The Han Chinese, alternatively Han people or Chinese people, are an East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China. With a global population of over 1.4 billion, the Han Chinese are the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 17% of the world population. The Han Chinese represent 91.11% of the population in China and 97% of the population in Taiwan. They are a significant diasporic group in Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia.
Han Chinese have exerted the primary formative influence in Chinese culture and history. Han Chinese trace their ancestry and culture to the Huaxia people, a confederation of agricultural tribes that lived along the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in the north central plains of China.
Han Chinese people and culture later spread southwards in the Chinese mainland, driven by large and sustained waves of migration during successive periods of Chinese history, for example the Qin (221–206 BC) and Han (202 BC220 AD) dynasties, leading to a demographic and economic tilt towards the south, and the absorption of various non-Han ethnic groups over the centuries at various points in Chinese history. The Han Chinese became the main inhabitants of the fertile lowland areas and cities of Southern China by the time of the Tang and Song dynasties, with minority tribes occupying the highlands.
Identity
The term "Han" not only refers to a specific ethnic collective, but also points to a shared ancestry, history, and cultural identity. The term "Huaxia" was used by the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius's contemporaries during the Warring States period to elucidate the shared ethnicity of all Chinese; Chinese people called themselves "Hua people" ().
The Warring States period led to the emergence of the Zhou-era Chinese referring to themselves as being Huaxia (literally 'the beautiful grandeur'): under the Hua–Yi distinction, a "Hua" culture (often translated as 'civilized') was contrasted to that of peoples perceived as "Yi" (often translated as 'barbarian') living on the peripheries of the Zhou kingdoms.
Overseas Chinese who possess non-Chinese citizenship are commonly referred as Huaren or Huazu (). The two respective aforementioned terms are applied solely to those with a Han background that is semantically distinct from Zhongguo ren () which has connotations and implications limited to being citizens and nationals of China, especially with regard to ethnic minorities in China.
In English, the terms "Han Chinese", "ethnic Chinese", and "Chinese" people, are often conflated.Who are the Chinese people? . Huayuqiao.org. Retrieved on 26 April 2013.
Designation
"Han people" The name "Han people" () first appeared during the Northern and Southern period and was inspired by the Han dynasty, which is considered to be one of the first golden ages in Chinese history. As a unified and cohesive empire that succeeded the short-lived Qin dynasty, Han China established itself as the center of the East Asian geopolitical order at the time, projecting its power and influence unto Asian neighbors. It was comparable with the contemporary Roman Empire in population size, geographical extent, and cultural reach. The Han dynasty's prestige and prominence led many of the ancient Huaxia to identify themselves as 'Han people'. Similarly, the Chinese language also came to be named and alluded to as the "Han language" () ever since and the Chinese script is referred to as "Han characters".
The word "Han" (漢/汉) in its original poetic meaning found in ancient Chinese works such as the Classic of Poetry, refers to the "Milky Way."
Huaren and Huayi Prior to the Han dynasty, Chinese scholars used the term Huaxia () in texts to describe China proper, while the Chinese populace were referred to as either the 'various Hua' () or 'various Xia' (). This gave rise to two term commonly used nowadays by Overseas Chinese as an ethnic identity for the Chinese diaspora – Huaren () and Huaqiao (), meaning Overseas Chinese. It has also given rise to the literary name for China – Zhonghua (). While the general term Zhongguo ren () refers to any Chinese citizen or Chinese national regardless of their ethnic origins and does not necessary imply Han ancestry, the term huaren in its narrow, classical usages implies Central Plains or Han ancestry.
Tangren Among some Southern Han Chinese varieties such as Cantonese, Hakka and Minnan, the term Tangren (), derived from the name of the later Tang dynasty (618–907) that oversaw what is regarded as another golden age of China. The self-identification as Tangren is popular in south China, because it was at this time that massive waves of migration and settlement led to a shift in the center of gravity of the Chinese nation, away from the tumult of the Central Plains to the peaceful lands south of the Yangtze and on the southeastern coast.
This led to the earnest settlement by Chinese of lands previously regarded as part of the empire's sparsely populated frontier or periphery. Guangdong and Fujian, hitherto regarded as backwater regions, were populated by the descendants of garrison soldiers, exiles and refugees, became new centers and representatives of Han Chinese culture under the influence of the new Han migrants. The term is used in everyday colloquial discourse and is also an element in one of the words for Chinatown: . The phrase is also used to refer to Chinatowns.
Zhonghua minzu The term Zhonghua minzu is currently used as a supra-ethnic concept, but Liang Qichao, who coined the term, used it between 1902 and 1905 to refer to Han Chinese. At the same time, he proposed the concept of a greater minzu () that encompasses all ethnicities in China, similar to Americans. Subsequently in 1912 and 1913 under the Republic of China, the union of major ethnic groups was further promoted and made official. In the People's Republic of China today, Han is considered the largest of the fifty-six state-recognized minzu ethnic groups, while the term Chinese emphasizes their common citizenship. In practice however, Chinese and Han are often used as synonyms.
