years of migration,The surname is Lihongdong, is there your home?
In this widely circulated song "Big Locust Tree", the hometown of the ancestors is described as the nest of the old stork under the big locust tree in Hongdong County, Shanxi Province, although this song is widely sung in Shanxi Province, but even thousands of miles away in Anhui Province and Jiangsu Province, there are many people who have heard it and believe that the big locust tree in Hongdong County is the birthplace of Chinese civilization.
Most people have heard this story, but few can explain its history in detail. When we were children, we heard the story of our ancestors and the Shanxi locust tree from our elders, but we didn't know much about the specifics of it, and we didn't even know the specific location of Hongdong County, only that it was located in Shanxi Province.
So, what kind of place is this nationally famous Hongdong County? Is that mysterious locust tree real? Regarding these two questions, let's start with the history of Hongdong County.
Hongdong County is located in Linfen City in the southwest of Shanxi Province, where the Fen River, the mother river of Shanxi Province, flows through it, forming the Linfen Basin, and Hongdong County is located in the northern part of the Linfen Basin.
Linfen is regarded as one of the important birthplaces of Chinese civilization, and according to the "Imperial Century", the Yaodu Pingyang is located here. "Yu Gong" divides the world into Kyushu, and Pingyang belongs to the land of Jizhou.
Jizhou is located in the center of Kyushu, hence the name "China", which is also the origin of the word "China". Hongdong County, on the other hand, is located in the northern part of the Linfen Basin, and the terrain is no longer so flat, but has some low hills.
According to the records of the Old Tang Dynasty Book and Geographical Chronicles, Hongdong County was named after Hongdongling in the north of Yi County, and the Shanxi Tongzhi also mentioned that "there is an ancient cave of Hongya in the north of the county, and the county is named after the hole".
This is the origin of Hongdong County in the first place. However, in many historical sources, there are not many records of Hongdong County, and it seems that it is just an obscure small county. In the long history, Hongdong County is far less well-known than Guan Yu's hometown Xie County.
Hongdong County, which was originally unknown, became famous because of a great migration during the Ming and Qing dynasties. This great migration originated from the war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and was carried out in the early years of the Ming Dynasty for social and political stability.
From the sixth year of Hongwu (1373 AD) to the fifteenth year of Yongle (1417 AD), the immigration activities that lasted for more than 50 years made Hongdong County famous all over the country from an unknown nationality.
The Yuan Dynasty, a foreign regime conquered by the Mongol cavalry, was governed in a way that was similarly fraught with iron blood and racial discrimination. However, such rule did not integrate into the culture of the Central Plains, but instead accelerated the decline of the Yuan Dynasty.
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Yellow River burst its banks, and a large number of areas became Zeguo, and the people lived in poverty, but the Yuan Dynasty did not actively provide disaster relief, but increased the burden on the people. This eventually led to a massive peasant uprising, in which the poor masses rose up against injustice.
The war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty led to the destruction of human lives, the official army and the rebel army killed each other, and there were internal disputes from time to time. The scourge of war spread from Sichuan and Hubei to Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and even Shandong, and the north and south of the river were devastated.
The population has plummeted, and the land is full of mourning. However, the rise of Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang brought light to this broken land. He waved his army to the north, smashed the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, unified the country, and calmed the land of China.
However, the newly established Ming Dynasty also faced many challenges, and the problems left by the war weighed on its mind like a boulder. Floods, droughts, and epidemics were frequent, and the surviving people suffered unspeakably, especially in the Central Plains, where plagues broke out after floods.
After the end of the war, the effects of natural disasters continued. In this difficult time, the people began to save themselves in order to survive.
During this period, Shanxi became a refuge for refugees from the Central Plains, and compared to the chaos of the Central Plains, Shanxi showed peace and prosperity. Shanxi's geographical location makes it relatively stable under the influence of wars and natural disasters, and most areas have good weather conditions, abundant grains, people live and work in peace and contentment, and the economy has developed rapidly.
It even became the richest region in China for a time. However, the influx of refugees led to a surge in Shanxi's population, and according to the Ming Shilu, in the 14th year of Hongwu (1381), Shanxi's population reached more than 4 million, more than 200,000 more than the combined population of Henan and Hebei provinces.
In order to survive, these new immigrants began to seize the resources of the local people, and in the case of many people and few places, conflicts inevitably occurred in Shanxi.
During the Ming Dynasty, natural disasters in the Central Plains gradually lessened, and a large amount of wasteland appeared. Despite the expansion of the area of agricultural land, due to population growth, it has led to:"There are many people and few places"contradictions.
In order to balance this social situation, Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, listened to the advice of Liu Jiugao of Hubu Langzhong and Song Na, the eunuch of the country, and decided to take measures to resettle and reclaim the land in order to revitalize agriculture.
