TAIWANESE HAKKA,¥x ÆW ªº «È ®a
General Information about Hakka
INTRODUCTION
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All pronunciation of Honsii (Han characters) will be pronounced
according to Hakka Taiwanese using Taiwanese Language Phonetic Alphabets
(TLPA) except for those well established words such as Taiwan, Kwangtung
etc. When a refence is cited, however, the author's original format is used
. Mandarin may be included in the parenthesis using Wade system.
Content
GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT HAKKA
1. What is Hakka
2. Origin of Hakka
2.1 Westerners' views
2.2 Chinese's views
2.21 Lo, Hiong-lim's studies
2.22 Fong, Hok-ka's studies
2.23 Chin, Chii-phin's studies
2.3 Modern Biological Studies
CULTURE AND LANGUAGE OF HAKKA IN TAIWAN
HISTORY OF HAKKA IN TAIWAN
1. WHAT IS HAKKA ?
The "Hakka" in Honsii means "Guest People" literally. It is
still not certain why, how and when the term "Hakka" was used. The CD-Rom
encyclopedia "Encarda" that comes with many computer describes Hakka as
"term applied to a migratory people of southern China." However, Hakka
probably have been in southern China for thousands years. They are not
migratory. Many moved to less populated areas because of the pressure of
population growth. Hakka moved and settled in Taiwan also hundreds years
ago. Most of them live in farming community before. They are not "Guest
People" of their community. Some are "newcomer" in certain areas. The term
"Hakka" is not appropriate but sticks to this group of people for centuries.
2. ORIGIN OF HAKKA:
2.1 Westerners' views:
The CD-Rom encyclopedia "Encarda" said "They are thought to be
descended from the Burmese or Thais or from the aboriginal inhabitants of
northern China. The Hakka have always been persecuted by the natives of
the regions in which they have settled."
The above statement is really very vague. The author probably
wrote it purposely that way because the origin of Hakka is still not well
understood. There are many theories based on different studies. There are
no consensus about it. It varied from "pure" Hon (Han in Mandarin) people
to southern or northern aborigines of China.
The discussion of Hakka in The Encyclopedia Americana (by
Grolier Inc., 1982 edition) is somewhat different. They said the origins of
Hakka are unknown and the most common opinion is that they moved
from northern or central China in stages whenever population pressures
demanded or during periods of frequent warfare. They moved to
Kuangtung in 13th century. Because they were late comer and were not
welcomed into the settled lowland and delta communities and they were
forced into less fertile uplands.
Another popular The New Encyclopedia Britannica (Encyclopedia
Britannica, Inc.,1989 edition) said that "group of North Chinese who
migrated to South China, especially Kwangtung and Fukien provinces,
during the Southern Sung dynasty (1127-1279), when North China was
occupied by Inner Asian tribesmen."
More professional or scientific view-points from western scholars
should be available. I did not try hard to find more information. No doubt to
anyone, there are many different theories. One popular book "The Languages
of China" by S. Robert Ramsey (Princeton University Press, 1987) has a short
comment about Hakka in the next two paragraph. More recent information will
be discussed later in the modern theories section later, please read that
section for details.
" The name 'Hakka' is a word of Cantonese origin literally means
'guest' or 'stranger'. The Hakka were called this when they began migrating
into Yue-speaking territory, and the exotic name seems to have stuck quite
simply because, until fairly recently, many Cantonese and Min mistakenly
thought that the Hakka were not Chinese at all, but rather some kind of
strange non-Han "barbarians" like the Tai or the Miao. In many parts of
South China, these 'guest' are still treated as outsiders and intruders even
though everyone now concedes that they are Han Chinese.
The Hakka identify themselves as Northern Chinese, and this
contention has some basis in fact. Local genealogies and other historical
records indicated that many of the ancestors of the Hakka were people
originally from the Northern Plains who in a series of waves migrated deeper
and deeper into the South. What remains to be explored, however, are the
contributions made by local populations to the formation of the Hakka people,
and how these differed from those that made up the Yue or the Min. For no
matter what the ethnic origin of the Hakka, the group is linguistically
Southern Chinese. The Hakka dialects are historically allied to the other
Southern dialects around them. The have some unmistakably Northern features,
but they are actually not much more like Mandarin than Cantonese is. The
Hakka dialects were formed in the South--almost surely in northeastern
Guangdong--and the present widespread distribution of their speakers is the
result of large-scale migrations that took place out of Meixian during the
Qing dynasty." (above two paragraph from Ramsey's book)
2.2 Chinese's views:
However, some literature written in Chinese especially those
by the Hakka scholars claimed Hakka were originally from northern China.
