Han Nationality

The Han nationality is a dominant ethnic group in China and overseas Chinese. Xu zhuoyun believes that the Chinese tribes established the "China" headquarters on the basis of Zhuxia and formed a "cultural community" calling itself the Han people in the Han Dynasty. The name of "Zhuxia" has its origin in the Western Zhou Dynasty. The Zhou royal family calls itself "Xia" and "Zhuxia" is the countries that share the etiquette and honor of the Zhou family. Since then, in the narration of Zuo Zhuan, the concepts of "Zhuxia", "Zhuhua" and "Huaxia" appeared again and again, and the concept of the distinction between China and foreigners appeared at the same time. We can be sure that the Chinese concept of later generations will begin at this time. Han people are also known as "Han people", "Chinese", "Tang people", "Qin people", "peach blossom stone", etc. In modern times, the word "nation" was introduced into China, and "Han" replaced "Han" as the official name of this ethnic group. "Yanhuang descendants" and "Yanhuang descendants" have been used by the Communist Party of China and the Kuomintang as a substitute or another name for "Han nationality", while in modern times, there are descendants of the dragon. Before national identification, the Han nationality was a unity of several ethnic minorities, and the expression of this unity was the Han nationality of China; Since the national recognition, the Han nationality, as one of the many nationalities or ethnic groups of the Chinese nation, tends to become a single ethnic group juxtaposed with other ethnic minorities.

Zhou people call themselves Xia, which has nothing to do with the Xia Dynasty. Zuo Zhuan clearly records that Zhou people called themselves not the same race as Xia, and called Xia's descendants "Yi". Zhou people implemented the enfeoffment system, and the country enfeoffed was also called Xia. The book of songs · Ode to Zhou called the enfeoffed Princes "Shixia". In the spring and Autumn period, the literature changed the name of the princes to Zhuhua. This is the origin of the Chinese name. The self-identity and naming of Chinese ethnic groups began with the "Zhuxia" in the spring and Autumn period. The mainstream opinion holds that the disintegration of consanguineous ethnic groups to geographical ethnic groups is the basic path for the formation of the Chinese community after the spring and Autumn period. The formation of the Chinese nation should be in the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period. The tribes in the areas of Huang, Huai, Jiang and Han gradually merged and formed the Chinese nation. The clans integrated into this nation originally had their own ancestors. In terms of blood relationship alone, the Chinese nation actually comes from many sources. The Yellow Emperor is revered as the "first ancestor of humanity". The legend of the Yellow Emperor reflects the realistic appeal of national integration during the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period. In order to unite all clans and tribes into an integrated nation, it is necessary to trace back to a common ancestor of all Nationalities - "racial Idol", "Yellow Emperor" and its legend. After the Qin Dynasty unified the six kingdoms, the Huaxia nationality was named after the Dynasty and was called "Qin people". After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, people in the Han Dynasty were called "Han people". In the Sixteen States of Wuhu, the ethnic minorities in the North call these Han people still "Han people". The Tang Dynasty was renamed "Tang people". The Yuan Dynasty divided people into four levels, namely Mongols, Semu people, Han people and southern people. Later, "southern people" was incorporated into "Han people", and "Han" gradually became the national name of the Han nation.

The ethnic name of the Han nationality was established in the process of the formation and development of China's unified multi-ethnic country. In 206 BC, the Han Dynasty followed the Qin Dynasty and prospered for more than 400 years. There was a new development in the unity of economy, culture and the country. The Central Plains residents formerly known as China were called Han people. In the later historical development, the Han people became the national name of China's main nation. They accounted for the vast majority of China's population in previous dynasties and played a leading role in all aspects of development. After coexistence, migration and integration with all ethnic groups, the Han nationality has formed the distribution characteristics of centralized distribution in Songliao plain, agricultural developed areas and cities such as the Yellow River, Huaihe River, Yangtze River and Pearl River, and staggered living with local ethnic groups in the frontier. In addition, in the process of historical development, a considerable number of Han people emigrated abroad to form local ethnic Chinese or overseas Chinese.

Since the 1950s, especially after the reform and opening up, the Han nationality and ethnic minorities have made great contributions to China's prosperity and strength. The Han nationality created splendid culture and art in ancient times with distinctive characteristics. It has many influential representatives and works. In natural science, the achievements of astronomy and mathematics have attracted worldwide attention. There were more than 370 kinds of agricultural books in Ancient Agronomy. In the development of ancient Chinese literature, poetry plays a significant role, such as Chu Ci, Yuefu, Tang poetry, Song Ci and so on; Others such as prose and novels are also famous in the world.

Han ancestors

According to the legend recorded in the pre Qin literature and the scope of the capital of Xia, Shang and Zhou, the ancient ancestors of the Han nationality generally took the Central Plains as the scope of activity; The two types of Neolithic cultures, Yangshao culture and Longshan culture, mainly distributed in this area, are generally considered to be the cultural relics of the ancient ancestors of the Han nationality.

Ancient legends also describe that the ancestors of the Han nationality experienced a long era of primitive commune system. Before the Yellow Emperor, it went through the stage of matriarchal clan tribe of "knowing mother and not knowing father"; The legend of the Yellow Emperor marks the transformation from a matriarchal clan tribe to a paternal clan tribe, and has entered the stage of tribal alliance. It is said that Yao, Shun and Yu, who were the leaders of the big tribal alliance in the form of abdication after the Yellow Emperor, are all considered to be the descendants of the Yellow Emperor. However, historical legends show that the ancient ancestors of the Han nationality actually included people from clan tribal groups such as Qiang, Yi, Miao and Li. Therefore, Yu Shun came from Dongyi and Xia Yu from Qiang and Rong; There are also some legendary characters, according to different accounts, which can be interpreted as Yiqiang, Yiyi and Miao Li. This contradictory phenomenon of historical legends reflects the historical process of the gradual integration of clan and tribal groups from different sources into the same clan and creating a common ancestor.

The "Dynasties" before the Qin Dynasty were established by groups with different ethnic origins. They were regarded as the so-called "coming down in one continuous line", which was only the imagination of later generations on ancient history according to the concept of "great unification of China". However, the "Dynasties" established by these "different source" groups are geographically located in the Central Plains, and the latter indeed replaces the former in terms of time series and regional governance, and the subsequent dynasties absorb and integrate the ethnic blood and cultural traditions of the previous dynasty to a great extent. In the 21st century BC, the era of primitive commune system in the Central Plains came to the end of history, and class society has appeared on the land of the plains in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. After the 21st century BC, several dynasties of Xia, Shang and Western Zhou appeared one after another. After the king of Xia was Dayu, Xu Zhongshu believed that the main tribe of Xia Dynasty was Qiang. The ancestor of the king of Shang was originally the Dongyi. The king of Zhou claimed that his ancestors were a branch of the Xia people, lived between Rong and Di, and had a close relationship with the Qiang people. Zhou people are probably a Qiang people in Xirong. Although they all considered the Yellow Emperor as their ancestors, they actually came from different tribal groups. First, they went down to Heji between the Yellow River and its tributaries Wei, Fen, Yi and Luo, as well as the upper reaches of Ru and Ying, the tributaries of the Huai River; Then it developed to the vast areas of Huaihe River, Surabaya, Yangtze River and Hanshui River. After a long historical period of proximity, communication, struggle and integration, it has become a common family. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the family names of Hua and Xia had appeared, which were different from those of man, Yi, Rong and di. However, at this time, the distinction between Hua and Yi was not very strict. At first, there was Xia, a native of the western land, and "there was Xia" or even "Xiyi Xia", probably from merchants. After the establishment of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the word "having summer" hardly appeared again. At this time, the people of the western land were already the masters of the world, called the people of Zhou Dynasty, and "having summer" was no longer applicable.

In the spring and Autumn period, the concept of the nobility and inferiority of Chinese and barbarians was very strong. At that time, the standard to distinguish between Chinese and barbarians, race and culture were valued, and culture was the primary factor. "The difference between Yi and Xia" or "the difference between Yi and Xia" is the realistic reflection of the Confucian "outlook on the world" on the world order, which is specifically reflected in the cultural differences of different races in etiquette, customs, clothing, lifestyle, political system and so on. Therefore, the difference between Yi and Xia is not derived from blood and region, but based on cultural differences or etiquette. The reason why China continues to grow from small to large is that the barbarians continue to become Chinese, the Chinese continue to absorb and digest the barbarians, and the results of the continuous assimilation and integration of the Chinese and the "barbarians". Under the historical background at that time, the Chinese nationality had certain advantages in culture, so the thought of "mutual change between China and foreigners" was "using China to change foreigners", specifically "from foreigners to China" after learning the culture of the Chinese nationality. Mencius Teng Wengong Shang said: "I have heard of those who changed the foreigners in summer, but I have not heard of those who changed in the foreigners. Chen Liang, a native of Chu, also liked the way of Duke Zhou and Zhongni, and learned from China in the north." although Chen Liang is a Chu, he can become "Chinese" by learning "Chinese culture". Because of the etiquette and customs, costumes and other factors, Huayi can often translocate with each other. For example, the ancestors of the royal family of the state of Chu were granted in the area of jingman in the early Western Zhou Dynasty. In the early spring and Autumn period, the king of Chu claimed that barbarians took the lead in becoming king, and the princes called them jingman; Later, when the king of Chu fought for hegemony in the Central Plains, he regarded himself as maintaining the Chinese ritual system and was respected as the Chinese; Qin's ancestors were originally Dongyi, but they rose in the upper reaches of the Wei River and mixed with Rong and di. Their customs were mostly the same as Rong and di. Later, they settled in the middle and lower reaches of the Wei River, engaged in farming and became doctors of the Zhou Dynasty. After King Ping moved eastward, he was granted a vassal and established a state in the Western Zhou Dynasty. In the spring and Autumn period, it was generally regarded as Xirong. In the Warring States period, Qin and Chu were not only called Zhuxia together with Qi, Yan, Han, Zhao and Wei, but also the two most powerful Chinese princes. The seven Heroes United vertically, horizontally, merged and fought, but their ethnic bodies were the same, forming the trend of unification of the various Xia dynasties; Rong, Di, Yi and man who entered the Central Plains also gradually melted with China, so China has become a stable ethnic group, and the distribution area has reached the middle and lower reaches of Liaohe River in the northeast, Taohe River Basin in the northwest, Bashu and Guizhou in the southwest, Huxiang, Wu and Yue in the southeast.

Formation and development

In the history of Han social development, the long feudal society is a prominent feature. Although the academic discussion on the stages of ancient Chinese society has been going on for almost half a century, there is still no completely consistent conclusion, but when Qin Shihuang unified China, he has entered the feudal society and has basically obtained a unified understanding. On the question of when the Han nationality was formed, there was an extensive discussion in Chinese academic circles from 1954 to 1956. There are generally three views: ① the Han nationality had the conditions to form a nation in the Qin and Han Dynasties, and continued to develop after its formation. In modern times, because the capitalist system did not occupy a dominant position in China, the Han nation did not become a capitalist nation. ② Nationality is the product of the rise of the bourgeoisie. The formation of the Han nationality should be after 1840. ③ The formation of the Han nationality should coincide with the historical period of the germination of Chinese capitalism. The late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, or as early as the Tang and Song Dynasties, should be the period when the Han nationality formed into a nation. This academic discussion involves the discussion of many aspects, such as the definition of nation, the theory of nation formation and the specific history of Han nation formation. It is still developing in depth and has no final conclusion. According to the general characteristics of the nation and the records of historical records, the current academic view is that the Han nationality took the Huaxia nationality in the Pre-Qin Dynasty as the core and formed a unified nation in the Qin and Han Dynasties. By 1840, it had experienced the development process of more than 2000 years under the feudal autocratic monarchy system; From 1840 to 1949, it got new development in the struggle against imperialism and feudalism; After the founding of the people's Republic of China in 1949, it has gradually developed into a socialist nation together with the Chinese people of all ethnic groups.

