The Book of Han and the Chronicle of the Yuan Emperor: "The land is relocated, the nature of the people; flesh and bones are attached, and human feelings are also willing." ”
Chinese has always had the habit of "relocating the land", as long as you live in one place, you will not easily move, but the emperor ordered you to move you must move, there were 6 large-scale migrations in ancient China, the first was during the Han Wudi period, the second was the JinHuai Emperor period, the third was after the Anshi Rebellion, the fourth was after the Jingkang Rebellion, the fifth time was the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, and the sixth time was the Qing Dynasty Kangqian period.
The great migration 600 years ago refers to the fifth migration, the Ming Dynasty locust tree immigrant, and many people's ancestors immigrated to the place where they live now through this migration.
"Ask where my ancestors came from, the big locust tree in Hongdong, Shanxi" At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the soldiers were in chaos, causing many lives to be destroyed, and the Central Plains region was originally the most nurturing place, but war and drought, famine, locust plague, and plague came together, and there was a tragic situation of "white bones exposed in the wild, and there was no chicken chirping in thousands of miles", Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown of Fengyang, Anhui, was also poisoned, and his parents and brothers died in this disaster.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the Yuan Dynasty in 1368 and solved the problem of war, the common people still suffered countless casualties, the population of the country was 80.6 million during the Southern Song Dynasty, but only 10.65 million during his reign, and many urban and rural areas became a "ghost city".
Without population, there will be no one to cultivate the land, no one to improve the economy, and sooner or later there will be great chaos in the world, and in order to consolidate the political power, Zhu Yuanzhang urgently needs to transfer a group of people to the vacant places to fill the population and restore the productive forces and economy.
When all parts of the country are suffering, there is one place that is most different, this place is Shanxi, Shanxi seems to have nothing happened, the wind and rain are prosperous, and Linfen Hongdong County has become the place with the highest density of population. Zhu Yuanzhang took Hongdong County as the first choice for the population to migrate outward, and adopted the proportion of "leaving one for the mouth of the four families, two for the mouth of the six families, and three for the mouth of the eight families".
Chinese attach importance to the homeland and certainly do not want to migrate outward, the government came up with an idea, tricking the people of Hongdong County into moving to other places except for the people under the big locust tree of Guangji Temple, and no one in the official government doubted that other people who did not want to move ran to the bottom of the big locust tree, and the official government unexpectedly surrounded all these people, tied their hands with ropes and sent them to other places.
The big locust tree immigrants moved millions of people, these people surname 812 different surnames, basically some similar to Zhao Qiansun Li common surnames, you see if there are their own surnames, they all moved to 18 provinces, more than 500 counties, some old people want children to remember their home forever, they pointed to the big locust tree and said: "If you can't remember where your home is in the future, find this big locust tree, find the big locust tree and find your own home!" People in the lower reaches of the Yellow River also made up a song to remember their roots: "If you ask where your hometown is, the big locust tree in Hongdong, Shanxi." What is the name of the ancestral home, the old bird's nest under the big locust tree. ”
Because the large locust tree immigrants are not voluntarily moved, the government will use a knife to cut a knife on their small toenails, so that their nails are divided in two, on the one hand, to hinder them from escaping, on the other hand, to mark them, some old people say that if your small toenails are two petals, it means that you are the descendants of the large locust tree immigrants, this statement is very common but very superstitious, the toenails cut off can grow back, and it is not genetically changed, it will not be inherited to the next generation.
The big locust tree immigrants also gave birth to a dialect, this dialect people in many areas said, as mentioned earlier that the government used a rope to tie up the hands of the big locust tree immigrants, if someone wanted to go to the toilet, they would say a word "untie" to let the officers and soldiers untie the rope on their hands, and slowly "untie the hand" became synonymous with going to the toilet, and was brought to all parts of the country by the big locust tree immigrants.
Nowadays, there are few large-scale migrations like in ancient times, all by voluntarily moving if they want to move, not moving if they don't want to move, most people are from the countryside to the city, and some rich people are moving abroad, but whether they are in the city or abroad, the plot of the homeland is still engraved in the hearts of each of them, and every Spring Festival festival will return to their hometown reunion from thousands of miles away, which is the feeling of home and country Chinese.