In today's Han Chinese area of ??Sichuan, if you visit some elderly people and ask them where their ancestral home is, nine times out of ten they will give the same answer: "My ancestors moved here from Huguang to Sichuan." When asked where they moved from? The answer is often the same: "Xiaogan Township, Macheng, Hubei Province." If the question continues: "Do you know why your ancestors moved to fill Sichuan from Huguang?" The answer is often the same: " The Eight Kings suppressed Sichuan!" It can be seen from this that most Sichuan people believe that the ancestors of the Han people in the territory are not natives of Sichuan, but migrated from Huguang. The reason for moving in was because the Eight Great Kings, namely Zhang Xianzhong (named after the Eight Great Kings shortly after Zhang Xianzhong's uprising), suppressed Sichuan during the Peasant War in the late Ming Dynasty. The influence of this statement is very wide and deep.
The historical process of "Huguang filling Sichuan" did exist. It was a long-term immigration movement that continued in the late Yuan Dynasty, the early Ming Dynasty, and the early Qing Dynasty. Relevant folk legends are obviously expanded and exaggerated compared with the historical reality, and there are also certain deviations. The historical event of "Zhang Xianzhong's Suppression of Sichuan" also happened. Folk legends have errors and distortions compared with historical facts. See Yuan Tingdong: "Biography of Zhang Xianzhong", Sichuan People's Publishing House, 1981 edition. If we put these deviations or mistakes aside, we can see that the so-called "Huguang filling Sichuan" turned out to be a great integration of population and culture that took place for many years and had a significant impact on the historical development of Bashu.
The Bashu region in the Tang Dynasty was at the forefront of the country's economic and cultural development. By the Song Dynasty, its economic and cultural development was still among the advanced ranks in the country. Especially during the Southern Song Dynasty, the population of the Bashu region accounted for 23.2% of the entire Southern Song Dynasty, but its wealth and income accounted for 1/3 of the entire Southern Song Dynasty, and the military rations it supplied also accounted for 1/3 of the entire Southern Song Dynasty. 1/3 is the main economic base for the Southern Song Dynasty to persist in the war of resistance. There is even a saying that "the death of Shu will lead to the death of Song Dynasty".
However, after the soldiers and civilians of Bashu tried their best to persist in the long-term war against the Jin Dynasty, and finally achieved a huge victory that prevented the Jin soldiers from entering the Sichuan Basin, they persisted in the anti-Mongolian war for half a century. war. This war was basically fought inside the basin. The Mongolian army entered Chengdu three times, and the Mongolian Khan Meng Ge was also wounded and died under Diaoyu City. The long-term tug of war has caused great losses to people's lives and property. Looking at the entire Sichuan area, it is even said that "the people of Shu suffered terribly, with all the casualties and injuries, and not even one or two of them were left alive" (Yu Ji: "Epitaph of Mrs. Cheng of the Shi Family", see "Ancient Records of Daoyuan Studies", Vol. 20) records. These words are inevitably exaggerated, but the economy is extremely dilapidated and the population has plummeted. It is an undoubted fact. Because in the nearly 50 years of tug-of-war, in addition to the destruction of war, there was also a severe shortage of food due to the withering of agricultural production caused by the long-term war. If the territory is not developed, the weirs are not repaired, there will be no harvest in autumn, and no planting in spring." (See the quote from Wu Changyi Shu above) This was an inevitable reality at that time. In addition, many of the Song Dynasty officials and armies took advantage of the war to plunder and harm the people, or "plundered the people's property", or "burned the official clan", or even "rioted and suffered misfortune from the enemy...Therefore, there was something wrong in the fields." The enemy is more powerful than the foreign enemy, and this harm will not last for a day." (Wu Changyi: "On Four Things to Save Shu"). These records are all written by Shu people at that time and should be credible. Due to the above reasons, the population of the Bashu region in the Yuan Dynasty dropped sharply to less than one-tenth of that in the Southern Song Dynasty. The specific figures are shown in the previous chapter "Ethnicities and Population".