The first is the rise of the Xia, Shang, Zhou, Chu and Yue nationalities in the first Qin Dynasty, and then the Xia, Shang, Zhou, Chu and Yue nationalities and some barbarians, Yi, Rong and di Rong in the spring and autumn and Warring States periods. Finally, the Chinese nationality developed and transformed into the Han nationality in the "great unification" in the Qin and Han Dynasties. In 221 BC, Qin Shihuang annexed the six countries. In the "great unification", the Chinese nation also moved from dispersion to unification. After the establishment of the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shihuang adopted a series of measures to unify and stabilize the Chinese nation, such as implementing the county system, stipulating that "books are the same as words", unifying currency, weights and measures, and "cars are the same track", "lines are the same Lun", as well as building the Great Wall. For the first time in Chinese history, a unified autocratic centralized feudal state was established. Under the condition of national unification, the Han nationality has formed a unified nation.

After the unification of Qin Dynasty, the ethnic name of China was still used. However, originally belonging to the people of six countries in Shandong (east of Gushan Mountain), they have been the "head of Guizhou" of the Qin Dynasty. Although the state of Qin was short, the nationalities in the western regions (including today's Xinjiang), the Huns and the Han Dynasty still called the Central Plains Qin people. The Han Dynasty lasted more than 400 years from the Western Han Dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty, which provided historical conditions for the name of the Han Dynasty and the Chinese nation. In 206 BC, the Han Dynasty followed the Qin Dynasty and prospered for more than 400 years. It communicated with the western regions, tuntian and Huangzhong, set up a captain to protect Wuhuan, subdued the Huns, conquered the Southwest Barbarians, and set up prefectures and counties to pacify the Zhao family's South Vietnam, East ou and Minyue. After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty unified South Vietnam and Minyue, Baiyue was gradually assimilated by the Han nationality and became an important source of the local Han nationality, and some developed into today's ethnic minorities. Therefore, the unification of multi-ethnic China has made new development. After the Han Dynasty, Hua Yi lived in China, especially during the Sixteen States of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the northern and Southern Dynasties, the "five Hu" established a country in northern China and became a ruling nation. In terms of nationality, although they are not taboo as barbarians, in terms of country, they regard themselves as Chinese orthodoxy by possessing two capitals (Chang'an and Luoyang). Therefore, because the residents of the Central Plains, formerly known as "Huaxia", performed Han etiquette and dressed in Han clothes, they were gradually called "Han people". The remnant of the Western Jin Dynasty was scornfully called "man" by the Hu nationality. The "Han" in the ethnic sense was originally an informal Title adopted by the Southern Dynasty to distinguish the Chinese people in the Central Plains in order to distinguish them from the residents in the unification. As for Xianbei and other ethnic minorities who grew up in the Central Plains, they are called "Han", which has an obvious color of regional discrimination.

The Han Dynasty was a powerful country. In foreign exchanges, other nationalities called the army of the Han Dynasty "Han soldiers", the envoys of the Han Dynasty "Han envoys", and the people of the Han Dynasty "Han people". Therefore, the name of the Han Dynasty was called the name of the Chinese nation by other ethnic groups in the unprecedented and frequent exchanges between the Han Dynasty and the surrounding ethnic minorities, such as connecting the western regions, defeating the Huns, Pingxi Qiang, conquering Korea, serving the Southwest Barbarians, collecting Fujian, Guangdong and Southern Guangdong. Under the Qin and Han Dynasties, Hua Xia Hua neither paid special attention to blood ties nor culture, and paid attention to political identity. For example, in the registered residence system of the government, whether the people or the foreigners were barbaric or barbaric. It is an overall situation to equate the "people" with China, but sometimes there is a transitional stage, that is, entering the "people", but the previous non Chinese identity will be remembered by everyone. After several generations, this memory is slowly smoothed out and finally become a normal people.

After the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Central Plains was in chaos, the centralized feudal country was fragmented, feudal separatism, disputes and wars were everywhere. During the great split, scuffle and turmoil, various nationalities or tribes moved around. The Huns, Xianbei, wuwan, Di and Qiang in the North came to the Central Plains one after another, which was known as the "five Hu Luanhua" in history. Some barbarians in Jianghan area also flocked to the Central Plains, forming a situation in which the Han nationality and Huns, Xianbei, wuwan, Di, Qiang and barbarians lived together in the Central Plains; The Han people in the North moved southward in large numbers; Historically known as "crossing the south in clothes", it has formed a situation in which the Han nationality and southern ethnic minorities or tribes such as barbarians, slang and Liao live together in the Yangtze River and Pearl River Basin. However, most of them have been assimilated by the Han nationality, lost their national characteristics and become a part of the Han nationality.

"Han'er" is the self proclaimed name of the people in North China of Liao and Jin Dynasties, and it is also the name of the people in Song Dynasty; The people in the Song Dynasty were called "Nanjia" and "barbarian" by the northerners, and "Nanren" after the unification of the Yuan Dynasty. At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, there was a deep gap between Han children and southerners. The concept of "Han people" in the Yuan Dynasty never included southerners. The division of "four people" is not only the recognition of the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty on the achievements of ethnic integration in the song, Liao and Jin Dynasties of the Five Dynasties, but also creates more favorable conditions for the integration of "Han people" and "southern people" in the Ming Dynasty. "Ming people", "Han people" and "Chinese" are all found in the records of the Ming Dynasty, which has become the title of the main ethnic groups of the Ming Dynasty. In the context of population classification in the Qing Dynasty, "people" or "people" obviously has the connotation of "Han" or "Han".

Modern development

The Han nationality has always been a nation rich in revolutionary tradition. For the cruel oppression and exploitation of the feudal landlord class and the autocratic monarchy system, since Chen Sheng and Wu Guang in the late Qin Dynasty, thousands of peasant uprisings have been held in ancient China, some of which are dominated by the Han nationality or a certain ethnic minority, with the participation of many other ethnic groups. During the uprising of Li Zicheng in the late Ming Dynasty, he put forward the slogan of "equal farmland and free grain"; In the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement of the Qing Dynasty, the "Tian Mu system of the Chinese dynasty" was formulated, which shows that at the end of the feudal society, farmers have tried to use equalitarianism to change the feudal land inequality and hierarchical feudal oppression. Although these uprisings eventually failed due to the limitations of history and class, they had a significant impact on the development of Chinese history.

For national oppression, the Han people have a historical record of heroic resistance, especially for foreign aggressors, the Han people often unite with other nationalities in China to fight bravely to defend the motherland. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, western colonists came eastward, Dutch colonists occupied China's Taiwan, and the anti Qing team led by Zheng Chenggong expelled the Dutch colonists at one stroke. This struggle was supported by the people of all ethnic groups in Taiwan. In the early Qing Dynasty, the Tsarist Russian colonists invaded the Heilongjiang Basin, and the people of all nationalities in Heilongjiang rose up together and resolutely resisted. Later, in the Yaksa battle in which Emperor Kangxi decided to expel the Tsarist Russian colonists, the Han Army and people and the army and people of all nationalities closely united and fought with blood, and finally won the victory of the Yaksa counterattack. It shows that in ancient China, when foreign colonists invaded, the people of all ethnic groups had shown the heroic struggle spirit of sharing a common hatred and fighting together.

For national oppression, the Han people have a historical record of heroic resistance. In 1840, Britain launched the Opium War against China. From then on, China gradually became a semi colonial and semi feudal society until the founding of the people's Republic of China. The two Opium Wars launched by Britain against China, the French war of aggression against China, the Sino Japanese War of 1894-1895, the war of aggression against China by the Eight Allied forces, and even the outbreak of the "September 18th" incident and the war of resistance against Japan in 1931 all show that the contradiction between imperialism and the Chinese nation is the main contradiction in modern Chinese society. All the anti aggression wars and other forms of anti aggression struggle that took place after 1840 were jointly participated by the Han nationality and the people of other nationalities in China. The Guangzhou Uprising, zhennanguan uprising, Yunnan Hekou uprising and the 1911 revolution launched by the "alliance" led by Sun Yat Sen are the old bourgeois democratic revolution with the Han nationality as the main body and members of ethnic minorities participating. "Nationalism" put forward by Sun Yat Sen during the "alliance" drew a clear line from those political factions that simply advocated full exclusion. After the revolution of 1911, the Republic of China was established, with the five ethnic republics of Han, Manchu, Mongolian, Hui and Tibetan as the regime. Although it was usurped by imperialist warlords, it played a positive role in the awakening of Han and other ethnic groups in China.

The May 4th Movement in 1919 marked the beginning of the new democratic revolution led by the proletariat. The development and victory of China's new democratic revolution generally rose first in the Han areas and gradually developed to the border ethnic areas. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the Han nationality and all ethnic groups united in the revolutionary struggle against imperialism and feudalism. After a long struggle, the people's Republic of China was finally founded in 1949.

Since the founding of the people's Republic of China, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the people's government, with the development of socialist revolution and construction, not only the Han nationality itself has undergone great changes, but also has established a socialist national relationship with all ethnic groups characterized by equality, unity and mutual assistance.

Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 1978, with the rapid development of various socialist construction undertakings in China, the life of the Han nationality has been continuously improved and the cultural level has been improved day by day. They are making great strides together with all ethnic groups to build a socialist modern China. The socialist ethnic relations between the Han nationality and all ethnic groups are also developing rapidly.

quantity

The Han population is about 1.3 billion, accounting for 19% of the world's total population. It is also the most populous ethnic group in the world. It is distributed all over the world. The Han is the main ethnic group in several modern countries or regions. The Chinese mainland accounts for 92% of China's population, accounting for 74% of Singapore's population, accounting for 24.5% of Malaysia's population, accounting for 98% of Taiwan's population.

On May 11, 2021, Ning Jizhen, director of the National Bureau of statistics, informed that the Han population in China was 1286.31 million, an increase of 4.93% compared with 2010.

quantity

The Han nationality takes the ancient Chinese nationality as the main body and comes from the integration of multiple nationalities in history. If the population of the Han nationality is calculated from the origin of the Xia nationality, there are more than 2 million people. After Xia, Shang and Wednesday dynasties, there are about 20 million people by the time of the Warring States period. At the time of the formation of the two Han Dynasties, the Han population had reached more than 50 million, between 80 million and 90 million in the early Tang Dynasty, and more than 104.41 million in the Daguan period of the Northern Song Dynasty. After the Yuan Dynasty, under the general trend of China's reunification, the snowball of the Han population grew larger and larger. In the 28th year of Wanli of the Ming Dynasty (1601), the population reached 150 million. By the 30th year of Daoguang in the Qing Dynasty (1851), it had reached more than 400 million. When the people's Republic of China was founded, its population was about 600 million, and by the end of the 20th century, it had reached more than 1 billion. Geographically, it develops from the Yellow River and Yangtze River basin to the Pearl River basin to Taiwan Island and Hainan Island, to the northeast to Heilongjiang Basin, to the northwest to the north and south of Tianshan Mountain, and to the southwest to Yunnan Guizhou Plateau and Qinghai Tibet Plateau. As a single nation with the largest population in the world, the Han nationality is often regarded as a model of national assimilation. According to the popular saying, the reason why the Han population is so large is mainly realized by assimilating many other nationalities. Some people liken this process to a "snowball".

distribution

According to statistics in 1990, China's 1.039 billion Han population accounts for 91.92% of the country's total population, of which the proportion of Han population in the local total population is 99.77% and 99.49% in Jiangsu and Zhejiang respectively, while 37.58% and 2.05% in Xinjiang and Tibet respectively.