The Hakka ancestors migrated by stages to southern China because their
"homeland" was occupied by "barbarian" tribes. They claimed the Hakka
was the most authentic Han. Their studies were based mainly from Hakka's
"family tree book" (Tsu-phu). The classic research was done by Professor Lo,
Hiong-lim (ù » ªL). However, many recent studies in China, including some
Hakka used more scientific studies based on anthropological, social and
linguistic evidences and concluded that Hakka is originated primarily from
southern ethnic groups rather than migrated from northern China. That view
is represented by Professor Fong, Hok-ka's (©Ð ¾Ç ¹Å) book. He wrote a book
"Investigation in Depth about the Origin of Hakka («È ®a ·½ ¬y ±´ ¶ø,
first published in China 1994, new edition published in Taiwan 1996 ).
More studies to compare the Tsu-phu of Hakka and non-Hakka were done by
few scholars especially Professor Chin, Chii-ping (³¯ ¤ä ¥ ). To no
surprise to many people, they have another view that is different from
professors Lo and Fong. Professor Chin basically believed the Southern
Chinese all migrated from northern China but there are no difference between
Hakka and non-Hakka. Here we summarized the conclusion of these three
different views.
Lo, Hiong-lim (Hsiang lin Lo, ù » ªL ) is the first studied the
family tree book systematically. He published two books "An Introduction
to the Study of the Hakkas: Its Ethnic, Historical and Cultural Aspects"
(1933) and "The Study of the Origin of Hakka" (1953). The citations about
the origin of Hakka from northern China came mainly from these two books.
In the first chapter of first book, Mr. Lo wrote a lot about the armed
conflicts (sie-teu, hsie-to in Mandarin±ñ °«) between Hakka and local
groups. Partly because of these conflicts, non-Hakka groups called Hakka
not Hon (Han) people. Many Hakka scholars and government officials started
to publish articles and books to argue that Hakka are Hon people.
In that chapter, he mentioned in length about Cantonese
calling Hakka "barbarian" tribes. Cantonese even used the Hon
character with "khien" (ch'yuan in Mandarin, dog, ¤ü) next to the "Hak"
character or called Hakka "ch'i", a Hon character with the "dog" sign. A
textbook about world geography published in Shanghai in 1920 had following
statement "In the mountains are many wild tribes and backward people such
as Hakka and Ikias". Similar incidents happened again and again. Partly
because of these incidents, many Hakkas started to form organizations and
publish own journals to defend the Hakka are indeed Hon people.
In the first chapter, page 12, Mr. Lo summarized the 4 theories of
the origin of Hakka in 1933 before his own research. #1 Hakka are one
tribe of Miao and Man ("Barbarian" ÆZ) of southern China. #2 Hakka are the
descendants of ancient Yet tribe (Yue in Mandarin, ¶V ±Ú ). #3 Hakka
originate from northern China but are not Hon. #4 Hakka are the most authentic
Hon people. Mr. Lo's book has a lot of references in each chapter.
2.21 Mr. Lo Hiong-lim's study
After the very good induction, his second chapter discussed the
origin of Hakka. He started with a definition of Hon. "Hon is a mixture of
numerous tribes or ethnic groups that resided in East Asia". With this kind
of definition, it is not that important whether Hakka Hon or not. He then
wrote about how he reconstructed five stages of migration of Hakka using
the family tree books.
#1 MIGRATION:
The first stage started in East Chin (Tsin¡A®Ê) dynasty when the
northern China was occupied by northern "barbarians". It is about AD
317-819. He based on the descriptions of 8 family tree books. Mr. Lo he
himself also admitted in the book (page 43), "these description although
is rather fragmented, it is still able to speculate that Hakka ancestors'
migration to south began in East Chin era". The evidence is based on the
description such as "our family ancestor moved to south because of Five
Barbarian disturbed China (Five Fu loan Fa¡A ¤ J ¶Ã µØ)".
The family tree books have the tendency to use the famous people as
their ancestors. For example, the Liu' family, the first family he cited,
originated from the second son of King Liu Phi (Liu Pei,¼B ³Æ) of famous
Three Kingdom era. Many ancestors of other family tree books were government
officials. Mr. Lo also cited some history books about the new counties
established in provinces along Yangtze River during the East Chin era as
the evidence of first Hakka migration.
#2 MIGRATION:
Mr. Lo's theory of second migration started in AD 874 of late Tang(ð)
dynasty. Because of poor harvest for years, famine swept the northern and
central China. Vong Chhau (Huang Ch'ao,¶À±_) was able to get hungry people
together to rebel. These undisciplined army murdered thousands and
thousands people. According to Mr. Lo, during the Vong Chhau's era, the
Hakka ancestors moved again from Yangtze River areas to further south.
