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Han Chinese (simplified Chinese: 汉族; traditional Chinese: 漢族; pinyin: Hànzú) is a term which refers to the majority ethnic group within China and the largest single human ethnic group in the world numbering over 1.3 billion people. The Han Chinese constitute about 92 percent of the population of mainland China and about 19 percent of the entire global human population. In contrast to the common Western media portrayal of the Han Chinese as being homogenous, there are substantial genetic, linguistic, cultural and social differences between its various subgroups. Thousands of years of regionalized assimilation of various ethnic groups and tribes in China is the primary reason for this diversity within the Han. Han Chinese is a subset of the Chinese nation (Zhonghua minzu). An alternate name that some Chinese people use to refer to themselves is the "Descendants of the Dragon".

Names

The term "Han Chinese" is used to distinguish the majority from the various minorities in China. The name comes from the Han Dynasty which succeeded the short-lived Qin Dynasty that united China. The Zhou dynasty, which preceded the Qin, was a period of consolidation when the various tribes coalesced into Warring States, which then annexed each other. During the Han Dynasty, the various tribes of China began to feel that they belonged to the same ethnic group and the "Han Chinese" ethnic began to came into being.

History

Prehistory and the Huaxia

The history of the Han Chinese ethnic group is closely tied to that of China. Han Chinese trace their ancestry back to the Huaxia peoples who lived along the Yellow River in northern China. The famous Chinese historian Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian dates the reign of the Yellow Emperor, the legendary ancestor of Han Chinese, to 2698 BCE to 2599 BCE. Although study of this period of history is complicated by lack of historical records, discovery of archaeological sites have identified a succession of Neolithic cultures along the Yellow River. Along the central reaches of the Yellow River were the Yangshao culture (5000 BCE to 3000 BCE) and Longshan culture (3000 BC to 2000 BC). Along the lower reaches of the river were the Qingliangang culture (5400 BCE to 4000 BCE), the Dawenkou culture (4300 BCE to 2500 BCE), the Longshan culture (2500 BCE to 2000 BCE), and the Yueshi culture.

Early history

Main articles: Xia Dynasty, Shang Dynasty and Zhou Dynasty

The first dynasty to be described in Chinese historical records is the Xia Dynasty, a legendary period for which scant archeological evidence exists. They were overthrown by peoples from the east, who formed the Shang Dynasty (1600 BCE - 1046 BCE). Some of the earliest examples of Chinese writing date back to this period, from characters inscribed on oracle bone divination. The Shang were eventually overthrown by the people of Zhou, which had emerged as a state along the Yellow River sometime during the 2nd millennium BC.

The Zhou Dynasty was the successor to Shang. Sharing the language and culture of the Shang people, they extended their reach to encompass much of the area north of the Yangtze River. Through conquest and colonization, much of this area came under the influence of sinicization and the proto-Han Chinese culture extended south. Han Chinese, as an ethnic group came into being during the Han dynasty.

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Culture

Part of one of the world's oldest and most complex civilizations, Chinese culture dates back thousands of years. Han Chinese believe they share common ancestors, mythically ascribed to the patriarchs Yellow Emperor and Yan Emperor, some thousands of years ago. Hence many Han Chinese refer to themselves as "descendants of the Yan or Yellow Emperors" (Traditional Chinese: 炎黃子孫; Simplified Chinese: 炎黄子孙), a phrase which has reverberative connotations in a divisive political climate, as in that between Mainland China and Taiwan.

Throughout the history of China, Chinese culture has been heavily influenced by Confucianism. Credited with shaping much of Chinese thought, Confucianism was the official philosophy throughout most of Imperial China's history, and mastery of Confucian texts provided the primary criterion for entry into the imperial bureaucracy.

Language

Han Chinese all speak some form of the Chinese language; one of the Chinese names is Hanyu (simplified Chinese: 汉语; traditional Chinese: 漢語), literally the "Han language". Similarly, Chinese characters, used to write the language, are called Hanzi (simplified Chinese: 汉字; traditional Chinese: 漢字), or "Han characters."

Names

Chinese names are typically two or three syllables in length, with the surname followed by the given name. Surnames are typically one character in length, though a few uncommon surnames are two or more syllables long, while given names are one or two syllables long.