According to the seventh national census in 2020, as of 0:00 on November 1, 2020, the population of Han nationality was 1286311334, accounting for 91.11%; The population of ethnic minorities is 125467390, accounting for 8.89%. Compared with the sixth national census in 2010, the Han population increased by 60378693, an increase of 4.93%; The population of ethnic minorities increased by 11675179, an increase of 10.26%.

Ethnic system

The Han nationality can be divided into many Han nationalities due to genetic, linguistic, cultural and social diversity. For the people under the nation, people in the same people often have a strong sense of identity for a specific thing, believing that this thing represents some characteristics and spiritual traditions of their own people. Generally speaking, people of the same ethnic group live in the same or similar areas and have the same regional identity. Regional identity often becomes the name of ethnic groups, such as Chaozhou ethnic group. Guangfu ethnic group, Fulao ethnic group and Hakka ethnic group are the three major ethnic groups in Lingnan of Han nationality. Guangfu people are formed by the integration of Nanyue aborigines and the Han nationality in the Central Plains. Its source can be traced back to the Nanyue aboriginal culture in the pre-Qin period. Nanyue indigenous culture is an important gene of Guangfu culture. Therefore, Guangfu culture has the characteristics different from the Central Plains culture. Guangfu people are not simply Lingnan aborigines or Nanyue aborigines, but a people system formed by long-term exchanges and integration between Central Plains immigrants and Lingnan (Nanyue) aborigines. Among the Han ethnic groups, the Hakka ethnic group is the only Han ethnic group not named by region. Until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Han people who moved south continued to integrate with the local indigenous people, and a group different from the Han people in the Central Plains and the local indigenous people - the Hakka people system was derived. In 1905, Huang Jie, a native of Shunde, Guangdong Province, excluded the Hakka from the Han nationality in his textbook "Guangdong local geography textbook", saying that "there are two races in Guangdong, Hakka and Fulao, which are neither Cantonese nor Han", and is listed as "foreign races" together with Fulao and Dan. This aroused the dissatisfaction of the guests' families at that time. By combing the genealogy, especially the genealogy of non Hakka system, and comparing with the genealogy of Hakka system, it can be considered that the Hakka ethnic group is formed by the integration of various ethnic groups in the south. Hakka people had little resistance when they entered northeast Guangdong, but when they developed to the southwest, they had fierce friction with local residents. Local residents despised these outsiders as "guest people", which should be at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries.

migrate

In history, the Han population has moved southward from the Yellow River Basin and the north of the Huaihe River to the Yangtze River and the Pearl River Basin several times. When the Qin Dynasty unified the six kingdoms, a large number of powerful families in Guandong were moved into Guanzhong. Similar immigration activities also occurred in the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC ~ 8 AD). However, the economic development at that time determined that the counties in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River were the most densely populated areas in China. For example, taking the Qinling Mountains and the Huaihe River as the boundary, the counties and regions were divided into North and south. In the Han Dynasty, the North accounted for about 80% of the total household registration at that time, and the South accounted for about 20%. From the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25 ~ 220), the northern separatist regime and scuffle began, and the people began to move south. In the "Yongjia rebellion" at the end of the Western Jin Dynasty (265 ~ 316), the people in the Yellow River Basin moved south to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the Han River Basin on a large scale. During the southern and Northern Dynasties, the population continued to move southward, increasing the population of the Yangtze River Basin, but the distribution of more people in the north than in the South has not changed. However, if we compare the total population of the southern counties in the late Sui Dynasty with that in the Western Jin Dynasty, the population of the Yangtze River Basin and Lingnan has more than doubled. At that time, in southern China, non Han nationalities were the overwhelming majority.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties (907 ~ 960) were still in a melee of separatist regimes, and the population in the North moved south again. At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, Jin soldiers committed crimes in the south, and there was a climax of the second population migration to the south. The population of the South has increased greatly, mainly concentrated in the Sichuan Basin, around the Great Lakes such as Dongting, Poyang and Taihu Lake, and in the Yangtze River and Pearl River Delta. These places become densely populated areas with a higher population density than the northern states. In addition to the above two large-scale population migrations to the south, there are also several large-scale population migrations to the south. The southern economy has developed rapidly since the Eastern Jin Dynasty. By the Song Dynasty, China's economic focus shifted south. The population density of the South was not only higher than that of the north, but also the total population of the Han nationality exceeded that of the north by the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, with the gradual integration of the Yue people into the Han people who moved south, different ethnic groups such as Guangfu, Chaozhou (Fulao) and Hakka have been formed successively, while the Yue people who were not integrated into the Han people have gradually developed into border ethnic groups such as Zhuang, Li, Yao and she. The physical characteristics of the Han nationality in the ancient Central Plains are quite different from those of the local Han nationality, but they are more similar to the Han nationality in southern provinces such as Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian. From the pre Qin period to the Han Dynasty, the residents in the Central Plains belonged to the ancient Central Plains type. However, since the Song Dynasty, the physical characteristics of the local Han nationality began to deviate from this type, showing a more mixed physical characteristics.

From the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Qing Dynasty, many Han people migrated to the border areas through reclamation, immigration, captivity and exile, and crossed the border with the border ethnic minorities to jointly develop the border areas. For more than two thousand years, many Han people who migrated to the frontier were integrated into the local ethnic minorities. Among them, the Northeast Bohai people in the Tang Dynasty, the southwest Nanzhao people, the Qidan people in the Liao Dynasty and the Manchu people in the early Qing Dynasty all grew and prospered by melting a large number of Han people. In the process of development, other ethnic minorities have also absorbed the elements of the Han nationality, and the internal migration of various ethnic groups in the border areas, which are mixed with the Han nationality, are often integrated into the Han nationality. The large population of the Han nationality is inseparable from the continuous absorption of other ethnic minorities.

The emergence and dissemination of immigrant legends about the origin of ancestors is not only the symbol of the formation of regional identity, but also the folk basis of national construction. The legend of Nanxiong Zhuji lane is widely spread in the Pearl River Delta. Many places think their ancestors migrated from Nanxiong Zhuji lane. This is related to the naturalization of Cantonese in the early Ming Dynasty. In order to get legal status and hope that the government should put them in registered residence, local aborigines and pariah people used the saying that Nanxiong's Aboriginal alley moved to prove their Central Plains identity and its legitimacy. In addition to the legend of Nanxiong Zhuji Lane in the Pearl River Delta, there are many legends of ancestors from Nanjing Zhuji Lane in the western region. The Cantonese who claim to be from Zhuji Lane in Nanxiong not only have earlier naturalized people to distinguish themselves from the Yao, Dan and she people, but also have developed the Yao, Dan and she people in Shatin to transform their ethnic identity into Han people. Thus, people (or ethnic groups) with different historical and cultural traditions gradually share the same ancestor immigration legend, thus forming the regional identity of the Pearl River Delta. During the period of boundary relocation and boundary restoration during the reign of Kangxi, people who spoke Fulao dialect in the coastal areas first entered the Hakka mountains, and then people including people with different dialects moved to the plains and coastal areas. Then there was a large number of clan construction. In many genealogies, there were stories of ancestors moving from the Central Plains to Ninghua Shibi, and then to their current residence. Before the late Ming Dynasty, there was no such ethnic group classification as "Hakka" or "Hakka". This later called "Hakka" group was the indigenous people living in Nanling Mountain area. The genealogies of Fujian and Taiwan generally claim that their ancestors came from Gushi, Guangzhou, Henan Province. However, since the famous scholars Zheng Qiao and Fang Dacong in the Song Dynasty, many scholars have questioned and examined them. The origin of Gushi legend is not only influenced by the political and economic privileges of the emperor's hometown and the orthodox concept of the Central Plains, but also closely related to the construction of geographical relations, the psychology of sage worship and so on. The legend of great locust tree immigrants in Hongdong, Shanxi Province is mostly distributed in northern areas such as Beijing, Henan, Hebei and Shandong. In Denglai and Jiaodong, it is often said that their ancestors came from "little Yunnan" and some from "tiedujiu" in Sichuan. The legends of ancestral immigrants in the border areas mostly say that they came from the Central Plains and have a long history; The legend of ancestral immigrants in the hinterland only talks about moving from place a to place B. These emigration places are even unknown and difficult to check.

After thousands of years of coexistence and migration with all ethnic groups in China, the Han nationality has formed the distribution characteristics of centralized distribution in the areas and cities with the most developed agriculture in the Songliao plain, the Yellow River, Huaihe River, Yangtze River, Pearl River and other rivers and rivers, and staggered and mixed with local ethnic groups in the frontier.

In the process of long-term historical development, a considerable number of Han people emigrated abroad. Some of them have taken root and developed in the countries of emigration and become local ethnic Chinese, while others maintain Chinese nationality and become overseas Chinese scattered all over the world.

The Han nationality established most dynasties in China and dominated Chinese politics for a long time, but it also had a history of being ruled by other nationalities. For example, the Western Jin Dynasty died in Zhao Han established by the Huns, the Northern Song Dynasty died in Jin established by Nvzhen, the Southern Song Dynasty died in Yuan established by the Mongols, and the Southern Ming and Ming Zheng died in Qing established by the Manchus. Finally, the Manchu regime was overthrown in the Republic of China, which was established on October 10, 1911 with the Han nationality as the main body. At the same time, the Han nationality was also the main force in the establishment of the people's Republic of China.

The main body of traditional political culture is the feudal political culture with Confucianism as the core, which has been formed for a long time in the feudal society, including the one-way radiation political ideology starting from a central element (monarch), the political cognition of the integration of heaven, monarch, country and family, and the ethical supreme political evaluation model with "loyalty" and "filial piety" as the core, Losing the political attachment emotion of subjectivity, well-off, the Millennium political ideal of "Datong", the political thinking core of the spirit of famous education, and so on.

Agriculture

The Han nationality has always been known for its diligence, frugality and creative spirit. The economy is dominated by agriculture and concurrently engaged in family sidelines. This natural economy of "men farming and women weaving" has always occupied an absolute advantage in ancient China.

Agriculture

Agriculture is the main material basis of ancient Chinese civilization. Agricultural production is known as developed in history, especially famous for developed irrigation and intensive cultivation. Many water conservancy projects have been built in all dynasties. Dujiangyan built under the leadership of Li Bing, governor of Qin and Shu, not only made Chengdu plain a famous granary in China in ancient times, but also enjoyed the reputation of "land of abundance". Dujiangyan can be regarded as a typical representative of ancient water conservancy and irrigation projects.

