Those who have never left their homeland do not know the loveliness of their hometown.

- Uyghur proverb

All ethnic groups living in the land of China have jointly created a pluralistic and integrated Chinese culture, which has become a dazzling and colorful page in the history of world civilization and the proud capital of every Chinese son.

However, it is an incomprehensible miracle that the bad habit of women's foot binding, which harms the body and satisfies perverted psychology, has been prevalent in the land of China for nearly a thousand years.

Foot binding, also known as foot binding, began in the ancient Central Plains. The feet of Han women are tightly wrapped in cloth from early childhood, and the foot bones are deformed, the shape of the foot becomes sharp and smaller, and when walking, they can only barely walk with their heels, which is very inconvenient.

It is said that the initiator of foot binding is the queen of Li of the Southern Tang Dynasty who became a slave of the dead country and wrote "How much sorrow can you have when you ask the king, just like a river flowing eastward". He had the dancers wrap their bare feet in silk and decorate them with treasured ribbons, dancing gracefully and gracefully.

Later, generations of elites regarded the practice of mutilating women's limbs as a fashion pursuit. If a woman has never bound her feet, it will be regarded as a big shameful thing.

The founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Hongwu Zhu Yuanzhang's wife, Empress Ma Xiuying, was deeply favored by his adoptive father Guo Zixing when he was a child. She resolutely refused to bind her feet because she was afraid of foot pain, so she grew a pair of big feet that shocked people at the time, and was sarcastically called "horse big feet" by the people around her.

After Zhu Yuanzhang became the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Ma Xiuying also relied on her husband to become the queen under one person and above ten thousand people. It was only at this time that she began to feel sorry and inferior to herself for having a pair of big feet, and she had to live in the harem every day, refusing to come out to meet people. If she had to meet a guest, she always covered her big feet tightly with the hem of her clothes or skirt.

Once, when Empress Ma was bored in the harem, she rode a gorgeous sedan chair to the streets of Yingtianfu (present-day Nanjing, Jiangsu Province).

As soon as they walked near the Qinhuai River, a strong wind suddenly blew and lifted the curtain of the sedan chair. Queen Ma's two big feet resting on the pedals were instantly exposed in broad daylight.

Queen Ma saw that many people's eyes were staring at her sedan chair, and she immediately panicked and hurriedly retracted her feet.

However, the people on the street had already seen the big feet clearly.

As a result, the scandal of Queen Ma giving birth to a pair of big feet quickly spread in Yingtianfu, and it caused a sensation in the entire capital.

Because it was Queen Ma who showed her big feet, people called it "showing horses' feet". Later, people referred to the disgraceful thing as "showing the horse's feet".

At the Lantern Festival Lantern Festival in Yingtianfu this year, Gong Jiagui, a descendant of Gong Huaizhou, made several riddle lanterns and hung them out for people to enjoy. One of the lanterns depicts a woman with big feet on a red horse and a large watermelon in her arms.

Many pedestrians thought of Queen Ma after seeing this lantern, and couldn't help but cover their mouths with their sleeves and smile secretly.

After seeing this lantern riddle, the court spies all over the city thought that they were deliberately satirizing Queen Ma, so they immediately returned to the palace to report Zhu Yuanzhang.

Zhu Yuanzhang listened to the secret report of the secret agent, so he came to Bamboo Lane in a private visit. He stared at the lantern riddle for a long time, and couldn't help but be annoyed: this lantern riddle was clearly insulting my bigfoot horse queen!

Zhu Yuanzhang returned to the palace with a blushing face, and in a fit of anger, he drafted a holy decree: all the residents of Zhuzi Lane were immediately sent to Qinghai, which is located in the western border.

After receiving the holy order, the tens of thousands of residents living in Bamboo Lane were immediately dumbfounded, and they blamed one after another: Aren't you, the Gong family, looking for trouble? I can't draw any lantern riddles, I prefer to draw a woman with big feet! This is good, not only angering Long Yan, but also letting us, the people who have lived in Zhuzi Lane for generations, go to the distant and bitter cold Qinghai, wouldn't it be uprooted and displaced?

Gong Jiagui saw that he had affected so many neighbors, and he also regretted it in his heart, but the holy decree had been issued, and the holy order could not be disobeyed. He had no choice but to take the family to his parents' house near the drum tower to say goodbye to the second elder.

