The origin, history, geographical distribution, national living habits and customs of the Han nationality

The Han nationality originated in the Spring and Autumn Period of the Western Zhou Dynasty. At that time, the residents in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, although there were still some blood differences between them, saw that they were much more developed than the surrounding ethnic groups in culture and mode of production, and called themselves "Huaxia". With the territorial expansion of the later vassal states and the Qin Dynasty, more and more ethnic groups merged into this cultural identity, including the main barbarians of Chu and wuyue, the ethnic groups of Bashu, the ethnic groups of Rong and Di in Shanxi and Hebei, and the ethnic groups of Yi in Qidong. After a hundred schools of thought contended in the Warring States and the unification of Qin, the culture of the Han nationality was basically stereotyped and matured. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the expansion of this cultural identity in China also tended to be stable, mainly because geographical conditions restricted its entry into the grassland in the north, slowed down by the barrier of mountain jungles in the south, and made it difficult to enter the western regions in the west because of the long journey. At the same time, backward ethnic groups in mountainous areas of Chongqing, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong are being assimilated. After the ethnic scuffle in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, new lineages from the North joined the Han nationality. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, due to the development of production and the promotion of new dry land crops, the distribution of Han nationality spread to Guizhou, Yunnan, western Sichuan, Guangxi and other places. The opening of the territory of the Qing Dynasty made Han nationality immigrate to Northeast China, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang.