| The Chinese nation has been a great family of nationalities which is made up of many different nationalities. With the Han nationality as its nucleus, the Chinese nation, which is formed by fusing and assimilating other nationalities step by step over the long history, is a diversified nation centered on the culture of the Huaxia (an archaic name for China) nationality. China now has a vast territory, abundant natural resources and a large population, but the whole panorama is due to the joint efforts in developing of all the people of various nationalities. The people from different nationalities supply one other with what others alck, help one other by communication in skills and learn from one other as well. Thereby, they have not only promoted the economic development and social process in ancient China, but also created the splendid culture. The national fusion in the Spring and Autumn period have a far-reaching influence and plays a prominent role in the history of fusing various nationalities in China and in the process of forming the Chinese nation. It was during the Spring and Autumn period that the embryonic form of the Chinese nation came into being; and it was also nearly determined in this period that the Han nationality-----Huaxia nationality became the main nationality in the whole Chinese nation. The Han nationality was called Hua nationality or Xia nationality in the pre-Qin days; and the term "Han nationality"came into use after Qin and Han dynasties. In the pre-Qin days, the three dynasties-----the Xia Dynasty, the Shang Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty-----are considered orthodox dynasties that came down in one continuous line on behalf of the Huaxia nationality; in the West Zhou Dynasty, it fused some other ancient nationalities gradually, but still centered in the Zhou Dynasty which was the representative of the Huaxia nationality. At that time, the Huaxia nationality was also called "Zhuxia"; whereas those except "Zhuxia"were named "RongyiMandi (which means wild and barbarian nationalities)"nationalities. These minorities are different from the Huaxia nationality living in Central Plains in dressing, languages and customs, but all of them have ever had a wide contact and communication with the Huaxia nationality. The Spring and Autumn period is one when all the nationalities of China began to merge together. The Rongdi nationality plays a quite important role among all the minorities that communicated with the Huaxia nationality in the Spring and Autumn period, and it was the greatest menace to the imperial court of the Zhou Dynasty. The research on the relationship between the Huaxia nationality and the Rongdi nationality is of great significance: it can help us have a clear understanding of the history of national relationship in the Spring and Autumn period; it also does good to do a research on the appearance, development and growth of the Chinese nation community; what's more, it can offer much experience to the descendents for reference on how to deal with the national relationship. The relationship between the Huaxia nationality and the Rongdi nationality mainly took the form of conflict at the first stage of the Spring and Autumn period. Of course there are many reasons for the phenomenon, but they are can be summarized in the following five aspects: first, the different types of nationalities result in the conflict; second, the living style and production system are different; third, they always contend for natural resources; fourth, there is a different degree of social development; fifth, the cultures are different. On the one hand, the conflict is quite fierce; on the other hand, it deepens the communication between them, which creates a good environment for the further fusion between the Huaxia nationality and Rongdi nationality. The Huaxia nationality and Rongdi nationality have been experiencing a process of gradual fusion during the whole Spring and Autumn period, and the reasons for the fusion can be summarized in the following three respects: first, the growing deepening of peaceful communication brings about the fusion; second, the war leads to the annexation which promotes the fusion; third, the Huaxia nationality assimilates the Rongdi nationality with its comparatively highly-developed civilization. There are also criteria to judge whether the Rongdi nationality has been fused into the Huaxia nationality, as follows: first, the belongingness of nationality; second, whether they can accept the culture of the Huaxia nationality; third, whether they come within the jurisdiction of the kingdom on the important issues of the tribe; whether they obey the domination of the Zhou Royal court in name. As long as two of the three above standards are satisfied, it can be basically determined that it has merged into the Huaxia nationality. Take the Xianyu and the Rong nationality with the family name Yun for example. The Xianyu was a branch of Baidi at first and came inward Central Plains at a very early time. For a long period of time, it has been bordering on such countries as Jin and Yan.Therefore, it is much influenced by the culture of Central Plains, and has had no differences from the Huaxia nationality. What's more, it often met the leaders of the various countries on Central Plains in order to form alliances, and to some extent was influenced by some big countries of the Huaxia nationality on Central Plains in foreign affairs. At the end of the Spring and Autumn period, the Xianyu changed its name to Zhongshan, which was eliminated by the Zhao Stare during the time of the Warring States. In this way, it was fused into the Huaxia nationality. So was the Rong nationality with the family name. When its tribes moved to the southwest on the Jin State, the people of the nationality developed the moorland, and made contributions to the Jin State. In culture, it was assimilated by the civilization of the Huaxia nationality gradually; in politics, the Jin State adopted a policy similar to national autonomy: the trifles within tribes could be dealt with by the people themselves, but the significant issues must be limited by the Jin State. Then they would not be regarded as Rong nationality any more. On the contrary, some tribes of the Rong nationality that lay in the north part of the Jin State did not have such a history. Although they have made alliances with the Jin State and communicated with each other regularly in a friendly way, some tribes of the Rong nationality in the northwest part sent an expedition to help the Qin State against the Jin State when the war broke out. The people in the Jin State regarded them as "barbarians (Rongman)". There were some reasons for this. They did not accept the culture of Central Plain, and kept the customs of the Rongdi all the time; they had armies of their own, and the personal affairs were not restricted by the Jin State at all. Just because of the point that it was independent of the various states on Central Plains from beginning to end, it can not be fused to the Huaxia Nationality for a long time. As for the whole Spring and Autumn period, the relationship between the Huaxia nationality and the Rongdi nationality mainly takes the form of the conflict at the earlier stage but the form of fusion at the later stage. In spite of this, the conflict and fusion are interactive in the relationship between the Huaxia nationality and the Rongdi nationality in each period. In other words, the conflict and fusion accompany each other all the time. With regard to a state of the Huaxia nationality, the tribes of the Rong nationality sometimes made a friendly communication with it, but on the other hand, they fought against it frequently. On the contrary, the tribes of the Rong nationality fought against it sometimes, but they came into fusion with the state gradually. Even the attitude of the same tribe of the Rong nationality to the same state of the Huaxia nationality often changes from obedience to rebellion or vice versa constantly. All of this shows that it is not smooth to step from the conflict to the fusion but a gradual and zigzagging process.There are many reasons for it, among which the cultural factors take up the most important part. It lasts a long process and period for the Rongdi nationality to accept the culture of the Huaxia nationality. In a word, the Spring and Autumn period is the first climax in the history of national fusion in our country, and at the same time it establishes the embryonic form for the forming of the Chinese nation in the later period. The communication and fusion among different nationalities is of great help to the development of all. The fusion offers necessary conditions for the great unity in the later stage of the Warring States period. The fusion between the Huaxia nationality and Rongdi nationality during the Spring and Autumn period has significant implications for the later ages. We are a multinational country in which numerous nationalities are complementary to and dependent on each other for thousands of years and they make joint efforts to develop the large territory of our country. At the same time, they created the splendid Chinese culture together. To sum up the fusion between the Huaxia nationality and the Rongdi nationality during the Spring and Autumn period is of profound significance and it has an immense implication to the descendents to del with the relationship between the Huaxia nationality and the Rongdi nationality. It the relationship could not be dealt with well, the Huaxia nationality would not develop in a further way and the social economy would be stagnant; with the good relationship, the Huaxia nationality could step forward peacefully and quickly and the whole country would become prosperous. The social economy will develop in a steady way and correspondingly, the whole Chinese nation will develop and grow steadily.
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