When Mrs. Gong and Mrs. Gong heard that their son's family was going to be exiled to Qinghai, they were so surprised that they couldn't speak for a long time. They had a total of 5 children, and they were still counting on family and prosperity, and they could live for a long time, and in the future, they would be lifted high and buried deep in the future. Now that his son's family is going to the remote Qinghai, it is equivalent to stepping into the ghost gate in advance, and there is no difference between it and early death. Isn't this just a white-haired person sending a black-haired person?

The old couple cried to death, and later blinded their eyes.

No matter how the residents of Bamboo Lane pleaded and petitioned, Zhu Yuanzhang was indifferent.

With tears in their eyes, the residents of Bamboo Lane sold their possessions, bid farewell to their homeland where they had lived for generations, and staggered to the west in tears.

Their hands were bound with ropes, and the guards had to untie them every time it was convenient. To this day, in the Qinghai dialect, going to the toilet is still called "unraveling".

In fact, even if Gong Jiagui did not offend the emperor and empress, many residents of Yingtianfu would have to relocate to Qinghai.

In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, after years of war and massacres, the country was full of barren land and ruins, the population was in short supply, the labor force was seriously insufficient, and the financial revenue was sharply reduced, which directly threatened the rule of the Ming Dynasty. In particular, the common people in the northwest region died a lot, the city was empty, ten rooms and nine empty, and the economy was very depressed.

Zhu Yuanzhang is very aware of this situation and is also trying to change the status quo. After all, there are remnants of the Mongols in the west, as well as the Tubo people who are inextricably linked with the Mongols, and the Semu Hui people who "are not of my kind, their hearts will be different".

Zhu Yuanzhang adopted the proposal of the lower officials, and in order to maintain the rule of the Ming Dynasty, he decided to implement the strategic decision of immigrating to the tuntian, sending reliable people to unreliable places to guard those unreliable people, immigrating to the tuntian, mixing in sand, digging the foot of the wall, and stabilizing the frontier.

A massive migration upsurge that lasted more than 50 years began.

Gong Jiagui's family traveled a long distance, experienced cold, summer, wind and rain, and came to the Qinghai Huangshui Valley in Daming Xisai, and was arranged by the government to settle in Nian Bowei in eastern Qinghai.

At that time, Qinghai was located in the frontier of the Ming Dynasty, and its cultural and educational undertakings were extremely backward, and there was no government-run school. After many petitions, Xining Wei Confucianism was established. In addition, Xining and Nianbo each have a non-governmental social school.

Among them, the folk sociology of Nian Bo was founded by Gong Jiagui, who immigrated here.

In addition to reading some poetry books, Gong Jiagui also opened an antique shop, and has no other skills. In order to survive, he had to learn and work at the same time, follow others to open up wasteland and farm, in addition to self-sufficiency, he also had to pay public grain to the government. They ate rice in Yingtianfu, while Qinghai only produced barley and barley, and he missed the food of his hometown very much.

In the blink of an eye, Gong Jiagui was 60 years old, with gray hair, aging body, and no strength to farm. He saw that there were more and more Han people who moved to Nian Bowei, and there were also a large number of children, but there was no school in the whole Nian Bowei. So, he had the idea to start a social school, teaching with his grandchildren and other people's children, earning both money and teaching children, killing two birds with one stone. The days have passed, so let's not mention it for the time being.

Qinghai was formerly inhabited mainly by Tibetans. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the vast majority of Han people were soldiers from the various guards in the northwest. Most of them came from the Jianghuai region in the east, such as Deng Yu, Geng Bingwen and Feng Shengjing, who conquered the western region, all from the Huaisi region of Jiangsu, and most of the officers and soldiers under their command were from their own township party. More than 100,000 soldiers and civilians are stationed in Qinghai and Gansu in Hehuang, Taomin, Hexi, Amdo, Hezhou and Wusizang and other places, so the ancestral source of the inheritance is the legend and historical memory of the Nanjing people.

Speaking of immigrating to Qinghai, in fact, there are not only soldiers and civilians from Jianghuai who come to Qinghai, but also Li people from Shanxi.

There is a folk song that is still circulating in various parts of China: "Ask me where my ancestors are, the big locust tree in Hongdong, Shanxi." What is the ancestral home called? The old owl's nest under the big locust tree".

There is a historical reason for this ballad.

While the Central Plains region was in turmoil, Shanxi was a different scene of peace and prosperity.

Shanxi is located in a corner of the north, surrounded by the Yellow River and the Taihang Mountains, and the wars and turmoil in other places rarely affect here. Most areas have not experienced serious natural disasters, and the wind and rain have been smooth, and the crops have been bumper year after year.

