![]() The Golden Sun Bird, a rediscovered relic of the Bashu culture, believed to be a totem of the ancient Shu people,[1] and the emblem of Chengdu since 2011.[2] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
---|---|
![]() | Sichuan Chongqing |
![]() | As part of Mainlander population |
Languages | |
Historically Ba-Shu Chinese, also known as Old Sichuanese. Presently Sichuanese dialects of Southwestern Mandarin. | |
Religion | |
Mahayana Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Chinese folk religion | |
Related ethnic groups | |
other Han Chinese, Yi people, Tujia people, Qiang people |
The Sichuanese, Sze Chuan or Ssu Ch'uan people (Chinese: 四川人; Sichuanese Pinyin: Si4cuan1ren2; Hanyu pinyin: Sìchuānrén; Wade–Giles: Szŭ4-ch'uan1-jen2, 川人 or 川渝人) are a Han Chinese subgroup comprising most of the population of China's Sichuan province and Chongqing municipality.
History
Beginning from the 9th century BC, Shu (on the Chengdu Plain) and Ba (which had its first capital at Enshi City in Hubei and controlled part of the Han Valley) emerged as cultural and administrative centers where two rival kingdoms were established. Although eventually the Qin dynasty destroyed the kingdoms of Shu and Ba, the Qin government accelerated the technological and agricultural advancements of Sichuan making it comparable to that of the Yellow River Valley. The now-extinct Ba-Shu language was derived from Qin-era settlers and represents the earliest documented division from Middle Chinese.
South Sichuan was also inhabited by the Dai people who formed the serfs class. They were later thoroughly sinicized, adopting the local language of speech. Large numbers of foreigner merchant families from Sogdia, Iran and other countries immigrated to Sichuan.
During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, the population of Sichuan, Chongqing had been reduced due to immigration, deportation and flight of refugees fleeing war and plague, new or returning settlers from modern Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong and Jiangxi, replacing the earlier spoken language with different languages they adopted from the former regions to form a new standard language off communication.[3][4][5]
Recent history
Many migrant workers from rural Sichuan have migrated to other parts of the country, where they often face discrimination in employment, housing etc.[6] This is due to China's household registration policy and other parts of people from midwest China face the same problem.
Language
The Sichuanese once spoke their own variety of spoken Chinese called Ba-Shu Chinese, or Old Sichuanese before it became extinct during the Ming dynasty. Now most of them speak Sichuanese Mandarin. The Minjiang dialects are thought by some linguists to be a bona fide descendant of Old Sichuanese due to many characteristics of Ba-Shu Chinese phonology and vocabulary being found in the dialects,[7] but there is no conclusive evidence whether Minjiang dialects are derived from Old Sichuanese or Southwestern Mandarin.
Cuisine
Sichuan is well known for its spicy cuisine and use of Sichuan peppers due to its more arid climate.
Notable people
Well known Sichuanese people are such as:
- Ba Jin (1904–2005), author and political activist
- Bai Ling (1966–), actress
- Chang Dai-chien (1899–1983), artist
- Chang Chün (1889–1990), premier of the Republic of China
- Fala Chen (1982–), actress
- Chen Pokong (1963–), author, political commentator and democracy activist
- Chen Shou (233–297), official and writer
- Cheung Chung-kiu (1964–), business magnate
- Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997), revolutionary and politician
- GAI (1988–), rapper, singer, and songwriter
- Guo Moruo (1892–1978), author, poet, historian, archaeologist, and government official
- Huang Jiguang (1931–1952), highly decorated soldier during the Korean War
- Jiang Zhuyun (1920–1949), revolutionary martyr
- Li Bai (701–762), poet
- Li Bifeng (1965–), activist, poet and Christian
- Liu Yonghao (1952–), businessman
- Li Yifeng (1987–), actor and singer
- Li Yuchun (1984–), singer, songwriter, and actress
- Luo Ruiqing (1906–1978), army officer and politician
- Sanyu (painter) (1901–1966)
- Chʽeng-Tsi Song (1892–1955), Anglican bishop
- Song Yonghua (1964–), scholar
- Su Shi (1037–1101), writer, poet, painter, calligrapher, pharmacologist, gastronome, and statesman
- Su Xun (1009–1066), writer
- Su Zhe (1039–1112), politician and essayist
- Tan Weiwei (1982–), singer and actress
- Tang Chun-i (1909–1978), philosopher and scholar
- Wang Chiu-chiang (1957–), painter
- Wang Jianlin (1954–), business magnate, investor, and philanthropist
- Wang Xiaoya (1968–), television host and media personality
- Wang Yi (pastor) (1973–)
- Xu Youyu (1947–), scholar
- Yang Xiong (53 BC – 18 AD), poet, philosopher, and politician
- Y. C. James Yen (1890/1893–1990), educator
- Lucy Yi Zhenmei (1815–1862), Roman Catholic saint
- Yu Jie (1973–), Calvinist democracy activist
- Zhang Lan (1872–1955), political activist
- Zhang Yong (restaurateur) (1969/1970–), Singapore's richest man in 2019
- Zhao Yiman (1905–1936), resistance fighter
- Zheng Ji (1900–2010), nutritionist and pioneering biochemist
- Zhu De (1886–1976), general, warlord, politician, and revolutionary
- Zhuo Wenjun (fl. 2nd century BC), poet
- Zou Rong (1885–1905), revolutionary martyr
See also
References
- ^ Li, Hsing-jung; Fêng, Ming-i; Yü, Chih-yung (1 November 2014). 導遊實訓課程 (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Taipei: E-culture. p. 331. ISBN 9789865650346.
- ^ Agafonov, Arthur; Rasskazova, Elena (2 June 2019). "Homeland of Pepper and Panda: Yin and Yang of the Chinese Hinterland". eastrussia.ru. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
- ^ James B. Parsons (1957). "The Culmination of a Chinese Peasant Rebellion: Chang Hsien-chung in Szechwan, 1644–46". The Journal of Asian Studies. 16 (3): 387–400. doi:10.2307/2941233. JSTOR 2941233.
- ^ Yingcong Dai (2009). The Sichuan Frontier and Tibet: Imperial Strategy in the Early Qing. University of Washington Press. pp. 16–. ISBN 978-0-295-98952-5.
- ^ Entenmann, Robert Eric (1982). Migration and settlement in Sichuan, 1644-1796. Harvard University.
- ^ Handbook of Chinese Migration: Identity and Wellbeing
- ^ 试论宋代巴蜀方言与现代四川方言的关系》">刘晓南(2009年第8卷第6期),《试论宋代巴蜀方言与现代四川方言的关系——兼谈文献考证的一个重要功用:追寻失落的方言》,语言科学