The Historical Changes Of Ethnic Identity Of Hui Nationality

With the establishment of the nation-state,"nation" has become a group in the dual context of historical continuity and legal citizenship,which means that the boundary of the nation is stable in the context of modern state.Looking back on the study of the Hui nationality from the republic of China to the present,the purport of the study also turns from history and culture to diverse ethnic identity,from "model" to "edge",and from literature to field.The multidisciplinary application makes the research of the Hui nationality colorful and prosperous.Admittedly,the diversity of Hui culture has been a feature since its formation,which is closely related to its distribution pattern of "great dispersion".But can this cultural diversity lead to the conclusion that the Hui people identify with diversity? When we use the method of field investigation to study the Hui nationality,we should not ignore the historical background,that is,the nation-state and China which changed dramatically after the reform and opening-up,otherwise,our conclusions will inevitably be separated from the time and space.If you think back to Dru C.Gladney,the man who started the diversity of Hui ethnic identity,he came to China to do fieldwork during this period.Therefore,we must not lose sight of historical factors in drawing conclusions.From the perspective of history,this paper discusses the changes of the Hui ethnic identity and the factors affecting the ethnic identity.From the research purport,this paper does not discuss what the specific performance of this identity is,but focus on why.The first chapter discusses the multiple origins of the Hui nationality,the evolution of the word "Hui" and its reasons,and the Hui people in the Yuan dynasty.This chapter aims to illustrate the historical factors of the cultural diversity of the Hui nationality,and that the Hui people in the Yuan dynasty was only a religious community.The second chapter discusses the ethnic identity of the Hui nationality in the Ming and Qing dynasties.In the middle and late Ming dynasty,under the "assimilation policy" of the rulers,the language of the Hui people changed from Arabic to Chinese and they used the Chinese culture to express Islam.The differences between the Hui people decrease and the commonness increases.At the same time,due to the lack of ancestral memory,people began to know the history of their own ethnic groups from the Han literature,resulting in the tracing of "common ancestors",ethnic groups began to form,and ethnic identity tended to be unified.In the Qing dynasty,Uighur Khanate was added to the ethnic origin.Like tracing the ethnic origin back to Arab countries,Medina and the western regions in the late Ming dynasty,Uighur Khanate is still a vague geographical--religious concept on the edge of cognition,rather than Uighur Khanate that occupied the MoBei grassland in the Tang dynasty.From the beginning of the Qing dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty,Islam experienced two innovations and divisions in the northwest region,which led to the formation of Menhuan and the establishment of Ahl al-Sunnah and Xidaotang in the northwest where Hui people inhabited,and also led to the split of the northwest Hui's identity.However,under the action of external forces,namely the conflict caused by the tension between Hui and Han,the identity was unified.The Hui people living in the scattered areas are surrounded by the Han culture,which leads to the fact that the Menhuan system has no root,and the pressure of survival makes their ethnic identity unified.The third chapter discusses the national identity in the nation-state.Nationalism began to be introduced into China in the late Qing dynasty.At the moment of national submergence,the constitutionalists,the revolutionary party and the intellectuals of the late Qing dynasty all hoped to establish the nation-state by using nationalism,but they had their own understandings of the category of the nation-state.Finally,the revolutionary party overthrew the Qing government and established the republic of China,but abandoned the previous "Anti-Manchuism" of ethnic nationalism,turned to Liang Qichao's political nationalism,and put forward the "republicanism of five nationalities".The Hui nationality in the period of the republic of China was deeply influenced by the ideological trend of nationalism.Under the action of external forces,namely foreign aggression,through the combination of some symbols "China","Islam" and "Hui people",the ethnic identity was unified and elevated to the height of national identity.After the founding of new China,through the national identity,the national has the legal effect.In the condition of national equality,national prosperity and the lack of external pressure,the ethnic identity of the Hui nationality develops towards two aspects,one is to maintain the previous identity mode of "common ancestor",the other is to maintain the identity mode of " lineal descent ".The fourth chapter summarizes the factors affecting the Hui ethnic identity.Islam and its derivatives are the foundation of ethnic group formation and the key to maintain identity,external pressure is another key factor for the formation and identity strengthening of the Hui ethnic group.