of their descendants in this world. Although the Xianbei have disappeared, the Xianbei and Han people are arguably the best combination of integration in history, and have continued to this day, with countless Han Chinese being their descendants.
According to historical research, the descendants of the Xianbei people seem to have foot characteristics similar to "toes", which may be due to the unique traits produced by the nomadic and unique horseback riding methods of the Xianbei generations. If your little toenails are divided into two or more lobes, then you are probably not a pure Han Chinese, but a descendant of the Xianbei people.
Of course, due to the long history, these cannot give accurate answers, and modern medicine cannot fully dissect the secrets of DNA. But there is no doubt that whether we are humble people or not, we are all the closest compatriots, living together in this beautiful society and loving each other.