Among them, Chaozhou, Shantou, Jieyang, Shanwei, the southeast coastal areas of Lufeng, and the Chaoshan Cultural Zone in the southeast of Fengshun County, Meizhou; Meizhou, Heyuan, most of Shaoguan, Huizhou, Qingyuan, Huadu and Shenzhen in Guangzhou, most of Longyan in western Fujian and Ganzhou in Jiangxi, plus the northern part of Chaoshan area and parts of eastern Guangxi, belong to Hakka cultural areas; Zhaoqing, Foshan, Guangzhou, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, Zhuhai and Macao in the lower reaches of Xijiang River, Zhaoqing and Wuzhou in Guangxi in the middle reaches of Xijiang River, Dongguan, Yangjiang, Maoming and Zhanjiang in Guangdong, and Yulin, Beihai and Qinzhou in Hong Kong are Guangfu Cultural Zones (Lingnan Cantonese Cultural Zone).
I grew up in Chaoshan area before I went to college. When I was young, I often wandered between Raoping, Shantou and Chaoan. After work, I always return to Chaoshan from Guangzhou to settle in Jieyang. Like many Chaoshan people, I am familiar with Chaoshan things, but I often know what it is at first, but I may not know why! For example, why do Chaoshan people prefer to do business by family or family? Why is the clan concept of Chaoshan people stronger? What are the reasons why Chaoshan people have so many intangible cultural heritages? ..... and so on.
In my study, work and life, I have come into contact with many Hakkas. My ancestors moved from Tingzhou, the capital of Hakka in Fujian, to the mixed area of Chaozhou in the north, so I have a strong interest in Hakka culture. Therefore, in recent years, go on road trip has been specially arranged for several times in Hakka areas in Guangdong, Fujian and Jiangxi. Especially in the first half of 2020, I spent four months purposefully going to Chaoshan and Meizhou. It is also through this long-term visit that I found a current situation-that is, almost all the rivers in Chaoshan originate from the area where Hakka people live!
This situation immediately reminded me that in ancient times when there were no railways and roads were underdeveloped, Chaoshan people and Hakka people must have had in-depth exchanges through waterways!
Sure enough, in the 1600-year history since the establishment of Yi 'an County in the 9th year of Yixi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (AD 4 13), most areas of Meizhou now belong to Chaozhou Prefecture for a long time! Especially in the 430 years from the second year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1369) to the twelfth year of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty (A.D. 1808), the current Meizhou area was under the jurisdiction of Chaozhou Prefecture. One hundred years later, from the third year of the Republic of China (A.D. 19 14) to 1965, most of Meizhou was under the jurisdiction of Shantou for another 50 years. A lot of history and statistics of the ancient Chaozhou government include the current Meizhou area!
According to the statistics of the permanent population of the three cities in Chaoshan released in early 2020, the permanent population of the three cities in Chaoshan is about 8.5 million (the local registered population is not too large, and many young people in Chaoshan like me should settle in Shenzhen and Guangzhou after finishing college for decades, so it is not counted). I am particularly concerned that among the 8.5 million people in Chaoshan, there are about 6.5438+0 million Hakkas (some people call them "half-mountain tourists")!
In fact, because of the historical jurisdiction between Meizhou and Chaoshan, because the people of both places are Han people in the Central Plains, and because the Five Rivers in Chaoshan originated in Hakka areas, in the era of underdeveloped roads and high-speed rail, the people of the two places communicated with each other through rivers, which has always been a state of "separated by a river"!
Now it may be the reason why the mode of transportation has changed, or it may be the reason why the administrative divisions have changed. The tidal beauty born of water for thousands of years and the people of Meizhou, the cultural exchange seems to have decreased for half a century. I have noticed that many research results in recent decades have mostly separated Chaoshan from Hakka civilization (even in Chaoshan area, the history and culture of Chaoshan three cities are often studied separately). However, in order to study Chaoshan civilization (civilization, in my understanding, is the sum of humanistic spirit and inventions accumulated in human history), it is necessary to study Hakka civilization (not to mention there are a large number of Hakkas in Chaoshan area); If you want to study Chaoshan history, you must study Hakka history. On the contrary, to study the historical civilization of Meizhou, we must study the historical civilization of Chaoshan.
I believe that all humanistic spirits (such as ideas and customs) and inventions (such as architecture) can not be separated from a specific historical background. Just like the genealogy of many surnames in Chaoshan Hakka area, the beginning will tell when and where their ancestors came to live in the area. In fact, once we know the dynasty and background of their ancestors' life, we can better understand the original intention of their ancestors' migration, as well as the behavioral decisions made by the people of past dynasties and the civilized products they left behind.
Therefore, I want to break through the shackles of administrative divisions and research resources by visiting Hakka areas, combining the trend of Chaoke River and my own understanding of Chaoshan, and relying on the vertical axis of history, analyze the context behind the status quo, and then make a multi-point horizontal comparison of history, geography, literati and architecture, in order to try to analyze the inherent laws behind phenomena and concepts.
If the contemporary novel "Millennium Gejing" published at the end of 2065438+2009, which took me four years to write, shows the social ecology of Chaoshan today, reflects the history and humanity of Chaoshan, and tells what Chaoshan has, then this book is trying to answer "Why is there anything"!
Since ancient times, Hakka democracy has exchanged or migrated through rivers. It can be said that you live at the head of the river and I live at the end of the river. We have exchanged for thousands of years and * * * drank a river! The deep friendship of Chaoke people, like this long river, has flowed for thousands of years. So, from the beginning, I definitely named the title of this book "One Tide"!
Now, please prepare a cup of tea, and walk with me in the magnificent historical picture of the influx of tourists, visit the products of Chaoshan Hakka civilization for two thousand years, and discuss the present situation and the origin of ideas together, so that we can live in this colorful society with more relief. Only when you know the way when you come can you know the future direction.
The above contents are excerpted from the book One River Tide: An Interview with Chaoshan Hakka History and Culture published in March 2022.
On April 4, 2022, Shantou Daily article "Castle Peak is Sex, Rain, Tourists, One River and One Family" originated from the blending of Chaoshan culture and Hakka culture, and was published in the new book "One River Tide".
On May 25, 2022, Meizhou APP, a subsidiary of Meizhou Daily, published a number of photos and a report-a popular work of cultural and historical visits of Chaozhou guests in eastern Guangdong! Published "One River Tide: An Interview with Hakka History and Culture in Chaoshan". On May 30, 2022, Meizhou Daily once again published a short report-a historical investigation of Chaozhou guest culture in eastern Guangdong!