Han Chinese#Historical southward migration of the Han people

File:Aoqun 2.jpg, one of the most distinctive set of attire of female hanfu]]

File:Daopao4.jpg, one of the most distinctive set of attire of male hanfu]]

The term "Han" not only refers to a specific ethnic collective, but also points to a shared ancestry, history, and cultural identity. The term "Huaxia" was used by the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius's contemporaries during the Warring States period to elucidate the shared ethnicity of all Chinese;{{cite book |author=Erica Fox Brindley |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B59rCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA9 |title=Ancient China and the Yue: Perceptions and Identities on the Southern Frontier, c. 400 BCE–50 CE |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-316-35228-1 |pages=9–10}} Chinese people called themselves Hua ren.{{cite book |first=Gyanendra |last=Pandey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CT6FAAAAMAAJ&q=dynasty+hua+ren |title=The Forging of Nationhood |author2=Peter Geschiere |publisher=Manohar |year=2003 |isbn=978-81-7304-425-0 |page=102}} The Warring States period led to the emergence of the Zhou-era Chinese referring to themselves as being Huaxia (literally 'the beautiful grandeur'): under the Hua–Yi distinction, a "Hua" culture (often translated as 'civilized') was contrasted to that of peoples perceived as "Yi" (often translated as 'barbarian') living on the peripheries of the Zhou kingdoms.{{Cite book |last=Perkins |first=Dorothy |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofch00perk_0/page/202 |title=Encyclopedia of China: History and Culture |publisher=Checkmark |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-8160-2693-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofch00perk_0/page/202 202]}}{{Cite book |last=Schliesinger |first=Joachim |title=Origin of Man in Southeast Asia 2: Early Dominant Peoples of the Mainland Region |publisher=Booksmango |year=2016 |page=14}}{{Cite book |last1=Holcombe |first1=Charles |title=A History of East Asia: From the Origins of Civilization to the Twenty-First Century |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-10754489-5 |edition=2nd |page=49}} Overseas Chinese who possess non-Chinese citizenship are commonly referred as "Hua people" ({{zhi|s=华人|t=華人|p=Huárén}}) or Huazu ({{zhi|s=华族|t=華族|p=Huázú}}). The two respective aforementioned terms are applied solely to those with a Han background that is semantically distinct from Zhongguo ren ({{zhi|s=中国人|t=中國人}}) which has connotations and implications limited to being citizens and nationals of China, especially with regard to ethnic minorities in China.{{cite book |last1=Chang |first1=Hui-Ching |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vouLBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA162 |title=Language, Politics and Identity in Taiwan: Naming China |last2=Holt |first2=Richard |date=20 November 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-04635-4 |pages=162–164}}{{cite book |author=Sheng Lijun |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zZZABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA53 |title=China and Taiwan: Cross-strait Relations Under Chen Shui-bian |publisher=Institute of Southeast Asian Studies |year=2002 |isbn=978-981-230-110-9 |page=53}}

The name "Han people" ({{zhi|s=汉人|t=漢人|p=Hànrén|first=t}}) first appeared during the Northern and Southern period and was inspired by the Han dynasty, which is considered to be one of the first golden ages in Chinese history. As a unified and cohesive empire that succeeded the short-lived Qin dynasty, Han China established itself as the center of the East Asian geopolitical order at the time, projecting its power and influence unto Asian neighbors. It was comparable with the contemporary Roman Empire in population size, geographical extent, and cultural reach.{{cite book |last=Cohen |first=Warren I. |title=East Asia At The Center: Four Thousand Years of Engagement With The World |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2000 |page=59}}{{cite book |last=Minahan |first=James B. |title=Ethnic Groups of North, East, and Central Asia: An Encyclopedia |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-61069-017-1 |page=92}}{{cite book |last=Kang |first=David C. |title=East Asia Before the West: Five Centuries of Trade and Tribute |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-231-15319-5 |pages=33–34}} The Han dynasty's prestige and prominence led many of the ancient Huaxia to identify themselves as 'Han people'.{{cite book |last=Tanner |first=Harold Miles |title=China: A History: From the Great Qing Empire through the People's Republic of China, 1644–2009 |publisher=Hackett |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-60384-204-4 |page=83}}{{cite book |last=Ueda |first=Reed |title=America's Changing Neighborhoods: An Exploration of Diversity through Places |publisher=Greenwood |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-4408-2864-5 |page=403}}{{cite book |last=Eno |first=R. |url=http://www.indiana.edu/~e232/09-Han.pdf |title=The Han Dynasty (206 B.C. – A.D. 220) |publisher=Indiana University Press |page=1 |access-date=22 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190711015633/http://www.indiana.edu/~e232/09-Han.pdf |archive-date=11 July 2019 |url-status=dead}}{{cite book |last=Li |first=Xiaobing |title=China at War: An Encyclopedia: An Encyclopedia |publisher=Pentagon |year=2012 |isbn=978-81-8274-611-4 |publication-date=30 June 2012 |page=155}}{{Cite book|title=China: A Religious State|last1=Hsu|first1=Cho-yun|last2=Lagerwey|first2=John|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=2012|editor-last=Y. S. Cheng|editor-first=Joseph|page=126}} Similarly, the Chinese language also came to be named and alluded to as the "Han language" ({{zhi|s=汉语|t=漢語|p=Hànyǔ|first=t}}) ever since and the Chinese script is referred to as "Han characters".{{cite book |last=Schaefer |first=Richard T. |year=2008 |title=Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society |volume=3 |location=Thousand Oaks, CA |publisher=Sage |isbn=978-1-4129-2694-2 |page=279}}

Prior to the Han dynasty, Chinese scholars used the term Huaxia ({{zhi|s=华夏|t=華夏|first=t|labels=no}}) in texts to describe China proper, while the Chinese populace were referred to as either the 'various Hua' ({{zhi|s=诸华|t=諸華|first=t|p=Zhūhuá}}) or 'various Xia' ({{zhi|s=诸夏|t=諸夏|p=Zhūxià}}). This gave rise to two term commonly used nowadays by Overseas Chinese as an ethnic identity for the Chinese diaspora – Huaren ({{zhi|s=华人|t=華人|p=Huárén|first=t|l=ethnic Chinese people}}) and Huaqiao ({{zhi|s=华侨|t=華僑|p=Huáqiáo|l=the Chinese immigrant}}), meaning Overseas Chinese. It has also given rise to the literary name for China – Zhonghua ({{zhi|s=中华|t=中華|p=Zhōnghuá|first=t}}). While the general term Zhongguo ren ({{zhi|s=中国人|t=中國人|first=t}}) refers to any Chinese citizen or Chinese national regardless of their ethnic origins and does not necessary imply Han ancestry, the term huaren in its narrow, classical usages implies Central Plains or Han ancestry.

Among some southern Han Chinese varieties such as Cantonese, Hakka and Minnan, the term Tangren ({{zhi|t=唐人|p=Tángrén|l=people of Tang}}), derived from the name of the later Tang dynasty (618–907) that oversaw what is regarded as another golden age of China. The self-identification as Tangren is popular in south China, because it was at this time that massive waves of migration and settlement led to a shift in the center of gravity of the Chinese nation away from the tumult of the Central Plains to the peaceful lands south of the Yangtze and on the southeastern coast, leading to the earnest settlement by Chinese of lands hitherto regarded as part of the empire's sparsely populated frontier or periphery. Guangdong and Fujian, hitherto regarded as backwater regions, were populated by the descendants of garrison soldiers, exiles and refugees, became new centers and representatives of Han Chinese culture under the influence of the new Han migrants. The term is used in everyday colloquial discourse and is also an element in one of the words for Chinatown: {{zhl|c=唐人街|p=Tángrénjiē|j=Tong4 jan4 gaai1|l=streets of Tang people}}.{{cite journal|last1=Leung|first1=Genevieve Y.|last2=Wu|first2=Min-Hsuan|title=Linguistic landscape and heritage language literacy education|journal=Written Language & Literacy|year=2012|volume=15|issue=1|pages=114–140|doi=10.1075/wll.15.1.06leu}} The phrase {{zhp|s=华埠|t=華埠|first=t|p=Huábù}} is also used to refer to Chinatowns.

The term Zhonghua minzu, literally the 'Chinese nation', currently used as a supra-ethnic concept publicised first by the Republic of China, then by the People's Republic of China, was historically used specifically to refer to the Han Chinese. In his article "Observations on the Chinese ethnic groups in History", Liang Qichao, who coined the term Zhonghua minzu, wrote "the present-day Zhonghua minzu refers to what is commonly known as the Han Chinese".{{Efn|{{lang|zh|「今日之中華民族，即普遍俗稱所謂漢族者。}}」}}{{Cite book |author=Liang |first=Qichao |script-title=zh:飲冰室合集 |trans-title=Collected works of Yinbinshi |publisher=Zhonghua Book Company|isbn=978-7-101-09490-9 |script-chapter=zh:歷史上中國民族之觀察 |trans-chapter=Observations on the Chinese ethnic groups in History |language=zh}} It was only after the founding of the Society for the National Great Unity of the Republic of China{{Efn|中华民国民族大同会}} in 1912 that the term began to officially include ethnic minorities from all regions in China.{{Cite journal |author=杨义 |year=2012 |script-title=zh:中华民族文化发展与西南少数民族 |url=http://iel.cass.cn/mzwxbk/mzwh/201311/t20131107_2764732.shtml |script-journal=zh:民族文学研究 |issue=1 |pages=5–21}}{{Cite web |author=张晨怡 |script-title=zh:近代"中华民族"观念形成的文化考察 |url=http://www.historychina.net/sxwh/356014.shtml |script-website=zh:中华文史网 |language=zh}}

{{Prose|section|date=October 2024}}

{{More citations needed|section|date=October 2024}}

{{Main|Han Chinese subgroups}}

Han Chinese can be divided into various subgroups based on the variety of Chinese that they speak.{{cite journal|last1 = Zhang|first1 = Feng|last2=Su|first2=Bing|last3=Zhang|first3=Ya-ping|last4=Jin|first4=Li|title = Genetic Studies of Human Diversity in East Asia|pmc=2435565|journal = Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences|volume=362|issue=1482|pages=987–996|date=22 February 2007|pmid=17317646|doi = 10.1098/rstb.2007.2028}}{{cite journal|last1=Zhao|first1=Yong-Bin|last2=Zhang|first2=Ye|last3=Zhang|first3=Quan-Chao|last4=Li|first4=Hong-Jie|last5=Cui|first5=Ying-Qiu|last6=Xu|first6=Zhi|last7=Jin|first7=Li|last8=Zhou|first8=Hui|last9=Zhu|first9=Hong|title = Ancient DNA Reveals That the Genetic Structure of the Northern Han Chinese Was Shaped Prior to three-thousand Years Ago|journal=PLoS ONE|year=2015|volume=10|issue=5|page=e0125676|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0125676|pmid=25938511|pmc=4418768|bibcode=2015PLoSO..1025676Z|doi-access=free}} Waves of migration have occurred throughout China's long history and vast geographical expanse, engendering the emergence of Han Chinese subgroups found throughout the various regions of modern China today with distinct regional features.{{cite book|author=Jacques Gernet|title=A History of Chinese Civilization|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofchinese00gern |url-access=registration|year=1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-49781-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofchinese00gern/page/8 8]}}{{cite journal |doi=10.1038/nature02878 |title=Genetic evidence supports demic diffusion of Han culture |year=2004 |last1=Wen |first1=Bo |last2=Li |first2=Hui |last3=Lu |first3=Daru |last4=Song |first4=Xiufeng |last5=Zhang |first5=Feng |last6=He |first6=Yungang |last7=Li |first7=Feng |last8=Gao |first8=Yang |last9=Mao |first9=Xianyun|last10=Zhang |first10=L |last11=Qian |first11=J |last12=Tan |first12=J |last13=Jin |first13=J |last14=Huang |first14=W |last15=Deka |first15=R |last16=Su |first16=B |last17=Chakraborty |first17=R |last18=Jin |first18=L |display-authors=9 |journal=Nature |volume=431 |issue=7006 |pages=302–05 |pmid=15372031|bibcode=2004Natur.431..302W }}{{cite book|author=Edward Vickers|title=History Education and National Identity in East Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8TTaAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA191|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-40500-7|pages=191–|access-date=8 January 2016|archive-date=14 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414161120/https://books.google.com/books?id=8TTaAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA191|url-status=live}}

The expansion of the Han people outside their linguistic homeland in the Yellow River is an important part of their historical consciousness and ethnogenesis, and accounts for their present-day diversity.

There were several periods of mass migration of Han people to southeastern and southern China throughout history. Initially, the sparsely populated regions of south China were inhabited by tribes known only as the Bai Yue or Hundred Yue. Many of these tribes developed into kingdoms under rulers and nobility of Han Chinese ethnicity but retained a Bai Yue majority for several centuries.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}} Yet others were forcibly brought into the Sinosphere by the imperial ambitions of emperors such as Qin Shi Huangdi and Han Wu Di, both of whom settled hundreds of thousands of Chinese in these lands to form agricultural colonies and military garrisons. Even then, control over these lands was tenuous, and Bai Yue cultural identity remained strong until sustained waves of Han Chinese emigration in the Jin, Tang and Song dynasties altered the demographic balance completely.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

File:Map of sinitic languages full-en.svg

File:Mandarin subgroups and Jin group.png

Chinese language (or Chinese languages) can be divided to 10 primary dialects (or languages).{{Cite book |last=Li; Wurm |first=Rong; Stephen Adolphe |title=Language Atlas of China |year=2012 |isbn=978-962-359-085-3 |edition=2nd |location=China}}

Each Han Chinese subgroup (民系) can be identified through their dialects:

• Wu (吴语): Jiangzhe people (江浙民系)
• Hui (徽语): Wannan people (皖南民系)
• Gan (赣语): Jiangxi people (江西民系)
• Xiang (湘语): Hunan people (湖南民系)
• Min (闽语): Minhai people (闽海民系)
• Hakka (客语): Hakka people (客家民系)
• Yue (粤语): Cantonese people (岭南民系)
• Pinghua and Tuhua (平话和土话): Pingnan people (平南民系){{cite journal |last1=Gan |first1=Rui-Jing |last2=Pan |first2=Shang-Ling |last3=Mustavich |first3=Laura F. |last4=Qin |first4=Zhen-Dong |last5=Cai |first5=Xiao-Yun |last6=Qian |first6=Ji |last7=Liu |first7=Cheng-Wu |last8=Peng |first8=Jun-Hua |last9=Li |first9=Shi-Lin |last10=Xu |first10=Jie-Shun |last11=Jin |first11=Li |last12=Li |first12=Hui |title=Pinghua population as an exception of Han Chinese's coherent genetic structure |journal=Journal of Human Genetics |date=April 2008 |volume=53 |issue=4 |pages=303–313 |doi=10.1007/s10038-008-0250-x |pmid=18270655 }}{{cite journal |last1=Lu |first1=Yan |last2=Pan |first2=Shang-Ling |last3=Qin |first3=Shu-Ming |last4=Qin |first4=Zheng-Dong |last5=Wang |first5=Chuan-Chao |last6=Gan |first6=Rui-Jing |last7=Li |first7=Hui |title=Genetic evidence for the multiple origins of Pinghua Chinese |journal=Journal of Systematics and Evolution |date=May 2013 |volume=51 |issue=3 |pages=271–279 |doi=10.1111/jse.12003 }}{{Cite web |last=Project |first=Joshua |title=Pinghua, Southern in China |url=https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/18480/CH |access-date=2024-10-27 |website=joshuaproject.net |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Project |first=Joshua |title=Pinghua, Northern in China |url=https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/21839/CH |access-date=2024-10-27 |website=joshuaproject.net |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=江南区第五届平话文化旅游节盛大开幕_中国南宁 |url=http://www.nanning.china.com.cn/2019-09/20/content_40900792.htm |access-date=2024-10-27 |website=www.nanning.china.com.cn}}
  • Jin (晋语): Jinsui people (晋绥民系)
  • Mandarin (官话): Northern people (北方民系){{Cite web |title=Han Chinese, Mandarin people group in all countries {{!}} Joshua Project |url=https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/12051 |access-date=2024-10-27 |website=joshuaproject.net}}
  • Northeastern (东北): Northeastern people (东北民系)
  • Beijing (北平): Youyan people (幽燕民系)
  • Jilu (冀鲁): Jilu people (冀鲁民系)
  • Jiaoliao (胶辽): Jiaoliao people (胶辽民系)
  • Central Plains (中原): Central Plains people (中原民系)
  • Lanyin (兰银): Longyou people (陇右民系)
  • Southwestern (西南): Southwestern people (西南民系)
  • Jianghuai (江淮): Jianghuai people (江淮民系)

The first emperor Qin Shi Huang is said to have sent several hundred thousand men and fifteen thousand women to form agricultural and military settlements in Lingnan (present day Guangxi and Guangdong), under the leadership of a general named Zhao Tuo. The famous Han emperor, Han Wu Di, ordered another two hundred thousand men to build ships to attack and colonialize the Lingnan region, thus adding to the population in Guangdong and Guangxi. The first urban conurbations in the region, for example, Panyu, were created by Han settlers rather than the Bai Yue, who preferred to maintain small settlements subsisting on swidden agriculture and rice farming. Later on, Guangdong, northern Vietnam, and Yunnan all experienced a surge in Han Chinese migrants during Wang Mang's reign. The demographic composition and culture of these regions during this period, could however scarcely be said to have been Sinitic outside the confines of these agricultural settlements and military outposts.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

