The Clan Development And Ancestors’ Memory: Interpretation Of Dam Waxie Migration Legend In Huanggang, Hubei

In the research of Chinese migrant history, the immigration from Jiangxi toHubei and Hunan has always been an important issue, which is also regarded as a realphenomenon by most scholars. The records which mention this immigration rush isabundant among the public and private history materials of Ming and Qing dynasties.They are not only described in local chronicles in Hubei and Hunan province andmemoirs during that period, but also further epitomized in large numbers of deeds texton the first migratory forefathers in folk genealogy of Hubei and Hunan province.From the present relative research results, scholars approved the presence of thislarge-scale immigration rush, and further more, they traced the occurrence time backto late Yuan and early Ming dynasty and the finish time to late Ming and early Qingdynasty. With the deep research of the regional history, especially in regional socialand cultural history area, scholars gradually turned the previous construction ofmigrant historical facts to research of historical narration related to migration.According to this research orientation, some previous migrant historical facts andmigrant tales were newly interpreted.Based on the systematic collection on folk pedigree of a clan of CountryHuanggang, Hubei province, this article attempts to tease the developmental processof local lineage of Huanggang in Ming and Qing dynasties from perspective ofregional history. Furthermore, it analyzes the description of migrant time, reason andrelevant deeds on the first migratory forefathers in genealogy from view of regionalsocial and cultural process, both to make a supplement and introspection on study ofimmigration rushes from Jiangxi to Hubei and Hunan. To sum up, the writing purposeis not to simply affirm or deny the historical facts of immigration rushes from Jiangxito Hubei and Hunan, but to discuss the significance of social and cultural history, onthe premise of statement that it put the lineage compiling into the developmentalhistory of local genealogy. On the view of regional social and cultural process, we canseemingly consider the historical background on immigrant forefathers repeatedlyemerged in the folk genealogy of Country Huanggang, under which there were aseries of records, for instance, Hongjinjun uprising, campaign between Chen Youliangand ZhuYuanzhang on Poyang Lake, immigration from Dam Waxie of Jiangxi etc. as a selective text statement on ancestry memory in the process of local peopleconstructing their lineage.