The arrival of Hakkas in the south (1)

[CHUNG Yoon-Ngan <chungyn@mozart.joinet.net.au>]

The arrival of Hakkas in the south (1)

In 221BC when Ying Zheng (嬴政) established the Qin Dynasty and
proclaimed himself the First Empror of Qin (秦始皇帝) the total
population within his empire were about 20 millions. The bulk of the 
population was in the present day provinces of Shaanxi (陜西) and Gansu
(甘肅) and in the regions along the two large rivers of Huang He (黃河)
and Chang Jiang (長江). 

The population in the south were the Bai Yue Ren (百越人). In order to
consolidate his empire, in 214BC the First Emperor dispatched another
army of 500,000 strong, under the command of Tu Sui (屠睢),  to the
south. The troops were to be divided into five army corps of 100,000
each. One army was sent to Fan Yu (番禺in present day south of Guangzhou
 city 廣州市 Guangdong province 廣東省), one to Tan Cheng (鐔城 in
present near Gui Lin city 桂林市 in Guangxi province 廣西省), one to the
present day northen part of Vietnam, which was then called Xiang
Prefecture (象郡), one to the present day Nan Chang city in Jiangxi
province (南昌市, 江西省) and one to Yu Gan (餘干) near the Po Yang Hu
(鄱陽湖) in the north of Jiangxi. province.        
 
Before he died in 210BC the First Emperor banished convicts, army
deserters, and corrupted officials to live among the Bai Yur people in 
the present day provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi.
The First Emperor also encouraged spinsters, newly married couples and
businessmen to settle in the south. The offspring of many of the newcomers
were what we now call Hakkas. 

That was the situation in the south before the Han Dynasty (206BC to
220AD).


CHUNG Yoon-Ngan