Chapter 14 Section 5 Ethnic Marriage

For most of Chinese history, the government has tolerated intermarriage between different ethnic groups.The formation of the Chinese nation is closely related to intermarriage among ethnic groups.In the pre-Qin period, there were many cases of taking the daughters of "Yi Di" as wives.By the Qin and Han Dynasties, the ruling class adopted a policy of condoning and encouraging interethnic marriages, and interethnic marriages took on various forms. Among them, there were intermarriage between ethnic minorities who moved to the interior and Han ethnic groups, and some Han ethnic groups moved to areas inhabited by ethnic minorities. In addition, in border areas where multiple ethnic groups live together, it is not uncommon for men and women of different ethnic groups to intermarry.

The situation of folk intermarriage has a lot to do with the "peace and marriage" policy implemented by the rulers. In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu invaded the northern border repeatedly. According to Lou Jing's plan, Liu Bang, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, chose a daughter from the clan as a princess to marry Modun Shanyu, the first act of marriage.After that, the emperors of all dynasties in the Han Dynasty made such actions, the most famous being "Wang Zhaojun went out of the fortress".Zhaojun was a maid of honor during the reign of Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty. She was married to Huhanxie Shanyu of the Huns far away.

During the Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, interethnic marriages were also very common, especially in the Northern Dynasties, which were originally established successively by the northern minorities who entered the Central Plains. The rulers often regarded themselves as descendants of the Han nationality, changed their clothes and changed their names and surnames, which accelerated the process of Sinicization At this time, inter-ethnic intermarriage was very frequent, showing a trend of ethnic integration. The Tang Dynasty was an open society with a vast territory and frequent contacts with ethnic minorities, especially maintaining close relations with Tubo, Huihe [hehe], and Nanzhao. Policies have been repeatedly advocated and actively implemented.According to records, in the early Tang Dynasty, there were more than 4,000 "Hu Ke" who settled in Chang'an, the capital of the capital, and they all married Han people and raised offspring.Chen Hong described in the legendary "The Biography of the Old Father in Dongcheng": "Nowadays, Beihu and the capital are mixed together, marrying wives and having children, and young people in Chang'an have Hu Xin."

The Tang Dynasty also attached great importance to the kinship policy. If the kinship policy in the Han Dynasty was passive and defensive, the ethnic intermarriage in the Tang Empire showed a flourishing style, not only for "accommodation" and "development", but also for cultural Desire for communion and neighborliness, with considerable initiative.Some of the empresses and concubines of the Tang Dynasty were from ethnic minorities, such as the empress of the eldest grandson of Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty.In the Tang Dynasty, more than 10 princesses successively married the leaders of Tubo, Huihe, Turkic and other tribes for the sake of marriage.The most famous of these is the entry of Princess Wencheng into Tibet during the Taizong era.

At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the Tubo nation rose, and they longed for the prosperous and prosperous Tang Empire. The Tubo king (called Zanpu in Tubo) Songtsan Gampo sent envoys to propose to Tang several times. Shangshu Li Daozong escorted Princess Wencheng, a daughter of the imperial family, into Tibet for marriage.Songtsan Gampo personally went to Bohai (now Ering Lake and Zhaling Lake in Qinghai) to meet him.When Princess Wencheng entered Tibet, she brought a large number of gold and silver utensils, silk, books on construction engineering and medicine, as well as many craftsmen.The Tang Dynasty culture and advanced production technology brought by Princess Wencheng greatly promoted the development of Tibetan ethnic society.Lhasa city still tells the history of ethnic friendly intermarriage to the people with its unique style.