Again, he based on more than 10 family tree books to back up his theory.
During the second migration, Hakka moved to southern Kongsi (Tsiang-hsi,¦¿¦è),
western Fukkian (Fu-tsien,ºÖ«Ø) and few to eastern Kuangtung. Mr. Lo also
mentioned that much less than 1% of family name was cited in the book,
however, he said he still could made the assumption that Vong Chhau's
rebellion caused Hakka's second migration.
#3 MIGRATION:
Sung dynasty moved to south in 1127 AD. When Mongolian conquered the
most of Europe and Asia, the South Sung dynasty and southern China was no
exception. However, according to Mr. Lo Hakka settled in southern China
fought Mongolian vigorously. The third migration started in South Sung
dynasty and continued to the end of Yuan dynasty (Mongolian dynasty) and the
beginning of Ming dynasty.
Mr. Lo listed 18 family names in the book. In this table and
other description, more details and exact dates were given in some family
tree books. Most of these families moved from southern Kongsi and western
Fukkian to eastern Kuangtung.
#4 MIGRATION:
The 4th migration is not due to the war. This migration is more
recent and is much better documented. For example, at the beginning of Chhing
(ch'in ²M) dynasty, Hakka people started to move to Sichon (Sichuan,¥|¤t).
This migration was secondary to the pressure of population increase. The
areas in Kongsi, Fukkien and Kuangtung where Hakka inhabited are primarily
mountainous areas and very few farming land are available. Hakka started to
move to areas with less population. Sichon (Sichuan) was less populated
because of rebellion of Chong, Sian-Chung (Chang, Hsian-Chung ±i Äm ©¾) at
the end of Ming dynasty. Some moved to Hunan and Kongsi provinces. Some
started also to migrate to Taiwan. Details about the immigration of Hakka
to Taiwan will be discussed more detailed later. The fourth migration
according to Mr. Lo is in the period between 1700-1800. Migration to other
parts of Asia started in this era too.
#5 MIGRATION:
The 5th migration of Mr. Lo's book discussed about the migration of
Hakka from eastern Kuangtung to other parts of Kuangtung and Kongsi provinces.
Migration to Taiwan, other parts of Asia, Pacific islands, central America
and Africa became more and more common. Many Hakka communities were
established in those areas.
Mr. Lo's second book on the origin of Hakka published after the
second world war (I read somewhere it was published in Hong Kong 1953, the
copy I have did not specify the publication date) gave more information
about stage #4 and #5 migration. It also gave some more information about
the migration to other areas especially overseas during stage 5.
COMMENT:
After reading the Mr. Lo's two books, I still had a lot of doubts
about the theory that Hakka migrated from North China to south in stages.
The family tree books give very vague information especially the first 2-3
stages. The migration records in the family tree books of the later stages
especially the #4, #5 may be more meaningful and real. The record of the
first two stages probably are merely "legendary". It is also possible the
people that really migrated from northern and central China are really small
in number. Therefore, the modern biological studies indicated Hakka are
primarily southern Mongoloid groups not northern groups.
Some information in the Lo's first book is very old and inaccurate.
The first book was published in 1933. The information about the distribution
of Hakka in Taiwan is the information of 18th century. The book listed the
partial Hakka areas as Tsong-fa, Tsu-lo and Fung-san three counties. The
name of those counties were really old names. According to the Taiwan's
history book, the name of those three counties existed simultaneously only
between 1723-1788. He did list more modern names in his second book.
Professor Chin (in section 2.23) also mentioned the error of listing few
counties in Fukkien as pure Hakka areas but actually are pure Hoklo areas.
2.22 FONG, HOK-KA'S THEORY:
Recent archaeological findings in the Hakka areas, mainly at the
border of Kwangtung, Fuk-kien and Kong-si provinces, suggested that there were
many evidences that highly developed civilization already existed well before
Chhin (¯³ ) era. Many artifacts unearthed could be traced to the civilization
of 6,000 years ago. More than hundreds sites were found in China.
Yet (Yue¡A ¶Vor¸f) is the general term used for the ethnic groups
in southern China. Hundred Yet indicated many different groups. From
the archeological findings, the people lived in south had highly developed
Pak-Yet (¦Ê¶V) Culture and the exchange of culture with northern China was
well established before the Chhin era. The population of southern China
during that era was estimated to be "considerable" by Professor Fong's book.
