According to some scholars, the population of Sichuan at the end of the Ming Dynasty was more than 3.8 million (some say more than 6 million). After the 16th year of Shunzhi's pacification of Sichuan in the early Qing Dynasty, the population of Sichuan was only 150,000 or 60,000 (some say 500,000).
According to some Qing Dynasty local records, jackals, tigers and leopards in many parts of Sichuan have taken to the streets, and wild animals often hurt people and eat people. This shows that the population is too small, the human habitat has returned to primitive nature, and the wild beasts have reigned supreme.
From the end of the Ming Dynasty to the sixteenth year of Shunzhi, it was only a short period of ten years, why did the population of Sichuan plummet, and what happened? According to the general folk saying, Zhang Xianzhong was the butcher who slaughtered the Sichuan people. Of course, Zhang Butcher bears a large part of the responsibility, but to say that he slaughtered it is probably not completely accurate.
At that time, Sichuan was mainly three forces: the Qing Army, the Southern Ming Army, and Zhang Xianzhong. In addition, there are a large number of local warlords, mountain kings and the like, and these forces are attacking each other and killing people. Constantly fighting, constantly killing people, constantly grabbing strong people, the population is getting smaller and smaller. Coupled with the famine caused by the war, a large number of people starved to death.
The Southern Ming forces were mainly in Ya'an Hongya County, southwest of Chengdu, and leshan in the south of Chengdu, and the Qing forces were in the langzhong area of northern Sichuan, and the battlefields between the two sides were often in the Chengdu Plain. At that time , there were no houses in The Chengdu Plain , and at that time ( within the city ) there were houses in the Urban Area of Chengdu , and the ruins of the broken walls were overgrown with grass and trees.
Zhang Xianzhong's butcher began to go mad for about three years in Shunzhi, when his defeat was already evident and he seemed to be at the end of the road. Perhaps it was Zhang Butcher's mad revenge on society, and he carried out large-scale massacres in the Chuanxi Plain and The Chuanzhong area near Chengdu. In the fourth year of Shunzhi, Zhang Xianzhong's army was defeated at Phoenix Mountain in Xichong County, and it is said that he himself was killed by an arrow from Emperor Taiji's eldest son Hauge.
Fenghuang Mountain, Xichong County, according to locals, this is Zhang Xianzhong's tombstone.
In Sichuan, there is a saying that "the eight kings suppress Sichuan", and in Xichong, you can find someone to ask, and everyone knows it. The Eight Kings refer to Zhang Xianzhong the butcher, who raised a peasant army in his hometown of Eighteen Villages in Dingbian County, Shaanxi Province, and called himself the "Eight Kings".
Reclamation Order
In the sixteenth year of Shunzhi, Sichuan was completely pacified, and the country of Tianfu was fertile and wild, and there was no one left. In order to restore and develop the economy and increase tax revenues, the Qing court issued a "reclamation order" to migrate the population from other provinces to Sichuan, the so-called "lake filling Sichuan". Huguang here actually refers to Hubei, Hunan, because during the Yuan Dynasty, Huguang Zhongshu Province was set up, including Hunan Hubei and parts of Guangxi, Guangdong, and people still like to call Hunan Hubei "Huguang".
Huguang people enter the river in large quantities to reclaim, of course, there must be some preferential conditions to do, Chinese tradition has always been a relocation of land, if there is no rich conditions, it is difficult to migrate to other places. So the Qing court encouraged migration into Sichuan, as long as you go to Sichuan to reclaim the land, it will always be yours. Moreover, "allowing them to take the naturalization test" for the children of these reclamationrs means that there is a way for you to ascend to the household. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, there were a large number of displaced people without household registration, without household registration, there was no land, and they could not participate in the examination, and as long as they went to Sichuan to reclaim the land, everything was solved.
There are also rewards for officials in Sichuan, as long as you can recruit 300 people for your county, you will be promoted immediately, so Sichuan officials are very active in running to Hubei, Hunan to recruit people.
The "Reclamation Order" has been carried out for more than ten years, and the population of Sichuan has indeed increased a lot. According to the county records of Longchang County, Neijiang, Sichuan, in just ten years, "suddenly for the shoulders to rub the land", suddenly the population increased, a bustling scene, walking on the street rubbed shoulders.
flee from famine
In addition to the incentive measures of the imperial court's "reclamation order", there are also reasons for Hunan and Hubei itself. During the Kangxi Dynasty, there were several floods in Hubei, Hunan, as well as locust plagues, plagues, and so on. Under the blows of natural disasters, the people of Huguang fled to neighboring provinces, and Sichuan is undoubtedly a relatively good place to escape. In general, Sichuan is still sparsely populated, as long as there is the ability to work, fleeing to Sichuan has land to reclaim, then you can support a family.
In the records of various counties in Sichuan, there is a similar record that "the disaster and famine are poor... Unable to feed himself, he led his three sons into Sichuan..." He fled to Sichuan with his family, which was not uncommon at that time.
There are many places in Sichuan, a village and neighboring villages are the same surname, that is when a family came here, a son occupied a piece of land, after hundreds of years of development, a family developed into a village, two sons developed into two villages, three sons developed into three villages.
This is the case in my hometown. Our village and neighboring villages are all one surname, and the generational ranking is exactly the same. Because the family tree is still preserved, we know that the ancestors moved from Macheng, Hubei Province. At that time, a person in our village ran to Macheng, Hubei Province, to find his roots, and he really found his ancestral home. They all have the same surname as us, take out the family tree and compare it, and the generation ranking is the same. It turned out that during the Kangxi Dynasty, there was a famine and could not support the family, so the old lady let her three sons go to Sichuan, leaving the youngest son in Macheng.
Escape from forced labour
Some of the people in the "Lake Fill Sichuan" also came to Sichuan to escape conscription. In order to fight Against Li Dingguo's peasant army and fight against Wu Sangui, the Qing court had abused its civilian strength in Hubei, Hunan, for example, transporting grain and grass for the Qing army, building fortifications, and so on. Some people fled unwillingly, and many people ran to Shaanxi, Guizhou, Sichuan and other places.
In contrast, Sichuan is the best choice, because Sichuan does not have to worry about naturalization, there was no national network identity information at that time, and no one knew that you were a fugitive. Coming to Sichuan is directly regarded as a displaced person, and naturalization is not a problem. Local officials welcomed it, and his county flourished again. At that time, Sichuan officials probably had a profound understanding that population was the greatest resource.
Nine times out of ten sichuan people today migrated from Hubei, Hunan, and because of this, it is not surprising that Sichuan dialect is similar to the sound of Jingchu. I think that the Sichuan dialect before the Ming Dynasty was definitely not what it is now. The oldest Ba people and Shu people in Sichuan have long ceased to exist, and they are probably mainly of the Qiang and Qiang tribes, which is very different from the current Sichuan people in terms of culture and bloodline.