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my country has been a united multi-ethnic country since ancient times. in the vast territory, 56 ethnic groups live together in large mixed and small concentrated areas, forming the big family of the chinese nation. among them, the han ethnic group has the largest population, accounting for more than 90% of the total population of the country, and most of them live in the eastern region; the other 55 ethnic groups have a smaller population and are called ethnic minorities, mainly living in the southwest, northwest and northeast border areas. in these areas,there are 55 ethnic groups living in gansu province., becoming the province with the most ethnic groups in china.

which ethnic group is not found in gansu province?

gansu province is located in the upper reaches of the yellow river and is located in the geographical center of my country. the province borders shaanxi to the east, ningxia to the northeast, sichuan to the south, qinghai and xinjiang to the west, inner mongolia to the north, and borders the mongolian people's republic. the terrain is long and narrow, sloping from southwest to northeast, 1,655 kilometers long from east to west and 530 kilometers wide from north to south.

gansu province has the most complex and diverse landforms in china, with mountains, plateaus, plains, river valleys, deserts, and gobi, all of which are distributed in an interlaced manner. they can be roughly divided into six major landform regions: longnan mountains, loess plateaus in central and eastern gansu, gannan plateau, hexi corridor, qilian mountains, and the area north of the hexi corridor. the complex landforms and landforms have bred more specific and complex cultural types, giving gansu province a rich and colorful, long and profound history of civilization.

gansu has been a multi-ethnic province since ancient times. according to the data of the seventh national census, the population of gansu province is 25,019,831, and the han population is 22,363,438, accounting for nearly 90%. among the 54 ethnic minorities other than the han nationality, the hui, tibetan and dongxiang ethnic groups have the largest populations, among which the hui population is as high as 1,342,385, accounting for about 5.3% of the total population of the province, while the dongxiang, yugu and baoan ethnic groups are three ethnic minorities unique to gansu. with such a rich ethnic minority population, gansu province currently has two ethnic autonomous prefectures, gannan and linxia, ​​seven ethnic autonomous counties, tianzhu, sunan, subei, aksai, dongxiang, maijishan and zhangjiachuan, and 39 ethnic townships. the area of ​​ethnic autonomous areas has reached 179,000 square kilometers, accounting for 39.8% of the province's area.

so, which ethnic group is missing in gansu, which can be regarded as an exhibition hall of the chinese nation?

the answer islhoba。

according to the language classification, the lhoba people belong to the tibeto-burman language family of the sino-tibetan language family. they were formerly known as "lhoba", which is the customary name of the tibetans for them, meaning southerners. as the name suggests, the lhoba people are mainly distributed in the luoyu area in southeastern tibet, with a small number of them living in milin, medog, zayu, longzi, and langxian areas, and a small number of them scattered in lhasa, nyingchi, shannan and other cities. there are only more than 3,000 people in total, which is a minority ethnic group in my country.

how did the various ethnic groups enter gansu?

the wonderful situation in which 55 ethnic groups live in harmony in gansu province did not come about overnight, but was the result of the formation of a diverse and unified nation-state in our country over the long course of history.

gansu has been one of the areas where ancient humans lived and multiplied since ancient times. the earliest officially recorded paleolithic site discovered in my country is in gansu, namely the paleolithic site of zhaojiacha, guozui village, huachi county, qingyang district, gansu province, which was discovered in 1920. modern archaeological discoveries show that about 100,000 years ago, there were ancient humans in the primitive group stage in longdong and hexi.

during the shang and zhou dynasties, there were tribes such as qiang, gong (today's north of jingchuan county), and mi (today's west of lingtai county) in gansu. fei zi, the ancestor of the qin people, was good at raising horses and was appreciated by king xiao of zhou. he was granted a vassal state and the capital was qinyi (today's northeast of qingshui county, tianshui city, gansu province). since then, gansu has become the center and base of qin people's activities. after qin unified the six kingdoms, it implemented the county system. at that time, gansu province had two counties, longxi and beidi. in the han dynasty, gansu became an important political, economic, cultural, and military strategic location. four counties were set up to control two passes. at the same time, people were relocated to the four counties in hexi. military farming was widely implemented, which was of great significance in cutting off the connection between the xiongnu and the western qiang and opening up the silk road.