Zhu Yuanzhang decided to move the peasants from densely populated areas to sparsely populated areas in order to solve the problem of "more people and less land." From the beginning of Hongwu, this movement, which lasted for more than 50 years, began on a large scale.
However, the campaign is not confined to Hongdong County, but to most of Shanxi Province. Despite this, it is widely believed that the immigrants are from Hongdong County.
Although the statement that "immigrants came from Hongdong County" is not entirely accurate, it is a profound reflection of Shanxi's immigration history. During the Ming Dynasty, Hongdong County in the southern Jinnan region was chosen as a concentration of immigrants because of its dense population.
In order to facilitate unified management, the Ming Dynasty stipulated that all immigrants must go to Guangji Temple in Hongdong County to go through the relocation procedures, and then move to various parts of the Central Plains under the supervision of officers and soldiers.
Most of these immigrants have been living in Shanxi for twenty or thirty years, and some have even passed away, and their descendants have a vague impression of their hometown, but they have left a deep impression on Hongdong County.
Over time, this impression has been passed down from generation to generation, and most of the descendants of immigrants regard Hongdong County as their ancestral home. Therefore, although it is not entirely accurate, the statement that "immigrants came from Hongdong County" reflects an important stage in the history of migration in Shanxi, and it is worthy of our in-depth understanding and study.
The main destination of this migration is Henan, especially in Kaifeng, Nanyang, Luoyang and other places, many ancestors from Shanxi have said that their ancestral home is Hongdong County, the proportion is as high as about ninety, and many have genealogies as proof.
In addition, there are also a large number of immigrants to Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu, Hubei and other places, where they have multiplied. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, there was another large-scale war in China, and as the Qing army moved south, many of the original Shanxi immigrants made a second migration, this time the scope of the migration was more extensive, even reaching Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangzhou, Fujian and Taiwan.
Since then, the footprints of Shanxi immigrants have spread almost all over China. Over the next three hundred years, they took root all over the country, blended with the local aborigines, and blended with the ethnic minorities in the frontiers, eventually forming a situation where "Hongdong immigrants spread all over the land of China".
Among the descendants of immigrants, there is a mysterious legend of the big locust tree in Hongdong County, so does this legendary big locust tree really exist? According to their accounts, at that time, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Hongdong County, Binh Duong Province, which led to a surge of people and chaos.
In order to solve this problem, the management ** used a large locust tree as a symbol, set up a registration office, and let everyone queue up, and finally succeeded in stabilizing the order. This story has been widely circulated and coincides with historical accounts that the tree actually existed.
And in today's Hongdong County, there is indeed a big locust tree. However, after investigation, it was found that the current locust tree was planted after the founding of New China, which was confirmed by many local elders.
Therefore, the existing big locust tree is definitely not the legendary one. So, was the tree planted because the locals attached it to historical legends?
After many field investigations and literature research in Hongdong County, archaeologists have found important clues in the vast history. According to the record of Hongdong County, there is a village called Jia Village in the north of Hongdong City, there is a temple called Guangji Temple not far from the west of the village, this temple was built in the second year of Tang Zhenguan, the history is long, and many past officials and businessmen rest here.
Over time, the popularity of Guangji Temple gradually increased, and the endless stream of pedestrians and the temple with flourishing incense made up a prosperous scene. On the left side of the temple, a large locust tree with a thick body and rich shade attracts old storks to fly from the nearby Fen River to nest here.
Every day, the old storks fly around the big locust tree, and the scene is spectacular. At that time, the official road was close to this big locust tree, so the Ming Dynasty government set up the immigration agency here, which was not only convenient for people from afar to see clear landmarks, but also convenient for everyone to wait in line.
At that time, many immigrants who were scattered due to policy reasons could not find a unique memory of their hometown, even though they had lived in Shanxi. On the contrary, they were impressed by the large locust trees they saw when they left Shanxi.
This kind of memory can only be passed on orally, and the literacy rate of ordinary people is very low, so in the process of circulation, there was a misunderstanding, and they mistakenly thought that Hongdong County, where the big locust tree is located, is their hometown.
However, the big locust tree in their mouth is not the same as today's big locust tree.
In the eighth year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty, Guangji Temple was destroyed by the flood of the Fen River, and the big locust tree next to it was also killed in this disaster and disappeared without a trace. In order to commemorate this big locust tree, people established the ancient big locust tree park on the site of Guangji Temple, which has become a place for the descendants of immigrants to find their roots.
However, the fate of the ancient locust tree is fickle. Although the main trunk was washed away by the flood, a new tree grew at the roots a few years later. However, the fate of the new locust tree was not as good as that of its predecessors, and due to the diversion of the Fen River and other reasons, it gradually withered, leaving only a bare trunk.