Compared with neighboring provinces, Shanxi has a stable society, a prosperous economy, and a prosperous population. In addition, the continuous influx of refugees from neighboring provinces into Shanxi has made the southern part of Shanxi very densely populated. At that time, the population of Henan was 1.891 million, the population of Hebei was 1.893 million, and the population of Shanxi, which was smaller than the two provinces, reached 4.03045 million, exceeding the combined population of Hebei and Henan provinces.

Therefore, Shanxi naturally became a major population exporting province for Zhu Yuanzhang.

In the army of immigrants from Shanxi to Qinghai, Wang Shouye's family, a descendant of Wang Chen, a native of Taiyuan, was also among them.

Wang Shouye continues to run the ancestral Wang Ji noodle shop in Taiyuan City, with a fixed income and a solid family background. His eldest brother ran a cloth farm, distributing silk from the south and locally produced cotton and linen. The second and third brothers also have a small business.

One day, Wang Shouye went to the street to buy old vinegar for the store, and saw a large group of people gathered at the notice board of the city wall to watch something, so he also stepped forward to see the excitement. I saw a notice posted on the wall, and the imperial court asked each big family to move to the border of Qinghai and set off soon. Violators will be enforced.

Wang Shouye's heart suddenly muttered: Why did the imperial court come up with such a bad idea? Our ancestors have lived in Taiyuan City for generations, and we are not exiles, so why should we be exiled to Qinghai in the west?

However, he thought about it again: After all, this is an order of the imperial court, and the common people cannot disobey it. Our Wang family is so big that there is a family that wants to emigrate. The eldest brother's health is not good, and he will definitely not be able to bear the long journey. The second brother's body is very strong, but the second sister-in-law suffers from foot disease and is not suitable for traveling. The third brother and three sisters-in-law are in good health, but the daughter-in-law is pregnant, and it is not appropriate to travel far away. It seems that he is the only one who is an immigrant of the Wang family.

Wang Shouye returned home and told his family what he had seen and heard. His wife, Murong Shi, wept: "I heard that Qinghai is a wild place, extremely cold, and it is difficult for crops to grow. How did we get around as a family? Besides, where is there any hope of returning? I'm afraid it's hard to see my father and mother again in this life and this life. ”

Wang Shouye persuaded his family with the principles of benevolence, righteousness, morality, loyalty, filial piety and courtesy. It wasn't until three days later that Murong and his children reluctantly agreed.

Wang Shouye transferred the noodle restaurant to his second brother, and settled down with the second brother's family to support his elderly parents, and then packed up the family belongings and prepared to move west to Qinghai.

On the day when the immigrants set off en masse, all the members of the Wang family came to see off Wang Shouye's family outside the Taiyuan City Gate. They gave the steamed steamed buns and fried noodles to the Murong clan as dry food on the road, stuffed some silver taels, and told them with tears in their eyes.

Outside the city of Taiyuan, the cries of the separation of life and death of relatives resounded, which made people break their hearts and lungs.

After several months of turbulent labor, Wang Shouye's family finally came to Qinghai. According to the government's arrangement, the Wang family settled in Xiguan, Nian Bowei. Wang Shouye still started the old business of the Wang family and opened a noodle restaurant.

This Nian Bowei is not comparable to the huge and prosperous Taiyuan City, it is just a remote town, with a sparse population, a dismal business, and an income that can only support life, and there is not much savings.

What kind of place is Qinghai? Why are the common people in the east so afraid of it?

Geographically located in the central and western part of China, in the northeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, known as the "Roof of the World", Qinghai is named after the largest inland saltwater lake in China, Qinghai Lake.

The Qinghai region has high mountain ranges, diverse terrain, rivers and lakes. The Kunlun Mountains run through the central part, the Tanggula Mountains stand in the south, and the Qilian Mountains stand in the north. The vast grasslands are undulating. The Qaidam Basin is vast and infinite.

Qinghai is the birthplace of the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and the Lancang River, so it is known as the "source of the three rivers" and is known as the "Chinese Water Tower".

There are many varieties of rare animals and wild plants that are precious.

Due to the high altitude, thin oxygen, and cold climate, most places are unsuitable for human habitation. The Hehuang Valley in the east is the most important agricultural area in Qinghai, with an altitude of about 2,000 meters.