the origin of the hui people in gansu is closely related to the development of the silk road.since emperor wu of the han dynasty opened up the western regions, gansu, as a necessary place on the silk road, has become a transit station and trade center for sino-foreign trade. the opening of the silk road has greatly opened up sino-western traffic, and business, technology, and culture have been exchanged. this kind of exchange between the east and the west has gone through the han, jin, southern and northern dynasties, and has reached an unprecedented level in the sui and tang dynasties. at that time, the central government encouraged and protected arab and persian merchants in business and trade.the prosperous business in hexi region attracted a large number of merchants or envoys from the western regions to come and do business. many turkic, arab and indian envoys or merchants were happy to live here and engage in business trade.during the song dynasty, hexi was occupied by liao and xixia. the silk road trade was once blocked and not as prosperous as in previous dynasties, but it still developed to a certain extent. muslim merchants and tribute envoys stayed and bought property in hexi. while gradually adapting to the living environment of han culture, these muslim "foreign guests" and "hu merchants" from the western regions built mosques around the foreign houses and lived around the mosques. merchants and envoys either stayed for a long time, married and had children, or moved in with their families and multiplied. their descendants in china were called "fifth-generation foreign guests."

during the yuan dynasty, the mongols launched five westward expeditions, conquering large tracts of territory from central asia, west asia to southeast europe. the mongol nobles organized a large number of turkic-speaking people from various regions and tribes, as well as some persian young men, into the "western regions pro-troops" or "tanma chi army" to participate in the conquest wars in various parts of the central plains. the huihui army was incorporated into the tanma chi army, carrying out the task of "getting ready for battle when on horseback, and gathering and herding when dismounted."after kublai khan established his capital in dadu (now beijing), he set up border garrisons and military farms in various parts of the northwest. the hexi corridor in gansu was a key management area, and the huihui army was the main member of the border garrison and military farms.in addition to the huihui army, the subordinates who migrated with the huihui officials also became a major force in the military farming. the draft history of gansu records:“this was the beginning of hui people’s settlement in gansu.”

during the ming and qing dynasties, as trade along the silk road prospered, tribute envoys and merchants from central asia and west asia frequently came east to trade. these people often numbered hundreds, and many of them stayed in gansu.by the time of emperor yingzong of the ming dynasty, tribute envoys and merchants from the western regions not only spread throughout the hexi corridor, but also settled in xining, hezhou, lanzhou, gongchang and other places.most of the mosques here were built in the yuan and ming dynasties, with more ming dynasty buildings than yuan dynasty ones. by the middle of the qing dynasty, the hui people in gansu were numerous, with a saying that there were seven hui people and three han people. however, in the turbulent situation at the end of the qing dynasty, hundreds of thousands of hui people in gansu died in wars, diseases, and famine. since then, the hui population in gansu has decreased significantly.

tibetans are one of the ethnic minorities with the longest history in gansu province.. one branch of the ancestors of the tibetans was called qiang in chinese history. they gradually prospered during the spring and autumn period, and their range of activities was roughly at the junction of today's qinghai, gansu, and sichuan. during the qin and han dynasties, the qiang people further developed and grew stronger, and launched a protracted war with the central plains dynasty. it was not until the end of the eastern han dynasty that the defeated qiang people finally split. during the tang dynasty, the tubo empire rose and destroyed the tuyuhun regime that had long ruled the qiang people. it also accepted the surrender of qiang tribes such as the baiman and dangxiang. the qiang people who remained in the hehuang area also assimilated into tubo under the powerful military force and cultural impact of tubo. after the anshi rebellion, tubo took advantage of the opportunity to occupy the hexi and longyou states that originally belonged to the tang dynasty. the "history of amdo politics and religion" records:

"(tubo) selected several brave warriors from the army and stationed them at the border between hor and tibet, ordering them not to return without the tibetan king's order. therefore, their descendants were called karmapa. the tibetans in the north and south of domai are all descendants of the border guards sent by the tibetan king to those places. the local language also retains a considerable amount of ancient tibetan language elements."

