Preface
As the name suggests, "Han people" refers to the people of the Han Dynasty, and this word appeared in the Han Dynasty, but with the change of the times, this word has slowly spread.
So how did the Han people call themselves before that? Today, as sons and daughters of the Chinese nation, we still call ourselves Han people, but we refer to the Han people.
So in ancient times, was there any difference between the Han people and the Han people today? And the word "Han people" has lasted for more than 2,000 years, and the fact that this word can continue to this day is enough to see its charm.
First, the name of China
Before the Han Dynasty, the largest dynasty was the Qin Dynasty, which unified the Six Kingdoms and laid the foundation for the beginning of the feudal dynasty, and before the Qin Dynasty was the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
At this time, Qin, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao, Wei, and Qi, the seven countries shared the world, and how did people call themselves at this time?
If you are from Zhao, then you are a "Zhao person", and if you are a Qi person, you call yourself a "Qi person", that is, you are called by the name of your own country, and you do not call yourself "Han people" until the establishment of the Han Dynasty.
But at the earliest time, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there was the term Huaxia, and people in the Central Plains combined "China" and "Zhongxia" into one to call it "Huaxia", which also gave people a deep sense of racial identity.
Therefore, before the Han Dynasty, people called themselves "Huaxia" people, and this title was deeply imprinted in their hearts, and when it came to the Han Dynasty, the people of the Central Plains called themselves "Han people".
The Han Dynasty ruled for more than 400 years, and no dynasty has been so long since then, so it can be said that the Han Dynasty was very glorious during this period.
The culture can be inherited for such a long time because the Han Dynasty is in the stage of national unification and national integration, which has laid the foundation for the future cultural development of the Han Dynasty.
In the Han Dynasty, not only was the national strength very strong, but at the same time, in order to make the country more stable, there were generals Huo Quai, Wei Qing and others who attacked the Xiongnu in the north, and fought a long-term large-scale war with the Xiongnu to stabilize the country.
At that time, in order to pursue the Xiongnu, thousands of miles deep into the hinterland of the desert, fighting against the Xiongnu under such harsh conditions, on the one hand, the harsh environment, unfamiliarity with the terrain, coupled with the lack of food and other problems need to be faced.
On the other hand, in the face of the strong Xiongnu, who suffered heavy losses repeatedly, it was all the soldiers who united as one, with the determination to fight against the Xiongnu, and finally defeated the Xiongnu under the iron hooves of the strong Han army.
As a result, the Xiongnu did not dare to attack again for a long time, and even made the Xiongnu jealous, so the Han army at that time staged the myth of invincibility in the Western Regions and Central Asia, which also made the reputation of the Han people far and wide, so that the Xiongnu did not dare to attack.
The reason why the Han people were able to make the Xiongnu fearful was that they fought down with their lives, and it was this spirit of fearless life and death that defended the dignity and interests of the country, made the Han people stand up, and made the Han Dynasty strong.
However, to study in detail the reason why the Han people are Han, we must start from the interpretation of "Shuowen Jie Zi" annotated by Duan Yu, when the spring water first comes out of the mountain, the water flow speed is small, and it is called "Yang".
When multiple springs converge into a large stream, it is called "Han", which shows that "Han" at that time was a general name for a large river, and it did not refer specifically to that river.
Therefore, people at that time often used the word "Han" in various places, for example, the ancient people believed in myths and stories very much, and the mythology had the word "Tianhe", and the ancient people called it "Han", so they called "Tianhe" "Tianhan" and "Yinhan".
Hanshui originated in Ningqiang County, Shaanxi Province, and in ancient times, it was often called the area of Ningqiang County as Hanzhong, which is also the Hanzhong area today, so the name of the river with the word "Han" has gradually developed into a place name.
At the end of the Qin Dynasty, after Liu Bang entered the Guanzhong region, he eliminated the Qin Dynasty, while Xiang Yu was called the "King of Han" in the Hanzhong region, and Liu Bang took the place where he started as the name of the dynasty, that is, the "Han Dynasty".
This is the origin of the Han Dynasty, so later there was also the title of "Han people", and after defeating the Xiongnu, it was even more famous, so "Han people" also refers to the Central Plains people, and the surrounding ethnic groups also called the Central Plains people "Han people".
Second, the name of "Han people".
Later, the Xiongnu would often praise the Han people as "good men", men were called "manly men", and those who planted crops were called "crop men", etc., these words were all names for the Han people.
After the Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were several feudal regimes in the history of the mainland that were named after "Han", and during the Three Kingdoms period, the country established by Liu Bei was "Shu State", also known as "Shu Han" or "Ji Han".
The regime established by Liu Zhiyuan of the Shatuo tribe during the Five Dynasties period was called "Han", so in order to make it easier to distinguish, it was called "Later Han" in history, and there were two "Han" regimes coexisting in the same period as "Later Han".
In order to distinguish between the two regimes, they were divided into "Southern Han" and "Northern Han", precisely because the word "Han" was widely used in later generations and also carved a deep imprint in the hearts of the people.
Therefore, under the rule of this regime, the people closely linked the character "Han", so all this was formed under the establishment of the "Han" regime.
In ancient times, they called the people of the Central Plains Han Chinese, the people in the more remote areas of the south as the "barbarians", and the people of the ethnic minorities in the north as the "Hu people".
These are all pronouns for the surrounding Xiongnu, with a derogatory meaning, and all of them were abolished in the Qing Dynasty, but also out of respect for these minority people.
In the course of history, with the repulsion of the Xiongnu, the Turkic people had disappeared during the Tang Dynasty, and most of them were given the surname Li by the Li rulers during the Tang Dynasty, thus expanding the ranks of the Han people.
There are also Xiongnu people in the Han Dynasty, when they fled from the Western Regions, they died on the way to escape, and some of them were given the surname Liu after being captured and became Han Chinese.
The term "nationality" is because they have the same language, live in the same place, and have the same culture, so they are naturally divided into a category of people, and the people living in the Central Plains are also called "Han people", and this nation is also called "Han nation".
3. The emergence of the "Han nationality".
The emergence of the "Han nationality" was established in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, and in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, after the outbreak of the Opium War, the trampling of foreign powers made the mainland aware of a strong national crisis.
At the end of the 19th century, Western nationalism spread to China through Japan, and the concepts of "Han nationality" and "nation" really appeared under the combined effect of national crisis, nationalism and Japanese culture.
The establishment of the Han nationality was at the beginning of the 20th century, and it was precisely because of the corruption of the Qing government at that time and the invasion of foreign powers that the Qing Dynasty finally collapsed, setting off a vigorous revolutionary movement.
Revolutionaries used this banner of the nation to save the country in peril, and at the same time to increase the intensity of propaganda nationalism, which was also after the Western Han Dynasty once again set off the admiration of the "Yellow Emperor", "Han nationality" and "descendants of Yan and Huang" and other words soon became popular words.
It is used to publicize and expand the camp, call on more people to join it, strengthen the people's sense of national identity and a stronger sense of family and country, and wake up the sleeping people.
For thousands of years, whether in culture, military or other aspects, the Han people have left many treasures and created brilliant achievements.
The Han people are also a large ethnic group with a large population on the mainland, of course, any of the 56 ethnic groups is an inseparable ethnic group and a large group, because it has a common nation and a common country -- China.
epilogue
Born in China and raised in China, as a member of the Han nationality or other ethnic minorities, the motherland is now growing stronger and stronger, and his heart is full of pride.
This is the confidence brought by the nation, and it is also the strong sense of identity and belonging of every Chinese son and daughter to the country and the nation, and it is a great country with thousands of years of cultural heritage.