File:Han Expansion.png during the 2nd century BC]]

The genesis of the modern Han people and their subgroups cannot be understood apart from their historical migrations to the south, resulting in a depopulation of the Central Plains, a fission between those that remained and those that headed south, and their subsequent fusion with aboriginal tribes south of the Yangtze, even as the centres of Han Chinese culture and wealth moved from the Yellow River Basin to Jiangnan, and to a lesser extent also, to Fujian and Guangdong.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

At various points in Chinese history, collapses of central authority in the face of barbarian uprisings or invasions and the loss of control of the Chinese heartland triggered mass migratory waves which transformed the demographic composition and cultural identity of the south. This process of sustained mass migration has been known as "garments and headdresses moving south" 衣冠南渡 (yì guān nán dù), on account of it first being led by the aristocratic classes.{{Cite web |script-title=zh:"衣冠南渡"字的解释 |url=https://www.zdic.net/hans/%E8%A1%A3%E5%86%A0%E5%8D%97%E6%B8%A1 |access-date=2024-07-17 |website=www.zdic.net |language=zh-cn}}{{Cite book |last=Szonyi |first=Michael |title=Practicing Kinship: Lineage and Descent in Late Imperial China |year=2002 |pages=27}}{{Cite book |last=Clark |first=Hugh R. |title=Portrait of a Community: Society, Culture, and the Structures of Kinship in the Mulan River Valley (Fujian) from the Late Tang Through the Song |publisher=Chinese University Press |year=2007 |page=223}}

Such migratory waves were numerous and triggered by such events such as the Uprising of the Five Barbarians during the Jin dynasty (304–316 AD) in which China was completely overrun by minority groups previously serving as vassals and servants to Sima (the royal house of Jin), the An Lu Shan rebellion during the Tang dynasty (755–763 AD), and the Jingkang incident (1127 AD) and Jin-Song wars. These events caused widespread devastation, and even depopulated the north, resulting in the complete social and political breakdown and collapse of central authority in the Central Plains, triggering massive, sustained waves of Han Chinese migration into South China,{{Cite book |script-title=zh:全唐诗 |publisher=Zhonghua Book Company |pages=761 |language=Chinese |trans-title=Complete History of the Tang}}{{Cite book |last=Guo |first=Rongxing |title=An Introduction to the Chinese Economy: The Driving Forces Behind Modern Day China |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |publication-date=2011}} leading to the formation of distinct Han lineages,{{cite book |author=Hugh R. Clark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=126EsR8rpC8C&pg=PA37 |title=Portrait of a Community: Society, Culture, and the Structures of Kinship in the Mulan River Valley (Fujian) from the Late Tang Through the Song |publisher=Chinese University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-962-996-227-2 |pages=37–38 |access-date=10 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802233602/https://books.google.com/books?id=126EsR8rpC8C&pg=PA37 |archive-date=2 August 2020 |url-status=live}} who also likely assimilated the by-now partially sinicized Bai Yue in their midst.

Modern Han Chinese subgroups, such as the Cantonese, the Hakka, the Henghua, the Hainanese, the Hoklo peoples, the Gan, the Xiang, the Wu-speaking peoples, all claim Han Chinese ancestry pointing to official histories and their own genealogical records to support such claims.{{cite book |author1=Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0DPEol7HO3gC&pg=PA213 |title=Public Spheres and Collective Identities |author2=Wolfgang Schluchter |author3=Björn Wittrock |publisher=Transaction Publishers |isbn=978-1-4128-3248-9 |pages=213–14 |access-date=5 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414100424/https://books.google.com/books?id=0DPEol7HO3gC&pg=PA213 |archive-date=14 April 2016 |url-status=live}}{{cite book |author1=Sow-Theng Leong |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6qeC_0u3pLIC&pg=PA78 |title=Migration and Ethnicity in Chinese History: Hakkas, Pengmin, and Their Neighbors |author2=Tim Wright |author3=George William Skinner |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-8047-2857-7 |pages=78– |access-date=5 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414103333/https://books.google.com/books?id=6qeC_0u3pLIC&pg=PA78 |archive-date=14 April 2016 |url-status=live}} Linguists hypothesize that proto- Wu and Min varieties of Chinese may have originated from the time of Jin,{{Cite book |last=Kurpaska |first=Maria |title=Chinese Language(s): A Look Through the Prism of "The Great Dictionary of Modern Chinese Dialects |year=2010 |pages=161}} while the proto- Yue and Hakka varieties perhaps from the Tang and Song, about half-a-millennium later.{{Cite book |last=Hashimoto |first=Anne |title=Studies in Yue Dialects 1: Phonology of Cantonese |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1972}} The presence of Tai-Kradai substrates in these dialects may have been due to the assimilation of the remaining groups of Bai Yue, integrating these lands into the Sinosphere proper.

File:Wu Hu Uprising.png

The chaos of the Uprising of the Five Barbarians triggered the first massive movement of Han Chinese dominated by civilians rather than soldiers to the south, being led principally by the aristocracy and the Jin elite. Thus, Jiangnan, comprising Hangzhou's coastal regions and the Yangtze valley were settled in the 4th century AD by families descended from Chinese nobility.{{cite book |first1=John |last1=Lagerwey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q2nWdWbN3MQC&pg=PA831 |title=Early Chinese Religion: The Period of Division (220–589 AD) |first2=Pengzhi |last2=Lü |publisher=Brill |year=2009 |isbn=978-90-04-17585-3 |page=831}} Special "commanderies of immigrants" and "white registers" were created for the massive number of Han Chinese immigrating during this period which included notable families such as the Wang and the Xie.{{cite web |author=Nicolas Olivier Tackett |title=The Transformation of Medieval Chinese Elites (850–1000 C.E.) |url=http://history.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/slides/Dissertation.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304220551/http://history.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/slides/Dissertation.pdf |archive-date=4 March 2016 |access-date=12 December 2017 |website=History.berkeley.edu}} A religious group known as the Celestial Masters contributed to the movement. Jiangnan became the most populous and prosperous region of China.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SOzKGAAACAAJ |title=Historical Atlas of the Classical World, 500 BC–AD 600 |publisher=Barnes & Noble |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-7607-1973-2 |page=2.25}}{{cite book |last1=Haywood |first1=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YQMUNgAACAAJ |title=Historical Atlas of the Medieval World, AD 600–1492 |last2=Jotischky |first2=Andrew |last3=McGlynn |first3=Sean |publisher=Barnes & Noble |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-7607-1976-3 |pages=3.21}}

The Uprising of the Five Barbarians, also led to the resettlement of Fujian. The province of Fujian - whose aboriginal inhabitants had been deported to the Central Plains by Han Wu Di, was now repopulated by Han Chinese settlers and colonists from the Chinese heartland. The "Eight Great Surnames" were eight noble families who migrated from the Central Plains to Fujian - these were the Hu, He, Qiu, Dan, Zheng, Huang, Chen and Lin clans, who remain there until this very day.{{cite book |last1=Dean |first1=Kenneth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lSiwCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA341 |title=Ritual Alliances of the Putian Plain. Volume One: Historical Introduction to the Return of the Gods |last2=Zheng |first2=Zhenman |date=2009 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-9047429463 |page=341 |access-date=29 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803004031/https://books.google.com/books?id=lSiwCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA341 |archive-date=3 August 2020 |url-status=live}}{{cite book |last1=Xu |first1=Bin |title=From the Oxus River to the Chinese Shores: Studies on East Syriac Christianity in China and Central Asia |last2=Xie |first2=Bizhen |date=2013 |publisher=LIT Verlag Münster |isbn=978-3643903297 |editor1-last=Li |editor1-first=Tang |edition=illustrated |page=270 |chapter=The Rise and Fall of Nestorianism in Quanzhou during the Yuan dynasty |access-date=29 March 2019 |editor2-last=Winkler |editor2-first=Dietmar W. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VYaMuV3N5vUC&pg=PA270}}{{cite book |last1=Szonyi |first1=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6La08w3cBcAC&pg=PA27 |title=Practicing Kinship: Lineage and Descent in Late Imperial China |date=2002 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=0804742618 |edition=illustrated |page=27 |access-date=29 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802235300/https://books.google.com/books?id=6La08w3cBcAC&pg=PA27 |archive-date=2 August 2020 |url-status=live}}{{cite book |last1=Zheng |first1=Zhenman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q6l_WOr1lLYC&pg=PA190 |title=Family Lineage Organization and Social Change in Ming and Qing Fujian |year=2001 |publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press |isbn=0824823338 |page=190}}

File:唐尚父汾阳忠武王像.jpg, who quelled the An Lushan rebellion, which caused a fall in recorded numbers of Tang inhabitants from 53 million to 17 million people]]

In the wake of the An Lushan rebellion, a further wave of Han migrants from northern China headed the south.{{cite book |author=Hugh R. Clark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=126EsR8rpC8C&pg=PA78 |title=Portrait of a Community: Society, Culture, and the Structures of Kinship in the Mulan River Valley (Fujian) from the Late Tang Through the Song |publisher=Chinese University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-962-996-227-2 |pages=78–79}} At the start of the rebellion in 755 there were 52.9 million registered inhabitants of the Tang Empire, and after its end in 764, only 16.9 million were recorded.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}} It is likely that the difference in census figures was due to the complete breakdown in administrative capabilities, as well as the widespread escape from the north by the Han Chinese and their mass migration to the south.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

By now, the Han Chinese population in the south far outstripped that of the Bai Yue. Guangdong and Fujian both experienced a significant influx of northern Han Chinese settlers, leading many Cantonese, Hokkien and Teochew individuals to identify themselves as Tangren, which has served as a means to assert and acknowledge their ethnic and cultural origin and identity.{{cite book |first=Endymion Porter |last=Wilkinson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ERnrQq0bsPYC&pg=PA752 |title=Chinese History: A Manual |publisher=Harvard University Asia Center |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-674-00249-4 |page=752}}

File:岳飞像.jpg, who was a military general of the Song dynasty against the Jurchen (Jin) invasion, is considered a Chinese national hero and is often worshipped alongside Guan Yu in martial temples.|396x396px]]

File:Song Jin Wars.jpg

The Jin–Song Wars caused yet another wave of mass migration of the Han Chinese from northern China to southern China, leading to a further increase in the Han Chinese population across southern Chinese provinces. The formation of the Hainanese and Hakka people can be attributed to the chaos of this period.

The Mongol conquest of China during the thirteenth century once again caused a surging influx of northern Han Chinese refugees to move south to settle and develop the Pearl River Delta.{{cite book |last1=Foster |first1=Simon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zdHeAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT16 |title=China's Pearl River Delta, Guangzhou & Shenzhen |year=2010 |publisher=Hunter |isbn=978-1588438119 |series=Hunter travel guides}}{{cite book |last1=Marks |first1=Robert B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5638DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA177 |title=China: An Environmental History |date=2017 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1442277892 |edition=2nd |page=177}}{{cite book |last1=Zhao |first1=Zhenzhou |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SKaE82DAlQYC&pg=PA243 |title=China's Mongols at University: Contesting Cultural Recognition |last2=Lee |first2=Wing On |year=2010 |publisher=Lexington |isbn=978-1461633112 |series=Emerging Perspectives on Education in China |page=243}}{{cite book |last1=Marks |first1=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dBsfts9wyRsC&pg=PA53 |title=Tigers, Rice, Silk, and Silt: Environment and Economy in Late Imperial South China |year=1998 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=113942551X |series=Studies in Environment and History |page=53}}{{cite book |last1=Herklots |first1=Geoffrey Alton Craig |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1HgcAQAAIAAJ&q=pearl+river+delta+mongols |title=The Hong Kong Naturalist, Volumes 3-4 |year=1932 |publisher=Newspaper Enterprise|page=120}}{{cite book |last1=Lai |first1=H. Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qZjruI0_XmcC&pg=PA11 |title=Becoming Chinese American: A History of Communities and Institutions |last2=Hsu |first2=Madeline |author2-link=Madeline Y. Hsu |year=2004 |publisher=Rowman Altamira |isbn=0759104581 |volume=13 |series=Critical perspectives on Asian Pacific Americans |page=11}} These mass migrations over the centuries inevitably led to the demographic expansion, economic prosperity, agricultural advancements, and cultural flourishing of southern China, which remained relatively peaceful unlike its northern counterpart.{{cite book |last1=Yao |first1=Yifeng |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qLquDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA95 |title=Nanjing: Historical Landscape and Its Planning from Geographical Perspective |date=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-9811016370 |edition=illustrated |page=95}}{{cite encyclopedia |title=Six Dynasties |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Six-Dynasties |access-date=30 March 2019 |date=4 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330193129/https://www.britannica.com/event/Six-Dynasties |archive-date=30 March 2019 |url-status=live}}{{cite book |last1=Entenmann |first1=Robert Eric |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e9nqAAAAIAAJ&q=an+lushan+sichuan+migration |title=Migration and settlement in Sichuan, 1644-1796 |year=1982 |publisher=Harvard University |page=14}}{{cite book |last1=Shi |first1=Zhihong |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2jE9DwAAQBAJ&q=an+lushan+sichuan+migration&pg=PA154 |title=Agricultural Development in Qing China: A Quantitative Study, 1661-1911 |year=2017 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9004355248 |series=The Quantitative Economic History of China |page=154}}{{cite book |last1=Hsu |first1=Cho-yun |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a2_GQpLPPl8C&pg=PA194 |title=China: A New Cultural History |year=2012 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0231528184 |edition=illustrated |series=Masters of Chinese Studies |page=194}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QV5Wp2fJbzMC&pg=PA127 |title=The History of China |year=2010 |publisher=Rosen |isbn=978-1615301096 |editor-last1=Pletcher |editor-first1=Kenneth |series=Understanding China |page=127}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z3FLAQAAIAAJ&q=an+lushan+sichuan+migration |title=Chinese journal of international law, Volume 3 |year=2004 |page=631}}{{Excessive citations inline|date=September 2024}}

{{Main|Chinese people|Demographics of China|Han Chinese subgroups}}

The vast majority of Han Chinese – over 1.2 billion – live in the People's Republic of China (PRC), where they constitute about 90% of its overall population.[https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/china/ CIA Factbook] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213122152/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/china/|date=13 February 2021}}: "Han Chinese 91.6%" out of a reported population of 1,384,688,986 billion (July 2018 est.) Han Chinese in China have been a culturally, economically and politically dominant majority vis-à-vis the non-Han minorities throughout most of China's recorded history.{{cite book|title=World On Fire |last=Chua|first=Amy|author-link=Amy Chua|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing|year=2003|isbn=978-0-385-72186-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/worldonfirehowex00chua_0/page/177 177]|url=https://archive.org/details/worldonfirehowex00chua_0/page/177}} Han Chinese are almost the majority in every Chinese province, municipality and autonomous region except for the autonomous regions of Xinjiang (38% or 40% in 2010) and Tibet Autonomous Region (8% in 2014), where Uighurs and Tibetans are the majority, respectively.

{{Main|Hongkongers|Macau people|Demographics of Hong Kong|Demographics of Macau}}

Han Chinese also constitute the majority in both of the special administrative regions of the PRC.{{Cite report |date=February 2016 |title=2016 Population By-census – Summary Results |url=http://www.bycensus2016.gov.hk/en/bc-mt.html |publisher=Census and Statistics Department |page=37 |access-date=14 March 2017 |archive-date=20 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171120115053/http://www.bycensus2016.gov.hk/en/bc-mt.html |url-status=live }}{{Cite report |date=May 2017 |title=2016 Population By-Census Detailed Results |url=https://www.dsec.gov.mo/getAttachment/e20c6bab-ada4-4f83-9349-e72605674a42/E_ICEN_PUB_2016_Y.aspx |publisher=Statistics and Census Service |access-date=25 July 2019 |ref={{harvid|Population By-Census|2016}} |archive-date=16 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816134504/https://www.dsec.gov.mo/getAttachment/e20c6bab-ada4-4f83-9349-e72605674a42/E_ICEN_PUB_2016_Y.aspx |url-status=live }}{{failed verification|date=January 2022}} The Han Chinese in Hong Kong and Macau have been culturally, economically and politically dominant majority vis-à-vis the non-Han minorities.{{cite journal |last1=Chua |first1=Amy |title=The Paradox of Free Market Democracy: Rethinking Development Policy |journal=Harvard International Law Journal |date=15 April 2000 |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=287–380 |url=https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/faculty_scholarship/2887 |hdl=20.500.13051/2534 }}{{Cite book|title=World On Fire|last=Chua|first=Amy|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing|year=2003|isbn=978-0-385-72186-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/worldonfirehowex00chua_0/page/178 178]|url=https://archive.org/details/worldonfirehowex00chua_0/page/178}}

{{Main|Han Taiwanese|Taiwanese people|Demographics of Taiwan}}

File:艋舺龍山寺 臺北市 直轄市定古蹟寺廟 Venation 2.JPG in Taipei]]

There are over 22 million people of Han Chinese ancestry in living in Taiwan.{{cite web|url=http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/taiwan-population/|title=Taiwan Population (2017) – World Population Review|website=worldpopulationreview.com|access-date=23 January 2017|archive-date=27 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211027124717/https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/taiwan-population|url-status=live}}{{better source needed|date=October 2024}} At first, these migrants chose to settle in locations that bore a resemblance to the areas they had left behind in China, regardless of whether they arrived in the north or south of Taiwan.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}} Hoklo immigrants from Quanzhou settled in coastal regions and those from Zhangzhou tended to gather on inland plains, while the Hakka inhabited hilly areas.

Clashes and tensions between the two groups over land, water, ethno-racial,{{dubious|reason=Surely sources don't use this term.|date=October 2024}} and cultural differences led to the relocation of some communities and over time, varying degrees of intermarriage and assimilation took place. In Taiwan, Han Chinese (including both the earlier Han Taiwanese settlers and the recent Chinese that arrived in Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek in 1949) constitute over 95% of the population. They have also been a politically, culturally and economically dominant majority vis-à-vis the non-Han indigenous Taiwanese peoples.

{{Main|Overseas Chinese#Southeast Asia}}

Nearly 30 to 40 million people of Han Chinese descent live in Southeast Asia.{{Cite journal |last=Han |first=Enze |date=28 December 2017 |title=Bifurcated Homeland and Diaspora Politics in China and Taiwan towards the Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia |department=Politics and Public Administration |journal=Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies |location=Hong Kong |publisher=Routledge |publication-date=28 December 2017 |volume=45 |issue=1 |page=582 |doi=10.1080/1369183X.2017.1409172|doi-access=free}} According to a population genetic study, Singapore is "the country with the biggest proportion of Han Chinese" in Southeast Asia.{{cite thesis |last=Yim |first=Onn Siong |date=2005 |title=Y chromosome diversity in Singaporean Han Chinese population subgroups |type=Master |publisher=National University of Singapore |url=http://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/27767 |access-date=26 May 2016 |archive-date=8 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308150848/https://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/27767 |url-status=live }} Singapore is the only nation in the world where Overseas Chinese constitute a majority of the population and remain the country's cultural, economic and politically dominant arbiters vis-à-vis their non-Han minority counterparts.{{cite book|last=Vatikiotis|first=Michael|title=Entrerepeeneurs|date=12 February 1998|publisher=Far Eastern Economic Review|location=Bangkok|url=http://www.chaihah.co.th/docs/Far%20Eastern%20Economic%20Review%20260698.pdf|access-date=26 July 2019|archive-date=16 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170816064358/http://www.chaihah.co.th/docs/Far%20Eastern%20Economic%20Review%20260698.pdf|url-status=live}} Up until the past few decades, overseas Han communities originated predominantly from areas in Eastern and Southeastern China (mainly from the provinces of Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan, and to a lesser extent, Guangxi, Yunnan and Zhejiang).

{{Main|Overseas Chinese}}

There are 60 million Overseas Chinese people worldwide.{{Cite web |year=2021 |orig-date=December 2, 2021 |title=Chinese education companies scramble to teach Overseas Children to learn Chinese language |url=https://edtechchina.medium.com/chinese-education-companies-scramble-to-teach-overseas-children-to-learn-chinese-language-c2803cde94c9 |publisher=GETChina Insights |access-date=15 February 2024 |archive-date=15 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240215004112/https://edtechchina.medium.com/chinese-education-companies-scramble-to-teach-overseas-children-to-learn-chinese-language-c2803cde94c9 |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Zhuang |first=Guotu |year=2021 |title=The Overseas Chinese: A Long History |url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379264_eng |publisher=UNESDOC |page=24 |access-date=15 February 2024 |archive-date=15 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240215003650/https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379264_eng |url-status=live }}{{cite journal |last1=Suryadinata |first1=Leo |title=Blurring the Distinction between huaqiao and huaren: China's Changing Policy towards the Chinese Overseas |journal=Southeast Asian Affairs |date=2017 |volume=2017 |issue=1 |pages=101–113 |doi=10.1355/aa17-1f |id={{Project MUSE|658015}} |jstor=26492596 }} Overseas Han Chinese have settled in numerous countries across the globe, particularly within the Western World where nearly 4 million people of Han Chinese descent live in the United States (about 1.5% of the population),{{Cite web |title=American FactFinder - Results |url=https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_17_1YR_B02018&prodType=table |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190411173518/https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_17_1YR_B02018&prodType=table |archive-date=11 April 2019 |access-date=16 September 2018 |publisher=U.S. Census Bureau}} over 1 million in Australia (5.6%){{failed verification|date=January 2022}} and about 1.5 million in Canada (5.1%),{{Cite web |date=25 October 2017 |title=Immigration and Ethnocultural Diversity Highlight Tables |url=http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/hlt-fst/imm/Table.cfm?Lang=E&T=31&Geo=01&SO=4D |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171027195802/http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/hlt-fst/imm/Table.cfm?Lang=E&T=31&Geo=01&SO=4D |archive-date=27 October 2017 |access-date=20 February 2020 |website=statcan.gc.ca}}{{Cite web |date=8 May 2013 |title=Immigration and Ethnocultural Diversity in Canada |url=http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/as-sa/99-010-x/99-010-x2011001-eng.cfm#a4 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211103015229/https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/as-sa/99-010-x/99-010-x2011001-eng.cfm#a4 |archive-date=3 November 2021 |access-date=20 February 2020 |website=statcan.gc.ca}}{{failed verification|date=January 2022}} nearly 231,000 in New Zealand (4.9%),{{cite web |url=https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/2018-census-totals-by-topic-national-highlights |title=2018 Census totals by topic – national highlights | Stats NZ |website=Stats.govt.nz |access-date=2020-02-20 |archive-date=23 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190923102431/https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/2018-census-totals-by-topic-national-highlights |url-status=live}}{{failed verification|date=January 2022}} and as many as 750,000 in Sub-Saharan Africa.[http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?id=690 China and Africa: Stronger Economic Ties Mean More Migration] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140129114909/http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?id=690 |date=29 January 2014}}, By Malia Politzer, Migration Information Source, August 2008.

{{Main|History of China}}

The Han Chinese have a rich history that spans thousands of years, with their historical roots dating back to the days of ancient China. Throughout Han history, China has been governed by dynasties, with periods during which it has seen cycles of expansion, contraction, unity, and fragmentation. Due to the overwhelming numerical and cultural dominance of Han culture in China, most of the written history of China can be read as "a history of the Han Chinese," hinted and tinged with only passing references to its ethnic non-Han minority counterparts.{{cite book|first=John A.G|last=Roberts|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2001|title=A History of China|page=5}}

{{Main|Huaxia|Peopling of China|Yanhuang}}

{{multiple image

| align = right

| total_width = 275

| perrow = 2

| footer = Han Chinese refer to themselves as "Descendants of Yan and Huang"

| image2 = Xu Jetian - Shennong.jpg

| alt2 = Yan Emperor

| image1 = Portraits of Famous Men - Yellow Emperor (Huangdi).jpg

| alt1 = Yellow Emperor

}}

The prehistory of the Han Chinese is closely intertwined with both archaeology, biology, historical textual records, and mythology. The ethnic stock to which the Han Chinese originally trace their ancestry from were confederations of late Neolithic and early Bronze Age agricultural tribes known as the Huaxia that lived along the Guanzhong and Yellow River basins in northern China.{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20083309 |title=A Point Of View: How China sees a multicultural world |last=Jacques |first=Martin |date=26 October 2012 |website=BBC News |access-date=21 July 2018 |archive-date=23 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180723222617/https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20083309 |url-status=live }}{{Cite book |title=Ethnic Groups of North, East, and Central Asia: An Encyclopedia |last=Minahan |first=James |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-61069-017-1 |publication-date=10 February 2014 |page=90}}{{Cite book |title=Interpreters in Early Imperial China |last= Lung |first=Rachel |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing |year=2011 |isbn=978-90-272-2444-6 |page=5}}{{Cite book |title=An Introduction to Chinese History and Culture |last=Zhang |first=Qizhi |publisher=Springer |year=2016 |isbn=978-3-662-51507-5 |page=26}}{{Cite book |title=An Introduction to the Chinese Economy: The Driving Forces Behind Modern Day China |last= Guo |first= Rongxing |publisher=Wiley |year= 2016 |isbn=978-3-319-32305-3 |pages=66–67}}{{cite journal |doi=10.1177/0022002795039003004 |title=War and Politics in Ancient China, 2700 B.C. To 722 B.C.: Measurement and Comparative Analysis |year=1995 |last1=Cioffi-Revilla |first1=C. |last2=Lai |first2=D. |journal=Journal of Conflict Resolution |volume=39 |issue=3 |pages=467–94 }}{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pCiNqFj3MQsC&pg=PA253|isbn=978-1-438-11913-7|last1=West|first1=Barbara A.|year=2009| publisher=Infobase |access-date=29 October 2015|archive-date=14 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414163029/https://books.google.com/books?id=pCiNqFj3MQsC&pg=PA253|url-status=live}}{{excessive citations inline|date=July 2024}} In addition, numerous ethnic groups were assimilated and absorbed by the Han Chinese at various points in China's history.{{cite web |url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/CHIN-01-100114.html| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140110131435/http://atimes.com/atimes/China/CHIN-01-100114.html |url-status=unfit |archive-date=10 January 2014 |title=Common traits bind Jews and Chinese |website=Asia Times |date=10 January 2014 |access-date=23 September 2015}} Like many modern ethnic groups, the ethnogenesis of Han Chinese was a lengthy process that involved the expansion of the successive Chinese dynasties and their assimilation of various non-Han ethnic groups.{{Cite book |title=Becoming Chinese American: A History of Communities and Institutions |last1=Him |first1=Mark Lai |last2=Hsu |first2= Madeline |author2-link=Madeline Y. Hsu|publisher=AltaMira |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-759-10458-7 |page=8}}{{Cite book |title=A Short History of China and Southeast Asia: Tribute, Trade and Influence |last=Stuart-Fox |first=Martin |publisher=Allen & Unwin |year=2003 |publication-date=1 November 2003 |page=21}}{{Cite book |title= Modern East Asia: An Introductory History |last=Miller |first=David |publisher= Routledge |year=2007 |isbn= 978-0-765-61823-8 |page=7}}{{cite journal|title=Pinghua population as an exception of Han Chinese's coherent genetic structure|journal=Journal of Human Genetics|volume=53|issue=4|pages=303–313|year=2008|doi=10.1007/s10038-008-0250-x|pmid = 18270655|last1=Gan|first1=Rui-Jing|last2=Pan|first2=Shang-Ling|last3=Mustavich|first3=Laura F.|last4=Qin|first4=Zhen-Dong|last5=Cai|first5=Xiao-Yun|last6=Qian|first6=Ji|last7=Liu|first7=Cheng-Wu|last8=Peng|first8=Jun-Hua|last9=Li|first9=Shi-Lin|last10=Xu|first10=Jie-Shun|last11=Jin|first11=Li|last12=Li|first12=Hui|doi-access=free}}

File:A-Tomb of Emperor Huangdi in Shaanxi.jpg

During the Western Zhou and Han dynasties, Han Chinese writers established genealogical lineages by drawing from legendary materials originating from the Shang dynasty,{{citation|last=Allan|first=Sarah|title=The Shape of the Turtle|year=1991|publisher=State University of New York Press|location=Albany|isbn=978-0-791-40460-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QlEZd4x9LUAC&q=%22shape+of+the+turtle|access-date=5 October 2020|archive-date=14 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211214010949/https://books.google.com/books?id=QlEZd4x9LUAC&q=%22shape+of+the+turtle|url-status=live}} while the Han dynasty historian Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian places the reign of the Yellow Emperor, the legendary leader of Youxiong tribes ({{lang|zh|有熊氏}}), at the beginning of Chinese history. The Yellow Emperor is traditionally credited to have united with the neighbouring Shennong tribes after defeating their leader, the Yan Emperor, at the Battle of Banquan. The newly merged Yanhuang tribes then combined forces to defeat their common enemy from the east, Chiyou of the Jiuli ({{lang|zh|九黎}}) tribes, at the Battle of Zhuolu and established their cultural dominance in the Central Plain region. To this day, modern Han Chinese refer themselves as "Descendants of Yan and Huang".

Although study of this period of history is complicated by the absence of contemporary records, the discovery of archaeological sites has enabled a succession of Neolithic cultures to be identified along the Yellow River. Along the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River were the Cishan culture ({{circa|6500–5000 BCE}}), the Yangshao culture ({{circa|5000–3000 BCE}}), the Longshan culture ({{circa|3000–2000 BCE}}) and the Erlitou culture ({{circa|1900–1500 BCE}}). These cultures are believed to be related to the origins of the Sino-Tibetan languages and later the Sinitic languages.{{cite journal | first1 = Laurent | last1 = Sagart | last2 = Jacques |first2 = Guillaume | last3= Lai|first3 = Yunfan | last4=Ryder| first4= Robin | last5= Thouzeau| first5= Valentin | last6= Greenhill | first6= Simon J. | last7=List|first7 = Johann-Mattis|year=2019 | title =Dated language phylogenies shed light on the ancestry of Sino-Tibetan | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=116|issue= 21 | doi=10.1073/pnas.1817972116| pmid = 31061123 | pmc = 6534992 | doi-access = free | bibcode = 2019PNAS..11610317S |pages=10319–10320}}{{cite journal |last1=Zhang |first1=Menghan |last2=Yan |first2=Shi |last3=Pan |first3=Wuyun | author-link3=Pan Wuyun |last4=Jin |first4=Li |title=Phylogenetic evidence for Sino-Tibetan origin in northern China in the Late Neolithic |journal=Nature |date=24 April 2019 |volume=569 |issue=7754 |pages=112–115 |doi=10.1038/s41586-019-1153-z|pmid=31019300 |bibcode=2019Natur.569..112Z }}{{cite journal |last1=Bradley |first1=David |author-link1=David Bradley (linguist) |title=Subgrouping of the Sino-Tibetan languages |journal=10th International Conference on Evolutionary Linguistics, Nanjing University |date=27–28 October 2018}}{{cite journal |last1=LaPolla |first1=Randy |author-link1=Randy LaPolla |title=The origin and spread of the Sino-Tibetan language family |journal=Nature |date=2019 |volume=569 |issue=7754 |pages=45–47 |doi=10.1038/d41586-019-01214-6 |pmid=31036967 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2019Natur.569...45L }}{{sfnp|Sagart|Jacques|Lai|Ryder|2019|pp=10319–10320}} They were the foundation for the formation of Old Chinese and the founding of the Shang dynasty, China's first confirmed dynasty.

File:Neolithic pottery bowl with legs, Cishan culture, Hebei, 1977.JPG|Cishan culture pottery (6000–5500 BC)

File:Yangshao Culture Pottery 28.jpg|Yangshao culture pottery (5000–3000 BC)

File:Neolithic Longshan Culture Pottery 01.jpg|Longshan culture pottery (3200–2000 BC)

{{Main|Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors}}

Early ancient Chinese history is largely legendary, consisting of mythical tales intertwined with sporadic annals written centuries to millennia later. Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian recorded a period following the Battle of Zhuolu, during the reign of successive generations of confederate overlords ({{lang-zh|t=共主}}) known as the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors (c. 2852–2070 BCE), who, allegedly, were elected to power among the tribes.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}} This is a period for which scant reliable archaeological evidence exists – these sovereigns are largely regarded as cultural heroes.

{{Main|Xia dynasty}}

The first dynasty to be described in Chinese historical records is the Xia dynasty (c. 2070–1600 BCE), established by Yu the Great after Emperor Shun abdicated leadership to reward Yu's work in taming the Great Flood. Yu's son, Qi, managed to not only install himself as the next ruler, but also dictated his sons as heirs by default, making the Xia dynasty the first in recorded history where genealogical succession was the norm. The civilizational prosperity of the Xia dynasty at this time is thought to have given rise to the name "Huaxia" ({{lang-zh|s=华夏|t=華夏|p=Huá Xià}}, "the magnificent Xia"), a term that was used ubiquitously throughout history to define the Chinese nation.{{Cite book |title=An Introduction to the Chinese Economy: The Driving Forces Behind Modern Day China |last= Guo |first= Rongxing |publisher= Wiley |year= 2010 |isbn= 978-0-470-82604-1 |page=10}}

Conclusive archaeological evidence predating the 16th century BCE is, however, rarely available. Recent efforts of the Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project drew the connection between the Erlitou culture and the Xia dynasty, but scholars could not reach a consensus regarding the reliability of such history.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

{{Main|Shang dynasty}}

The Xia dynasty was overthrown after the Battle of Mingtiao, around 1600 BCE, by Cheng Tang, who established the Shang dynasty ({{Circa|1600}}–1046 BCE). The earliest archaeological examples of Chinese writing date back to this period – from characters inscribed on oracle bones used for divination – but the well-developed characters hint at a much earlier origin of writing in China.

During the Shang dynasty, people of the Wu area in the Yangtze River Delta were considered a different tribe, and described as being scantily dressed, tattooed and speaking a distinct language. Later, Taibo, elder uncle of Ji Chang – on realising that his younger brother, Jili, was wiser and deserved to inherit the throne – fled to Wu{{cite web|url=http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Zhou/rulers-wu.html|title=The Feudal State of Wu 吳 (www.chinaknowledge.de)|first=Ulrich|last=Theobald|website=Chinaknowledge.de|access-date=12 December 2017|archive-date=8 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180108110807/http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Zhou/rulers-wu.html|url-status=live}} and settled there. Three generations later, King Wu of the Zhou dynasty defeated King Zhou (the last Shang king), and enfeoffed the descendants of Taibo in Wu – mirroring the later history of Nanyue, where a Chinese king and his soldiers ruled a non-Han population and mixed with locals, who were sinicized over time.

{{Main|Zhou dynasty}}

After the Battle of Muye, the Shang dynasty was overthrown by Zhou (led by Ji Fa), which had emerged as a western state along the Wei River in the 2nd millennium BCE. The Zhou dynasty shared the language and culture of the Shang people, and extended their reach to encompass much of the area north of the Yangtze River.{{cite web|title= China The Zhou Period|url= http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+cn0015)|website= Lcweb2.loc.gov|access-date= 12 December 2017|archive-date= 21 December 2016|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161221082054/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd%2Fcstdy%3A%40field%28DOCID+cn0015%29|url-status= live}} Through conquest and colonization, much of this area came under the influence of sinicization and this culture extended south. However, the power of the Zhou kings fragmented not long afterwards, and many autonomous vassal states emerged. This dynasty is traditionally divided into two eras – the Western Zhou (1046–771 BCE) and the Eastern Zhou (770–256 BCE) – with the latter further divided into the Spring and Autumn (770–476 BCE) and the Warring States (476–221 BCE) periods. It was a period of significant cultural and philosophical diversification (known as the Hundred Schools of Thought) and Confucianism, Taoism and Legalism are among the most important surviving philosophies from this era.{{Citation needed|date=March 2014}}

{{Main|Qin dynasty}}

The chaotic Warring States period of the Eastern Zhou dynasty came to an end with the unification of China by the western state of Qin after its conquest of all other rival states{{when|date=February 2015}} under King Ying Zheng. King Zheng then gave himself a new title "First Emperor of Qin" ({{lang-zh|c=秦始皇帝|p=Qín Shǐ Huángdì}}), setting the precedent for the next two millennia. To consolidate administrative control over the newly conquered parts of the country, the First Emperor decreed a nationwide standardization of currency, writing scripts and measurement units, to unify the country economically and culturally. He also ordered large-scale infrastructure projects such as the Great Wall, the Lingqu Canal and the Qin road system to militarily fortify the frontiers. In effect, he established a centralized bureaucratic state to replace the old feudal confederation system of preceding dynasties, making Qin the first imperial dynasty in Chinese history.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

This dynasty, sometimes phonetically spelt as the "Ch'in dynasty", has been proposed in the 17th century by Martino Martini and supported by later scholars such as Paul Pelliot and Berthold Laufer to be the etymological origin of the modern English word "China".{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

{{Main|Han dynasty}}

File:China.Terracotta statues007.jpg, ceramic figurines from the Western Han era]]

The reign of the first imperial dynasty was short-lived. Due to the First Emperor's autocratic rule and his massive labor projects, which fomented rebellion among his population, the Qin dynasty fell into chaos soon after his death. Under the corrupt rule of his son and successor Huhai, the Qin dynasty collapsed a mere three years later. The Han dynasty (206 BC–220 CE) then emerged from the ensuing civil wars and succeeded in establishing a much longer-lasting dynasty. It continued many of the institutions created by the Qin dynasty, but adopted a more moderate rule. Under the Han dynasty, art and culture flourished, while the Han Empire expanded militarily in all directions. Many Chinese scholars such as Ho Ping-ti believe that the concept (ethnogenesis) of Han ethnicity, although being ancient, was formally entrenched in the Han dynasty.{{cite web|url=http://www.claytonbrown.org|title=Clayton D. Brown Research on Chinese History: Ethnology, Archaeology, and Han Identity|website=Claytonbrown.org|access-date=12 December 2017|archive-date=18 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190118075448/http://www.claytonbrown.org/|url-status=live}} The Han dynasty is considered one of the golden ages of Chinese history, with the modern Han Chinese people taking their ethnic name from this dynasty and the Chinese script being referred to as "Han characters".{{sfnp|Schaefer|2008|p=279}}

{{Main|Three Kingdoms|Sixteen Kingdoms|Northern and Southern dynasties|Sui dynasty|Tang dynasty}}

File:China, 742.svg in 742, showing the major provinces of the empire|alt=]]

The fall of the Han dynasty was followed by an age of fragmentation and several centuries of disunity amid warfare among rival kingdoms. There was a brief period of prosperity under the native Han Chinese dynasty known as the Jin (266–420 BC), although protracted struggles within the ruling house of Sima (司馬) sparked off a protracted period of fragmentation, rebellion by immigrant tribes that served as slaves and indentured servants, and extended non-native rule.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

Non-native rule

{{Unreferenced section|date=September 2024}}

File:晋太保建昌公谢安.jpg, who led the Jin dynasty army defeated the Di (one of the Five Barbarians) ruled Former Qin army in the Battle of Feishui was honoured in the Table of Peerless Heroes.]]

During this time, areas of northern China were overrun by various non-Han nomadic peoples, which came to establish kingdoms of their own, the most successful of which was the Northern Wei established by the Xianbei. From this period, the native population of China proper was referred to as Hanren, or the "People of Han" to distinguish them from the nomads from the steppe. Warfare and invasion led to one of the first great migrations of Han populations in history, as they fled south to the Yangzi and beyond, shifting the Chinese demographic center and speeding up sinicization of the far south. At the same time, most of the nomads in northern China came to be sinicized as they ruled over large Chinese populations and adopted elements of their culture and administration. Of note, the Xianbei rulers of Northern Wei ordered a policy of systematic sinicization, adopting Han surnames, institutions, and culture, so the Xianbei became Han Chinese.

Sui and TangFile:Figures in a cortege, tomb of Li Xian, Tang Dynasty.jpgHan Chinese rule resumed during the Sui and Tang dynasties, led by the Han Chinese families of the Yang (杨) and Li (李) surnames respectively. Both the Sui and Tang dynasties are seen as high points of Han Chinese civilization. These dynasties both emphasized their aristocratic Han Chinese pedigree and enforced the restoration of Central Plains culture, even the founders of both dynasties had already intermarried with non-Han or partly-Han women from the Dugu and Yuwen families.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

The Sui (581–618) and Tang (618–907) dynasties saw continuing emigration from the Central Plains to the south-eastern coast of what is now China proper, including the provinces of Fujian, Guangdong, and Hainan. This was especially true in the latter part of the Tang era and the Five Dynasties period that followed; the relative stability of the south coast made it an attractive destination for refugees fleeing continual warfare and turmoil in the north.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

{{Main|Song dynasty|Yuan dynasty|Ming dynasty|Qing dynasty}}

File:南宋 · 斗浆图 Tea Fighting Southern Song dynasty.png

File:史可法像.jpg, the Minister of War of Ming dynasty, was famous for his tenacious defence in Yangzhou against the Manchu (Qing) invasion followed by the Yangzhou massacre commanded by the Manchu army.|350x350px]]

The next few centuries saw successive invasions of Han and non-Han peoples from the north. In 1279, the Mongols conquered all of China, becoming the first non-Han ethnic group to do so, and established the Yuan dynasty. Emigration, seen as disloyal to ancestors and ancestral land, was banned by the Song and Yuan dynasties.{{Cite book|first1 = Pál|last1 = Nyíri|first2 = Igorʹ|last2 = Rostislavovich Savelʹev|title = Globalizing Chinese migration: trends in Europe and Asia|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=77F23y4RrnUC&pg=PA208|publisher = Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|year = 2002|page = 208|isbn = 978-0-7546-1793-8|access-date = 29 October 2015|archive-date = 14 December 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211214010926/https://books.google.com/books?id=77F23y4RrnUC&pg=PA208|url-status = live}}

Zhu Yuanzhang, who had a Han-centered concept of China, and regarded expelling "barbarians" and restoring Han people's China as a mission, established the Ming dynasty in 1368 after the Red Turban Rebellions. During this period, China referred to the Ming Empire and to the Han people living in them, and non-Han communities were separated from China.{{cite journal |last1=Jiang |first1=Yonglin |title=Thinking About the 'Ming China' Anew: The Ethnocultural Space In A Diverse Empire-With Special Reference to the 'Miao Territory' |journal=Journal of Chinese History |date=January 2018 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=27–78 |doi=10.1017/jch.2017.27 }}

Early Manchu rulers treated China as equivalent to both the Ming Empire and to the Han group. In 1644, the Ming capital, Beijing, was captured by Li Zicheng's peasant rebels and the Chongzhen Emperor committed suicide. The Manchus of the Qing dynasty then allied with former Ming general Wu Sangui and seized control of Beijing. Remnant Ming forces led by Koxinga fled to Taiwan and established the Kingdom of Tungning, which eventually capitulated to Qing forces in 1683. Taiwan, previously inhabited mostly by non-Han aborigines, was sinicized during this period via large-scale migration accompanied by assimilation, despite efforts by the Manchus to prevent this, as they found it difficult to maintain control over the island. In 1681, the Kangxi Emperor ordered construction of the Willow Palisade to prevent Han Chinese migration to the three northeastern provinces, which nevertheless had harbored a significant Chinese population for centuries, especially in the southern Liaodong area. The Manchus designated Jilin and Heilongjiang as the Manchu homeland, to which the Manchus could hypothetically escape and regroup if the Qing dynasty fell.{{cite journal |first1=Mark C. |last1=Elliott |date=August 2000 |title=The Limits of Tartary: Manchuria in Imperial and National Geographies |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |volume=59 |issue=3 |pages=603–46 |jstor=2658945 |doi=10.2307/2658945 }} Because of increasing Russian territorial encroachment and annexation of neighboring territory, the Qing later reversed its policy and allowed the consolidation of a demographic Han majority in Northeast China. The Taiping Rebellion erupted in 1850 from the anti-Manchu sentiment of the Han Chinese, which killed at least twenty million people and made it one of the bloodiest conflicts in history.{{cite magazine|author=Ian Buruma|url=https://harpers.org/archive/2022/02/the-great-wall-of-steel-xi-jinping-chinese-nationalism/|title=The Great Wall of Steel|magazine=Harper's Magazine|date=February 2022|access-date=30 March 2024|archive-date=30 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240330054104/https://harpers.org/archive/2022/02/the-great-wall-of-steel-xi-jinping-chinese-nationalism/|url-status=live}} Late Qing revolutionary intellectual Zou Rong famously proclaimed that "China is the China of the Chinese. We compatriots should identify ourselves with the China of the Han Chinese".

{{main|History of the Republic of China|History of the People's Republic of China}}

File:Xh3.jpg, one of the main revolutionaries against the Qing Empire and the founder of the Republic of China]]

The Han nationalist revolutionary Sun Yat-sen made Han Chinese superiority a basic tenet of the Chinese revolution in the early 1900s.{{cite web|url=https://saisobserver.org/2014/04/07/han-chauvinismexceptionalism-the-problem-with-han-chauvinism/|title=Han Chauvinism/Exceptionalism: The Problem with it|work=The SAIS Observer|date=2014-04-07|access-date=30 March 2024|archive-date=30 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240330055844/https://saisobserver.org/2014/04/07/han-chauvinismexceptionalism-the-problem-with-han-chauvinism/|url-status=live}} In Sun's revolutionary philosophical view, Han identity is exclusively possessed by the so-called civilized Hua Xia people who originated from the Central Plains, and were also the former subjects of the Celestial empire and evangelists of Confucianism.{{cite journal |last1=Wu |first1=Weiying |title=Han-Nationalism Throughout the Ages |journal=Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal |date=2023 |issue=2 |pages=148–170 |doi=10.24968/2693-244X.4.2.10 }} Restoring Chinese rule to the Han majority was one of the motivations for supporters of the 1911 Revolution to overthrow the Manchu-led Qing dynasty in 1912, which led to the establishment of the Han-dominated Republic of China.{{cite web|url=https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/19thcpcnationalcongress/2011-07/27/content_29714617.htm|title=Revolution of 1911|date=2011-07-27|work=China Daily}}

Mao Zedong and his People's Republic of China founded in 1949 was critical of Han chauvinism. In the latter half of the 20th century, official policy of communist China marked Han chauvinism as anti-Marxist. Today, the tension between the dominant Han Chinese majority and ethnic minorities remains contentious, as the deterioration in ethnic relations has compounded by China's contemporary ethnic policies in favor of ethnic minorities since its founding. Han chauvinism has been gaining mainstream popularity throughout China since the 2000s, attributed to discontent toward these ethnic policies instituted by the Chinese government.《凭栏观史》第34期：中国到底有没有大汉族主义{{Cite web|url=https://www.dwnews.com/中国/59812518/皇汉史观今天我们如何定义中国|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200113002044/https://www.dwnews.com/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD/59812518/%E7%9A%87%E6%B1%89%E5%8F%B2%E8%A7%82%E4%BB%8A%E5%A4%A9%E6%88%91%E4%BB%AC%E5%A6%82%E4%BD%95%E5%AE%9A%E4%B9%89%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD|url-status=dead|archive-date=13 January 2020|title=皇汉史观今天我们如何定义中国｜多维新闻网｜中国|date=April 26, 2017|website=多维新闻网}} The contemporary dissatisfaction and discord between the dominant Han Chinese mainstream and its non-Han minorities has led to the Chinese government scaling back on preferential treatment for ethnic minorities under the Xi Jinping administration.{{Cite web |last=Mimi Lau |date=2019-12-05 |title=China's ethnic groups face end to affirmative action in education, taxes |url=https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3040577/chinas-ethnic-groups-face-end-affirmative-action-education |access-date=2019-12-10 |website=South China Morning Post |language=en}}

{{Main|Chinese culture}}

Chinese civilization is one of the world's oldest and most complex civilizations, whose culture dates back thousands of years. Overseas Han Chinese maintain cultural affinities to Chinese territories outside of their host locale through ancestor worship and clan associations, which often identify famous figures from Chinese history or myth as ancestors of current members. Such patriarchs include the Yellow Emperor and the Yan Emperor, who according to legend lived thousands of years ago and gave Han people the sobriquet "Descendants of Yan and Huang Emperor" ({{lang|zh-hant|炎黃子孫}}, {{lang|zh-hans|炎黄子孙}}), a phrase which has reverberative connotations in a divisive political climate, as in that of major contentions between China and Taiwan. File:Along the River During the Qingming Festival (detail of original).jpg's painting Along the River During the Qingming Festival captures the daily life of people from the Song dynasty at the capital, Bianjing, today's Kaifeng.]]

The Han Chinese also share a distinct set of cultural practices, traditions, and beliefs that have evolved over centuries. Traditional Han customs, art, dietary habits, literature, religious beliefs, and value systems have not only deeply influenced Han culture itself, but also the cultures of its East Asian neighbors as well.{{Cite book |title=The Penguin History of Modern Vietnam: A History |last= Goscha |first= Christopher |publisher= Allen Lane |year=2016 |isbn= 978-1846143106}}{{cite book | title=The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America | publisher=Penguin Press HC |author1 = Amy Chua |author2 = Jed Rubenfeld | year=2014 |page=122 |isbn=978-1594205460}}{{cite book |title=East Asia: A New History |last=Walker |first=Hugh Dyson |publisher=AuthorHouse |year=2012 |page=2}}{{Cite book |title=China's Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty |last=Lewis |first=Mark Edward |publisher=Belknap Press |year=2012 |isbn= 978-0674064010 |publication-date=April 9, 2012 |page=156}}{{Cite journal |jstor = 20038053|title = The Sinic World in Perspective|journal = Foreign Affairs|volume = 52|issue = 2|pages = 341–348|last1 = Reischauer|first1 = Edwin O.|year = 1974|doi = 10.2307/20038053}}{{Cite book |title=Asia Civilizations: Ancient to 1800 AD |last= Lim |first= SK |publisher=ASIAPAC |isbn=978-9812295941 |page=89|date= 2011-11-01 }}{{cite book |title=Redesigning Asian Business: In the Aftermath of Crisis |last= Richter |first=Frank-Jurgen |publisher=Quorum Books |year=2002 |isbn=978-1567205251 |page=15}}{{cite book |title=The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America |publisher=Penguin Press HC |author1=Amy Chua |author2 = Jed Rubenfeld |year=2014 |page=121 |isbn=978-1594205460 }}{{Cite book |title=East Asia Before the West: Five Centuries of Trade and Tribute |last=Kang |first=David C. |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0231153195 |pages=33–34}}{{Cite book |title=World History: Journeys from Past to Present |last1=Goucher |first1=Candice |last2=Walton |first2=Linda |publisher=Routledge |year=2012 |isbn=978-0415670029 |publication-date=September 11, 2012 |page=232 }}{{cite book|last1=Smolnikov|first1=Sergey|title=Great Power Conduct and Credibility in World Politics|year=2018|publisher=Springer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3LJZDwAAQBAJ&q=pax+sinica+han+dynasty&pg=PA112|isbn=9783319718859|access-date=21 September 2023|archive-date=2 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231002165320/https://books.google.com/books?id=3LJZDwAAQBAJ&q=pax+sinica+han+dynasty&pg=PA112#v=snippet&q=pax%20sinica%20han%20dynasty&f=false|url-status=live}}{{Excessive citations inline|date=September 2024}} Chinese art, Chinese architecture, Chinese cuisine, Chinese dance, Chinese fashion, Chinese festivals, Chinese holidays, Chinese language, Chinese literature, Chinese music, Chinese mythology, Chinese numerology, Chinese philosophy, and Chinese theatre all have undergone thousands of years of development and growth, while numerous Chinese sites, such as the Great Wall and the Terracotta Army, are World Heritage Sites. Since this program was launched in 2001, aspects of Chinese culture have been listed by UNESCO as Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Throughout the history of China, Chinese culture has been heavily influenced by Confucianism. Credited with shaping much of Chinese philosophical thought, Confucianism was the official state philosophical doctrine throughout most of Imperial China's history, institutionalizing values such as filial piety, which implied the performance of certain shared rituals. Thus, villagers lavished on funeral and wedding ceremonies that imitated the Confucian standards of the Emperors. Educational achievement and academic success gained through years of arduous study and mastery of classical Confucian texts was an imperative duty for defending and protecting one's family honor while also providing the primary qualifying basis criterion for entry among ambitious individuals who sought to hold high ranking and influential government positions of distinguished authority, importance, responsibility, and power within the upper echelons of the imperial bureaucracy.