duomai is the present-day gansu-qinghai region. tibetans in zhuoni county of gannan tibetan autonomous prefecture and sunan county of zhangye prefecture still call themselves "kamalo". this shows that the tubo army and their families who stayed in gansu-qinghai region at that time are the direct source of today's tibetans in gansu.

the dongxiang people are one of the three unique ethnic minorities in gansu province.since the ming dynasty, some mongolians and semites in gansu converted to islam, and gradually formed a new ethnic group - dongxiang. the name of this ethnic group comes from dongxiang, hezhou, where they live. hezhou is now linxia. in the early ming dynasty, hezhou wei was set up here. its jurisdiction included the entire linxia hui autonomous prefecture and the neighboring xiahe, lintan, xunhua, qinghai, and guide. according to the administrative divisions at that time, hezhou wei was divided into four townships: east, south, west, and north. south township is today's hezheng and kangle counties; west township is the area west of linxia county; north township is today's yongjing county; dongxiang is today's dongxiang autonomous county. in the past, the dongxiang people were called "dongxiang hui" and "dongxiang mongolian". after the founding of new china, this was used as the name of the dongxiang people according to their wishes.

unlike the mongols who converted to islam and became the dongxiang people,most of the mongolians in gansu province today began to migrate to gansu from qinghai and other places in the 1760s.. most of them came from the northern left right banner and the northern right end banner of the khoshut tribe in qinghai, and a small number came from the khoshut tribe in xinjiang and the torghut tribe. the khoshut tribe is one of the four tribes of the mongolian oirat. it is generally believed that they are descendants of habtu hasar, the second brother of genghis khan. before the prosperity of the dzungar in the 1620s, the khoshut tribe was always recognized as the leader of the mongolian tribes. after the rise of the dzungar tribe, the leader status of the khoshut tribe was threatened, so it moved east to the qinghai and tibet regions. emperor yongzheng reorganized the khoshut tribe, established the league and flag system, and migrated some of the mongolians to gansu, and the subei mongolians came from this. according to the seventh national census, the mongolian population in gansu province is 11,946, accounting for 0.04% of the province's population. it is also one of the few ethnic minorities with a population of over 10,000, except for the hui, tibetan, and dongxiang peoples.

from the above, it can be seen that most of the ethnic minorities in gansu province have gradually migrated and formed since the yuan and ming dynasties, which is basically synchronized with the formation of a multi-ethnic unified country in my country. the vast territory and the diverse and unified chinese nation are the two major historical legacies left by our ancestors. the "chinese nation community" is a general term for all ethnic groups in chinese history and at present, and is a "national ethnic entity". as a unified multi-ethnic country, although ancient china has experienced various disputes and even divisions and changes, the unification of the territory and the construction of the chinese nation community have always been the main line of the development of ancient chinese history and the highest ideal and ultimate political goal pursued by all ethnic groups. it has been internalized into the profound and unbreakable excellent historical and cultural traditions of china, rooted in the cultural genes of every chinese son and daughter.

as an organic part of the formation and development history of a unified multi-ethnic country, gansu province not only condenses the tortuous and complex process of china's ancient territorial evolution, but also shows a vivid picture of the han, hui, tibetan, dongxiang, mongolian and other ethnic groups jointly writing a long history, creating a splendid culture, and cultivating a great national spirit, pointing out the practical path for all ethnic groups to jointly build the chinese nation through communication, exchange and integration. over the past thousand years, the inherent cohesion of the chinese nation has become stronger and stronger, thus ensuring the continuity and unity of the development of chinese civilization in terms of ideology, politics, economy and culture. the magnificent history of the development of various ethnic groups in gansu has strongly confirmed this point.

references:

zhang fan: on the imperial power and aristocratic politics of the jin and yuan dynasties, the scholars, vol. 14, jiangsu literature and art publishing house, 1998

wang rui: "a brief analysis of national integration in the yuan dynasty", examination weekly, no. 81, 2013

liu haiying: china's big debt: the origin and future of the economic miracle, citic press, 2014

xiu xiaobo: "the influence of the silk road on ethnic integration in the yuan dynasty", zhejiang social sciences, no. 10, 2020

zhao dongmei: laws and people's hearts: the interaction between people and institutions in the imperial period, citic press, 2021