After Chhin conquered other countries and established Chhin dynasty (
221 BC), they sent government and military personnel to the south. Some
of these personnel stayed in the south. The influence of northern culture increased
significantly after Chhin dynasty. The sinicization (º~¤Æ )of southern ethnic
groups became inevitable because of long occupation of south by northern
governments after the Chhin dynasty. Professor Fong believed the identity
of pro-Hakka was developed during the period of Chhin dynasty (began in 221
BC) to South-North Era («n¥_´Â ended in 589 AD).
Sinicization after the end of South-North Era was further accelerated
by the arrival of more northern immigrants. The three main languages of
southern China (Fukienese, Cantonese and Hakka) were developed during the
period of Sui-Tong ( ¶¦ ¡Bð 581-907 AD ) to Five-Dynasty (¤ ¥N, 907-960 AD).
These three languages all had some common characters of southern languages
and old northern language.
Before the Five-Dynasty, there was almost no record in history about
the activities in Hakka areas. After Sung dynasty (§º), more literature
regarding current Hakka area can be found. Professor Fong called "Era the
Hakka Stepping into History". Hakka systematically migrated to further
south, west and other areas began in Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and Chhing
dynasty.
In the chapter 8 (Common origin of Hakka), Professor Fong said there
was no evidence of massive migration from northern to southern China from
the historical records. It is impossible that southern China was a vacuum
place waiting the northern people to move in. There indeed some northern
ethnic people migrated to south, however, the number of people migrated
from north was really very minute. The small number of northern people
brought in northern culture and language. The mixture of both Yet and
northern culture formed the special Hakka culture. The primary ancestors
of Hakka were Yet people in the south not very few northern immigrants.
Professor Fong listed many archaeological evidences to back up his
theory. He also listed the population data to demonstrate that there was no
of massive migration from northern China. He also did a lot of field studies
about the culture, customs, religion and women of Hakka and aborigines
especially the "She" (Ú®) group. He found some similarity between two
cultures.
COMMENTS:
Professor Fong is a very diligent scholar. His arguments based on
more scientific evidences. His conclusion is certainly consistent with the
more modern biological studies cited below. More recent studies of family
tree book, the same method used by Lo Hiong-lim to prove his theory of 5 stages
of migration, found Hakka and non-Hakka have same ancestors. In the preface
of Fong's book, a professor cited one study that the difference between
different ethnic groups in Kwangchou area is not due to biological origin.
Apparently they all have same origin but currently belong to three different
ethnic groups because of social and culture differences. Professor Fong
believes culture is more important.
2.23 Chin, Chii-phin's Views (³¯ ¤ä ¥ )
Dr. Chin, Chii-phin is the professor and chairman , Department of
History, Xiamen University. He recently published a book entitled "A New
Theory on the Origin of Hakka: Who are Hakka" («È ®a ·½ ¬y ·s ½× ¡R ½Ö ¬O «È
®a ¤H ). This book has another view on the origin of Hakka. He discusses
mainly that there are no differences in orgin between Hakka and Non-Hakka.
The copy I based on is published in Taiwan, l998. Professor Chen
used a lot of information from Tsu-phu (family history record) as professor
Lo did. However, professor Chen is different from professor Lo that he also
studied the Tsu-phu from non-Hakka. There are no difference between Hakka
and non-Hakka in their records of the origin areas, southward migration
route or ancestors. For example, he has a table of origin areas of the
southward migration of different family names from both Hakka and Hoklo
counties. The names of origin areas of Hakka and Hoklo are almost identical.
The comparison was made mainly between Hakka and Hoklo, however, smaller
number of examples came also from Cantonese. Hakka and Non-Hakka branched
out from the same ancestors during southward migration. Hakka branched out
from Non-Hakka and non-Hakka branched out from Hakka.There are interlocking
migration of Hakka and Non-Hakkas. He made comments many times that there
were basically no difference among Hakka, Hoklo and Cantonese.
He made few comments about the authenticity of these Tsu-phu.
