China, being one of the populous countries in the world, is a country of migration and emigration. Migration in and out of China has taken place throughout the various dynasties, kingdoms, whether China was united or separated, during wartime or peaceful and prosperous eras. Chinese historical literature including Luo (2005) provides us with a concise summary of Chinese migration in the earlier period - from Qin and Han Dynasties to Ming and Qing Dynasties, there have been five major waves of migration.
Firstly the Yong Jia Migration (307-312) resulted from the War of the Eight Princes and in the Southern and Northern Dynasties17, as people from Northern and Central China were forced to move south which eventually led the development of agricultural production and economic centres in Southern China.
The An Shi Rebellion (755 – 763 AD) in Tang Dynasty (618 – 907 AD)18 - this North-South Migration in this period is considered by Professor Hu Huan-Yong19 as the fundamental change for the population allocation in ancient China, for the first time, the population in the South has exceeded the North, and the core population has also been shifted from the Yangtze River area to the surroundings of the Yangtze River.
After Jingkang Incident (1127 AD) and the fall of North Song Dynasty (960-1127 AD), part of the Royal Family of Song left for Southern China and established the South Dynasty (1127-1279 AD), many people escape the siege of foreign intruders in the North and followed the Royal Family and moved south. The massive labour and advanced techniques from this migration resulted in a situation that by that time the economic development in the South was now higher than in the North.
From these three early migration waves in ancient China, one can see that the main causes in these periods were domestic conflicts, civil wars and the political instability. Compared to the current migration situation, migration at that time affected almost all social classes of society, from the highest royal family to the lowest peasants. Their impact on ancient China is also fundamental. It transformed the southern part, particularly around the Yangtze River – which benefited hugely from the influx of labour and advancement in agricultural production, as well as the integration of various cultures and the demography (population growth). Yangtze River has also established its vital importance in Chinese society and its economy, and challenged the Yellow River where Chinese civilisation had started and originally grown.
The latter two major waves occurred in the Ming and Qing Dynasties20. At the beginning of Ming Dynasty, the establishment of a new empire led to large scale migration into the northern part of China, with the aim of stabilising post-war border
18Tang Dynasty, one of China’s most influential periods as it reached its height of power. The
prosperity of the Empire was largely destroyed by the An Shi Rebellion.
19
See the ‘Reasons and Impact of North-South Migration in Chinese History: http://ks.cn.yahoo.com/question/?qid=1407061204212&source=ysearch_ks_question_knowledge (last accessed 24 July 2007).
areas and ensuring a demographic balance across the country21. There were both urban and regional migrations. As the first capital of Ming Dynasty, Nanking (now Nanjing) benefited greatly from the urban migration of intellectuals, skilled workers and military staff, etc, making it a huge metropolis with a population over 1 million. Later, Peking (now Beijing) experienced similar large incoming migration, when the city was chosen as the new capital of the Ming Dynasty. By that time, the city of Peking had now over 800,000 inhabitants, among them almost 90 percent military personnel and their family members. The rise of Peking unfortunately led to downturn of Nanking. There were also government managed and self-organised regional migrations in the Ming Dynasty, which moved people from the south side of the Yangtze River to the north bank in areas like Sichuan (with less dense population).
China’s tremendous population is said to reach an all-time high under the rule of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911 AD) 22 . The distinguishing features of population distribution and migration in Qing times also serve as a link between the past and the present. There were two major migration waves in the Qing Dynasty. One is to Taiwan after Koxinga23 freed the island from the Dutch colonisation. Despite the anti- Qing movement in Taiwan and initial restrictions, Qing Government later supported this migration, partly because of the growing population pressure on Mainland China.
Another area which attracted migration is the border side of the Qing Empire. The northeast parts of the Empire, Jilin and Heilongjiang, Liaoning are the so-called ‘Eastern Three Provinces’. Together with Inner Mongolia, they are a wide expanse of land with a thinly scattered population, and attracted both domestic migrations and the
21Detailed Information on Migration in Ming Dynasty can be found: under
http://mingandqing.bokee.com/3214820.html in Chinese by Mr Cao Shu-Ji, Institute of Historical Geography, Fudan University, Shanghai, China, last accessed: 26 July 2007.
22Jian Tao, Population Distribution and Migration in Qing China 1644-1911, The Humanities Study,
2003/05/23, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Beijing, China, last accessed 26 July 2007: http://bic.cass.cn/english/infoShow/Arcitle_Show_Forum2_Show.asp?ID=278&Title=The%20Humani ties%20Study&strNavigation=Home-%3EForum-%3EHistory&BigClassID=4&SmallClassID=8.
23
In Chinese, Zheng Cheng-Gong, who was a military leader at the end of the Chinese Ming Dynasty, who was a prominent leader of the anti-Qing movement opposing the Qing Dynasty, and a general who defeated the Dutch to claim Taiwan in 1662.
attention of potential foreign invaders (Qiu 2000). Therefore the opening of this wide area for migration was perhaps inevitable and Qing Government eventually lifted migration controls and allowed people to move to the Northeast China. This had a dramatic effect on the demography and economy of China. It released China’s population density pressures, generated substantial revenues for the Qing Government, and at the same, this influx of Chinese migrants into these frontier areas helped strengthen the Empire’s border defences against attempts at foreign intrusion. It is estimated that in 1910, the total population in the Northeast was around 1.8 million, over five times that for the period around the year of 1840 (c.a. 300,000)24.