{{cite book

|last= McKnight|first= Brian E.

|title= Village and Bureaucracy in Southern Sung China

|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=SEr8_6LieVMC&pg=PA1

|access-date= 7 February 2013|date= 1983

|publisher= University of Chicago Press

|isbn= 978-0-226-56060-1|page= 1

|quote=The government of imperial China still seems in many ways curiously modern and familiar. Bureaucratically organized, and dominated by a graded civil service led by men selected through competitive examinations, it was both a model for a precursor of the complex administrations of our modern world.

}}

{{cite book|author=Wolfgang Franke|title=The Reform and Abolition of the Traditional Chinese Examination System|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ofvBS7L6slUC&pg=PA69|year=1960|publisher=Harvard Univ Asia Center|isbn=978-0-674-75250-4|pages=69–71}}{{Cite journal |last=Guo |first=Xiaolin |date=March 17, 2022 |title=The Relationship Between Filial Piety and the Academic Achievement and Subjective Wellbeing of Chinese Early Adolescents: The Moderated Mediation Effect of Educational Expectations |journal=Frontiers in Psychology |volume=13 |pages=2–3|doi=10.3389/fpsyg.2022.747296 |pmid=35369161 |pmc=8970312 |doi-access=free}} But even among successful test takers and degree-holders who did not enter the imperial bureaucracy or who left it opting out to pursue other careers experienced significant improvements with respect to their credibility, pedigree, respectability, social status, and societal influence, resulting in a considerable amelioration with regards to the esteem, glory, honor, prestige, and recognition that they brought and garnered to their families, social circles, and the localities that they hailed from. This elevation in their social standing, respectability, and pedigree was greatly augmented both within their own family circles, as well as among their neighbors and peers compared with the regular levels of recognition that they would have typically enjoyed had they only chosen to remain as mere commoners back in their ancestral regions. Yet even such a dynamic social phenomenon has greatly influenced Han society, leading to the homogenization of the Han populace. Additionally, it has played a crucial role in the formation of a socially cohesive and distinct shared Han culture as well as the overall growth and integration of Han society. This development has been facilitated by various extraneous factors, including periods of rapid urbanization and sprouts of geographically extensive yet interconnected commodity markets.

{{Main|Chinese language}}

{{See also|Standard Chinese}}

Han Chinese speak various forms of the Chinese language that are descended from a common early language; one of the names of the language groups is Hanyu ({{lang-zh|s={{linktext|汉语}}|t={{linktext|漢語}}|links=no}}), literally the "Han language". Similarly, Chinese characters, used to write the language, are called Hanzi ({{lang-zh|s={{linktext|汉字}}|t={{linktext|漢字}}|links=no}}) or "Han characters".

In the Qing era, more than two-thirds of the Han Chinese population used a variant of Mandarin Chinese as their native tongue.{{cite book|title=Kinship, Contract, Community, And State: Anthropological Perspectives on China|first=Myron L.|last=Cohen|date=2005 |section=Late Imperial China and Its Legacies|pages=41–45, 50|publisher=Stanford University Press, 2005|isbn=978-1-5036-2498-6}} However, there was a larger variety of languages in certain areas of Southeast China, "in an arc extending roughly from Shanghai through Guangdong and into Guangxi." Since the Qin dynasty, which standardized the various forms of writing that existed in China, a standard literary Chinese had emerged with vocabulary and grammar that was significantly different from the various forms of spoken Chinese. A simplified and elaborated version of this written standard was used in business contracts, notes for Chinese opera, ritual texts for Chinese folk religion and other daily documents for educated people.

During the early 20th century, written vernacular Chinese based on Mandarin dialects, which had been developing for several centuries, was standardized and adopted to replace literary Chinese. While written vernacular forms of other varieties of Chinese exist, such as written Cantonese, written Chinese based on Mandarin is widely understood by speakers of all varieties and has taken up the dominant position among written forms, formerly occupied by literary Chinese. Thus, although residents of different regions would not necessarily understand each other's speech, they generally share a common written language, Standard Written Chinese and Literary Chinese.{{Citation needed|date = December 2015}}

From the 1950s, Simplified Chinese characters were adopted in China and later in Singapore and Malaysia, while Chinese communities in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and overseas countries continue to use Traditional Chinese characters.{{cite book |last1=Minahan |first1=James B. |title=Ethnic Groups of North, East, and Central Asia: An Encyclopedia |date=2014 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara |page=93 |isbn=9781610690188 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oZCOAwAAQBAJ&dq=Hong+Kong,+Macau,+Taiwan+and+overseas+countries+continue+to+use+Traditional+Chinese+characters&pg=PA93 |access-date=10 Nov 2021 |archive-date=6 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230506103018/https://books.google.com/books?id=oZCOAwAAQBAJ&dq=Hong+Kong,+Macau,+Taiwan+and+overseas+countries+continue+to+use+Traditional+Chinese+characters&pg=PA93 |url-status=live }} Although significant differences exist between the two character sets, they are largely mutually intelligible.

{{Main|Chinese name|List of common Chinese surnames}}

Through China, the notion of hundred surnames ({{lang|zh|百家姓}}) is a crucial identity point of the Han people.Ebrey, Patricia [http://faculty.washington.edu/stevehar/ANTH470Ebrey.pdf Surnames and Han Chinese Identity] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091122131224/http://faculty.washington.edu/stevehar/ANTH470Ebrey.pdf|date=22 November 2009}}, University of Washington

{{Main|Chinese clothing|Hanfu}}

File:Gu Hongzhong's Night Revels, Detail 1.jpg Chinese painting Night Revels of Han Xizai showing scholars in scholar's robes and musicians dressed in a Hanfu variant, 12th-century remake of a 10th-century original by Gu Hongzhong.]]Han Chinese clothing has been shaped through its dynastic traditions as well as foreign influences.{{Cite book |title=Chinese Clothing: Costumes, Adornments and Culture (Arts of China) |last= Yang |first=Shaorong |publisher= Long River Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-59265-019-4 |page=3}} Han Chinese clothing showcases the traditional fashion sensibilities of Chinese clothing traditions and forms one of the major cultural facets of Chinese civilization.{{Cite book |title=China, Japan, Korea: Culture and Customs |last= Brown |first=John |publisher= Createspace Independent Publishing |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-4196-4893-9 |page=79}} Hanfu comprises all traditional clothing classifications of the Han Chinese with a recorded history of more than three millennia until the end of the Ming dynasty. During the Qing dynasty, Hanfu was mostly replaced by the Manchu style until the dynasty's fall in 1911, yet Han women continued to wear clothing from Ming dynasty. Manchu and Han fashions of women's clothing coexisted during the Qing dynasty.{{Cite book|script-title=zh:中国古代服饰史|last1=Zhou |first1=Xibao |author-mask=Zhou Xibao (周锡保)|publisher=中国戏剧出版社|year=2002|page=449|isbn=978-7-104-00359-5}}{{cite book|author=Shaorong Yang|title=Traditional Chinese Clothing Costumes, Adornments & Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nx5JDiacrH4C&pg=PA7|year=2004|publisher=Long River Press|isbn=978-1-59265-019-4|page=7|quote=Men's clothing in the Qing Dynasty consisted for the most part of long silk gowns and the so-called "Mandarin" jacket, which perhaps achieved their greatest popularity during the latter Kangxi Period to the Yongzheng Period. For women's clothing, Manchu and Han systems of clothing coexisted.|access-date=13 October 2018|archive-date=26 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726001213/https://books.google.com/books?id=nx5JDiacrH4C&pg=PA7|url-status=live}} Moreover, neither Taoist priests nor Buddhist monks were required to wear the queue by the Qing; they continued to wear their traditional hairstyles, completely shaved heads for Buddhist monks, and long hair in the traditional Chinese topknot for Taoist priests.{{cite book|author=Edward J.M. Rhoads|title=Manchus and Han: Ethnic Relations and Political Power in Late Qing and Early Republican China, 1861–1928|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QiM2pF5PDR8C&pg=PA60|year=2000|publisher=University of Washington Press|isbn=978-0-295-98040-9|page=60}}{{cite news |author=Gerolamo Emilio Gerini|title=Chŭlăkantamangala: Or, The Tonsure Ceremony as Performed in Siam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vstMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA11|year=1895|newspaper=The Bangkok Times|pages=11–|access-date=13 October 2018|archive-date=10 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170110112359/https://books.google.com/books?id=vstMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA11|url-status=live}} During the Republic of China period, fashion styles and forms of traditional Qing costumes gradually changed, influenced by fashion sensibilities from the Western World resulting modern Han Chinese wearing Western style clothing as a part of everyday dress.Mei Hua, Chinese Clothing, Cambridge University Press, 2010, pp. 133–34

Han Chinese clothing has continued to play an influential role within the realm of traditional East Asian fashion as both the Japanese Kimono and the Korean Hanbok were influenced by Han Chinese clothing designs.{{Citation |title=Elizabeth LaCouture |journal=Journal of Design History |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages = 300–314 |doi=10.1093/jdh/epw042 |year=2017 |last=Lacouture |first=Elizabeth}}{{Citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DaTpAAAAMAAJ |title=J. Liddell, The story of the kimono, EP Dutton New York, 1989 |isbn=978-0-525-24574-2 |last=Liddell |first=Jill |year=1989 |publisher=E.P. Dutton |access-date=21 May 2020 |archive-date=3 August 2020| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803014911/https://books.google.com/books?id=DaTpAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live}}{{cite book |last=Stevens|first=Rebecca|title=The kimono inspiration: art and art-to-wear in America |publisher=Pomegranate|pages=131–42|year=1996|isbn=978-0-87654-598-0}}{{cite book |last=Dalby |first=Liza |author-link=Liza Dalby |title= Kimono: Fashioning Culture |publisher=University of Washington Press |pages=25–32 |year=2001 |location=Washington |isbn=978-0-295-98155-0}}{{cite encyclopedia|editor1=Annette Lynch|editor2=Mitchell D. Strauss|author=Sandra Lee Evenson|title=Hanfu Chinese robes|encyclopedia=Ethnic Dress in the United States A Cultural Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tiEvBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA135|date=2014|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|isbn=978-0-7591-2150-8|pages=135–36|access-date=14 September 2018|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803020933/https://books.google.com/books?id=tiEvBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA135|url-status=live}}

Han Chinese families throughout China have had certain traditionally prescribed roles, such as the family head ({{lang|zh-Hant|家長}}, jiāzhǎng), who represents the family to the outside world and the family manager ({{lang|zh-Hant|當家}}, dāngjiā), who is in charge of the revenues. Because farmland was commonly bought, sold or mortgaged, families were run like enterprises, with set rules for the allocation ({{lang|zh|分家}}, fēnjiā) of pooled earnings and assets.

Han Chinese houses differ from place to place. In Beijing, the whole family traditionally lived together in a large rectangle-shaped house called a siheyuan. Such houses had four rooms at the front – guest room, kitchen, lavatory and servants' quarters. Across large double doors was a wing for the elderly in the family. This wing consisted of three rooms: a central room where the four tablets – heaven, earth, ancestor and teacher – were worshipped and two rooms attached to the left and right, which were bedrooms for the grandparents. The east wing of the house was inhabited by the eldest son and his family, while the west wing sheltered the second son and his family. Each wing had a veranda; some had a "sunroom" made with surrounding fabric and supported by a wooden or bamboo frame. Every wing was also built around a central courtyard that was used for study, exercise or nature viewing.{{cite conference|author = Montgomery County Public Schools Foreign Language Department|title = Si-he-yuan|pages = 1–8|publisher = Montgomery County Public Schools|date = August 2006|url = http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/|conference = |access-date = 15 April 2007|archive-date = 22 March 2007|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070322214622/http://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/|url-status = live}}

Ancestry and lineage are an important part of Han Chinese cultural practice and self-identity, and there have been strict naming conventions since the time of the Song dynasty that have been preserved until this day. Elaborate and detailed genealogies and family registers are maintained, and most lineage branches of all surname groups will maintain a hall containing the memorial tablets (also known as spirit tablets) of deceased family members in clan halls. Extended family groupings have been very important to the Han Chinese, and there are strict conventions as how one may refer to aunts, uncles, and cousins and the spouses of the same, depending on their birth order as well as whether these blood relatives share the same surname.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

File:Genealogy of Ma Family WDL4661.jpg|Ma (马) family genealogy

File:Spirit tablets in Tainan Confucius Temple 03.jpg|Name tablets or spirit tablets in Tainan, Taiwan

File:Khoo Kongsi Penang Dec 2006 012.jpg|Memorial tablets of the Khoo (許) family in Penang

File:Genealogy and Portraits of the Li Family.jpg|Painting of the ancestors of the Li (李) family

File:Chinese painting Ancestors gallery 19th century.jpg|Painting of ancestors

Ancestral halls and academies, as well as tombs were of great import to the Chinese. Ancestral halls were used for the veneration or commemoration of ancestors and other large family events. Family members preferred to be buried near one another. Academies were also set up to benefit those of the same surname.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

File:Ancestral Shrine at the Imperial Ancestral Temple.JPG|Imperial Ancestral Hall

File:Ming Xiaoling (Emperor Hongwu Tomb) (10150982304).jpg|Ming tombs in Nanjing

File:Chen Clan Academy 3.jpg|Chen (陳) clan academy

File:Zhou Clan Ancestral Hall, Xinzhuang Village, 2017-12-31 05.jpg|Zhou (周) clan ancestral hall, Xinzhuang village

{{Main|Chinese cuisine}}

There is no one specific uniform cuisine of the Han Chinese since the culinary traditions and food consumed varies from Sichuan's famously spicy food to Guangdong's dim sum and fresh seafood.{{Cite web|date=2014-11-18|title=十大经典川菜 你吃过哪些？|url=https://www.aboluowang.com/2014/1118/473944.html|access-date=2020-11-05|website=阿波罗新闻网|language=zh-cn|archive-date=4 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141204001215/https://www.aboluowang.com/2014/1118/473944.html|url-status=live}} Analyses throughout the reaches of northern and southern China have revealed their main staple to be rice (more likely to consumed by southerners) as well as noodles and other wheat-based food items (which are more likely to be eaten by northerners).{{cite journal |last=Eberhard |first=Wolfram |date=December 1965 |title=Chinese Regional Stereotypes |journal=Asian Survey |publisher=University of California Press |volume=5 |issue=12 |pages=596–608 |doi=10.2307/2642652 |jstor=2642652}} During China's Neolithic period, southwestern rice growers transitioned to millet from the northwest, when they could not find a suitable northwestern ecology – which was typically dry and cold – to sustain the generous yields of their staple as well as it did in other areas, such as along the eastern Chinese coast.{{cite book |last1=Sagart |first1=Laurent |chapter=The expansion of Setaria farmers in East Asia: a linguistic and archaeological model |pages=133–157 |doi=10.4324/9780203926789 |title=Past Human Migrations in East Asia |date=2008 |isbn=978-1-134-14963-6 |editor-last1=Sanchez-Mazas |editor-last2=Blench |editor-last3=Ross |editor-last4=Peiros |editor-last5=Lin |editor-first1=Alicia |editor-first2=Roger |editor-first3=Malcolm D. |editor-first4=Ilia |editor-first5=Marie }}

{{Main|Chinese literature}}

File:鲁迅五十三岁生辰.jpg is one of the founding figures of modern Chinese literature.{{cite web|author=Julia Lovell|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/07/books/review/the-big-red-book-of-modern-chinese-literature-edited-by-yunte-huang.html|title='The Big Red Book of Modern Chinese Literature,' Edited by Yunte Huang|work=The New York Times|date=2016-02-05|access-date=28 March 2024|archive-date=28 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240328065423/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/07/books/review/the-big-red-book-of-modern-chinese-literature-edited-by-yunte-huang.html|url-status=live}}]]

File:Dufu.jpg is often considered one of the greatest Chinese poets.{{cite book |last1=Ebrey |first1=Patricia Buckley |title=East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History |last2=Walthall |first2=Anne |last3=Palais |first3=James |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-618-13384-0 |location=Boston |pages=103}}]]

With a rich historical literary heritage spanning over three thousand years, the Han Chinese have continued to push the boundaries that have circumscribed the standards of literary excellence by showcasing an unwaveringly exceptional caliber and extensive wealth of literary accomplishments throughout the ages. The Han Chinese possess a vast catalogue of classical literature that can be traced back as far as three millennia, with a body of literature encompassing significant early works such as the Classic of Poetry, Analects of Confucius, I Ching, Tao Te Ching and the Art of War. Canonical works of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism alongside historical writings, philosophical works, treatises, poetry, drama, and fiction have been revered and immortalized as timeless cultural masterpieces within the vast expanse of Chinese literature. Historically, ambitious individuals who aspired to seek top government positions of distinguished authority, importance, and power were mandated to demonstrate their proficiency in the Confucian classics assessed through rigorous examinations in Imperial China. Such comprehensive examinations were not only employed as the prevailing universal standards to evaluate a candidate's ethical behavior and virtuous conduct, but were also deployed as a measure of academic aptitude that determined a candidate's caliber, credibility, and eligibility for such esteemed roles of great influence and responsibility, extending beyond their prevailing entrance as a gateway into the imperial bureaucracy. Han literature itself has a rich tradition dating back thousands of years, from the earliest recorded dynastic court archives to the mature vernacular fiction novels that arose during the Ming dynasty which were employed as a source of cultural pleasure to entertain the masses of literate Chinese. Some of the most important Han Chinese poets in the pre-modern era were Li Bai, Du Fu and Su Dongpo. The most esteemed and noteworthy novels of great literary significance in Chinese literature, otherwise known as the Four Great Classical Novels are: Dream of the Red Chamber, Water Margin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Journey to the West.

