July 7, 2013 - part 7

Oliver Lee’s talk at the July 7 General Meeting

Hi, everyone. I’m glad to see a number of new members and guests here today. For your information, I’ll say a tiny bit about myself: I am the Chinese Secretary of this Association, and I’ve given six talks at our general meetings, about various aspects of the Hakka people, their history, their culture. And today I’ll be giving the seventh talk. 

Today, I’ll start with a geography lesson relevant to the history of the Hakkas. You’ve been given a map of China, in which I’ve outlined and shaded one particular Province, namely Henan Province. In Hakka dialect, it is called “Ho Nam” (河南), which means “south of the river”. This refers to the Yellow River, and most of Ho Nam does lie south of the river. In the pinyin system of alphabetizing Mandarin words, the Province is called Henan -- the first syllable is pronounced not “hee” but more like “ho”. 

Ho Nam is the birthplace of the northern branch of Chinese civilization over 5,000 years of history, and remained China’s political and cultural center until about 1000 years ago. Of China’s eight great dynastic capitals, four were in Ho Nam, namely Anyang, Luoyang, Zhengzhou, and Kaifeng (安阳，洛阳，郑州，开封) all in the vicinity of the Yellow River.

Map from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If you look at the western tip of Ho Nam, near the city of Xi’an, you’ll see a white line running straight up. This line is where the Yellow River flows southward for 400 miles. This stretch of the river also forms the boundary between Shanxi Province on the east and Shaanxi Province on the west. These two Provinces have a similar sound (though different tones), so the Chinese distinguish the pinyin spelling by giving a double “a” to “Shaanxi”.

Near Xi’an, the Yellow River turns abruptly eastward heading for the ocean, reaching it north of Shandong Province (山东), with its peninsula jutting way out to the ocean. This Province, by the way, was controlled before World War I by Germans, who set up breweries of good German beer, which till this day is known as Tsingtao beer, Tsingtao（青岛) being a city in Shandong.

But in some centuries the Yellow River changed course drastically and reached the ocean not north of the Shandong Peninsula but south of it. The cause of these periodic shifts has to do with the fact that the Yellow River is brownish or yellowish, which is due to the great amount of brown dust blowing in from Mongolia. This brown dust has accumulated over the millennia to form a layer of brown earth sometimes hundreds of feet thick in western provinces such as Gansu, Ningxia, and Shaanxi (甘肃，宁夏，陕西). The Yellow River, flowing through these provinces, picks up untold thousands of tons of brown earth. Much of this settles to the bottom of the river, thus raising the water level. As the river water gets higher and higher, the local governments build embankments to prevent it from overflowing. But the brown earth on the river bottom continues to build up, the water level continues to rise, and the embankments continue to get higher. So at certain times a big flood will overwhelm the embankments, and the river, from high up, comes breaking through, causing changes of its course either in short sections or vast sections such as in Shandong.

So much for geography. Now lets look at my second map to learn about the history of the Hakkas.

This second map shows mainly Ho Nam Province, outlined with a black line. On the map you see nine shaded spots, which have to do with the place of origin of nine of the major Hakka clans. My book here, titled "The Hakka People", lists 17 of the main Hakka clans, all of which had their origins about 2000 to 3000 years ago. (The Editor did not write about all the Hakka clans). As many as seven of these had their origins in Ho Nam Province, and two more had their origins right near Ho Nam. This is why it is often said that the original home of the Hakka people was in Ho Nam.This book, written in Chinese, shows that almost all of the founders of these 17 clans were important government officials in those ancient times, mayors of cities, governors of prefectures, and even kings of small kingdoms. (Early on, there were couple of hundred small kingdoms in China, which were consolidated through conquests into fewer and fewer large kingdoms, namely seven by the third century B.C., which by 221 B.C. were unified into one Chinese Empire by the first Emperor). These government positions brought wealth and privileges to the officials, and enabled large families, where a father often would have several dozen children by several wives. and concubines. This way the clans achieved large size and longevity down through the centuries.

The nine shaded spots in my second map shows the exact locations of where nine of these founders of long-living clans had their government positions. In an earlier talk I had reasoned that government officials in north China, at times of rebellion or revolution or foreign conquest had more reason to flee south with their families than ordinary peasants. And, true enough, this book shows that almost every one of the 17 clans the Editor wrote about were led southward at the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Song Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty, by descendants of the original founders of the clans, many of which descendants were likely also to be government officials, men of wealth and influence and Confucian education.

Using this book, I have written short paragraphs summarizing the history of eight of the clans headed by government officials in Ho Nam Province in ancient times. Today I won’t take your time while you’re eating lunch to talk about these histories, but I’ll have Luther include these summaries in the Tsung Tsin website that he expertly manages, as you will find below:

Going alphabetically, we have the Char clan, whose founder, over 2,000 years ago, was mayor of the city of Xie (谢)，from which the clan got its name. That city was located in the present-day county of Tang He (唐河)，which is in the southwestern part of Ho Nam 。For all the other clans originating in Ho Nam or near it, I similarly identify the cities or counties (by their present-day names, which usually have changed over the millennia).

Next, the Chen（陈）clan got its name from the founder of the short-lived Chen Dynasty (549-589), whose capital was in present-day Huai Yang (淮阳), in eastern Ho Nam.

Next，the Chung（锺）clan originated with the older brother of the evil tyrant Zhou Xin （纣辛）whom I talked about last November in connection with the Lum clan, the ruler who burned down his own palace and died in it. This older brother was given a small kingdom by the new emperor Wu Wang (武王)，who had overthrown the evil tyrant. This small kingdom, called Song, had its capital in present-day Shang Qiu Shi（商丘市), which you can see in the eastern protrusion of Ho Nam. And his great grandson was given a high post in Zhong Li (锺离), from which the Zhong clan got its name, though I can’t find the location on the map.

Next, the Liu (刘) clan was founded by a Prince who was given the city of Liu to govern, which was located in present-day Yan Shi County (偃师) in northwest Ho Nam near the big city of Luoyang 洛阳）。

Next, the Pang （彭) clan. A 6th generation descendant of the Yellow Emperor was Mayor of the city of Peng（彭）and used the city’s name for the clan name. Over the millennia this city was buried by many floods of the Yellow River. The present-day city of Xu Zhou （徐州） has been built on top of it, located just east of Ho Nam Province, beyond Ho Nam’s eastern protrusion.

Next, the Ten（邓）clan. A descendant of the Emperor of the Xia Dynasty was given the small kingdom of Deng （邓） to rule, from which the king took his clan name. It is located in the present-day Deng County, near the southwestern border of Ho Nam Province, not far from the home base of the Char clan.

Next, the Wong (黄) clan. A descendant of the Yellow Emperor was given the small kingdom of Huang（黄), located in present-day Huang Chuan County（黄川 ) in the southeastern corner of Ho Nam.

Next, the Yap （叶）clan. In the Spring Autumn era, about 1000 B.C., the King of Chu （楚）appointed a subordinate to become Mayor of the city of Ye（叶) , (pronounced Yap in Hakka). His descendants took the city’s name as the clan name. The location is in present-day Ye County (叶县），smack in the middle of Ho Nam.

Nine other Hakka clans listed in The Hakka People, namely Chong, Goo, Li, Lien, Lim, Ng, Siu, and Zane, had similar political origins, but not in Ho Nam Province, rather in other northern Provinces such as Gansu, Hupei, Shandong, and Jiangsu （甘肃，湖北，山 东，江肃）。

I hope you have learned a lot today.