In terms of farming technology, the Han nationality and its ancestors have always paid attention to farming time, soil improvement, rotation of cultivated land, fertilization, moisture conservation, seed selection, cultivation of new varieties and improvement of agricultural tools. At the same time, they also continue to absorb new crop varieties and learn farming technology from all ethnic groups at home and even abroad. Therefore, it not only created a high level of yield in ancient times, but also the abundance of crop varieties is rare in the world.

handicraft industry

Handicraft industry also has a fairly high level of development. On the basis of highly developed agriculture and handicraft production, ancient science and technology, such as astronomy, mathematics, agronomy, medicine, smelting and architecture, have made great achievements in the developed history of world civilization, the invention of papermaking and printing, the use of gunpowder in war, the use of compass in navigation, sericulture, silk weaving, porcelain making, tea making and other technologies, It has made outstanding contributions to the development of world culture, science and technology. Commerce also developed to a certain extent in ancient times.

nomadic

Apart from the farming ethnic areas represented by the Han nationality, China also has a large number of ethnic groups in nomadic areas, hunting areas and fishing and hunting areas. The exchange of agricultural and handicraft products, animal husbandry and hunting products and other local products between these two categories of ethnic groups is not only the need of life, but also promotes the production and development of the people of all ethnic groups. The "tea horse market" formed since the Tang and Song Dynasties is the main form of economic complementarity and exchange between the Han nationality and its brothers.

business

The development of Commerce, in turn, is conducive to the development of agriculture and handicraft industry. By the middle and late Ming Dynasty, capitalism had sprouted, especially in the handicraft factories and businesses in some towns in the south of the Yangtze River. From the middle and late 19th century to the 1930s, China's modern industry also developed to a certain extent, mainly in the areas inhabited by the Han nationality in large and medium-sized cities in the mainland with developed coastal and transportation.

National totem

The Han nationality created splendid culture and art in ancient times. It has many representative figures and works with far-reaching influence in various fields such as politics, military, philosophy, economy, history, natural science, literature and art. In the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, there was a lively situation of a hundred schools of thought contending among the vassal states of China. The achievements of various ideological and academic schools reflected the ancient Greek civilization at the same time.

During the Western Zhou Dynasty, a perfect cultural system was formed, that is, the culture of rites and music. Zhou rites were very cumbersome. According to Zhou rites, there were five Rites: auspicious, vicious, military, guest and fine. Music was highly valued in the Western Zhou Dynasty, with special official management, and music officials were also recorded in Jin Wenzhong. The music and dance of the Zhou Dynasty, such as Da Wu, was written by King Wu Ke Shang of the Zhou Dynasty. The Zhou Dynasty had a relatively perfect education system, such as "Rites", "music", "shooting", "Royal", "calligraphy" and "number", which were the cultural and educational contents of the aristocrats of the Zhou Dynasty. The earliest Chinese classics such as the book of changes, the book of Shang, the book of songs, Zhou rites, the book of music (lost) and the spring and autumn all came into being in this period. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (141-87 BC), the policy of "deposing a hundred schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone" was implemented. Therefore, Confucianism represented by Confucius and Mencius became the ruling ideology and ruled the ancient thought and culture of the Han nationality for nearly 2000 years. At the same time, it affected other ethnic minorities to varying degrees, and even China's neighboring countries.

National totem

The totem of the Han nationality is composed of a dragon and a Phoenix, which means Yin and Yang, that is, men and women. Because the Han nationality has a large population and occupies most of China's historical development, it continues China's oldest animal dragon as the symbol of its own nation. Dragon flying and Phoenix dancing are the national symbols of the Central Plains and the south.

As for the origin of the dragon, Mr. Wen Yiduo pointed out in his three works Fuxi examination, dragon and Phoenix examination and Dragon Boat Festival examination that the Chinese people are called "descendants of the dragon" from the legend of the Yellow Emperor era. It is said that before unifying the Central Plains, the Yellow Emperor took "bear" as the symbolic pattern. After the defeat of Chiyou to unify the Central Plains, its logo took and integrated the iconic patterns of other annexed clans and tribes. Such as bird logo, horse logo, deer logo, snake logo, cow logo, fish logo, etc. Finally, the image "dragon" worshipped by the Chinese nation is combined, which is a virtual comprehensive God. This peculiar image implies the development of the Chinese nation, the integration and unity of all ethnic groups, and has become a symbolic pattern of the ancestors of the Chinese nation. Later, the image of "dragon" began to appear in various patterns, and gradually became the Furui of the emperor. It is said that Emperor Yan was born by a woman named Deng who felt the "divine dragon" in the sky, the Yellow Emperor was born by attaching treasure to the "Beidou", Emperor Yao was born by Qingdu feeling the "red dragon", and the ancestor was the offspring of the dragon. Therefore, the descendants of the Chinese nation are the "descendants of the dragon".

The spirit of Dragon: it is the spiritual realm of all things in one, compatible and stored; It is the life attitude of pursuing harmony and group standard; It is the complex of the great unification of China.

Phoenix's moral character: Phoenix's nirvana for light symbolizes rebirth and the awakening of the Chinese nation; It is a sense of hardship integrating people's sense of responsibility and historical mission; It is the idealism of constantly striving for self-improvement and sacrificing oneself to promote Tao; It is an attitude of hard work, frugality and hard struggle.

Cultural belief

The ancient concept of state of the Han nationality is related to the concept of family. The so-called world of one family name is actually the infinite expansion of the concept of paternal family. The emperor was regarded as the "son of heaven" and "king father", and the people were regarded as "children". The moral norms under this system believe that "filial piety" is the basis of "loyalty", and "loyalty" is the highest requirement for "filial piety". At the same time, all human relations theories are based on the philosophy of "destiny view", and maintaining imperial rule and all orders of wealth, honor and inferiority are the embodiment of destiny. Dong Zhongshu (179-104 BC), a thinker of the Han Dynasty, based on the theological view of "harmony between heaven and man", gave play to the Confucianism of Confucius and Mencius, and summarized the "three cardinal principles" and "five permanent principles" embodied in human relations, which became an important basis for social ethics and legislation of the ancient Han nationality. Religion has a great influence on many nationalities, and there is no religion in the complete sense that the whole nation must believe in among the Han nationality. The Han nationality has adopted an inclusive attitude towards various religions since ancient times. From the Han Dynasty to modern times, a variety of foreign religions, such as Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Catholicism and Christianity, have been believed by some Han people. No matter what kind of foreign religion, its doctrine does not conflict with the inherent view of destiny and ancestor worship of the Han nationality, or some of its doctrines are adapted to the inherent religious concept of the Han nationality. Although Taoism is a religion formed in the history of the Han nationality, not every member of the whole nation believes in it. In the whole Chinese history, especially in the history of the Han nationality, there has never been a "national religion", except that a few emperors especially believed in a certain religion and thus obtained some political privileges. In the Song Dynasty, Confucianism developed into Neo Confucianism, which was a theory of human relations that absorbed Buddhist philosophy.

The "Three Religions" collectively referred to as Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism began in the Northern Zhou Dynasty of the northern and Southern Dynasties, about the middle and late 6th century A.D; In the Tang Dynasty, the saying of "Three Religions" was common to both the government and the people. In the middle Tang Dynasty, the three religions were described as the tripod of the tripod. Since then, the structure of Chinese culture has gradually been regarded as the tripartite confrontation of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Even today's "Sinology fever" still takes Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism as its main body. Confucianism restrains or integrates Buddhism and Taoism in the form of "ethics", which provides a set of moral and ethical norms that dominate Chinese life. Buddhism and Taoism, therefore, cooperate with the practice of Confucian ethics. Buddhism, in particular, has also undertaken many practical functions of charitable relief in civil society. The integration of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism has formed a religious and cultural system of "harmony but difference". This phenomenon is rare in the history of world civilization.

Yan Huang identity

For the Han people, Yan Huang identity is one of the symbols and representatives of the national spiritual tradition. The word "Yanhuang" originally came from Guoyu. Guoyu · zhouyu II: "although the summer is declining, the Qi and the Qi are still in existence; although Shen and LV are declining, Qi and Xu are still in existence... Both yellow and hot." Guoyu · Jinyu said: "in the past, the Shaodian married the Youkan family and gave birth to the Yellow Emperor and the Yan Emperor." what is the relationship between Yan and Huang in historical records is confusing, and scholars still don't know. Sima Qian did not specifically write about Emperor Yan in the historical records, but only listed the Yellow Emperor as the first of the five emperors. Records of the Five Emperors: "when Emperor Yan wanted to invade the princes of the mausoleum, Xuanyuan fought with Emperor Yan in the field of Hanquan. After three wars, he won his will. Chiyou made a riot, so the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou fought in the field of Zhuolu, so the birds killed Chiyou and became the Yellow Emperor instead of Shennong." some people believe that the rotation of the two emperors is a myth made up by Tian Qi to create a theory of Jiang Yu. Before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, both the political power established by the Han nationality and the political power established by ethnic minorities took "respecting the Xia and sacrificing the Yi" as the core value to varying degrees. Even for the ruling needs of the ethnic minority political power established in this period, they all claimed that they were descendants of the Chinese people and advertised the orthodox status of their "Chinese" descendants.

Huangdi nationality, Yandi nationality and Jiuli nationality are the three most influential tribes in the Central Plains in the heroic era. After the war, the Huangdi nationality dominated and integrated with each other, forming the later Chinese nation. The Yellow Emperor appeared in the memory of Chinese literature. The more reliable time was about the Warring States period. In the "pre Qin documents" written from the Warring States period to the early Han Dynasty, the Yellow Emperor was gradually widely mentioned, but at first, he only developed simultaneously with ancient emperors such as Fuxi, Gonggong, Shennong and Shaofu, without the meaning of clan or tribe common ancestor. However, by the time Sima Qian wrote the historical records in the early Han Dynasty, the Yellow Emperor had become the first primitive emperor in his mind and the common ancestor of the imperial families of Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, there was a "Yellow Emperor fever": there were discussions about the Yellow Emperor everywhere in newspapers and magazines. The deeds of the Yellow Emperor were recorded as songs and music, used as teaching subjects, and used for children's allegory... Under the impact of western nationalism, intellectuals in the late Qing Dynasty tried to construct cultural symbols of their national identity, so they chose the mythical figure - the Yellow Emperor from ancient legends, It is emphasized that it is the "ancestor" of the Chinese nation. The concept of "Chinese descendants" also became a commonly accepted self appellation at this time, which has influenced until today.

Ancestor worship

Ancestor worship and filial piety are the common psychology of the Han nationality. In order to close the relationship with the Central Plains groups and establish the legitimacy of intervention and entering the Central Plains, marginal ethnic groups have appeared the phenomenon of "attachment" with different contents. For example, Wu, Qin and Chu in the spring and Autumn period called themselves "descendants of the Yellow Emperor". This "attachment of the Yellow Emperor" continued to the "ancestor of the Han people" of the chieftains in modern Southwest China. In general genealogy, we have to find a prominent ancestor, either an emperor or sage, or a senior official or celebrity, even dating back to the three emperors and five emperors. Since these ancient dignitaries basically came from the Yellow River Basin in the north, if we want to connect our family, especially those not in the Yellow River Basin, with these ancestors, we can only make up a migration history.

