A guest is not a guest—A trip to Meizhou (1)
City Tour
About the Hakkas:
Before the travel notes, I was very hesitant. Although I didn’t stay in Meizhou for a long time, these few days gave me a lot of experience. I have so much information that I really don’t know where to start. I am not an expert in this field. I just come here out of curiosity and respect. I cannot help but apologize to my Hakka sister who warmly invited and received me if I did not write well. However, it is not easy to write well. I'd better follow my heart and follow my understanding and rhythm. Please forgive me if there are any inaccuracies in the article. I originally wanted to record according to the time axis, but it is a bit messy for me, so let's record according to the coordinate axis. The so-called coordinate axis is also not a real coordinate axis in my eyes.
Before I start my travel notes, I would like to briefly review my understanding of the Hakka people.
Guest, compared to host, Hakka should mean living in a foreign country. What is the reason that caused the ancestors of Hakka to stay away from their hometown and become the mainstay of Hakka in many places, and even become the original in some places? With this in mind Curiosity started my trip to Meizhou. I have a deep respect for those people who are far away from their hometown but still survive in displacement and remain optimistic.
According to the data, there have been five major migrations of the Hakka people in history. The history of these migrations is too long to be recounted one by one.
Most key migrations are related to political factors. The third migration truly formed the Hakka ethnic group. In 1126 AD, the Han people who were in the Yellow River Basin crossed the Yangtze River and moved south to avoid war. Later, the Mongols destroyed the Jin Dynasty. After entering the Central Plains, the Mongolian army continued to advance south, and Wen Tianxiang launched an army to fight against the Yuan Dynasty. At that time, Hakka people joined the army one after another. It is said that more than 800 people from the Songkou Zhuo family alone joined the army. "The men are in charge, the women are in armor, and eight thousand children are kings of Qin." In order to seek a peaceful environment, the Hakka people who had previously moved in continued to move southward, entering Meizhou and Huizhou in eastern Guangdong. At this time, the household registration was divided into "host" and "guest", and those who immigrated and naturalized were included in the "guest registration". ”, these people call themselves “Hakkas”.
Some people traveled across the ocean for various reasons, and there was a saying that "wherever there is sea water, there are Chinese, and where there are Chinese, there are Hakkas." This is probably why there are so many Hakka people among the Chinese.
It is estimated that there are about 80 million Hakkas in the world, of which about 50 million are distributed in Guangdong, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hainan, etc. Among them, Meizhou, Huizhou, Ganzhou and Tingzhou are known as the "Four Hakka States".
I accidentally walked into the center of the Hakka people again.
Among the various theories about the origin of the Hakkas, I agree more with the "Central Plains theory" that they moved from Heluo. Because of their attachment to their hometown of Heluo area, they also called themselves "Heluo Lang".
A few words about this: When we were chatting in the car, when we talked about little toes, we said that we can tell the origin of the little toes by looking at their shape. I have heard this saying before. The petals on the little toes are true descendants of China. I have also firmly believed that the little toes of Han people are split in half, with a hard nail on one side and a soft nail on the other.
There is a theory that during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, perennial wars caused a sharp decline in the population of Henan, Shandong, Hebei and other Central Plains. The government moved some people from the prosperous Shanxi Province to the Central Plains. They reluctantly gathered under the big locust tree in Hongdong County and were forced to move to another place. The soldiers escorting them chopped off each of their little toes. Anyone with a crack on their little toe was an immigrant from Shanxi, so that they could be convenient in the future. Recognition of ancestors cannot withstand scrutiny from a genetic point of view, but which nation does not have legends? Let's believe in them. There is a folk song in some places that says: Whoever has two little toenails is a child under the big locust tree. This folk song and the two couplets in the ancestral worship hall in Dahuaishu Park, Hongdong County, Shanxi Province: Where is the bird's nest now when I raise my eyes, sitting and talking about the feelings of the mulberry family. It's consistent.
The genealogy says that my family moved from Datong, Shanxi. My little toes are also in the shape of a flap. I must go and take a look next time I have a chance. Eagle said that her little toes are also in the shape of a flap. Yes, does it also confirm the Central Plains theory?
Back to business, let’s start my trip to Meizhou: City tour:
As I said before, it is carried out according to the coordinate axis. The city tour is divided into two and a half days. The afternoon of the 16th and the afternoon of the 20th. Let’s call it one day.
My trip to Meizhou started with a bowl of delicious food: boiled fish head noodles, full of ingredients and delicious.
Sister Xiaoya’s eldest sister was my first tour guide. She was a volunteer at Thousand Buddha Pagoda, so the trip to Meizhou started with Fo Le (Ksitigarbha Sutra), which made this trip more interesting. It has a Buddhist flavor.
1. Thousand Buddha Pagoda:
It was cast in 965 AD and has a history of more than a thousand years. It has 7 floors and is square. There are thousands of Buddhas cast around the tower. Buddha statue, hence the name Thousand Buddha Pagoda.
In order to protect the Iron Tower, a stone tower was built to shelter it in 1991, so it is also called the Tower in the Tower.
The overall building is very magnificent. There are pagodas within pagodas, there are pagodas on top of pagodas, iron Buddha, jade Buddha and golden Buddha.
Since we were doing religious rituals when we went there, we could hear monks singing the Ksitigarbha Sutra from afar. The voices were soft and the chant lasted for 7 days. However, we still did not disturb their singing. In many places Didn't watch it carefully.
The eldest sister took us to see her old house. The eldest sister said that she lived in the old house until she was 8 years old before moving out. These 8 years were a period of emotional establishment, so the eldest sister has a deep affection for this place. , so she often goes around the old house.
There are many old houses near the old house. It is a typical Hakka Weilong. There is a pond in front of the house, called Feng Shui Pond, and a well. At that time, when I posted the picture, many people thought it was Hongcun. Woolen cloth.
2. Dongshan Middle School:
This was actually a walk that Junhong and I took on the afternoon of the 20th.
Ye Shuai’s alma mater occupies a large area. Going around the perimeter would really break your legs. Sister Xiaoya and Yingying are both their students. There is Dongshan Academy nearby.
I don’t know if this is a gate of Dongshan Middle School
3. Hakka Culture Park:
There is a Hakka Museum inside. Since the museum is under maintenance, we don’t have it. When we went in, there were many plum blossoms planted in the park. My eldest sister said that when the plum blossoms bloom, the whole city is filled with the faint fragrance of plum blossoms. This made me want to see the plum blossoms again.
Accommodation: Stay at the Chengyu Hotel. It is in Xincheng District, next to the Meijiang River. The scenery is very good. Junhong and I walked and chatted there in the evening. We saw a rainbow on the bridge and pomegranate flowers on the riverside.
It didn’t rain, but I dreamed of seeing a rainbow at night
Pomegranate flowers by the river
The scenery on both sides
Stay:
The scenery outside the window of the hotel
The urban area is not too big and can be divided into an old city and a new city. The buildings in the old streets are very similar to those in Haikou old streets, with Nanyang style arcades.
The small town is leisurely and casual. As long as you can speak Hakka, you can have a lively chat with anyone you don’t know. Judging from the intimacy of their chat, outsiders may think they are old friends for many years, but in fact they may have just met once in a lifetime. , here is the character of the Hakka people. Although they call themselves "Hakka people", they can have the style of "host".