Faced with such a serious dilapidated situation in the Bashu region during the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty did not take official measures to organize immigration except for the implementation of farming to ensure the basic needs of military food. Without labor, production cannot resume. Therefore, during the nearly 100 years of the Yuan Dynasty, the economy of Bashu failed to recover significantly. According to the statistical materials in Liang Fangzhong's "Statistics of Household Registration, Fields and Land Taxes in Chinese Dynasties", the tax revenue submitted by Sichuan Province to the central government in the Yuan Dynasty ranked third from the bottom among the 10 non-minority provinces and autonomous regions in the country, only Accounting for 0.96 of the national annual income.
In addition, according to the data in "Yuan Shi·Shihuo Zhi", Sichuan Province ranks third from the bottom among provinces and regions in terms of wine tax, first from the bottom in vinegar tax, and third from the bottom in commercial tax. Compared with the Southern Song Dynasty, which accounted for about one-third of the entire Southern Song Dynasty's annual income, this situation has simply dropped to the bottom.
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the flames of the Red Turban Peasant Revolt were burning everywhere. Ming Yuzhen, who originally belonged to Xu Shouhui, led his army to invade Bashu. Later, he called himself the King of Longshu in Chongqing, and then changed his name to Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty. Ming Yuzhen was from Suizhou, Huguang (now Suixian County, Hubei), and his army was basically made up of farmers in Hubei. Ming Yuzhen not only brought hundreds of thousands of troops, but also a large number of farmers with little land and little land entered the Bashu area with few people and vast land to cultivate and cultivate. This should be the beginning of the famous "Huguang Filling in Sichuan". As Wu Kuan said in "Preface to the Genealogy of the Liu Family": "When there was great chaos in the Yuan Dynasty, people from Hunan and Xiang often brought each other to Shu" (see Volume 4 of "The Collection of the Po Weng Family"). Ming Yuzhen's "Great Xia" regime only existed for two generations and nine years before being unified by the Ming Dynasty established by Zhu Yuanzhang. In the early Ming Dynasty, immigrants from the Huguang area continued to enter Sichuan in large numbers. By the 14th year of Hongwu (1381), the population of Sichuan had risen to 1.46 million. Immigrants from other places, especially those from Huguang, accounted for the main part of the increased population during this period. . Just as the Ming Dynasty Wang Weixian's "Jiuxian Temple Ji" recorded in Volume 5 of Guangxu's "Tongchuan Prefecture" said: "When the Yuan Dynasty's army arrives, if there is a target with a single arrow, they will be slaughtered. Shu people such as Yu Jie, Yang Li could not hold on, so Sichuan suffered the most. In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhongjiang County was opened, and there were seven or eight indigenous households. The rest were immigrants from other provinces. "These immigrants soon became Sichuanese.
In the seventh year of Kangxi (1668), Zhang Dedi, the governor of Sichuan, recorded a review of an elder in Shu in a memorandum: "When I checked the relics of Sichuan Province, most of their ancestral ancestry was from Huguang. I visited the hometown. Lao said that every time Sichuan suffered disasters, there would be no land and no one, so people from other provinces had no choice but to move to fill the place. "("Historical Materials of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Part C", November 16, the seventh year of Kangxi's reign, "Hubu". This is how the large-scale immigration movement called "Huguang filled Sichuan" began, and reached its first climax at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty.
The so-called "Huguang" includes present-day Hubei and Hunan, and Macheng and Xiaogan counties in Hubei account for the first place. It is estimated that this area was an important transit point for large-scale immigrants to Sichuan in the early Qing Dynasty. (My grandfather told me that my family also moved from "Xiaogan Township, Macheng County". In the mouths of the elderly in central Sichuan and in folk literature, Macheng and Xiaogan counties are almost always mistaken for "Xiaogan Township, Macheng County". This means is a very strange phenomenon). Based on relevant data of 716 families recorded in some local chronicles and genealogies, Hu Zhaoxi found that only 65 families, accounting for only 9, had lived in Shu before the end of the Yuan Dynasty. Among the 220 families who moved here before the Qing Dynasty, 171 were from Huguang, accounting for 77.7%. Among them, there are 151 in Macheng, Hubei, accounting for 88.3% of those from Huguang. Among the immigrants who immigrated before the Qing Dynasty, most of them immigrated in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties. According to statistics from existing genealogy data, there were 58 families who immigrated before the Qing Dynasty, and 40 of them immigrated in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties. Home, accounting for 69. See Hu Zhaoxi: "Textual Research on Zhang Xianzhong's Slaughter of Shu - Also Analyzing Huguang's Filling in Sichuan", Sichuan People's Publishing House, 1980 edition. Over the years, I have paid attention to the ancestry of several famous people in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, such as the famous writer Yang Shen in the Ming Dynasty, the famous poet Zhang Jiayin in the Ming Dynasty, the famous Confucian scholar Liao Ping in the Qing Dynasty, the largest salt industry operator in Zigong, Wang Sanwei, Their ancestors, such as Li Siyou and Wu Jinsan, the largest salt operator in the Wutongqiao salt industry, all moved their families to Sichuan during the "Huguang Filling in Sichuan" process at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty.
