What is cousin?
Jiangxi laobiao has also become a kind name for Jiangxi people from other provinces. In addition, some immigrants from Jiangxi to other provinces from Ming and Qing dynasties to modern times also maintained the title of "old cousin", such as Hunan and northern Fujian. There is no recognized view on the origin of the word "Jiangxi laobiao", and there are many opinions:
1. At the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty, many areas in eastern Hunan were deserted due to war, and a large number of Jiangxi people moved to Hunan. Later, in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, a large number of Jiangxi people moved in, and even in some places, nine out of ten households came from Jiangxi. When these descendants of Jiangxi people who moved to Hunan returned to Jiangxi to pay homage to the ancestral tombs, they liked to call the local Jiangxi people by their cousins, meaning cousins. This is the legend of filling Huguang in Jiangxi, and it is also the most popular saying about the origin of the word Laobiao.
2. Zhu Yuanzhang was killed and rescued when he was not an emperor. In order to repay the kindness of Jiangxi people that year, he promised that if he won the world, Jiangxi people could directly look for him in the name of cousin.
3. Originating from the Hakka area in southern Jiangxi, Cantonese people who moved from eastern Guangdong called the local people "Laobiao" (because they are both Hakkas), and later spread throughout Jiangxi, becoming another name for "fellow villagers".
4. Taoism and geomantic omen have been popular in Jiangxi since ancient times. People in neighboring provinces like to invite Mr. Feng Shui from Jiangxi for geomantic omen. As a geomantic magician, the dial is a must-have, so mainlanders call these geomantic omen from Jiangxi by their cousins. Over time, it is also used to address all Jiangxi people.