Despite all the vicissitudes of life, this big locust tree is still the symbol of our nation, our root and soul.
The trunk of this dead tree was blown down by the wind, and later the local ** built a cement base and fixed it with an iron hoop, forming the ruins of the big locust tree. However, the tenacious locust tree did not die out completely, and at the end of the seventies, it gave birth to a third tree from the same root system, and this tree has survived until now, with lush branches, symbolizing the immigrants who left Hongdong County in those years, spreading branches and reproducing throughout the country.
Although the locust tree is not the one passed down from the mouths of descendants of immigrants from all over China, they still originate from the same root system. Although the big locust tree in Hongdong County has experienced two deaths, it has survived tenaciously in another form twice.
It is rumored that people in some places can judge that their ancestors came from ** by looking down at their toes, which originated from the Ming Dynasty's Hongdong County big locust tree immigrants. Although the official organization of immigration has always been a bad thing for the common people and will bring disaster, this migration of the Ming Dynasty was for development, not destruction.
As a result, immigration policy was rather soft, and the only draconian measure was to require migrants to cut the toenail of their right foot in half to prevent them from escaping on the road and becoming homeless.
This is the origin of the folk song "Whoever has two petals of small feet and toenails is a child under the big locust tree" passed down by word of mouth.
The Ming Dynasty was friendly to immigrants, and they provided policy benefits such as free seeds, farm tools, and cattle, as well as tax reductions and exemptions to deal with natural disasters. This policy promoted the prosperity of the Central Plains, increased the area of cultivated land and the number of people, and improved the financial situation of the imperial court.
It can be said that the Shanxi Immigration Program in the early Ming Dynasty was a national philanthropic policy that had a profound impact on the present and the future. Through this policy, the Ming Dynasty quickly recovered from the wounds of war, and under the leadership of Ming Chengzu, the expedition to Mongolia and Zheng He's voyage to the West showed great national power.
According to research, the immigrants of the big locust tree in Hongdong, Shanxi Province in the Ming Dynasty have spread to 18 provinces and 500 counties and cities across the country, and a total of 812 surnames have records of migration from Hongdong County in the genealogy.
History will not forget the contribution of the Hongdong County locust tree immigrants, and similarly, the Hongdong County locust tree immigrants will not forget their history. For hundreds of years, every year, the descendants of immigrants have returned to Shanxi to find their roots.
In the second year (1903), after a man named Jing Daqi retired, he remembered the words of his grandmother when he was a child: "Our ancestors are from Hongdong County, Shanxi, and the big locust tree is our root." ”
Jing Daqi decided to go to Shanxi to find his roots in order to find his identity and roots as a descendant of Shanxi immigrants.
Hongdong County has a history of immigration, and one person has explored it deeply. Finally, at the location of the ancient locust tree, he built a stone monument, a pavilion and an archway, and engraved nostalgic poems.
One of the poems reads: "Recalling the past of the migrants, the cane is through the clouds and the sunset." When commemorating the prosperity of Jiamu, the tower is still visible. Since then, this place has become a place where the descendants of Shanxi immigrants pay homage to their ancestors, and no matter how cold or hot it is, an endless stream of strangers come here to find their roots.
In the early 80s of the 20th century, the local ** expanded the big locust tree park on this basis. Nowadays, Hongdong County has built a big locust tree root-seeking ancestral garden, which is the only folk sacrificial holy place in the country with the theme of "root-seeking" and "ancestor worship".
Every year, we hold a grand worship ceremony at the ancient sacrificial site, but unfortunately the ancient locust tree, which symbolizes our history, has disappeared. However, despite this, our descendants have been distributed all over the world, whether in Nanyang or Europe and the United States, there are our descendants of the big locust tree in Hongdong County who are thriving and developing, and they all deeply miss their hometown.
There is an old Chinese saying that "the leaves fall back to their roots", and everyone longs to return to their roots. Although our ancestors have settled in other places, their roots are still in Shanxi.
Although they can't go back there often, their souls are always nostalgic for their homeland.
Perhaps not all of their ancestors were born in Hongdong County, but the ancient locust tree has long been an emotional link between them and Shanxi. As long as this bond is still there, they can't let go of that attachment to their hometown.
In the course of hundreds of years of development, Shanxi immigrants have made great contributions to the progress of Chinese civilization, and we must not forget the hardships they have experienced and their contributions.
Maybe you and I have the genes of Shanxi immigrants flowing in our blood. The Chinese nation's rise in the world and its glory today are inseparable from our ancestors.
This legendary locust tree not only symbolizes Hongdong County, but also symbolizes Shanxi, and even the whole of China.