Clothing hairstyle

In terms of clothing, the Han nationality has its own long-standing and beautiful clothing, namely Hanfu. In each dynasty, the colors of costumes were respected. Generally, they were Xia black, Shang white, Zhou Chi, Qin black, Han Chi, Tang clothes were yellow, and the flag was red. In the Ming Dynasty, it was appropriate to adopt the red color of Zhou, Han, Tang and song. Hanfu is one of the oldest national costumes in the world. After the Qing army entered the customs in 1644, a highly centralized government with Manchu as the core was established. The ruler ordered the whole country to shave hair and change clothes, which caused national anger, dissatisfaction and armed resistance. Then the Qing Dynasty carried out armed and bloody repression and massacre, and the Hanfu gradually disappeared. In 1683, the Qing army entered Taiwan to destroy the rest of Zheng Chenggong. Since then, Hanfu has completely disappeared from the daily life of the Han nationality.

Due to the demise of Hanfu, long robes began to spread among the Han people in the Qing Dynasty. The style of clothes developed to the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. Men generally wear a pair of blouses and trousers inside and a big blouse outside. They pay more attention to a mandarin jacket, which is called "long robe mandarin jacket". The trousers are inlaid with an eight inch wide waist. Later, Zhongshan suit became popular, but the countryside still wore long robes, Mandarin coats, short shirts and trousers. Up to now, there are still old people in remote mountainous areas wearing long robes. In the late Qing Dynasty, women wore flared knee length blouses and trousers. After the Republic of China, they wore "axe mouth blouses", which were different from the front, big front and Pipa front. They wore skirts, such as Phoenix Tail skirt and pleated skirt. After the 1930s, cheongsam became popular, but rural women mostly wore large blouses and trousers. Modern Han clothing, mostly Western clothing. However, as we enter the 21st century, more and more Han people wear Hanfu again, and this folk spontaneous movement to revive Hanfu is usually called "Hanfu movement".

Among them, the right lapel (large lapel) of the top is always retained. From the jade carvings, stone carvings and pottery statues of the Shang Dynasty unearthed in Anyang, Henan Province, we can see the appearance of the right Lapel high collar clothes. After that, although Hu Fu was introduced and short clothes and shorts appeared, the jacket is always characterized by the right lapel, whether it is the "deep clothes" of the Western Han Dynasty, the "cross collar Robe" of the Tang and Song Dynasties, or even the "long robe" of the Qing Dynasty. Modern men's robes or modern women's cheongsam have inherited the characteristics of the right lapel of the coat.

The cloth shoes with thousand layer soles, with round mouth and low top, are light, breathable and comfortable. They are also one of the clothes with rich national characteristics of the Han nationality.

Hair style, ancient Han men did not shave their hair, and their hair was crowned on the top; The Manchu rulers in the Qing Dynasty forced the Han people to shave their hair and braid; After the Republic of China, they cut braids and left short hair, mostly western style, flat top style or bald head. Han women have more hair styles, with high bun in ancient times, Liuhai, single braid or double bun in modern times, long bun in middle-aged women and long bun in the back of the head in old age. After the Republic of China, many women changed to cut short hair and keep their hair flush with their ears. Modern Han men's hair style has no characteristics, and women still comb long braids as the hair style with national characteristics.

In ancient times, men of Han nationality had beards and beards at a certain age, and women had hairpin ceremony at the age of 15, commonly known as "opening face". The popularity of women's foot binding began in the Song Dynasty, which is a general consensus. Tao Zongyi advocated that women's foot binding was to distinguish from Mongolian people in the Yuan Dynasty. The Qing government always took a negative attitude towards foot binding. Foot binding was regarded as "Chinese law" by the Ming people and became a cultural symbol to distinguish the Yi and Xia dynasties. Compared with men's shaving and easy clothing, Han women maintain the old foot binding custom. Therefore, there are voices of praise among the people that "men forbid women" and "men do not lower women".

In terms of wearing, Peiyu was popular in the ancient Han nationality. Both men and women wore belly pockets, which means landing safely. They should wear "Tianguan lock" from the age of one to five, also known as "long-life lock".

Languages

The language of the Han nationality is Chinese and is written in Chinese characters. Chinese belongs to the Sino Tibetan language family. According to the common division method in academic circles, it can be divided into seven Dialects: northern dialect (Mandarin dialect), Wu dialect, Xiang language, Gan language, Hakka language, Min language and Cantonese. Many scholars also believe that Pinghua in Guangxi and Jin in Shanxi should be juxtaposed with the other seven dialects. The Chinese standard language is different from the different regions in the Han nationality. The Chinese mainland, Taiwan and Singapore are standard Mandarin (the language developed on the basis of Beijing dialect in the Mandarin speaking area). Its name is Putonghua, Mandarin and Chinese because of its different location, and Hongkong is positioned as standard Cantonese (Guangzhou dialect). The writing methods of Chinese characters include regular characters and simplified characters.

In addition, some scholars also divide Min dialect into Minnan dialect and Minbei dialect. These dialects have their own distribution and traffic areas, and each dialect can be divided into different areas, thus forming a language state of complex Chinese dialects and no communication between the north and the south. Nevertheless, due to the high unity of Chinese characters, it has a strong cohesive effect on the Han nationality. It is no exaggeration to say that without Chinese characters, there would be no Han nationality. Chinese originated in ancient times, and the popular square characters evolved from the oracle bone characters of yin and Shang Dynasties and the golden inscriptions of Shang and Zhou dynasties. Qin Shihuang unified the six countries and implemented the "same calligraphy", so the small seal script made by Qin passed through the country. The success of Qin's unified writing in a short time shows that the original writing of the six countries is only a written expression of the same language with local characteristics. In the Qin Dynasty, in addition to the small seal characters, there were official script. At the end of the Han Dynasty, the general Chinese character of official script, namely regular script, appeared. It was popular until the Wei, Jin, northern and Southern Dynasties and has been popular until now. Although the Han nationality is widely distributed and there are great differences in dialects, the unity of Chinese characters has been formed in the Qin and Han Dynasties. This unity of written language has played an important role in the development of Han culture, the exchange of national culture and the unity of the country. Since the 1950s, the Communist Party of China and the people's government have carried out character reform in a planned way, formulated the Chinese Pinyin scheme, promoted Putonghua and simplified Chinese characters, and Chinese characters will gradually develop in the direction of Pinyin.

Han surname

At first, the surnames and surnames of the Han nationality were different. The original surname was the family number of the matriarchal clan commune. "Surname" is a combination of "female" and "Sheng". Many ancient surnames have "women", such as Jiang, Yao, Ji and so on. Surname is a branch of surname. Due to the reproduction of descendants, a family is divided into several branches and scattered everywhere. Each branch has a special mark as a symbol, which is the surname. Later, there was little difference between surnames and surnames.

The origin of surnames generally includes the following situations: Taking the official position as the surname, taking the occupation and skill as the surname, taking the ancestor's name and title as the surname, taking the feudal state and land as the surname, taking the original worship as the surname, taking the characteristics of the place of residence as the surname, and taking the numbers as the surname. In addition, some compound surnames, such as changsun, Helan and Huyan, are translated from the pronunciation of ethnic minorities. In the Han society, the concept of clan is deeply rooted. Until 1949, the concept of the same surname and the same clan was still a strong link in the concept of the Han people. According to the textual research of Qian Daxin, a famous scholar in the Qing Dynasty, in the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, "no man has a surname in his surname", "before the three generations, surnames and surnames were divided, and after the Han and Wei dynasties, surnames and surnames were combined." in fact, since the Han and Wei dynasties, some of the thousands of surnames of the Han nationality originated from ancient clans, some originated from the feudal state in the Pre-Qin Dynasty, or the residence, official position and name of their ancestors, There are also a considerable number of surnames added due to the integration of ethnic minorities. Even with the same surname, there are cases where the Han surname is adopted due to the granting of surname or the integration of other ethnic minorities, which does not mean that they are of the same origin. Under the patriarchal system, the relatives of the Han nationality are paternal centered. The continuation of the paternal family is considered crucial.

In the hundred family names compiled by people in the Song Dynasty, there are 408 single surnames and 76 compound surnames. The Great Dictionary of Chinese names published in modern times has included 4129 single and compound surnames. There are only about 200 common surnames, and the most common single surname is only 100.

The names of ancient Chinese are more complicated than those of modern people. There are generally four items: surname, first name, character and number. Modern people are not as particular about naming as ancient people. Except that a few people have words and numbers, ordinary people generally have only one name, and most of them are one or two words. The name reflects the cultural and psychological characteristics of the Han nationality.

Cultural psychology

The cultural psychology of the Han nationality is gradually formed after thousands of years of accumulation. Although this traditional cultural psychology has been greatly impacted by the input of various modern cultural thoughts in recent 100 years, its influence is still deep-rooted. This forms the unique pragmatic characteristics of Chinese in the process of people's verbal communication.

First of all, the feudal society based on agricultural natural economy has ruled China for thousands of years. This feudal patriarchal society has created two characteristics in national psychology: one is to attach great importance to blood relations, and the other is to emphasize hierarchical differences. Therefore, a prominent feature in verbal communication is to pay attention to the use of kinship terms and the strict distinction between elders and children.

In the west, we can see that younger people call their elders by their first names, which is not allowed in Chinese communication. For the elders among relatives, appellations must be used when talking, which is a sign of politeness and civility. Moreover, kinship appellation, as a kind of honorific title, is widely used for non kinship interlocutors, such as uncles, uncles, grandmothers and aunts. It is considered to respect each other and express intimacy.

The patriarchal concept of attaching importance to the elders and children is transferred to the social interpersonal relationship, which becomes the concept of hierarchy. For thousands of years, feudal society has always advocated the order of elders and children and the order of dignity and inferiority. Therefore, people have always had the habit of matching their positions with those who have official positions, which was regarded as honorific title in ancient times. In communication, in order to raise each other's status, they often lower themselves, so there are a number of humble titles opposite to honorific titles, such as your family name -- my family name, family -- humble house, virtuous younger brother -- foolish younger brother, Masterpiece -- humble work, brilliant -- foolish opinion, and humble opinion.

Secondly, it emphasizes the harmony of interpersonal relations, the sociality of people, the constraints of society and groups on individuals, not individuals and personality, but groups. This is also connected with the patriarchal relationship of feudal society. It forms a sharp contrast with the west, which is self-centered, emphasizes independent personality and personality, and advocates personal achievements and honors.

The conservative tradition of the Han nationality on sex and gender issues also leads to the differences between men and women in verbal communication. Generally speaking, men's language is straightforward and casual, while women's language is implicit and solemn. Swearing with sex related words is far more common in men than in women. Although the traditional concept also believes that men are uncivilized in using these words, it seems that they can be generally understood, while women are very unorthodox in using them, and it seems that they should be criticized by public opinion.

literature

In the development of ancient Chinese literature, poetry plays a significant role. For example, there are many writers and works with high artistic achievements, such as Chu Ci, Yuefu, Tang poetry and Song Ci. The names and works of Qu Yuan (about 340 ~ 278 BC), Li Bai (701 ~ 762), Du Fu (712 ~ 770), Liu Yong (unknown year of birth and death), Su Shi (1037 ~ 1101), Lu You (1125 ~ 1210), Xin Qiji (1140 ~ 1207), etc, It is not only brilliant in the history of Chinese literature, but also recognized as a famous scholar in the history of world literature. There are famous ancient prose in Qin and Han Dynasties. In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, Han Yu (768 ~ 824) and Liu Zongyuan (773 ~ 819) advocated the restoration of ancient prose in Qin and Han Dynasties. When Ouyang Xiu (1007 ~ 1072), Su Xun (1009 ~ 1066), Zeng Gong (1019 ~ 1083), Wang Anshi (1021 ~ 1086), Su Shi and Su Zhe (1039 ~ 1112), the ancient prose movement won a great victory, known as the "eight masters of Tang and Song Dynasties". The creation of novels had achieved great development in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, such as the romance of the Three Kingdoms, journey to the west, the water margin and the external history of Confucianism; Short stories such as "Strange Tales from a Liaozhai" are well-known. Many ethnic minority writers also use Chinese to create, resulting in many famous writers and masterpieces, and a dream of Red Mansions is one of the most outstanding masterpieces.

