A Research Into Migration And Rural Social Changes Occurred Among The Minority People In Southwest Hubei During Ming Dynasty And Qing Dynasty

This paper, by adopting theories and methods from history, ethnology and sociology and taking the migration and rural society changes occurred among the minority people in Southwest Hubei during Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty as researching objects, in-depth researches into the migration and rural society changes and relationship occurred among minority people in the Southwest Hubei during Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, as well as migration’s effort in forming Chinese people diversity pattern, on the basis of documentation classification and site investigation.The living regions for minority people, mostly, Tujia, Miao and Dong minority people, in Southwest Hubei locate in the transition zone between western China and eastern China. Judged from archaeological discoveries, this region is one of the cradles for mankind. In the Pre-Qin period, there have been migration behavior for people of Chu, Shu and Sanmiao. During the feudal society period, there are two large scales migrations within this period, namely the migration in the Northern and Southern Dynasties as well as the migration in Song Dynasty. The migrations during feudal society period were mostly caused by military activities or agricultural development. It’s the historical background for the migration occurred among the minority people in southwest Hubei during Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty.During Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, there were three major migrations. Firstly, it’ was the Jiangxi-Hunan and Guangdong, Hunan and Guangdong-Sichuan migration. Secondly, it was the immigrated soldier due to the establishment of Shizhou Wei in1381, Hongwu14th Year in Ming Dynasty, and the establishment of Datian in1390, Hongwu23rd Year in Ming Dynasty. Thirdly, it’s the farming immigration after bureaucratization of native officers. In Jiangxi-Hunan and Guangdong, Hunan and Guangdong-Sichuan period, most immigrants came from Jiangxi Nanchang, Ji’an and Hubei Jinzhou, while the Weisuo immigrants, totally30,000people, were officers and soldiers from middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River as well as Youyang, Sichuan. The farming immigrants were mainly people, totally188,000, from Changde, Lizhou, Yuanzhou, Chengzhou and Changsha in Hunan Province as well as Tongren, Sinan and Sizhou in Hubei Province. The main reason for these immigrants were the push from emigrating area and the attraction from immigrating area. They mainly travelled through seven land and water passages formed by Li River, Luo River, Yuan River, You River, Wujiang River and APengJiang River, all of which were vertical and horizontal to Changjiang River, and the salt delivery passage on land started from Hefeng and Laifeng and headed to western Hunan province.Among the migrations during Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, except for Weisuo migration which was a forced migration, all were volunteer migrations. The forced migration and volunteer migration had different social integrations. The forced migration would have to experience forced integration and volunteer integration stages, while volunteer migration first tried to live the new place with the support of their own strength and support from migrants of same origins. After their family power grew bigger, they would be divided into different families and villages to integrate into local rural society. In forced migration required by national government, the government would cause much interruption to rural society and impacts to local society, which would always result in fierce conflicts between local people and immigrants. In the late Ming Dynasty when the government power became less influential in the rural society of minority people in Southwest Guighzou, the relationship between immigrants and local people was eased and they entered into the stage of volunteer integration. Such kind of social integration has enabled the Weisuo immigrants to enjoy a large sum of advantage resources and live in the center of rural social power. Even after the collapse of Weisuo system, they still managed to keep the central position.The immigrants during Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty has brought significant changes to the rural society of minority people region in Southwest Hubei. Firstly, the social change was proved by the biological changes. The immigrant actively promoted the biological building and some new kinds of crops began to be planted in the minority people regions in Southwest Hubei. Thought they made some achievements of biological building, the biological environment was also significantly damaged, causing rapid drop of natural resource, serious desertification, stony desertification and significant drop of disaster resistance. Secondly, it’s also indicated by the rural economy development. The immigrants pushed the local economy prosperity, enhanced rural market and motivated commodity trading. The trading of raw lacquer, tung oil, China grass and tea had become the main ways to improve peasants’ income. Thirdly, it also resulted in culture changes. Due to the influence from immigrated culture, the local living culture, costume culture, belief culture, etiquette culture and diet culture changed after absorbing most Han culture and some culture from minority people, such as Miao and Tong. Meanwhile, the culture of immigrants was also influenced by local culture. Fourthly, during the conflicts and integrations for rural social consequence in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, there were White Lotus Uprising and missionary-resisting social conflicts, which deepened the integration between immigrants and local people. Finally, it’s supported by local people’s recognition changes. Influenced by immigrants, local people reconstructed the family history and formed migration recognition.Migration plays a significant role in forming Chinese people’s diversity pattern. Through the interaction and integration between different cultures, it has enhanced the sense of whole Chinese people. The author, through historical investigation on migration and rural society changes, suggests that we shall improve Chinese culture’s integrity by enriching Chinese People’s integrity culture’s connotation, strengthening Chinese people culture’s integrity and improving Chinese people’s recognition while improving diversified culture development and protecting culture’s diversity.