A large number of immigrants immigrated to Shu in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, which can be divided into four categories:
1. After the beginning of the Red Turban Peasant Uprising, some people in Hubei who had relatively rich families ( Including some Mongolians) "refugeed into Shu" one after another.
2. As mentioned above, Ming Yuzhen led a large number of Hubei soldiers and civilians into Shu. When and after Zhu Yuanzhang's army captured Hubei, many former members of the Red Scarf Army or people who were associated with the Red Scarf Army fled to the Ming Dynasty's "Great Xia" regime in Bashu in order to escape the blows of Zhu Yuanzhang's men. Protect.
3. Zhu Yuanzhang sent Tang He to lead an army from Hubei to invade Bashu, and sent Fu Youde to invade Bashu from Shaanxi. After that, he stationed in Sichuan and became a Bashu native.
4. In the early Ming Dynasty, in order to control the situation in Bashu, a number of officers and soldiers were staying in Bashu. In view of the sparse population and large amount of land in Bashu, which was in urgent need of colonization, the central government of the Ming Dynasty deliberately arranged for Huguang, which is adjacent to Bashu, to immigrate to Shu. This was the main part of the "Huguang filled Sichuan" in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties. Therefore, in many existing genealogies, , all record the experience of how the ancestors "went to Shu by order" in the Hongwu period of the early Ming Dynasty.
The above is the general situation of "Huguang filling Sichuan" in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties.
Due to the "Huguang filling Sichuan" at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, people's lives were relatively stable in the early Ming Dynasty, so the economy recovered to a certain extent and the population also increased. However, the economy of Bashu in the Ming Dynasty had not yet fully recovered. Entering another period of war and destruction that was longer and more intense than the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the people of Bashu suffered the most brutal catastrophe in history. Regarding the existence of this catastrophe, there are no different words from ancient times to modern times. However, there are different opinions on the cause of this catastrophe.
In the history books of the Qing Dynasty, it is mostly believed that this catastrophe was due to "Zhang Xianzhong massacred Shu", or "Eight Kings suppressed Sichuan".
Another opinion is that Zhang Xianzhong’s peasant army fought against the Ming army in Bashu, fought against the landlords’ armed forces, and later fought against the Qing army. In several years of desperate fighting, of course people had to kill people; in order to consolidate the new regime and suppress the rebels, of course people had to kill people. However, Zhang Xianzhong was active in Bashu for less than four years and only occupied a short period in the 80-year war in Bashu. Zhang Xianzhong's peasant army cannot be the main reason for the sharp decline in population and broken production in Bashu. Most historians today hold this view.
The reason for the sharp population decline in the Bashu region in the early Ming and early Qing dynasties was both natural and man-made disasters.
Let’s talk about natural disasters first. In the last 70 years of the Ming Dynasty, there were severe droughts, floods, locust plagues, and plagues. For example, "severe drought, locusts, and severe hunger in winter, people eat each other, all vegetation and trees are gone, and roads and roads are facing each other" (Gu Yingtai: "Ming Dynasty Chronicles" Volume 75); floods in southern Sichuan, "people ascend to the state hall and Gaofu" Those who are spared will be wiped out" ("History of the Ming Dynasty·Five Elements Chronicles"). In the early Qing Dynasty, there was another great epidemic, and "entire villages died" in many places in Jiangjin area (Volume 5 of Jiaqing's "Jiangjin County Chronicles"). Such records abound.