Since ancient times, the ancestors of the Qiang people lived in Qinghai in pursuit of water and grass, mainly hunting and nomadism. Therefore, the Qiang people were the first ethnic group to work and live in Qinghai.

Later, the Qiang people in the Hehuang area switched from hunting and animal husbandry to agricultural cultivation.

From 206 BC to 220 AD, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, in order to cut off the connection between the Qiang people and the Xiongnu, marched into Qinghai to drive out the Qiang tribes, and established Linqiang County (located in today's Huangyuan, Qinghai Province) and Poqiang County (located in today's Ledu District, Haidong City, Qinghai Province), and also brought advanced technology and culture.

The Qiang people who migrated to Longdong in Gansu, western Shaanxi and southern Ningxia were called Dongqiang. The Qiang people in the area west of Longdong are called Xiqiang. The Eastern Han Dynasty had many wars with the Qiang people.

During the Three Kingdoms period, the social order in Qinghai was more stable than in the Central Plains, and many Central Plains people came to take refuge.

From 397 to 414, the Xianbei people who went south successively established local separatist regimes in Ledu and Xining, and controlled tens of thousands of Qiang tribes. Tuyuhun, a branch of the Xianbei people, established the famous Tuyuhun Kingdom, which is 3,000 miles from east to west and more than 1,000 miles from north to south, which promoted the integration of the Han people, the Qiang people and the Xianbei people, and promoted the development of the whole society.

During the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the former Liang, the former Qin, the Later Liang, the Southern Liang, the Western Qin, the Western Xia, the Northern Liang and other countries successively ruled the Hehuang region.

During the Tang Dynasty, Qinghai belonged to the Tang Dynasty for a short time, but most of the time it belonged to Tibet. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, after the overthrow of Tibetan rule in the Qinghai region, many small tribes appeared in the vast pastoral areas, living together in the Hehuang area, and the ethnic groups merged with each other and developed production.

In the first few years of the 12th century, the power of the Great Song Dynasty reached the Hehuang region and changed Shanzhou to Xining Prefecture. The name Xining then came into use.

At the beginning of the 13th century, Genghis Khan personally led the Mongol army to the west to conquer Khorezm, and when he returned to the division, he occupied Xining Prefecture through Lintao, and set up the Marshal Mansion of the Tubo Xuanwei Sidu in Hezhou to manage the vast pastoral areas of the Tubo people in Gansu, northern Sichuan, and Qinghai. All counties in the Hehuang River basin are under the jurisdiction of Xining Prefecture.

At that time, the Great Mongolian State implemented the Tusi system in the pastoral areas, and the upper echelons of the Tubo tribes were Tusi and Qianbaihu, etc., and continued to rule the areas under their former jurisdiction.

In 1370, the Ming army entered the eastern region of Qinghai, changed Xining Prefecture to Xining Wei, and adopted the method of "splitting the land and dividing the lords, so that they could defend themselves", so that the local Tubo, Semu Hui and Mongols contained each other.

Nian Bogu is known as Ledu, and the history is very long. During the Western Han Dynasty, Ledu was officially incorporated into the territory of the Western Han Dynasty and was called Poqiang County. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Xianbei people established the Southern Liang Kingdom in the northwest, and the capital was Ledu. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the Shanzhou Governor's Mansion was established. In the Song Dynasty, it was called Huangzhou and Lezhou. The Ming Dynasty renamed Lezhou as Nian Bowei.

Later, Zhu Di, the king of Yan, overthrew his nephew Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunwen to ascend the throne, launched a severe revenge, and killed the army and people loyal to Emperor Jianwen. Only in Hebei and Henan, almost all the people were killed, leaving only the Hu and Liu families who did not participate.

Yongle Emperor Zhu Di continued to adopt the immigration policy of his father Zhu Yuanzhang, filling the population of various places and developing and building frontiers.

In the past 50 years, there have been 18 large-scale official migrations under the big locust trees in Shanxi. They mainly moved to more than 500 counties and cities in 18 provinces today, including Beijing, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Anhui, and Jiangsu. The immigrants involved in the big locust tree in Hongdong County, Shanxi Province, are located in 2,217 counties and cities in 30 provinces and cities across the country. In addition, there are many overseas immigrants in more than 100 countries around the world.

The migration in the early Ming Dynasty was the largest, most extensive, organized and planned population migration in Chinese history, which was of great historical significance for the resumption of production, population increase, economic development, frontier development, ethnic unity, and cultural exchanges.