Lineage Society on the Southeastern Coast of China: The Impact o ...

What is today called Zhejiang was at best an underdeveloped and sparsely populated region during the early imperial age. Its local practices seemed so foreign to the political center in the north that government appointees to the south often worked energetically to stamp out “uncanonical sacrifices.”¹¹ Yet the unspoken promise held out by the fertile land and plentiful resources of the region came to be fulfilled gradually over the centuries as human settlement began to make its mark upon the landscape.

Migration

Increased Han migration soon set in motion the rapid Sinicization of this frontier region as well as its incorporation into the Han Chinese polity. Three major waves of mass migration of Han Chinese from the north can be identified. The first influx of Han migrants occurred in the fourth century, when nomadic tribes conquered parts of northern China and established the northern dynasties (circa 317–420). The aristocracy and bureaucrats of the western Jin dynasty (265–316) migrated southward across the Huai and Yangzi Rivers to form the southern dynasties. This wave of human movement which lasted nearly a century saw the heavy influx of immigrants from Shandong, Hebei, and Henan into the lower Yangzi region; the newcomers brought with them not only different agricultural techniques but also unique cultural norms that came to influence local practices and speech patterns.¹²

The subsequent consolidation of political power in the hands of the short-lived Sui regime (581–618) and its successor, the Tang dynasty (618–907)—coupled with the completion of the Grand Canal linking Zhejiang to the centers of Han Chinese civilization in the north—led to the acceleration of Sinicization within the delta, especially following the establishment of national school systems that extended to the county level.¹³ In addition to lowering transportation costs within the region,