In other fields such as painting, calligraphy, arts and crafts, music, dance, drama and quyi, there are many famous masters at home and abroad, who have made amazing artistic achievements. In the development of these arts, especially the Han people are good at learning and absorbing the strengths of other nationalities to develop their art and form a unique style. The compilation of some great books has a long history. Beitang shuchao, art and culture gathering, Taiping Yulan and CE Fu Yuangui in the Tang and Song Dynasties, especially Yongle grand ceremony and Book Integration in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, can be called the world-famous ancient encyclopedia, which not only shows the brilliant achievements of Chinese ancient culture with Han culture as the main body, It also shows the spirit of cooperation and mutual learning between ancient Han Scholars and minority scholars.

historiography

Paying attention to historiography is a prominent feature of the cultural history of the Han nationality. Since Sima Qian wrote "historical records", there have been historical records in the form of chronicles in all dynasties, and the famous "twenty four histories" has been formed in the Qing Dynasty; The chronological style is represented by spring and autumn, Zuo Zhuan and Zizhi Tongjian; The official and private writings of various other chronicle books and ancient history, miscellaneous history, local historical records and historical theories have made China the country with the richest ancient historical documents in the world, most of which are written by Han scholars.

education

Since the Han Dynasty began to respect Confucianism alone, China began more than 2000 years of Confucian education. In the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Yang established the imperial examination system and began to build academies in the Song Dynasty. The imperial examination system was abolished at the end of the Qing Dynasty.

military

In terms of ancient military theory, Sun Tzu's art of war was published as early as the end of the spring and Autumn period. In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, 182 military tactics were sorted out, especially the seven books of Wu Jing, which had been read by martial arts since the Song Dynasty, which concentrated the essence of ancient military works.

Astronomical calendar

The achievements of Han nationality in astronomy and mathematics in natural science have always attracted the attention of the world. Among them, Zhang Heng (78-139), Zu Chongzhi (429-500), Yixing (commonly known as Zhang Sui, 683-727) and Guo Shoujing (1231-1316) have been recognized as world cultural celebrities all over the world. Ancient Agronomy often includes various achievements of ancient science and technology. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 370 kinds of agricultural books that have been lost and spread so far in more than 2000 years, such as Si Shengzhi book, Qi Min Yao Shu, Wang Zhen Nong book and complete book of agricultural politics, which are the representative works of Ancient Agronomy works.

Astronomical calendar

The Han nationality has a long tradition of astronomical observation. As far back as the legendary era, there were hereditary officials in charge of astronomy, who were specially responsible for observing celestial phenomena. In the following dynasties, there were satellite observation platform, observatory, Tiantai, Tianjian, qintianjian and other institutions to observe celestial phenomena and calculate the calendar. Therefore, the observations and records of solar eclipses, lunar eclipses, stars, comets, sunspots and other celestial phenomena in Chinese literature are the earliest and most complete in the world. The astronomical observation instruments made by ancient astronomers of the Han nationality have many advantages, and their key components and principles are still used in modern large-scale astronomical observation instruments. Taking the opportunity of showing the movement of celestial bodies, he was the first to invent the mechanical clock for reporting time. In addition, the Han nationality independently invented its own calendar.

The earliest recorded solar eclipse occurred in the Xia Dynasty about 4000 years ago. In the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty about 3000 years ago, there are exact records of solar and lunar eclipses. There are many records of solar and lunar eclipses in the classics of the Zhou Dynasty and since the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period.

The observation records of stars are also found in the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty. "Zhou Li" has the surname Feng Xiang, "the palm has two years old, ten has two February, ten has two Chens, ten days and twenty have eight stars". During the Warring States period, gander wrote eight volumes of astrology and Shi Shen wrote eight volumes of astronomy. Later generations collectively called Gandhi star Sutra, which records the position of 120 stars, which is the earliest star table in the world. Ancient astronomers divided the sky into three walls and twenty-eight constellations, and used this division to determine the location of celestial bodies and celestial phenomena. In the pre Qin period, the ancestors of the Han nationality drew star maps. The earliest objects preserved so far include two 28 star carved stones unearthed in the Five Dynasties, and other famous stone carved astronomical maps in Suzhou in the Song Dynasty and star maps in Dunhuang and Tang Dynasty.

For the observation records of Halley's comet, there were 31 records in Chinese from 613 BC to the beginning of the 20th century, the earliest one in 1057 BC. The observation of sunspots was first seen in Gander's astrology in the 4th century BC. The records of sunspots in official history began in 28 BC. By 1638, there were more than 100 sunspot records in official history, and there may be more scattered records in other Chinese books. These precious materials still have important scientific research value.

Due to the accumulation of rich knowledge of astronomical observation in the past dynasties, astronomers in the Han Dynasty clearly put forward the "huntian theory" of cosmic structure theory. It denies the "theory of covering heaven" in the Pre-Qin Dynasty. In order to accurately observe the positions of celestial bodies and celestial phenomena, astronomers Geng shouchang and Jia Kui of the Han Dynasty invented astronomical observation instruments with the equator as the coordinate system, which are called "armillary sphere" or "armillary sphere" in Chinese.

The "hunxiang" (also known as the armillary sphere) created by Zhang Heng, an astronomer in the Han Dynasty, is an instrument used to display celestial phenomena, similar to the modern "celestial sphere".

The invention of the mechanical clock began with an astronomical instrument showing the rotation of the celestial sphere (i.e. the rotation of the earth and the revolution of the earth), which was first made for the Han nationality. In 725, a group of eminent monks (Zhang SUI) and Liang lingzan, an astronomer of the Tang Dynasty, made a "huntian copper instrument" on the basis of "Hunyi" and "hunxiang".

In 1092, Su Song, an astronomer in the Song Dynasty, created a more advanced "water transport instrument Observatory". Su Songzhong is the most outstanding mechanical manufacturing of mankind in the middle ages. Its principle was introduced into Europe two centuries later, leading to the development of mechanical clocks in the West. In addition, the "guibiao", which was widely used to measure the length of solar shadow before the spring and Autumn period, was also a great invention of Han ancestors. The table shows the vertical pole, the GUI is the horizontal ruler, measure the length of the solar shadow, determine the dates of the winter solstice and summer solstice and the length of the year of return. The length of the meridian was first measured by Yixing and others in the Tang Dynasty. Han ancestors were the first to discover the guide to natural magnets and magnets, and made "Sinan" and compass.

Han ancestors invented the calendar very early. It is said that there were Yellow Emperor calendar, Ruixu calendar, summer calendar, Yin calendar, Zhou calendar and Lu calendar in the pre-Qin period. Collectively known as the "ancient six calendars". The summer calendar, also known as "Xiazheng", takes the first month as the beginning of the year. Yin Li, also known as "Yin Zheng", is headed by December. The Zhou calendar, also known as "Zhou Zheng", starts in November. Qin uses the Ruixu calendar, beginning with October. Since the Han Dynasty, there have been Taichu calendar, Santong calendar, quarter calendar, Qianxiang calendar, Taiming calendar, Shuyin yuan calendar, Dayan calendar, twelve Qi calendar, Tongtian calendar, timing calendar, Shixian calendar, Tianli, etc. Among these calendars, except that the "Twelve Qi calendar" created by Shen Kuo in the Northern Song Dynasty and the "Tian calendar" issued by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom are the Gregorian calendar, other calendars are the combination of yin and Yang calendar. Until today, the Han nationality is still used to using the traditional yin-yang calendar and the Gregorian calendar commonly used in most countries in the world.

Feng Shui geomancy

Geomantic omen has a long history in China. It was called geomantic omen in ancient times. It is people's choice and treatment of living or burial environment to achieve the purpose of seeking good luck and avoiding bad luck. Its core idea is the harmony between man and nature, which is mainly related to the site selection, orientation, construction and layout of palaces, houses, villages and cemeteries. The organizers said that many people associate Feng Shui with superstition. In fact, Feng Shui is a subject of discovering and utilizing nature.

In ancient times, the Han nationality attached great importance to Feng Shui. Like weddings, funerals and E-House opening, we should welcome the feng shui master of i-learning to make divination predictions and solve disasters in advance. In the words of modern people, it is a place with good feng shui. People living here can help people prosper and make money, and make future generations rich and prominent. In ancient times, it met the standard of feng shui treasure land: there was a backer behind, a green dragon on the left, a white tiger on the right, a case mountain in front, a Ming hall in the middle, and winding water flow. Feng Shui tells people to conform to the laws of nature and optimize the natural environment.

Living in a good feng shui residence, people's health and mood are comfortable, and they are energetic when they work; Living in a room where there is no sunshine all year round, the quality of life is not high, the mood is not comfortable, and the work will also be affected.

the four great inventions of ancient China

Papermaking, printing, gunpowder and compass are China's four great inventions.

In 1550, the Italian mathematician Jerome Cardin first proposed that the magnetic compass, printing and gunpowder were the three great inventions of China, and believed that they were "no comparable inventions in the whole ancient times". After that, Jane boding reiterated the same conclusion. In 1620, Francis Bacon further pointed out in his book new tools: "We should pay attention to the power, efficiency and consequences of various inventions. The most notable examples are printing, gunpowder and compass. These three inventions have changed the appearance and state of things in the whole world. The first is academic, the second is military, and the third is maritime, resulting in countless changes. Such changes are so great that there is no empire No sect or famous person can exert greater power and influence on the cause of mankind than these three mechanical inventions. "In China, the reference of adding paper to the" three great inventions "was extended to" four great inventions "in the 1920s at the latest. By the 1940s and 1950s, this reference had been widely recognized.

chinese medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine is a traditional medicine with the medical practice of the Han nationality as the main body. Traditional Chinese medicine takes Yin and Yang and five elements as the theoretical basis, regards the human body as the unity of Qi, form and spirit, and explores the etiology, nature, location, pathogenesis, changes in the five Zang and six Fu organs, meridians and joints, Qi, blood and body fluid in the human body, judges the growth and decline of evil and positive through the methods of looking, smelling, asking, cutting and four diagnosis Get the name of the disease, summarize the syndrome types, formulate the treatment methods of "sweating, vomiting, depression, harmony, temperature, clearing, tonifying and elimination" based on the principle of syndrome differentiation, and use a variety of treatment methods such as Chinese prescription, acupuncture, massage, cupping, qigong, dietotherapy and guidance to make the human body achieve the harmony of yin and Yang and recover.