Both Hakka and non-Hakka had the tendency to name the famous and the
prominent people as their ancestors. He also made the comments that older
the generation higher the rank in the society of their ancestors. For example,
Liu family of Hakka and non-Hakka all name Liu Pang (¼B ¨¹ ) , first
emperor of Han dynasty or Liu Phi (¼B ³Æ ¡^ , the King of Shu of three
Kingdom Era as Liu their ancestor. Famous scholar Chu Hi (¦¶ ¿Q ) is the
ancestor of all Chu families regardless Hakka or non Hakka. Some Tsu-phu
clearly mentioned that each of brothers of one generations went to different
areas and became the beginning ancestor of different ethnic groups. For
example, eight of Chen’ s 79th generations went to Canton, Hokkien,
Hakka, Funan, Fupei, Hangchiu, Suchiu etc. areas to start their new
branches of Chen’ s families. Hakka and Non-Hakka branched out from the
same ancestors during southward migration
Comparing these Tsu-phu, regardless real or false, professor Chen
also found the southward migration routes basically the same between
Hakka and non-Hakka. The five migrations pattern described by professor
Lo is not unique for Hakka. All family history books, Hakka or non Hakka,
record the similar pattern of migration. Therefore, it not surprised to find out
that Hakka branched out from non-Hakka and non-Hakka branched out
from Hakka in the Tsh-phu. The interlocking migration pattern between
Hakka and non-Hakka repeated again and again on both directions.
In the last chapter, professor Chen concluded that Hakka and other
southern ethnic groups mainly came from north. There are no significant
difference about their origin between Hakka and non-Hakka . Either Hakka
or non-Hakka are melting pots of all southern ethnic groups. He also raised
some questions for further discussion and research. First is how to define
Hakka, if Hakka and non-Hakka are basically the same. Professor Chen
argued that Hakka is not only similar to other non-Hakka in origin, there are
also not much different in culture, customs and civilization. Only real unique
part about Hakka is the language only.
Then he raised the second question, how can the language influence
the formation of Hakka. He make a point about the ratio of groups of the
new and original populations. If the Hakka migrated to a new area and
Hakka language transplanted to the new areas successfully then all
population there became Hakka. If the Hakka language is not established in
the new area, then immigrants disappeared and adopted the new identity of
the ethnic group of other language. The culture, civilization and origin are
much less important.
He also raised the question about the Tsu-phu study. To use Tsu-
phu to define the Hakka origin is not only a bad but also dangerous idea. He
and professor Lo both used Tsu-phu to investigate the “ origin “ of Hakka
but both of them pointed out the authenticity of Tsu-phu. Basically they all
agreed the statement “ The least reliable record in the world is Tsu-phu. If
we write the history of immigration based on Tsu-phu, we can not get the
truth” made by another historian scholar Tan in one history reports.
Professor Chen made some comments about the dangers of such
assumptions especially about including all famous historical people as
Hakka. He also believed some errors professor Lo made in claming some
areas as pure Hakka counties probably based on the Tsu-phu studies.
Finally, the question about the reason of the formation of Hakka is
raised. How and why the name Hakka was adopted ? He believes that the
population pressure in original Hakka areas is the key. When Hakka tried to
expand to other areas because population grew and conflict between Hakka
and non-Hakka developed after they settled in non-Hakka areas. Hakka was
used by other ethnic groups because they were essentially the “ guest “
people to the non-Hakka areas. In order to unify among themselves, the
identity using the most common used name of " guest " (i.e. Hakka)
developed. The name of Hakka started to appear in literature only after 17th
century, at the same time of conflict between Hakka and non-Hakka began.
Comments:
Professor Chen’s book is very interesting. If you read his book
carefully, you can realize the similarity among all these family history record
(Tsu-phu) , regardless Hakka or non-Hakka. Dr. Chen pointed out many
times the errors and inconsistency of these records. The true value of these
Tsu-phu studies is really doubtful. To me, the most valuable contribution of
this book probably is to demonstrate that the history written based on these
studies is very questionable and likely not true.
Other than the languages, there are probably still some difference in
culture, custom and biology among Hakka, Min, Cantonese and other
southern ethnic groups. Similarity of migration pattern in Hakka and non-
Hakka based on Tsu-phu studies probably illustrates the common southern
Chinese belief that originated from northern China is much more prestigious
than southerner. In the Lo, Hiong-lin’s book, there are pages of description
about the Cantonese attacking Hakka as non-Han at all. Similar
fingerpointing to each other who is Han who is not Han among Cantonese,
Hokkien and Hakka is still going in different publications and modern media,
especially in BBS discussion groups.
In the Robert Ramsey’s book (The Language of China) has a
chapter on the minorities of south China. There is a small part (page 235)
about how the Zhuang people “were brought protesting out of the Chinese
closet” when Chinese government determined to raise the ethnic conscious
of the Zhuang people. Millions had never been known existed were found by
researcher. In one study, none of 152 clans admitted to a Southern origin.
They all claimed originated from northern China with ancestry from palace
or other historical high official. “Imaginative attempts to conceal their
identity” was the words Dr. Ramsey used. Dr. Ramsey’s description fits
very well with Professor Chen’s book.
Cultures and Language of Hakka
HAKKA IN TAIWAN
{to be continued} update on 10/3/98 Albert Chu