Drawing upon their extensive literary heritage rooted in a historical legacy spanning over three thousand years, the Han Chinese have continued to demonstrate a uniformly high level of literary achievement throughout the modern era as the reputation of contemporary Chinese literature continues to be internationally recognized. Erudite literary scholars who are well-versed in Chinese literature continue to remain highly esteemed in contemporary Chinese society. Liu Cixin's San Ti series won the Hugo Award.{{cite web|url=http://www.thehugoawards.org/2015/08/2014-hugo-award-winners-announced/|title=2015 Hugo Award Winners Announced|last=Kevin|date=23 August 2015|website=The Hugo Awards|access-date=6 August 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150824063329/http://www.thehugoawards.org/2015/08/2014-hugo-award-winners-announced/|archive-date=24 August 2015 }} Gao Xingjian became the first Chinese novelist to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2000. In 2012, the novelist and short story writer Mo Yan also received the Nobel Prize in Literature. In 2015, children's writer Cao Wenxuan was bestowed with the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the first Chinese recipient of the esteemed international children's book prize.{{cite web |url=http://www.ibby.org/1568.0.html |title=HCAA 2016 Winners |access-date=2016-11-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161022044619/http://www.ibby.org/1568.0.html |archive-date=2016-10-22 }}

{{Main|List of Chinese inventions|List of Chinese discoveries}}

File:徐光啟.jpg, was an agronomist, astronomer and mathematician. He wrote Complete Treatise on Agriculture and was one of the main editors of Chongzhen Calendar.]]

The Han Chinese have made significant contributions to various fields in the advancement and progress of human civilization, including business and economy, culture and society, governance, and science and technology, both historically and in the modern era. They have also played a pivotal role in being at the forefront of shaping the evolutionary trajectory of Chinese civilization and significantly influenced the advancement of East Asian civilization in concurrence with the broader region of East Asia as a whole. The invention of paper, printing, the compass and gunpowder are celebrated in Chinese society as the Four Great Inventions.{{Cite book |title=Technology and the City: Systems, Applications and Implications |last=Yigitcanlar |first=Tan |publisher=Routledge |year=2016 |isbn=978-1138826700 |publication-date=May 10, 2016 |page=19}} The innovations of Yi Xing (683–727), a polymathic Buddhist monk, mathematician, and mechanical engineer of the Tang dynasty is acknowledged for applying the earliest-known escapement mechanism to a water-powered celestial globe.Needham, Volume 3, 351.Needham, Volume 4, 470.Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 2: Mechanical Engineering (Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd. 1986) pp. 470–475. The accomplishments and advancements of the Song dynasty polymath Su Song (1020–1101) is recognized for inventing a hydro-mechanical astronomical clock tower in medieval Kaifeng, which employed an early escapement mechanism.Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 445.Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 448.Bodde, 140.Fry, 10. The work of medieval Chinese polymath Shen Kuo (1031–1095) of the Song dynasty theorized that the sun and moon were spherical and wrote of planetary motions such as retrogradation as well as postulating theories for the processes of geological land formation. Medieval Han Chinese astronomers were also among the first peoples to record observations of a cosmic supernova in 1054 AD, the remnants of which would form the Crab Nebula.{{Cite book |title=Let There be Peace - Ascension to Ivisimara |last=O'Doherty |first=Mark |isbn=978-1291208917 |date=November 24, 2012 |page=57 |publisher=Lulu.com}}

In the contemporary era, Han Chinese have continued to contribute to the development and growth of modern science and technology. Among such prominently illustrious names that have been honored, recognized, remembered, and respected for their historical groundbreaking achievements include Nobel Prize laureates Tu Youyou, Steven Chu, Samuel C.C. Ting, Chen Ning Yang, Tsung-Dao Lee, Yuan T. Lee, Daniel C. Tsui, Roger Y. Tsien and Charles K. Kao (known as the "Godfather of Broadband" and "Father of Fiber Optics");{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/master-of-light-awarded-nobel-prize-1798723.html |title='Master of Light' awarded Nobel Prize |work=The Independent |last=Ferguson |first=Ben |date=7 October 2009 |access-date=22 August 2017 |archive-date=7 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210307234016/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/master-of-light-awarded-nobel-prize-1798723.html |url-status=live }} Fields Medalists Terence Tao and Shing-Tung Yau as well as Turing Award winner Andrew Yao. Tsien Hsue-shen was a prominent aerospace engineer who helped to establish NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/technology-obituaries/6630578/Qian-Xuesen.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/technology-obituaries/6630578/Qian-Xuesen.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Qian Xuesen |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=22 November 2009}}{{cbignore}} Chen Jingrun was a noted mathematician recognized for his contributions to number theory, where he demonstrated that any sufficiently large even number can be expressed as the sum of two prime numbers or a prime number and a semiprime, a concept now known as Chen's theorem.{{Cite journal |first=J. R. |last=Chen |year=1973 |title=On the representation of a larger even integer as the sum of a prime and the product of at most two primes |journal=Scientia Sinica |volume=16 |pages=157–176}}

The 1978 Wolf Prize in Physics inaugural recipient and physicist Chien-Shiung Wu, nicknamed the "First Lady of Physics" contributed to the development of the Manhattan Project and radically altered modern physical theory and changed the conventionally accepted view of the structure of the universe.{{cite web |url=http://www.greatwomen.org/women-of-the-hall/search-the-hall-results/details/2/173-Wu |title=Chien-Shiung Wu |publisher=National Women's Hall of Fame |access-date=4 November 2012 |archive-date=22 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140522214806/http://www.greatwomen.org/women-of-the-hall/search-the-hall-results/details/2/173-Wu |url-status=dead}} The geometer Shiing-Shen Chern has been regarded as the "father of modern differential geometry" and has also been recognized as one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th-century. Chern was awarded the 1984 Wolf Prize in mathematics in recognition for his fundamental contributions to the development and growth of differential geometry and topology.{{Cite web |url=http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Chern.html|title=Chern biography: Shiing-shen Chern |first1=J J |last1=O'Connor |first2=E F |last2=Robertson |website=MacTutor History of Mathematics archive|access-date=2017-01-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170505191038/http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Chern.html |archive-date=May 5, 2017}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/12/06_chern.shtml |first1=Robert |last1=Sanders |title=Renowned mathematician Shiing-Shen Chern, who revitalized the study of geometry, has died at 93 in Tianjin, China |date=2004-12-06 |website=Berkeley News |access-date=2017-01-16 |archive-date=8 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608220726/https://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/12/06_chern.shtml |url-status=live }}{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/07/world/asia/shiingshen-chern-93-innovator-in-new-geometry-dies.html|url-access=subscription|title=Shiing-Shen Chern, 93, Innovator in New Geometry, Dies|last=Chang|first=Kenneth|date=2004-12-07|newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2017-01-16|archive-date=25 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725154918/https://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/07/world/asia/shiingshen-chern-93-innovator-in-new-geometry-dies.html|url-status=live}}{{Cite journal |url=http://www.ams.org/notices/199807/chern.pdf|title=Interview with Shiing Shen Chern |journal=Notices of the AMS |volume=45 |issue=7 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240120070054/http://www.ams.org/notices/199807/chern.pdf |archive-date= Jan 20, 2024 }}{{cite journal |last1=Simon |first1=Udo |last2=Tjaden |first2=Ekkehard-H. |last3=Wefelscheid |first3=Heinrich |title=Shiing-Shen Chern's Centenary |journal=Results in Mathematics |date=October 2011 |volume=60 |issue=1–4 |pages=13–51 |doi=10.1007/s00025-011-0196-8 }}{{Cite web|url=http://zalafilms.com/takingthelongviewfilm/synopsis.html|title=Taking the Long View: The Life of Shiing-shen Chern|website=zalafilms.com|access-date=2019-05-08|archive-date=16 December 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221216121956/http://zalafilms.com/takingthelongviewfilm/synopsis.html|url-status=live}}{{Excessive citations inline|date=September 2024}} The botanist Shang Fa Yang was well-noted for his research that unlocked the key to prolonging freshness in fruits and flowers and "for his remarkable contributions to the understanding of the mechanism of biosynthesis, mode of action and applications of the plant hormone, Ethylene."{{Cite web |url=http://www.wolffund.org.il/cat.asp?id=14&cat_title=AGRICULTURE |title=The Wolf Prize in Agriculture |access-date=23 August 2023 |archive-date=5 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305182526/http://www.wolffund.org.il/cat.asp?id=14&cat_title=AGRICULTURE |url-status=live }} The agronomist Yuan Longping, regarded as the "Father of Hybrid Rice" was famous for developing the world's first set of hybrid rice varieties in the 1970s, which was then part of the Green Revolution that marked a major scientific breakthrough within the field of modern agricultural research.{{Cite news|date=2021-05-29|title=Obituary Yuan Longping|url=https://www.economist.com/obituary/2021/05/29/yuan-longping-died-on-may-22nd|newspaper=The Economist|volume=439 Number 9247|pages=86|access-date=23 August 2023|archive-date=24 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624184507/https://www.economist.com/obituary/2021/05/29/yuan-longping-died-on-may-22nd|url-status=live}}{{cite news|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/23/world/asia/yuan-longping-dead.html|title= Yuan Longping, Plant Scientist Who Helped Curb Famine, Dies at 90|newspaper= The New York Times|date= May 23, 2021|access-date= 26 May 2021|last1= Bradsher|first1= Keith|last2= Buckley|first2= Chris|archive-date= 26 May 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210526013958/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/23/world/asia/yuan-longping-dead.html|url-status= live}}{{cite web|year=2004|title=Dr. Monty Jones and Yuan Longping|url=https://www.worldfoodprize.org/en/laureates/20002009_laureates/2004_jones_and_yuan/|access-date=2017-10-24|publisher=World Food Prize|archive-date=25 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200625025623/https://www.worldfoodprize.org/en/laureates/20002009_laureates/2004_jones_and_yuan/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=CCTV-"杂交水稻之父"袁隆平|trans-title="Father of hybrid rice" Yuan Longping|url=http://news.cctv.com/special/C18407//index.shtml|access-date=2017-10-24|publisher=China Central Television|archive-date=9 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200909013119/http://news.cctv.com/special/C18407//index.shtml|url-status=live}} The physical chemist Ching W. Tang, was the inventor of the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and hetero-junction organic photovoltaic cell (OPV) and is widely considered the "Father of Organic Electronics".{{cite journal |doi=10.1557/mrs.2012.125 |title=Energy efficiency with organic electronics: Ching W. Tang revisits his days at Kodak |year=2012 |last1=Forrest |first1=Stephen |journal=MRS Bulletin |volume=37 |issue=6 |pages=552–53|bibcode=2012MRSBu..37..552F |doi-access=free }} Biochemist Chi-Huey Wong is well known for his pioneering research in glycoscience research and developing the first enzymatic method for the large-scale synthesis of oligosaccharides and the first programmable automated synthesis of oligosaccharides. The chemical biologist Chuan He is notable for his work in discovering and deciphering reversible RNA methylation in post-transcriptional gene expression regulation.{{cite journal | vauthors = He C | title = Grand Challenge Commentary: RNA epigenetics? | journal = Nat. Chem. Biol. | volume = 6 | issue = 12 | pages = 863–865 | date = November 2010 | doi = 10.1038/nchembio.482 | pmid = 21079590}} Chuan is also noteworthy for having invented TAB-seq, a biochemical method that can map 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) at base-resolution genome-wide, as well as hmC-Seal, a method that covalently labels 5hmC for its detection and profiling.{{cite journal | vauthors = Yu M, Hon GC, Szulwach KE, Song CX, Zhang L, Kim A, Li XK, Dai Q, Shen Y, Park B, Min JH, Jin P, Ren B, He C | title = Base-resolution analysis of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in the mammalian genome. | journal = Cell | volume = 149 | issue = 6 | pages = 1368–1380 | date = June 2012 | doi = 10.1016/j.cell.2012.04.027 | pmc = 3589129 | pmid=22608086}}{{cite journal | vauthors = Song CX, Szulwach KE, Fu Y, Dai Q, Yi C, Li X, Li Y, Chen CH, Zhang W, Jian X, Wang J, Zhang L, Looney TJ, Zhang B, Godley LA, Hicks LM, Lahn BT, Jin P, He C | title = Selective chemical labeling reveals the genome-wide distribution of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine | journal = Nat. Biotechnol. | volume = 29 | issue = 1 | pages = 68–72 | date = 2011 | doi = 10.1038/nbt.1732 | pmid=21151123 | pmc=3107705}}