In a narrow sense, traditional Chinese medicine refers to Chinese medicine. Before 1949, the word Chinese medicine was more common. Chinese medicine in Japan, Korean medicine in South Korea, Korean medicine in North Korea and Eastern medicine in Vietnam were all developed on the basis of traditional Chinese medicine.

chinese medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine is a traditional medicine with the medical practice of the Han nationality as the main body. Taking Yin Yang and five elements as the theoretical basis, traditional Chinese medicine regards the human body as the unity of Qi, form and spirit. Through the methods of looking, smelling, asking, cutting and four diagnosis, it explores the etiology, disease nature, disease location, analyzes the pathogenesis and the changes of the five Zang organs, meridians and joints, Qi, blood and body fluid in the human body, judges the growth and decline of evil and positive, then obtains the name of the disease, summarizes the syndrome types, and formulates the syndrome differentiation based on the principle of syndrome differentiation and treatment "Sweating, vomiting, lowering, harmony, warming, clearing, tonifying and eliminating" and other treatment methods use Chinese prescription, acupuncture, massage, massage, cupping, qigong, dietotherapy, guidance and other treatment methods to make the human body achieve the harmony of yin and Yang and recover.

In a narrow sense, traditional Chinese medicine refers to Chinese medicine. Before 1949, the word Chinese medicine was more common. Chinese medicine in Japan, Korean medicine in South Korea, Korean medicine in North Korea and Eastern medicine in Vietnam were all developed on the basis of traditional Chinese medicine.

mathematics

The development of mathematics of Han nationality has a long history. In the process of engaging in social labor and production activities, people gradually have the concept of quantity and understand various simple geometric figures. In particular, the gradual development of agriculture requires the corresponding astronomical calendar, the seasonal arrangement suitable for agriculture and, and the simplest astronomy is inseparable from mathematics. The measurement of land area, the size of granary, the length and orientation of building materials also need mathematics. The pottery unearthed at Banpo site in Xi'an is engraved with some pottery inscriptions, some of which are obviously symbols representing numbers.

It is said that Xia Yu used the yardstick, rules and Pythagorean survey when controlling the flood. The oracle bone inscriptions in the late Shang Dynasty show that the counting method used by people in the Shang Dynasty is very complete. The principle of counting is to follow the decimal system. The complete decimal system was applied from the beginning, which has significant advantages over the counting methods used by babirun and ancient Egypt. The counting method in the golden inscriptions of the Western Zhou Dynasty is completely consistent with that of the Shang Dynasty, and has been used since then until today. After that, Han mathematics began to form a system centered on nine chapters of arithmetic. There are only two kinds of mathematical books recorded in Hanshu · Yiwenzhi, the number of Sui Shu · Jingji Zhi has increased to 19, and the number of new Tang Shu · Yiwenzhi has increased to 35. Among them, the "ten calculation books" annotated by Li Chunfeng, a mathematician in the Tang Dynasty, are the most famous. In 1606, Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi jointly translated the first six volumes of the famous mathematical work of ancient Greece, the original geometry.

In addition to integers, the Han people also knew about fractions earlier. At the same time, he also mastered the four operations of integers and fractions. Duke Huan of Qi in the spring and Autumn period once invited those who could recite the multiplication song of "99" into the "Zhaoxian hall" as distinguished guests, although this was not a great knowledge at that time. There are also individual sentences in "99" in some ancient books such as Guanzi and Gou Zi.

The actual calculation in the early Han Dynasty was carried out by calculation. Since the middle of the Tang Dynasty, especially due to the rapid economic development since the Song Dynasty, it is necessary to improve the calculation tools. After a long period of evolution, by the time of yuan and Ming Dynasties, the transformation from planning to abacus was completed. By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, abacus had been widely used all over the country. Abacus is easy to carry and can calculate quickly when combined with the formula. Among the similar computing tools in the world, abacus is the best. Due to the popularity of abacus, calculation almost disappeared, and the ancient mathematical tradition based on calculation gradually lost. In particular, the imperial examination system and subjective idealism philosophy, which were based on the soil of Bagu in the Ming Dynasty, have been flooding for a long time, believing that all specialized knowledge is "strange skills and obscene skills". When western mathematics was introduced into China in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, few people could master the compilation of the calendar.

agronomy

Ancient Agronomy often includes various achievements of ancient science and technology. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 370 kinds of agricultural books that have been lost and spread so far in more than 2000 years, such as Si Shengzhi book, Qi Min Yao Shu, Wang Zhen Nong book and complete book of agricultural politics, which are the representative works of Ancient Agronomy works.

Encyclopedias

There are many books about Chinese encyclopedia, mainly including Shanhaijing, Mengxi Bitan, Tiangong Kaiwu, Yongle ceremony, etc.

The book of mountains and seas is an ancient book in the pre-Qin period. It is the oldest geographical book rich in myths and legends. It mainly describes ancient geography, products, myths, witchcraft, religion, etc., as well as ancient history, medicine, folk customs, nationalities and so on. The specific date and author of the book are unknown.

Mengxi Bi Tan is a notebook work written by Shen Kuo, a scientist in the Northern Song Dynasty. The book was written from 1086 to 1093 and contains what Shen Kuo saw, heard and opinions in his life. Known as the Encyclopedia of ancient China by western scholars, it has been translated into many foreign languages.

Tiangong Kaiwu is a comprehensive scientific and technological work in ancient China. It is also the first comprehensive work on agriculture and handicraft production in the world. It is called "the Encyclopedia of technology" by European scholars. It systematically summarizes various technologies in ancient China and constitutes a complete scientific and technological system. The rich experience in agriculture is summarized, which comprehensively reflects the achievements of technology. Many of the production technologies described in the book have been used until modern times.

Yongle Dadian is the largest class book in ancient China and the largest encyclopedia in ancient China. The book has 22937 volumes, about 370 million words, and is packed into 11095 volumes. It contains seven or eight thousand important ancient books and records, from the Pre-Qin Dynasty to the early Ming Dynasty, which can be said to "include the vast universe and unify the similarities and differences between ancient and modern times". The secret scriptures of lost articles before the song and Yuan Dynasties are mostly used to preserve and spread. In Yongle Dadian, "the sub collections of classics and history, together with the books of Taoism, Buddhism, medicine and divination and miscellaneous scholars, are not collected." the collected books are not easy to read, and they are compiled according to the whole book, whole chapter or whole paragraph of the original book, which improves the document value of preserving data.

Geography

It is said that in the Xia Yu era in the 21st century BC, floods were surging all over China. At this time, a man named Yu led us to dredge the river and calm the soil and water. He spent 13 years outside and never entered the house. Finally, the river returned to the road and the world was peaceful. Yu Gong, one of the ancient Chinese works Shangshu, is considered to be an ancient document describing the achievements of Dayu in controlling soil and water at that time.

During the Han Dynasty, China's geographical vision was quite broad. The Hanshu geography records the routes from Guangdong to Indonesia, Myanmar, India and Sri Lanka.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the land transportation "Yongchang Road" from Yunnan to India via Myanmar was opened up. The biography of Dongyi in the book of the later Han Dynasty describes the situation that Japan "lives on a mountain island, where there are more than 100 countries".

At the age of 65, FA Xian, an eminent monk of the Jin Dynasty, set out from Chang'an through Yumen to India, and then went south to Ceylon and Sumatra, bypassing the South China Sea to return home. It took 12 years. After returning to China, he wrote the book "records of Buddha", which describes the natural, social and economic conditions of western regions, India and Nanyang countries.

Xuanzang, a famous monk of the Tang Dynasty, traveled westward to seek Dharma in 627. He spent 18 years and traveled more than 50000 miles in more than 110 countries. After returning to China, he compiled the records of the western regions of the Tang Dynasty according to his oral instructions, which comprehensively introduced the area, capital, climate, terrain, water conservancy, products, transportation and customs of the states he passed through. It can be said that "it shows the mountains and rivers, examines the soil, details the rigidity and softness of national customs, and is the atmosphere of water and soil". It plays an important role not only in the history of Chinese geography, but also in the history of world geography.

The "map of Guangzhou to the sea" recorded in the geography of the new Tang Dynasty details the sea voyage from China to the Persian Gulf. As for the situation in the north, in the biography of the Uighur in the new Tang Dynasty, there is a statement that "the land is far from the sea in the north, the farthest to the capital, and the sea in the north, the day is long and the night is short, the sun enters and cooks the sheep blade, and it is clear in the East and covers the recent provenance". The sea mentioned refers to Baikal Lake. The degree of the day and night of "the sun enters and cooks the sheep blade" and "the day is ripe" is close to the Arctic Circle far away from Baikal Lake.

In the Song Dynasty, the compass was used for navigation, and maritime transportation and trade were more developed. The Song Dynasty and Japan sailed very frequently, almost without interruption for a year. At the same time, navigation in the Southern Ocean and west of India is also very developed. Zhou qufei and Zhao Rushi collected the geographical data at that time and wrote lingwaidaida and Zhufan records respectively, covering the South China Sea, Southeast Asia, Nanyang islands, South Asia, West Asia, Africa and Spain. In the Yuan Dynasty, Genghis Khan's expedition made the transportation between China and the West more convenient.

Half a century before the great discovery of western geography, Zheng He, a eunuch of Sanbao in the Ming Dynasty, made seven voyages to the west, visiting dozens of countries such as Nanyang islands, India, Arabia and East Africa, with a maximum crew of more than 27000. Accompanying Ma Huan, Fei Xin and Gong Zhen described the grand occasion and knowledge of the seven voyages. Ma Huan's Ying Ya Sheng Lan records 19 countries, Fei Xin's Xing Cha Sheng Lan records 40 countries (including 22 countries), and Gong Zhen's western fan Guo Ji records the customs of 20 countries. The "Zheng He nautical chart" made for the last voyage started from Nanjing and reached Mombasa on the East Bank of Africa as far as it could. It included more than 500 place names, which was second to none in the world at that time.

Philosophy

Han philosophy has a long history, broad and profound. The earliest ancient philosophy sprouted in Yin and Zhou dynasties. Shangshu Hongfan in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty put forward the five element theory, taking the five elements of gold, wood, water, fire and earth as the most basic things in the world. The book of changes in the Yin and Zhou dynasties had the original concept of "Yin and Yang". The book of changes selected eight things from the nature that people often contact in their lives, such as heaven (Qian), earth (Kun), thunder (earthquake), mountain (Gen), fire (Li), water (Kan), Ze (DUI) and wind (Xun), as the roots to explain more things in the world, reflecting simple materialism, At the same time, it uses the above eight trigrams to illustrate natural phenomena and social relations, reflecting the thought of simple dialectics. In the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, various scholars rose and a hundred schools of thought contended, which became the most brilliant period in the history of Chinese philosophy. On this basis, Chinese philosophy has emerged many philosophers and philosophical schools in its more than 2000 years of development. They each reflect the spiritual outlook of the times and become different genes of the spiritual culture of the Chinese nation, which still has a broad and profound influence. As a complete history of philosophical dating, ancient Chinese philosophy can be generally summarized as the alternation of several forms of Pre-Qin scholars, Han Dynasty classics, Wei Jin metaphysics, Chinese Buddhism, Song Ming Neo Confucianism and early Qing simplicity.

