Min Chinese - History

History

There are controversies among scholars about when Min Chinese was initially formed. But it is generally consensus that several huge immigrations from Zhongyuan greatly shaped and influenced Min Chinese. By the Middle Chinese period, Min Chinese had already split off, just like Ba-Shu Chinese.

  • In 308 AD (晋永嘉二年), a big immigration from north to south happened in China because of Wu Hu uprising (more commonly referred in Chinese as 永嘉之乱). Sanshanzhi (三山志) stated that the population in Jinjiang county almost doubled. The tide of immigration brought the Chinese spoken in Jin Dynasty to Fujian.
  • In 669 AD, Chen Zheng and his son Chen Yuanguang from Gushi County in Henan set up a regional administration in Fujian and governed the area of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou for four generations. They brought with them the Chinese spoken in early Tang Dynasty.
  • During Tang Dynasty, following the development of Imperial examination (科舉), Qieyun's vowel system was introduced into Min Chinese.
  • At the end of Tang Dynasty, in 892 AD, Wang Chao was appointed jiedushi of Fujian and his brother Wang Shenzhi founded Min Kingdom in 909 AD following the fall of Tang Dynasty. Min Kingdom was one of the Ten Kingdoms in Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. Wang Chao and Wang Shenzhi were also from Gushi County in Henan and the Chinese spoken in late Tang Dynasty entered Fujian.

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