Other prominent Han Chinese who have made notable contributions the development and growth of modern science and technology include the medical researcher, physician, and virologist David Ho, who was one of the first scientists to propose that AIDS was caused by a virus, thus subsequently developing combination antiretroviral therapy to combat it. In recognition of his medical contributions, Ho was named Time magazine Person of the Year in 1996.{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19961230,00.html |title=Dr David Ho, Man of the Year |magazine=Time |date=30 December 1996 |access-date=17 October 2012 |archive-date=30 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111230124354/http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19961230,00.html |url-status=dead }} The medical researcher and transplant surgeon Patrick Soon-Shiong is the inventor of the drug Abraxane, which became known for its efficacy against lung, breast, and pancreatic cancer.{{Cite magazine|last=Knapp|first=Alex|date=August 27, 2020|title=The Inside Story Of Biotech's Barnum And His Covid Cures|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2020/08/27/the-inside-story-of-biotechs-barnum-and-his-covid-cures/|access-date=2020-08-27|magazine=Forbes|language=en|archive-date=25 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231125040411/https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2020/08/27/the-inside-story-of-biotechs-barnum-and-his-covid-cures/|url-status=live}} Soon-Shiong is also well known for performing the first whole-pancreas transplant{{cite journal | author = Light, Leti McNeill | date = 2015 | issue = Spring | title = Visions of Progress and Courage [Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong — Medical Visionary Award] | journal = U Magazine | format = print and online | pages = 42f | url = http://magazine.uclahealth.org/workfiles/UMagazine_Spring_2015.pdf | access-date = 2016-11-20 | archive-date = 11 September 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150911073242/http://magazine.uclahealth.org/workfiles/UMagazine_Spring_2015.pdf | url-status = live }}Whole pancreas transplantation began as a part of multi-organ transplants, in the mid-to-late 1960s, at the University of Minnesota. See {{cite journal |author1=Squifflet, J.P. |author2=Gruessner, R.W. |author3=Sutherland, D.E. | date = 2008 | title = The History of Pancreas Transplantation: Past, Present and Future | journal = Acta Chir. Belg. | volume = 108 | issue = 3, May–June | pages = 367–378 |doi=10.1080/00015458.2008.11680243 | quote = The first attempt to cure type 1 diabetes by pancreas transplantation was done at the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis, on December 17, 1966… [This] opened the door to a period, between the mid-[1970s] to mid-[1980s] where only segmental pancreatic grafts were used... In the late [1970s] – early [1980s], three major events… boosted the development of pancreas transplantation… [At] the Spitzingsee meetings, participants had the idea to renew the urinary drainage technique of the exocrine secretion of the pancreatic graft with segmental graft and eventually with whole pancreaticoduodenal transplant. That was clinically achieved during the mid-[1980s] and remained the mainstay technique during the next decade. In parallel, the Swedish group developed the whole pancreas transplantation technique with enteric diversion. It was the onset of the whole pancreas reign. The enthusiasm for the technique was rather moderated in its early phase due to the rapid development of liver transplantation and the need for sharing vascular structures between both organs, liver and pancreas. During the modern era of immunosuppression, the whole pancreas transplantation technique with enteric diversion became the gold standard… [for SPK, PAK, PTA]. | pmid=18710120 }} and he developed and first performed the experimental Type 1 diabetes-treatment known as encapsulated-human-islet transplant, and the "first pig-to-man islet-cell transplant in diabetic patients." The physician and physiologist Thomas Ming Swi Chang is the inventor of the world's first artificial cell made from a permeable plastic sack that would effectively carry hemoglobin around the human circulatory system.[https://www.mcgill.ca/about/history/mcgill-pioneers/chang Thomas Chang, Professor of Physiology | About McGill – McGill University] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170727222720/http://www.mcgill.ca/about/history/mcgill-pioneers/chang |date=27 July 2017 }}. Mcgill.ca. Retrieved on 2012-05-25. Chang is also noteworthy for his development of charcoal-filled cells to treat drug poisoning in addition to the discovery of enzymes carried by artificial cells as a medical tool to correct the faults within some metabolic disorders.[https://www.gg.ca/en/honours/recipients/146-13530 The Governor General of Canada > Honours > Recipients > Thomas Ming Swi Chang] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230906235442/https://www.gg.ca/en/honours/recipients/146-13530 |date=6 September 2023 }}. Gg.ca. Retrieved on 2020-03-03. Min Chueh Chang was the co-inventor of the combined oral contraceptive pill and is known for his pioneering work and significant contributions to the development of in vitro fertilization at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology.{{cite web |title=Min Chueh Chang |publisher=National Academy of Sciences |url=http://www.nap.edu/html/biomems/mchang.html |access-date=15 September 2012 |archive-date=12 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512031801/http://www.nap.edu/html/biomems/mchang.html |url-status=live }}{{cite encyclopedia |title=Chang Min-Chueh |encyclopedia=Britannica Online for Kids |url=http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9319254/Chang-Min-Chueh |access-date=6 January 2013 |archive-date=14 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130514203948/http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9319254/Chang-Min-Chueh |url-status=live }} Biochemist Choh Hao Li discovered human growth hormone (and subsequently used it to treat a form of dwarfism caused by growth hormone deficiency), beta-endorphin (the most powerful of the body's natural painkillers), follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone (the key hormone used in fertility testing, an example is the ovulation home test).{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-12-02-mn-17142-story.html |title=Discovered Human Growth Hormone: Choh Hao Li, 74; Endocrinologist at UC |work=Los Angeles Times |last=Maugh II |first=Thomas |date=2 December 1987 |access-date=26 November 2012 |archive-date=5 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005001756/http://articles.latimes.com/1987-12-02/news/mn-17142_1_human-growth-hormone |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=Choh Hao Li |publisher=National Academy of Sciences |url=http://www.nap.edu/readingroom.php?book=biomems&page=cli.html |access-date=15 September 2012 |archive-date=2 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121002123345/http://www.nap.edu/readingroom.php?book=biomems&page=cli.html |url-status=live }} Joe Hin Tjio was a cytogeneticist renowned as the first person to recognize the normal number of human chromosomes, a breakthrough in karyotype genetics.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/dec/11/guardianobituaries.medicalscience |title=Joe Hin Tjio The man who cracked the chromosome count |work=The Guardian |last=Wright |first=Pearce |date=11 December 2001 |access-date=14 December 2016 |archive-date=25 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170825151411/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/dec/11/guardianobituaries.medicalscience |url-status=live }}{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/07/us/joe-hin-tjio-82-research-biologist-counted-chromosomes.html |title=Joe Hin Tjio, 82; Research Biologist Counted Chromosomes |work=The New York Times |last=Saxon |first=Wolfgang |date=7 December 2001 |access-date=19 February 2017 |archive-date=12 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512193836/http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/07/us/joe-hin-tjio-82-research-biologist-counted-chromosomes.html |url-status=live }} The bio-engineer Yuan-Cheng Fung, was regarded as the "Father of modern biomechanics" for pioneering the application of quantitative and analytical engineering principles to the study of the human body and disease.{{cite web |url=http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=01042007 |title=News from the National Academies |publisher=National Academy of Sciences |date=4 January 2007 |access-date=8 November 2012 |archive-date=12 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512151122/http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=01042007 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://www.nae.edu/Activities/Projects/Awards/RussPrize/RussWinners/page20079101/55231.aspx |title=Dr. Yuan-Cheng 'Bert' Fung |publisher=National Academy of Engineering |year=2007 |access-date=8 November 2012 |archive-date=15 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130615064155/http://www.nae.edu/Activities/Projects/Awards/RussPrize/RussWinners/page20079101/55231.aspx |url-status=live }} China's system of "barefoot doctors" was among the most important inspirations for the World Health Organization conference in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan in 1978, and was hailed as a revolutionary breakthrough in international health ideology emphasizing primary health care and preventive medicine.{{cite journal |last1=Fleck |first1=Fiona |title=Consensus during the Cold War: back to Alma-Ata |journal=Bulletin of the World Health Organization |date=October 2008 |volume=86 |issue=10 |pages=745–746 |id={{Gale|A188738637}} {{ProQuest|229653110}} |doi=10.2471/blt.08.031008 |pmid=18949208 |pmc=2649520 }}{{cite journal |last1=Weiyuan |first1=Cui |title=China's village doctors take great strides. |journal=Bulletin of the World Health Organization |date=December 2008 |volume=86 |issue=12 |pages=914–915 |id={{Gale|A19230921}} {{ProQuest|229652120}} |doi=10.2471/blt.08.021208 |pmid=19142288 |pmc=2649581 }}

{{Main|Chinese folk religion|Three teachings|Chinese folk religion in Southeast Asia|Religion in China}}

File:Confucius_Laozi_Buddha.jpg handing over an infant Gautama Buddha to an elderly Laozi]]

Confucianism, Daoism, and Chinese Buddhism, as well as other various traditional homegrown Chinese philosophies, have influenced not only Han Chinese culture, but also the neighboring cultures in East Asia. Chinese spiritual culture has been long characterized by religious pluralism and Chinese folk religion has always maintained a profound influence within the confines of Chinese civilization both historically and in the modern era. Indigenous Confucianism and Taoism share aspects of being a philosophy or a religion and neither demand exclusive adherence, resulting in a culture of tolerance and syncretism, where multiple religions or belief systems are often practiced in conjunction with local customs and traditions. Han culture has for long been influenced by Mahayana Buddhism, while in recent centuries Christianity has also gained a foothold among the population.{{Cite news|last=Anderlini|first=Jamil|date=7 November 2014|title=The rise of Christianity in China|url=https://www.ft.com/content/a6d2a690-6545-11e4-91b1-00144feabdc0|access-date=4 January 2021|website=www.ft.com|language=en-GB|archive-date=15 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201215031743/https://www.ft.com/content/a6d2a690-6545-11e4-91b1-00144feabdc0|url-status=live}}

Chinese folk religion is a set of worship traditions of the ethnic deities of the Han people. It involves the worship of various extraordinary figures in Chinese mythology and history, heroic personnel such as Guan Yu and Qu Yuan, mythological creatures such as the Chinese dragon or family, clan and national ancestors. These practices vary from region to region and do not characterize an organized religion, though many traditional Chinese holidays such as the Duanwu (or Dragon Boat) Festival, Qingming Festival, Zhongyuan Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival come from the most popular of these traditions.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

Taoism, another indigenous Han philosophy and religion, is also widely practiced by the Han in both its folk forms and as an organized religion with its traditions having been a source of vestigial perennial influence on Chinese art, poetry, philosophy, music, medicine, astronomy, Neidan and alchemy, dietary habits, Neijia and other martial arts and architecture. Taoism was the state religion during the Han and Tang eras where it also often enjoyed state patronage under subsequent emperors and successive ruling dynasties.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

Confucianism, although sometimes described as a religion, is another indigenous governing philosophy and moral code with some religious elements like ancestor worship. It continues to be deeply ingrained in modern Chinese culture and was the official state philosophy in ancient China during the Han dynasty and until the fall of imperial China in the 20th century (though it is worth noting that there is a movement in China today advocating that the culture be "re-Confucianized").{{cite journal |last1=Jiang |first1=Yi-Huah | title=Confucian Political Theory in Contemporary China |journal=Annual Review of Political Science |year=2018 |volume=21 |pages=155–173 |doi=10.1146/annurev-polisci-041916-020230 |doi-access=free }}

During the Han dynasty, Confucian ideals were the dominant ideology. Near the end of the dynasty, Buddhism entered China, later gaining popularity. Historically, Buddhism alternated between periods of state tolerance (and even patronage) and persecution. In its original form, certain ideas in Buddhism was not quite compatible with traditional Chinese cultural values, especially with the Confucian sociopolitical elite, as certain Buddhist values conflicted with Chinese sensibilities. However, through centuries of mutual tolerance, assimilation, adaptation, and syncretism, Chinese Buddhism gained a respectable place in the culture. Chinese Buddhism was also influenced by Confucianism and Taoism and exerted influence in turn – such as in the form of Neo-Confucianism and Buddhist influences in Chinese folk religion, such as the cult of Guanyin, who is treated as a Bodhisattva, immortal, goddess or exemplar of Confucian virtue, depending on the tradition. The four largest schools of Han Buddhism (Chan, Jingtu, Tiantai and Huayan) were all developed in China and later spread throughout the Chinese sphere of influence.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

Though Christian influence in China existed as early as the 7th century, Christianity did not gain a significant foothold in China until the establishment of contact with Europeans during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Christian beliefs often had conflicts with traditional Chinese values and customs which eventually resulted in the Chinese Rites controversy and a subsequent reduction in Christian influence in the country. Christianity grew considerably following the First Opium War, after which foreign missionaries in China enjoyed the protection of the Western powers and engaged in widespread proselytizing.{{cite book|first = Alvyn|last = Austin|year = 2007|title = China's Millions: The China Inland Mission and Late Qing Society|publisher = Eerdmans|location = Grand Rapids, Michigan|isbn =978-0-8028-2975-7}}

The People's Republic of China government defined Chinese-speaking Muslims as a separate ethnic group, the "Hui People". This was opposed by the Republic of China government and Muslim celebrities such as Bai Chongxi, the founder of the Chinese Muslim Association. Han Chinese Muslims were categorised as "inland nationals with special living customs" under the Republic of China government.Muslim Chinese : ethnic nationalism in the People's Republic. Gladney, Dru C. Cambridge, Mass,1996 Bai Chongxi believed that "Hui" is an alternative name for Islam as a religion in the Chinese language instead of the name for any ethnic group, and that Chinese-speaking Muslims should not be considered as a separate ethnic group apart from other Han Chinese.白崇禧先生访问纪录（下册）第五七四章

{{Main|Genetic history of East Asians|Peopling of China}}

The internal genetic structure of the Han Chinese is consistent with the vast geographical expanse of China and the recorded history of large migratory waves over the past several millennia have engendered the emergence of the diverse Han subgroups displaying slight but discernible physical and physiological differences. Although genetically similar, Han Chinese subgroups exhibit a north–south stratification in their genetics,{{cite journal |last1=Chen |first1=Jieming |last2=Zheng |first2=Houfeng |last3=Bei |first3=Jin-Xin |last4=Sun |first4=Liangdan |last5=Jia |first5=Wei-hua |last6=Li |first6=Tao |last7=Zhang |first7=Furen |last8=Seielstad |first8=Mark |last9=Zeng |first9=Yi-Xin |last10=Zhang |first10=X |last11=Liu |first11=J |display-authors=9 |year=2009 |title=Genetic Structure of the Han Chinese Population Revealed by Genome-wide SNP Variation |journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=85 |issue=6 |pages=775–85 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2009.10.016 |pmc=2790583 |pmid=19944401}}{{cite journal |last1=Zhao |first1=Yong-Bin |last2=Zhang |first2=Ye |last3=Zhang |first3=Quan-Chao |last4=Li |first4=Hong-Jie |last5=Cui |first5=Ying-Qiu |last6=Xu |first6=Zhi |last7=Jin |first7=Li |last8=Zhou |first8=Hui |last9=Zhu |first9=Hong |date=4 May 2015 |editor1-last=Hofreiter |editor1-first=Michael |title=Ancient DNA Reveals That the Genetic Structure of the Northern Han Chinese Was Shaped Prior to 3,000 Years Ago |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=10 |issue=5 |pages=e0125676 |bibcode=2015PLoSO..1025676Z |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0125676 |pmc=4418768 |pmid=25938511 |doi-access=free}}{{cite journal |year=2004 |title=Genetic evidence supports demic diffusion of Han culture |journal=Nature |volume=431 |issue=7006 |pages=302–305 |bibcode=2004Natur.431..302W |doi=10.1038/nature02878 |pmid=15372031 |given1=Bo |surname1=Wen |given2=Hui |surname2=Li |given3=Daru |surname3=Lu |given4=Xiufeng |surname4=Song |given5=Feng |surname5=Zhang |given6=Yungang |surname6=He |given7=Feng |surname7=Li |given8=Yang |surname8=Gao |given9=Xianyun |surname9=Mao |given10=Liang |surname10=Zhang |given11=Ji |surname11=Qian |given12=Jingze |surname12=Tan |given13=Jianzhong |surname13=Jin |given14=Wei |surname14=Huang |given15=Ranjan |surname15=Deka |given16=Bing |surname16=Su |given17=Ranajit |surname17=Chakraborty |given18=Li |surname18=Jin}}{{Cite journal |last1=Gan |first1=Rui-Jing |last2=Pan |first2=Shang-Ling |last3=Mustavich |first3=Laura F. |last4=Qin |first4=Zhen-Dong |last5=Cai |first5=Xiao-Yun |last6=Qian |first6=Ji |last7=Liu |first7=Cheng-Wu |last8=Peng |first8=Jun-Hua |last9=Li |first9=Shi-Lin |last10=Xu |first10=Jie-Shun |last11=Jin |first11=Li |last12=Li |first12=Hui |year=2008 |title=Pinghua population as an exception of Han Chinese's coherent genetic structure |journal=Journal of Human Genetics |volume=53 |issue=4 |pages=303–13 |doi=10.1007/s10038-008-0250-x |pmid=18270655 |doi-access=free}} with centrally placed populations acting as conduits for outlying ones. Despite there being no clear genetic divide between the north and south due to the Han Chinese being a clinal population, many studies simply categorize the Han Chinese into two subgroups out of convenience: northern and southern Han Chinese.{{cite journal |last1=Zhao |first1=Yong-Bin |last2=Zhang |first2=Ye |last3=Zhang |first3=Quan-Chao |last4=Li |first4=Hong-Jie |last5=Cui |first5=Ying-Qiu |last6=Xu |first6=Zhi |last7=Jin |first7=Li |last8=Zhou |first8=Hui |last9=Zhu |first9=Hong |date=2015 |title=Ancient DNA Reveals That the Genetic Structure of the Northern Han Chinese Was Shaped Prior to three-thousand Years Ago |journal=PLoS ONE |volume=10 |issue=5 |page=e0125676 |bibcode=2015PLoSO..1025676Z |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0125676 |pmc=4418768 |pmid=25938511 |doi-access=free}}