Sports

The Han nationality has a long history and sports have existed since ancient times. As early as the time of the Yellow Emperor, they trained young people with sports activities such as corner butting, fencing, shooting, Cuyu and beating pills. The Five Dynasties of Tang Yao, Yu Shun, Xia, Shang and Zhou also used sports activities such as boxing, throwing pot, fencing, bow and arrow, and hitting the soil to strengthen the human body. By the Sui and Tang Dynasties, ancient sports had entered an unprecedented state, and there were new things, such as wrestling, tug of war and swing. The most prosperous were polo and football, and women also participated. These two were introduced into Japan in the Tang Dynasty. These sports activities still developed in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. However, some activities have been lost after a series of wars and Westernization movements from the late Qing Dynasty to the beginning of the people's Republic of China. As for activities such as tug of war and swing, they have lasted for a long time, while Jiaoda is handed down by Japan today. Wushu is a treasure of splendid culture and a traditional fitness project. It has a long history for thousands of years. Sports activities such as horse riding, archery, wrestling, fishing, dragon boat and chess are also widely spread. However, like the whole of China, the modern sports of the Han nationality developed late and was introduced at the end of the 19th century. After the founding of new China, the sports of the Han nationality basically maintained the same development trend as that of the whole country.

industrial art

The earliest artistic creation of the Han nationality in China can be traced back to about 8000 years ago, even if earlier jewelry is not included. The 4000 years since then is the Neolithic Age in China. Its basic characteristics include the grinding of stone tools, the emergence of pottery and textile. Fabrics are perishable, but jade and pottery show the outstanding artistic talent of Han ancestors. In view of the existence of rock paintings that are often unknown in age, it is difficult to believe that arts and crafts have bred art, but it is still certain that in China's primitive society, arts and crafts are more mature and brilliant than art, and primitive paintings and sculptures are often attached to arts and crafts. In this regard, outsiders often have misunderstandings. According to the understanding that it will not lead to different opinions, the arts and crafts can be roughly divided into six categories according to the material, such as silk and other fabrics, ceramics, jade, metal, lacquer wood and bamboo tooth angle glass.

Architecture

Due to the vast distribution area of the Han nationality, its traditional housing has different styles due to different regions. Most of the traditional houses of the Han nationality living in the North China Plain are bungalows of brick and wood structure, and most of the courtyards are quadrangles, represented by Beijing quadrangles; The traditional houses of the Han nationality living in Northeast China are basically similar to those in North China. The difference is in the walls and roofs. The houses there are generally thick and thick, mainly to keep warm; Han people living in Northern Shaanxi dig caves for housing according to the characteristics of thick soil layer and low groundwater level on the Loess Plateau. Caves are not only warm in winter and cool in summer, but also do not occupy the area of cultivated land; The traditional houses of the Han nationality living in the south are mainly wooden houses, paying attention to cornices, heavy pavilions and legal Mao structures. Due to the different customs and natural conditions in the south, there are also differences in the layout of housing buildings. For example, the buildings in Hilly and mountainous areas are built along the mountains, while the water towns in Jiangsu and Zhejiang pay attention to the front streets and back rivers. The earth buildings in Fujian are huge and beautiful, and the pavilions in Suzhou are small and beautiful.

Whether the Han nationality in the South or in the north, the common feature of their traditional houses is to sit in the north and face the South and pay attention to indoor lighting; Load bearing with wooden beams and retaining walls with bricks, stones and soil; With the main hall as the center, it is good at carving beams and painting buildings and decorating roofs and cornices.

Music and dance

Han nationality is a nation with music tradition. Han music has a long history and unique creation. Before the Qin Dynasty, the ancestors of the Han nationality had created musical instruments and music and invented music rules. In the prosperous period of Han and Tang Dynasties, Han music was good at Song and dance music; After the song and Yuan Dynasties, opera music dominated. Today's universally recognized music law systems, such as the five degree law (called the three-way law of profit and loss by the Han nationality), the pure law and the average law, are independently invented by the Han nationality, and their achievements, such as the spokes of the spokes, merge into the axis of the world's music theory.

Tea ceremony

It is said that tea drinking by Han people began in the Shennong era, at least for more than 4700 years. Until now, Chinese Han compatriots still have the custom of substituting tea for ceremony. The Han nationality has a variety of tea preparations. China is the hometown of tea. Tea making and drinking have a history of thousands of years. Chinese tea art enjoys a high reputation in the world. It was introduced into Japan in the Tang Dynasty and formed the Japanese tea ceremony.

Traditional etiquette

Sitting ceremony: sitting is a sitting posture handed down from the ancient Han nationality. The action is to put the hips on the ankles, the upper body is straight, and the hands are regularly placed on the knees. The body temperament is dignified and does not squint. The modern sitting method of sitting on a stool with both feet vertically down was actually not regarded as a formal sitting method before the northern and Southern Dynasties. It came from the western countries at that time and was called Hu sitting at that time.

Gift giving: the social relationship of Han nationality is a typical reciprocal social relationship. Usually, the difference of social relations is expressed by similar family names. The connection between individuals and society is called "relationship", which connects feelings. Chinese social relations are usually carried out by giving gifts to each other. Since ancient times, there has been a saying that "goose feather is given thousands of miles, gift is light and friendship is heavy", which means that the value of the gift lies in the goodwill and intention of the giver, not the value of the gift itself. Especially the love keepsake.

Funeral: the main color of Chinese traditional funeral is white, so it is also called white affair, which is opposite to red affair (wedding). With the belief and economic situation of the deceased, the whole process is often mixed with relevant Buddhist, Taoist or Feng Shui rituals.

Marriage customs

Han traditional wedding is an important part of Chinese culture. The ancients believed that dusk was an auspicious time, so they would marry at dusk; For this reason, the etiquette of husband and wife combination is called "faint ceremony". Among the five rites, fainting rites belong to Jiali, which is the second milestone in life after men's crown rites or women's hairpin rites. Traditional Chinese wedding dress Chinese wedding ceremony can be divided into three stages, namely "engagement" formal wedding, namely "marriage" or "marriage" etiquette, which means the combination of husband and wife. Post wedding ceremony is the ceremony of "becoming a wife", "becoming a wife" or "becoming a son-in-law", which indicates the role played by men and women after marriage. In Chinese traditional marriage customs, pre wedding ceremony and formal wedding are the main procedures, These procedures are derived from the six rites of the Duke of Zhou.

Address custom

In China, the traditional concept of generation of the Han nationality has existed for a long time. Centered on itself, there are four generations of elders and four generations of younger generations, forming a "nine ethnic" blood relationship of "high ancestor, great ancestor, ancestor, father, myself, son, grandson, great grandson and great grandson", which is nine levels. If the collateral blood relationship and marriage relationship are connected, a huge kinship system will be formed.

Kinship terms are divided by generations and are not subject to age restrictions. Kinship address is also used between neighbors or strangers in society to show kindness and respect. Generally speaking, paying attention to the level and mastering the angle are very important in the application of appellation. Different age levels lead to different appellation, especially the appellation on the envelope.

In life, in order to show respect for people, there is also a special phenomenon of not paying attention to levels. For example, there is a respected elder in a family. The younger generation in the family calls him Grandpa, grandma, Grandpa and grandma. The neighbors, regardless of men, women and children, may all call him Grandpa, grandma, Grandpa and grandma, but the title is often preceded by his name. Such as grandma Liu in "a dream of Red Mansions" and fourth Master Liu in "Camel Xiangzi". Sometimes the word "he (she)" is added before the title, such as his uncle, her second aunt, his grandmother, her second brother Li, etc. Similar titles are still widely used today.

Funeral custom

Funerals used to be buried, but now most of them are cremated. Hakka areas have the custom of "buying water" to bathe corpses, that is, when relatives die, children and grandchildren burn paper money by the river, put copper coins into the river, and use earthen pots to take water to bathe corpses. This custom comes from "Xiyuan man". Second burial is widely practiced in Hakka areas. This custom originates from the bone washing burial of she Yao. The old tradition of Han funeral is to pay attention to heavy burial and thick burial, which is mixed with many superstitious customs. Coffin burial has been popular in Han nationality since ancient times. The funeral is grand, which is divided into three stages: funeral, funeral and burial. In ancient times, there was a custom of sacrificing people. Later, it was gradually replaced by pottery figurines. In modern times, it was buried with paper figures.

After the funeral, there are memorial ceremonies for the seventh, seventh, hundred days and anniversary, and the memorial tablets are sent back to the ancestral hall, which has changed from the ceremony for people at the funeral to the ceremony for "ghost spirit" and "ancestral spirit". In addition, the Han nationality also has the custom of "returning to burial", that is, burying the bodies of people who died in other places.

During the funeral, the relatives of the deceased should wear filial piety clothes and keep vigil in the mourning hall. According to the ancient Chinese ritual system, filial piety clothes are divided into five grades according to the kinship with the deceased. In modern Chinese, there is also the word "five clothes" to indicate the distance of blood relationship. Filial piety is made of white cloth, which is very different from the custom of Western nations to wear white clothes. In the Qing Dynasty, an Englishman came to China for the first time. When he met the funeral team, everyone was dressed in white, but he looked miserable and sad. He felt very strange. In ancient times, Elegy was sung at funeral. The elegy couplets and Elegy of later generations evolved from the elegy of ancient times.

The scale of funeral ceremony is closely related to the status and identity of the dead. In feudal society, there are strict regulations on the funeral rites of people with different status and identity. Princes, nobles and rich families often show off their power with large-scale funeral ceremonies.

After the elder's death, the descendants will stay at home for 27 months, during which they will stop communication and entertainment. Officials must also leave their jobs and go home to be filial to express their condolences to their relatives, which is called "keeping the system".

eating habits

The Han nationality is mainly engaged in agriculture. Its staple food is wheat, corn and rice, supplemented by vegetables, bean products and non-staple foods such as chicken, fish, pigs, cattle and mutton. Tea and wine are traditional drinks. Those who take rice as their staple food are used to making rice into rice, porridge or rice flour, rice cake, glutinous rice balls, zongzi, New Year cake and other different foods; Those who take wheat as their staple food are used to making wheat flour into steamed bread, noodles, flower rolls, steamed buns, dumplings, wonton, fried dough sticks, spring rolls, fried cakes, pancakes, etc. Paying attention to and being good at cooking is a major dietary feature of the Han nationality. The Han people in different regions have formed different local flavors through long-term practice by cooking methods such as frying, burning, decocting, steaming, roasting and cold mixing. The eight major cuisines of the Han nationality, including Guangdong, Fujian, Anhui, Shandong, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhejiang and Jiangsu, are well-known at home and abroad.

traditional festival

There are many festivals of Han nationality, mainly Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Lantern Festival, Mid Autumn Festival and so on. The Spring Festival, also known as the Chinese new year, is a traditional festival of the Han people for thousands of years, and it is also the most solemn festival of the year. During the new year, we should keep vigil on New Year's Eve and pay New Year's greetings on the first day of the new year.

The traditional festivals of Han nationality mainly include wax sacrifice, kitchen sacrifice, Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, social day, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Tanabata Festival, Mid Autumn Festival, Double Ninth Festival, etc. Among the festivals, the Spring Festival is the most solemn. The Spring Festival comes from the lunar new year. In the first year of the Taichu calendar (104 BC), Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty promulgated the Taichu calendar, which determined the first day of the first month as the first new year. From the Han Dynasty to the northern and Southern Dynasties, the custom of celebrating the new year on the first day of the first month has become more and more intense. Activities such as burning firecrackers, changing Taofu, drinking Tu Su wine, watching the new year, divining the new year, and enjoying lights have appeared. The early year of the Republic of China is called the Spring Festival.