The so-called man-made disasters do not mainly refer to the killings and injuries caused by the two armies on the battlefield, but to the direct massacre and looting of civilians during the war. As early as the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, there was a rebellion by chieftain Yang Yinglong, and during the Tianqi and Chongzhen years, there was another rebellion by chieftain She Chongming. At that time, "the city was besieged for a hundred days, massacres were carried out, and the so-called fertile fields were half lost in the smoke and lush grass." "(Volume 35 of Kangxi's "Chengdu Prefecture"). After the great peasant uprising broke out in the late Ming Dynasty, the armies of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong entered Sichuan several times. Finally, Zhang Xianzhong established the country in Chengdu. The peasant army wanted to suppress the "country gentry", "officials" and various resisters, and the Ming army wanted to suppress the "thieves" in various places. The two sides have been fighting for more than ten years, which means there has been a food shortage for more than ten years. Zhang Xianzhong destroyed all levels of power institutions in the Ming Dynasty, but failed to effectively establish a new ruling order. After Zhang Xianzhong died and the peasant army retreated from Yunnan and Guizhou, a power vacuum appeared in the province for more than ten years, showing an unprecedented state of disorder. According to the records of the time, "rabble from all directions gathered in the capital... Those who annexed each other would be unstoppable." . The few remaining people are seen dying in the crowd again, the fields are deserted, famines are frequent, fathers and sons are separated and people eat each other" (ibid.). At the same time that Zhang Xianzhong's troops withdrew, the Qing army entered Sichuan again. The war between the Qing army and the remaining Ming army and the anti-Qing armed forces had not yet been completely extinguished. Wu Sangui's rebels fought again with the Qing army in Sichuan. It was not until the 20th year of Kangxi (1680) that the war in Bashu basically stopped.
This is how the Bashu region has gone through about 80 years of war and natural disasters, resulting in a sharp decline in population and extremely depleted production. The situation in the Chengdu Plain, which was the center of previous wars, was particularly bad. Tigers and leopards inhabited the formerly prosperous city, so much so that the governor of Sichuan in the early Qing Dynasty could not enter Chengdu. Instead, he was stationed in Baoning (today's Langzhong) in northern Sichuan. It was not until the 18th year of Shunzhi that he settled in Chengdu. . As for some county towns, it was not until the Kangxi period that county offices were built.
Faced with Sichuan’s sparsely populated population and dilapidated economy, the Qing government had to take a number of corresponding measures.
On the one hand, a large number of prefectures and counties established in the Ming Dynasty were abolished and merged. Take Chengdu and Chongqing, the two most prosperous prefectures in the past, as examples. Chengdu Prefecture abolished Shuangliu, Pengxian, Chongning, and Huayang; Chongqing Prefecture abolished Dazu, Anju, Bishan, Tongliang, Dingyuan, Wulong. These counties were gradually restored until the end of Kangxi and the beginning of Yongzheng. On the other hand, it is to use administrative means to immigrate to Sichuan from other provinces as much as possible.
Immigration to Sichuan in the early Qing Dynasty was large-scale and took a long time (it started in the last years of Shunzhi and actually ended in the middle of Qianlong, about 100 years ago), and official measures were specific. In the 10th year of Shunzhi, before the Qing government took control of the entire Sichuan, it declared that the unclaimed wasteland in Sichuan could be cultivated and permanently occupied as property, with no land tax for five years. The government also tried to support the cultivation of cattle seeds. Those who have fled from this province and are in other provinces are allowed to return home. Those who immigrate to Sichuan from other provinces are allowed to be naturalized. Later, various measures were taken to encourage local officials to recruit refugees. For those who were placed in 300 households by state and county officials, the current official was promoted one level, and the candidate official was given a real job. Under various measures, the early Qing Dynasty attracted a large number of immigrants from present-day Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong, Shaanxi and other provinces. Because the area was still dominated by Huguang, it was generally called "Huguang filled Sichuan". This is Following the immigration into Sichuan in the early Ming Dynasty, a larger scale of "Huguang filled Sichuan" began. In order to organize immigrants to Sichuan, during the Shunzhi and Kangxi years, there was only one governor in Huguang and Sichuan twice. He was called the Governor of Sichuan and Lake. He was first stationed in Jingzhou, Hubei, and then in Chongqing, Sichuan.