Han Chinese subgroups
Han Chinese can be divided into subgroups, based on the variety of Chinese that they speak. Waves of migration have occurred throughout China's long history and vast geographical expanse, engendering the emergence of Han Chinese subgroups found throughout the regions of modern China today, with distinct regional features.
The expansion of the Han people outside their linguistic homeland in the Yellow River is an important part of their historical consciousness and ethnogenesis, and accounts for their present-day diversity.
There were several periods of mass migration of Han people to Southeastern and Southern China throughout history. Initially, the sparsely populated regions of south China were inhabited by tribes known only as the Bai Yue or Hundred Yue. Many of these tribes developed into kingdoms under rulers and nobility of Han Chinese ethnicity, but retained a Bai Yue majority for several centuries.
Others were forcibly brought into the Sinosphere by the imperial ambitions of emperors such as Qin Shi Huangdi and Han Wu Di, both of whom settled hundreds of thousands of Chinese in these lands to form agricultural colonies and military garrisons. Even then, control over these lands was tenuous, and Bai Yue cultural identity remained strong until sustained waves of Han Chinese emigration in the Jin, Tang and Song dynasties altered the demographic balance completely.
Chinese language (or Chinese languages) can be divided to 10 primary dialects (or languages).
Each Han Chinese subgroup (民系) can be identified through their dialects: Wu (吴语): Jiangzhe people (江浙民系) Hui (徽语): Wannan people (皖南民系) Gan (赣语): Jiangxi people (江西民系) Xiang (湘语): Hunan people (湖南民系) Min (闽语): Minhai people (闽海民系) Hakka (客语): Hakka people (客家民系) Yue (粤语): Cantonese people (岭南民系) Pinghua (平话) and Tuhua (土话): Pingnan people (平南民系) Jin (晋语): Jinsui people (晋绥民系) Mandarin (官话): Northern people (北方民系) Northeastern (东北): Northeastern people (东北民系) Beijing (北平): Youyan people (幽燕民系) Jilu (冀鲁): Jilu people (冀鲁民系) Jiaoliao (胶辽): Jiaoliao people (胶辽民系) Central Plains (中原): Central Plains people (中原民系) Lanyin (兰银): Longyou people (陇右民系) Southwestern (西南): Southwestern people (西南民系) Jianghuai (江淮): Jianghuai people (江淮民系)
Military garrisons and agricultural colonies The first emperor Qin Shi Huang is said to have sent several hundred thousand men and fifteen thousand women to form agricultural and military settlements in Lingnan (present day Guangxi and Guangdong), under the leadership of a general named Zhao Tuo. The famous Han emperor, Han Wu Di, ordered another two hundred thousand men to build ships to attack and colonialize the Lingnan region, adding to the population in Guangdong and Guangxi.
The first urban conurbations in the region, for example, Panyu, were created by Han settlers rather than the Bai Yue, who preferred to maintain small settlements subsisting on swidden agriculture and rice farming. Later on, Guangdong, northern Vietnam, and Yunnan all experienced a surge in Han Chinese migrants during Wang Mang's reign. The demographic composition and culture of these regions during this period, could however scarcely be said to have been Sinitic outside the confines of these agricultural settlements and military outposts.
Historical southward migrations
The genesis of the modern Han people and their subgroups cannot be understood apart from their historical migrations to the south, resulting in a depopulation of the Central Plains, a fission between those that remained and those that headed south, and their subsequent fusion with aboriginal tribes south of the Yangtze, even as the centres of Han Chinese culture and wealth moved from the Yellow River Basin to Jiangnan, and to a lesser extent also, to Fujian and Guangdong.
At various points in Chinese history, collapses of central authority in the face of barbarian uprisings or invasions and the loss of control of the Chinese heartland triggered mass migratory waves which transformed the demographic composition and cultural identity of the south. This process of sustained mass migration has been known as "garments and headdresses moving south" 衣冠南渡 (yì guān nán dù), on account of it first being led by the aristocratic classes.
Such migratory waves were numerous and triggered by such events such as the Uprising of the Five Barbarians during the Jin dynasty (304–316 AD) in which China was completely overrun by minority groups previously serving as vassals and servants to Sima (the royal house of Jin), the An Lu Shan rebellion during the Tang dynasty (755–763 AD), and the Jingkang incident (1127 AD) and Jin-Song wars. These events caused widespread devastation, and even depopulated the north, resulting in the complete social and political breakdown and collapse of central authority in the Central Plains, triggering massive, sustained waves of Han Chinese migration into South China, leading to the formation of distinct Han lineages, who also likely assimilated the by-now partially sinicized Bai Yue in their midst.
Modern Han Chinese subgroups, such as the Cantonese, the Hakka, the Henghua, the Hainanese, the Hoklo peoples, the Gan, the Xiang, the Wu-speaking peoples, all claim Han Chinese ancestry pointing to official histories and their own genealogical records to support such claims. Linguists hypothesize that proto- Wu and Min varieties of Chinese may have originated from the time of Jin,[ Page 161] in while the proto- Yue and Hakka varieties perhaps from the Tang and Song, about half-a-millennium later. The presence of Tai-Kradai substrates in these dialects may have been due to the assimilation of the remaining groups of Bai Yue, integrating these lands into the Sinosphere proper.
First wave: Jin dynasty