There are 4000 to 6000 surnames in China, but only around 1000 surnames are popularly used. The most common Chinese Han surnames are:

Top 10 common surnames, which added together account for 40% of Chinese people in the world:

Zhang 张, Wang 王, Li 李, Zhao 赵, Chen 陈, Yang 杨, Wu 吴, Liu 刘, Huang 黄, Zhou 周

The 11th to 20th common surnames, which account for 10% of Chinese people in the world:

Xu 徐, Zhu 朱, Lin 林, Sun 孙, Ma 马, Gao 高, Hu 胡, Zheng 郑, Guo 郭, Xiao 萧

The 21st to 30th common surnames, which account for 10% of Chinese people in the world:

Xie 谢, He 何, Xu 许, Song 宋, Chen 沈, Luo 罗, Han 韩, Deng 邓, Liang 梁, Ye 叶

The remaining 15 common surnames, which account for another 10% of Chinese people in the world:

Fang 方, Cui 崔, Cheng 程、Pan 潘, Cao 曹, Feng 冯, Wang 汪, Cai 蔡, Yuan 袁, Lu 卢, Tang 唐, Qian 钱, Du 杜, Peng 彭, Lu 陆

The 45 most common surnames above account for a total of 70% of the Chinese population.

Dress

Han Chinese nowadays usually wear Western-style clothing. Traditional Han Chinese clothing is now largely extinct. It is, however, preserved in religious and ceremonial costumes. For example, Taoist priests dress in fashion typical of scholars of the Han Dynasty. The ceremonial dress in Japan, such as those of Shinto priests, are largely in line with ceremonial dress in China during the Tang dynasty. The traditional Chinese clothing worn by many Chinese females in important occasions such as wedding banquets and Chinese New Year is called the qipao. Ironically, this attire comes not from the Han Chinese but from a modified dress-code of the Manchus, the ethnic group that ruled China between the 17th (1644) and the early 20th Century.

Contribution to humanity

Han Chinese have played a major role in the development of the arts, sciences, philosophy, and mathematics throughout history. In ancient times, the scientific accomplishments of China included seismological detectors, matches, paper, dry docks, sliding calipers, the double-action piston pump, cast iron, the iron plough, the multi-tube seed drill, the wheelbarrow, the suspension bridge, the parachute, natural gas as fuel, the magnetic compass, the relief map, the propeller, the crossbow, gunpowder and printing. Paper, printing, the compass, and gunpowder are celebrated in Chinese culture as the Four Great Inventions of ancient China. Chinese astronomers were also among the first to record observations of a supernova.

Chinese art, Chinese philosophy, and Chinese literature all have thousands of years of development, while numerous Chinese sites, such as the Great Wall of China and the Terracotta Army, are World Heritage Sites. Since the start of the program in 2001, aspects of Chinese culture have been listed by UNESCO as Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

Throughout much of history, successive Chinese states have exerted influence on their neighbors in the areas of art, music, religion, food, dress, philosophy, language, government, and culture. In modern times, Han Chinese form the largest ethnic group in China, while an overseas Chinese diaspora numbering in the tens of millions has settled in and contributed to countries throughout the world.

Ethnic Han Unity or Disunity?

Despite the existence of many varied and diverse Chinese spoken languages, one factor in Han ethnic unity is the Chinese written language. This unity is credited to the Qin dynasty which unified the various forms of writing that existed in China at that time. For thousands of years, Literary Chinese was used as the standard written format, which used vocabulary and grammar significantly different from the various forms of spoken Chinese. Since the 20th century written Chinese has been usually vernacular Chinese, which is largely based upon dialects of Mandarin, and not the local dialect of the writer (with the exception of the informal use of written Cantonese). Thus, although the residents of different regions would not necessarily understand each other's speech, they would be able to understand each other's writing. It has also led to dialectal literature being slow to develop in the few dialects where it has developed at all. One of the few dialects to successfully diverge from the standard written form is written Cantonese, particularly in Hong Kong. But with the predominance of Han-based writing and literature, local languages have not become a focus for regional self-consciousness or nationalism.

Within some variants of Chinese nationalist theory, including the official version espoused by the Republic of China and People's Republic of China, China is composed of many ethnic groups and the various ethnicities and sub-ethnicities of China belong to a single Chinese nationality called Zhonghua minzu (中华民族). However, another interpretation of Chinese nationalist theory takes the opposite view and considers only the Han Chinese to be true Chinese and thus equates Chinese nationalism with Han nationalism.

Internal diversity

Among Han Chinese, there is a wide diversity of distinct cultural and linguistic groups. The differences among regional and linguistic subgroups of Han Chinese are at least as great as those among many European groups. Han Chinese speak many varieties of Chinese spoken languages which are generally labelled as different Chinese dialects although the difference among them can be as great as seen in many European languages. Cultural differences (cuisine, costume, and custom) are equally great. Modern Chinese history provides many examples of conflict, up to the level of small-scale regional wars, between linguistic and regional groups. Thus, the idea of a unified Han Chinese is quite complicated.