It is difficult to estimate how many people immigrated to Sichuan during the "Huguang Filling-in-Sichuan" campaign in the early Qing Dynasty. However, based on the analysis of several materials, there is no doubt that among the population of the Qing Dynasty, there were more immigrants than natives. For example, Dou Qiying said in the "Preface to General Chronicles of Sichuan" during the Qianlong period: "The people there are mostly indigenous people, many of whom have moved to Huguang, Shaanxi, Jiangxi, Guangdong and other places, as well as merchants from all over the world. Their customs are different and their temperaments are also different." "Of course, the ratio varies among counties and states, and the ratio in Chengdu and counties in the western Sichuan Plain is higher than that in other regions, with the highest ratio reaching over 90. For example, Kangxi's "Chengdu Prefecture Chronicles: Preface" says: Chengdu Prefecture; "In the middle of Qin, Jin, Chu, and Henan, there are only one or two indigenous people." Fu Chongju, a man from the late Qing Dynasty, said in "Chengdu General View: Chengdu People of Chengdu": " In the early years of the Republic of China, foreigners from various provinces came to Sichuan and settled in the country. Therefore, the people in Chengdu today are all from other provinces, with the majority coming from other provinces, followed by people from Shaanxi. The description in "Jincheng Bamboo Branch Ci" is more vivid: "My aunt married my second aunt Su from Shaanxi, and my eldest sister-in-law married her second sister-in-law Hu from Jiangxi. When I first met my relatives and friends, I asked about their origins, and now there are no ten generations old Chengdu." It is estimated from the situation in the province that immigrants from other places account for about 10% of the total population. Around 70.
It is inevitable that so many people will enter Sichuan from other provinces and reclaim wasteland in large quantities to promote economic recovery. What we need to see more is that so many outsiders who are "scholars, farmers, workers, businessmen, technicians, servants, etc." (Shen Xunwei: "A Brief Narration of the Difficulties of Shu") entering Shu will inevitably bring the production technology and advanced technology of various places to Shu. Culture was brought into Sichuan. For example, red potato (sweet potato), which plays an important role in today's food crops in Sichuan, was introduced from Fujian and Guangdong at that time. Volume 8 of Jiaqing's "Zizhou Chronicles" states: "(Red sweet potato) can be grown on barren soil and sandy soil. First, people from Fujian and Guangdong became interested in it, and now the natives are cultivating more varieties to prepare for shortages." Another example is the main economic crop of Sichuan. Tobacco leaves were also introduced in the early Qing Dynasty. For example, "Rebuilding the Genealogy of the Fu Family" collected by the Sichuan University Library records: Fu Murong, a native of Ruijin, Jiangxi, moved to Jintang, Sichuan during the reign of Yongzheng, and "widely cultivated tobacco. At that time, the method of smoking was not known in Shu, but it was necessary for the soldiers of the Eight Banners of Manchu and Mongolia, so for a while Tobacco with the surname Fu is more important than Jincheng." The three most praised features of today's "authentic Sichuan cuisine" that we have discussed specifically in this book: Sichuan cuisine, Sichuan wine, and Sichuan opera were all developed in the Qing Dynasty after integrating various ingredients introduced from other places.
The above is the general situation of the famous "Huguang fills Sichuan" in the history of Bashu. Through the above discussion, it should be concluded that the "Huguang filling of Sichuan" was due to the large-scale immigration into Sichuan that started in the early Ming Dynasty and reached its climax in the early Qing Dynasty after several sharp population declines in Sichuan. historical process. As a result, Sichuan received a large number of immigrants from other places, whose total number exceeded the native Sichuan indigenous people. The large number of immigrants entering Sichuan is not only a fusion of population, but also a fusion of culture.
This integration has promoted the economic and cultural development of Sichuan, and has also made the economic and cultural recovery and development of Sichuan since the Qing Dynasty more inclusive and inclusive.