Such diversities, however, have not generated exclusive ethnic identities, and distinctions in religion or political affiliation have not reinforced regional differences. Rather, there has been a consistent tendency in Chinese thought and practice to downplay intra-Han distinctions, which are regarded as minor and superficial.

The definition of the Han identity has varied throughout history. Prior to the 20th century, some Chinese-speaking ethnic groups like the Hakka and the Tanka were not universally accepted as Han Chinese, while some non-Chinese speaking peoples, like the Zhuang, were considered Han. Today, Hui Chinese are considered a separate nationality, but aside from their practice of Islam, little distinguishes them from the Han; two Han from different regions might differ more in language, customs, and culture than a neighboring Han and Hui. During the Qing Dynasty, Han Chinese who had entered the Eight Banners military system were considered Manchu, while Chinese nationalists seeking to overthrow the monarchy stressed Han Chinese identity in contrast to the Manchu rulers. Upon its founding, the Republic of China recognized five major nationalities: the Han, Hui, Mongols, Manchus, and Tibetans, while the People's Republic of China now recognizes fifty-six nationalities.

Strong genetic evidence of Han diversity

According to the recent scientific reports in China and overseas, northern Han Chinese are genetically different from Han inhabitants of southern China, including Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, Fujian, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Hainan. In fact, it has been stated that southern Han Chinese are more genetically similar to ethnic-genetic groups such as the Gin/Vietnamese while northern Han Chinese are closer to groups like Mongols than the two Han groups are with each other. This is because south of China are mountainous and historic migration to these areas are difficult and numbers are smaller than migrations to other parts of China. A number of differences between these groups in terms of dialect and customs have also been noted. However, there is cultural affinity between these two groups.

The table to the right illustrates the amount of northern Han genetic admixture in different populations of southern Han Chinese (north-south demarcation line set by the Yangtze River according to tradition). Southern Han Chinese just south of the Yangtze River (see Hubei and Shanghai) are closer to their northern Han counterparts than to the southern Han Chinese further south. Northern Han and southern Han have significant genetic differences in their maternal sides (mitochondrial DNA) the further south and southeast the sampled population groups are (see Guangdong and Fujian). (From September 16, 2004 issue of Nature.) Due to its internal diversity, any study of the Han is thus of great interest to researchers in many fields, particularly anthropology and human biology. Recent genetic studies have shown genetic differences, especially between Han Chinese in the southernmost coastal and inland areas (Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Guizhou, Yunnan, Hainan, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan) and Han Chinese in the rest of China. The dividing line is much further south than either the Huai River or the Yangtze River, both of which are used conventionally as regional borders.

What Chinese history says of Han diversity

Historical documentation indicates that the Han were descended from the ancient Huaxia tribes of northern China. During the past two millennia, the Han culture (that is, the language and its associated culture) extended into southern China, a region originally inhabited by the southern natives, including those speaking Dai, Austro-Asiatic and Hmong-Mien languages.

As Huaxia culture spread from its heartland in the Yellow River basin, it absorbed many distinct ethnic groups which then came to be identified as Han Chinese, as these groups adopted Han language (or variations of it) and customs. For example, during the Shang Dynasty people of the Wu area, in the Yangtze River Delta, was considered a "barbarian" tribe. They spoke a distinct language that was almost certainly non-Chinese, and were described as being scantily dressed and tattooed. By the Tang Dynasty, however, this area had become part of the Han Chinese heartland, and is today the most densely populated and strongest performing economic region in China, the site of China's largest city Shanghai. The people in the Wu area today speak the Wu dialects, which are part of the Chinese language family but are mutually unintelligible with other Chinese languages/dialects, and do not see themselves as a separate ethnic group. The Wu area is one example of many involving the absorption of different cultural groups in contributing toward the diversity of culture and language throughout the Han Chinese ethnic group. However many Han Chinese from south of China such as the Wu area retain their Han heritage in surname data. Therefore they are certain that a part of their origins is from Huaxia tribes. This is due to migration particularly from the fall of Song dynasty. But it is said the number of native Yues are no smaller and maybe even bigger than the Han migrants which crossed the Yangtze.

References

1. Table from "Genetic evidence supports demic diffusion of Han culture". Nature (journal, 16 September 2004 issue

See also

• Subgroups of the Han ethnicity

External links

• http://www.geocities.com/bx_huang/han_chinese.html
• http://www.hanyu.us