Several genetic studies show that both northern and southern Han Chinese share ancestry with Neolithic Chinese populations from the Central Plains, who were an admixture of local northern and southern populations.{{cite journal |last1=Ning |first1=Chao |last2=Li |first2=Tianjiao |last3=Wang |first3=Ke |last4=Zhang |first4=Fan |last5=Li |first5=Tao |last6=Wu |first6=Xiyan |last7=Gao |first7=Shizhu |last8=Zhang |first8=Quanchao |last9=Zhang |first9=Hai |last10=Hudson |first10=Mark J. |last11=Dong |first11=Guanghui |last12=Wu |first12=Sihao |last13=Fang |first13=Yanming |last14=Liu |first14=Chen |last15=Feng |first15=Chunyan |last16=Li |first16=Wei |last17=Han |first17=Tao |last18=Li |first18=Ruo |last19=Wei |first19=Jian |last20=Zhu |first20=Yonggang |last21=Zhou |first21=Yawei |last22=Wang |first22=Chuan-Chao |last23=Fan |first23=Shengying |last24=Xiong |first24=Zenglong |last25=Sun |first25=Zhouyong |last26=Ye |first26=Maolin |last27=Sun |first27=Lei |last28=Wu |first28=Xiaohong |last29=Liang |first29=Fawei |last30=Cao |first30=Yanpeng |last31=Wei |first31=Xingtao |last32=Zhu |first32=Hong |last33=Zhou |first33=Hui |last34=Krause |first34=Johannes |last35=Robbeets |first35=Martine |last36=Jeong |first36=Choongwon |last37=Cui |first37=Yinqiu |title=Ancient genomes from northern China suggest links between subsistence changes and human migration |journal=Nature Communications |date=June 2020 |volume=11 |issue=1 |page=2700 |doi=10.1038/s41467-020-16557-2 |pmid=32483115 |pmc=7264253 }}{{cite journal |last1=Gao |first1=Shizhu |last2=Cui |first2=Yinqiu |title=Ancient genomes reveal the origin and evolutionary history of Chinese populations |journal=Frontiers in Earth Science |date=10 January 2023 |volume=10 |doi=10.3389/feart.2022.1059196 |doi-access=free }}{{cite journal |last1=Wu |first1=Xiyan |last2=Ding |first2=Baoxu |last3=Nie |first3=Linyi |last4=Zhong |first4=Canshuo |last5=Liu |first5=Pengxiang |last6=Liang |first6=Jingteng |last7=Wang |first7=Lin |last8=Gao |first8=Xiangping |last9=Wei |first9=Jiyin |last10=Zhou |first10=Yawei |title=Genomic insights into the complex demographic history and inbreeding phenomena during Zhou Dynasty on the Central Plains of China |journal=Frontiers in Microbiology |date=13 September 2024 |volume=15 |doi=10.3389/fmicb.2024.1471740 |doi-access=free |pmid=39345259 |pmc=11427373 }}{{cite journal |last1=Gao |first1=Xing |title=Explore the ancient roots of the Huaxia people and Chinese civilization |journal=International Journal of Anthropology and Ethnology |date=17 June 2024 |volume=8 |issue=1 |doi=10.1186/s41257-024-00111-9 |doi-access=free }} A 2020 study models both the northern Han Chinese and southern Han Chinese as having Neolithic Yellow River (Sino-Tibetan) and Kra-Dai ancestries, although Kra-Dai ancestry is more common in southern Han.{{cite report |type=Preprint |doi=10.1101/2020.11.08.373225 |title=Genomic Insights into the Demographic History of Southern Chinese |date=2020 |last1=Huang |first1=Xiufeng |last2=Xia |first2=Zi-Yang |last3=Bin |first3=Xiaoyun |last4=He |first4=Guanglin |last5=Guo |first5=Jianxin |last6=Lin |first6=Chaowen |last7=Yin |first7=Lianfei |last8=Zhao |first8=Jing |last9=Ma |first9=Zhuofei |last10=Ma |first10=Fuwei |last11=Li |first11=Yingxiang |last12=Hu |first12=Rong |last13=Wei |first13=Lan-Hai |last14=Wang |first14=Chuan-Chao }} The massive Han sub-groups differ in some of their ancestral components despite a shared Neolithic Yellow River ancestry, reflective of their vast demographic history. They tend to share some maternal ancestry with geographically close minority groups. For example, southern Han show evidence of being admixed with populations of Tai-Kadai and Austronesian ancestry. Southwestern Han show admixture with Hmong-Mien speakers, whilst Northwestern Han have very minor West Eurasian ancestral components, dating 4,500–1,200/1,300 years ago. Northeastern Han have more Yellow River Basin and ancient Northeast Asian ancestry than Southern Han Chinese.{{Cite journal |last1=Zhou |first1=Jingbin |last2=Zhang |first2=Xianpeng |last3=Li |first3=Xin |last4=Sui |first4=Jie |date=2022 |title=Genetic structure and demographic history of Northern Han people in Liaoning Province inferred from genome-wide array data |journal=Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution |volume=10 |doi=10.3389/fevo.2022.1014024 |doi-access=free}} Other studies also show bidirectional gene flow between Hmong-Mien-related and Kra-Dai-related ancestries in southern China.{{cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Jiawen |last2=Wu |first2=Jun |last3=Sun |first3=Qiuxia |last4=Wu |first4=Qian |last5=Li |first5=Youjing |last6=Duan |first6=Shuhan |last7=Yang |first7=Lin |last8=Wu |first8=Wenxin |last9=Wang |first9=Zheng |last10=Liu |first10=Yan |last11=Tang |first11=Renkuan |last12=Yang |first12=Junbao |last13=Wang |first13=Chuanchao |last14=Liu |first14=Chao |last15=Xu |first15=Jianwei |last16=Wang |first16=Mengge |last17=He |first17=Guanglin |title=Extensive genetic admixture between Tai-Kadai-speaking people and their neighbours in the northeastern region of the Yungui Plateau inferred from genome-wide variations |journal=BMC Genomics |date=12 June 2023 |volume=24 |issue=1 |page=317 |doi=10.1186/s12864-023-09412-3 |doi-access=free |pmid=37308851 |pmc=10259048 }}

Variation notwithstanding, Han Chinese subgroups are genetically closer to each other than they each are to their Korean and Yamato neighbors,{{Cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Yuchen |last2=Lu |first2=Dongsheng |last3=Chung |first3=Yeun-Jun |last4=Xu |first4=Shuhua |year=2018 |title=Genetic structure, divergence and admixture of Han Chinese, Japanese and Korean populations |journal=Hereditas |publication-date=6 April 2018 |volume=155 |page=19 |doi=10.1186/s41065-018-0057-5 |pmc=5889524 |pmid=29636655 |doi-access=free}} to whom they are also genetically close in general. The close genetic relationship between the Han across the entirety of China has led to their characterization as having a "coherent genetic structure".

The two notable exceptions to this structure are Pinghua and Tanka people,{{cite journal |author=McFadzean A.J.S., Todd D. |year=1971 |title=Cooley's anaemia among the tanka of South China |journal=Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene |volume=65 |issue=1 |pages=59–62 |doi=10.1016/0035-9203(71)90185-4 |pmid=5092429}} who on their patrilines, bear a closer genetic resemblance to aboriginal peoples, but have Han matrilines. The Tanka are a group of boat-dwellers who speak a Sinitic language and who claim Han ancestry, but who have traditionally faced severe discrimination from the other Southern Han subgroups. Unlike the Guangdong, Fujian and Hainan Han (whose dominant Y-chromosome haplotype is the Han patriline O2-M122), the Tanka have been shown instead to have a predominantly non-Han patriline similar to Daic peoples from Guizhou.{{Cite journal |last1=Luo |first1=Xiao-Qin |last2=Du |first2=Pan-Xin |last3=Wang |first3=Ling-Xiang |last4=Zhou |first4=Bo-Yan |last5=Li |first5=Yu-Chun |last6=Zheng |first6=Hong-Xiang |last7=Wei |first7=Lan-Hai |last8=Liu |first8=Jun-Jian |last9=Sun |first9=Chang |last10=Meng |first10=Hai-Liang |last11=Tan |first11=Jing-Ze |last12=Su |first12=Wen-Jing |last13=Wen |first13=Shao-Qing |last14=Li |first14=Hui |date=2019 |title=Uniparental Genetic Analyses Reveal the Major Origin of Fujian Tanka from Ancient Indigenous Daic Populations |journal=Human Biology |volume=91 |issue=4 |pages=257–277 |doi=10.13110/humanbiology.91.4.05 |pmid=32767896 }}{{Cite journal |last=He |first=Guanglin |date=16 November 2021 |title=The genomic formation of the Tanka people, an isolated "gypsies in the water" in the coastal region of southeast China |journal=Wiley, American Journal of Biological Anthropology}} However, matrilineally, the Tanka are closely clustered with the Hakka Han and Teochew Han, rather than with Austronesian or Austroasiatic populations, thus supporting an admixture hypothesis and validating, even if only partially, their own claims to Han ancestry.File:Han chinese genetic 0.png

The estimated genetic contribution of northern Han to southern Han is substantial in the ancestral patrilineage in addition to a geographic cline that exists for the corresponding matrilineage. These genetic findings align with historical records outlining the continuous and large migratory waves of northern Han Chinese inhabitants settling in southern China, escaping dynastic changes, geopolitical upheavals, instability, warfare and famine.{{cite book |last=Gernet |first=Jacques |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofchinese00gern_0 |title=A History of Chinese Civilization |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-521-49781-7 |edition=2nd}}{{Cite book |last1=Crawford |first1=Dorothy H. |title=Cancer Virus: The story of Epstein-Barr Virus |last2=Rickinson |first2=Alan |last3=Johannessen |first3=Ingolfur |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2014 |publication-date=March 14, 2014 |pages=98}}{{Excessive citations inline|date=September 2024}} The subsequent intermarriages between northern Han migrants and southern aborigines over the past few thousand years gave rise to modern Chinese demographics - a Han Chinese super-majority and minority non-Han Chinese indigenous peoples.

Han Chinese from Fujian and Guangdong show excessive ancestries from Late Neolithic Fujianese sources (35.0–40.3%), which are more significant in modern Ami, Atayal and Kankanaey (66.9–74.3%), and less significant in Han Chinese from Zhejiang (22%), Jiangsu (17%) and Shandong (8%).{{Cite journal |last1=Huang |first1=Xiufeng |last2=Xia |first2=Zi-Yang |last3=Bin |first3=Xiaoyun |last4=He |first4=Guanglin |display-authors=3 |date=2022 |title=Genomic Insights Into the Demographic History of the Southern Chinese |journal=Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution |volume=10 |doi=10.3389/fevo.2022.853391 |doi-access=free}} Ancient population admixture with Ami and Atayal also exists for Han Chinese from Guangdong and Sichuan{{cite journal |last1=Chiang |first1=Charleston W K |last2=Mangul |first2=Serghei |last3=Robles |first3=Christopher |last4=Sankararaman |first4=Sriram |title=A Comprehensive Map of Genetic Variation in the World's Largest Ethnic Group—Han Chinese |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |date=November 2018 |volume=35 |issue=11 |pages=2736–2750 |doi=10.1093/molbev/msy170 |pmid=30169787 |pmc=6693441 }}{{cite journal |last1=Lo |first1=Yun-Hua |last2=Cheng |first2=Hsueh-Chien |last3=Hsiung |first3=Chia-Ni |last4=Yang |first4=Show-Ling |last5=Wang |first5=Han-Yu |last6=Peng |first6=Chia-Wei |last7=Chen |first7=Chun-Yu |last8=Lin |first8=Kung-Ping |last9=Kang |first9=Mei-Ling |last10=Chen |first10=Chien-Hsiun |last11=Chu |first11=Hou-Wei |last12=Lin |first12=Chiao-Feng |last13=Lee |first13=Mei-Hsuan |last14=Liu |first14=Quintin |last15=Satta |first15=Yoko |last16=Lin |first16=Cheng-Jui |last17=Lin |first17=Marie |last18=Chaw |first18=Shu-Miaw |last19=Loo |first19=Jun-Hun |last20=Shen |first20=Chen-Yang |last21=Ko |first21=Wen-Ya |title=Detecting Genetic Ancestry and Adaptation in the Taiwanese Han People |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |date=27 September 2021 |volume=38 |issue=10 |pages=4149–4165 |doi=10.1093/molbev/msaa276 |pmid=33170928 |pmc=8476137 }} and the ancestors of Taiwanese Han.{{cite journal |last1=Lo |first1=Yun-Hua |last2=Cheng |first2=Hsueh-Chien |last3=Hsiung |first3=Chia-Ni |last4=Yang |first4=Show-Ling |last5=Wang |first5=Han-Yu |last6=Peng |first6=Chia-Wei |last7=Chen |first7=Chun-Yu |last8=Lin |first8=Kung-Ping |last9=Kang |first9=Mei-Ling |last10=Chen |first10=Chien-Hsiun |last11=Chu |first11=Hou-Wei |last12=Lin |first12=Chiao-Feng |last13=Lee |first13=Mei-Hsuan |last14=Liu |first14=Quintin |last15=Satta |first15=Yoko |last16=Lin |first16=Cheng-Jui |last17=Lin |first17=Marie |last18=Chaw |first18=Shu-Miaw |last19=Loo |first19=Jun-Hun |last20=Shen |first20=Chen-Yang |last21=Ko |first21=Wen-Ya |title=Detecting Genetic Ancestry and Adaptation in the Taiwanese Han People |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |date=27 September 2021 |volume=38 |issue=10 |pages=4149–4165 |doi=10.1093/molbev/msaa276 |pmid=33170928 |pmc=8476137 }} Overall, Cantonese people represent the southernmost Han sub-group, splitting from northern Han between the Qin and Tang dynasties,{{cite journal |last1=Chen |first1=Jieming |last2=Zheng |first2=Houfeng |last3=Bei |first3=Jin-Xin |last4=Sun |first4=Liangdan |last5=Jia |first5=Wei-hua |last6=Li |first6=Tao |last7=Zhang |first7=Furen |last8=Seielstad |first8=Mark |last9=Zeng |first9=Yi-Xin |last10=Zhang |first10=Xuejun |last11=Liu |first11=Jianjun |title=Genetic Structure of the Han Chinese Population Revealed by Genome-wide SNP Variation |journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics |date=December 2009 |volume=85 |issue=6 |pages=775–785 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2009.10.016 |pmid=19944401 |pmc=2790583 }}{{cite report |type=Preprint |doi=10.1101/2020.07.03.166413 |title=Fine-scale Population Structure and Demographic History of Han Chinese Inferred from Haplotype Network of 111,000 Genomes |date=2020 |last1=Lan |first1=Ao |last2=Kang |first2=Kang |last3=Tang |first3=Senwei |last4=Wu |first4=Xiaoli |last5=Wang |first5=Lizhong |last6=Li |first6=Teng |last7=Weng |first7=Haoyi |last8=Deng |first8=Junjie |last9=Zheng |first9=Qiang |last10=Yao |first10=Xiaotian |last11=Chen |first11=Gang }} although there is evidence of additional admixture with Teochew and Hakka people.{{cite journal |last1=Xiao |first1=Cheng |last2=Yang |first2=Xingyi |last3=Yu |first3=Zhonghao |last4=Wu |first4=Weibin |last5=Wang |first5=Yuan |last6=Xu |first6=Quyi |last7=Chen |first7=Ling |title=Genetic polymorphism and variability in the Guangdong Hakka, Teochew, and Cantonese groups: A comprehensive analysis of 19 X-STRs |journal=Annals of Human Genetics |date=September 2023 |volume=87 |issue=5 |pages=232–240 |doi=10.1111/ahg.12518 |pmid=37337755 }} Other studies suggest that Han Chinese from Fujian and Taiwan are equally as southern.{{Cite journal |last=He |first=Guanglin |last2=Li |first2=Yinxiang |last3=Zou |first3=Xing |last4=Yeh |first4=Hui-Yuan |display-authors=3 |date=2021 |title=The northern gene flow into southeastern East Asians inferred from genome wide array genotyping |url=https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.25.453681v1.full |journal=bioRxiv |quote=Fujian and Taiwan populations were localized at the southmost end of the Han Chinese cline and showed a close relationship with modern Tai-Kadai-speaking populations and ancient southern East Asians (Liangdao, Hanben, Tanshishan, Xitoucun and so on). |via=bioRxiv}} Han Chinese from Guangdong also show affinities with local Kra-Dai and Hmong-Mien groups{{cite journal |last1=Du |first1=Weian |last2=Feng |first2=Chunlei |last3=Yao |first3=Ting |last4=Xiao |first4=Cheng |last5=Huang |first5=Hongyan |last6=Wu |first6=Weibin |last7=Zhu |first7=Linnan |last8=Qiao |first8=Honghua |last9=Liu |first9=Chao |last10=Chen |first10=Ling |title=Genetic variation and forensic efficiency of 30 indels for three ethnic groups in Guangxi: relationships with other populations |journal=PeerJ |date=3 May 2019 |volume=7 |pages=e6861 |doi=10.7717/peerj.6861 |doi-access=free |pmid=31110924 |pmc=6501771 }}{{cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Fei |last2=He |first2=Guanglin |last3=Wang |first3=Zheng |last4=Wang |first4=Mengge |last5=Liu |first5=Jing |last6=Zou |first6=Xing |last7=Wang |first7=Shouyu |last8=Song |first8=Mengyuan |last9=Ye |first9=Ziwei |last10=Xie |first10=Mingkun |last11=Hou |first11=Yiping |title=Population Genetics and Forensic Efficiency of 30 InDel Markers in Four Chinese Ethnic Groups Residing in Sichuan |journal=Forensic Sciences Research |date=3 July 2022 |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=498–502 |doi=10.1080/20961790.2020.1737470 |pmid=36353334 |pmc=9639512 }}{{cite report |type=Preprint |doi=10.1101/2021.06.19.449013 |title=New insights from the combined discrimination of modern/Ancient genome-wide shared alleles and haplotypes: Differentiated demographic history reconstruction of Tai-Kadai and Sinitic people in South China |date=2021 |last1=Wang |first1=Mengge |last2=He |first2=Guanglin |last3=Zou |first3=Xing |last4=Chen |first4=Pengyu |last5=Wang |first5=Zheng |last6=Tang |first6=Renkuan |last7=Yang |first7=Xiaomin |last8=Chen |first8=Jing |last9=Yang |first9=Meiqing |last10=Li |first10=Yingxiang |last11=Liu |first11=Jing |last12=Wang |first12=Fei |last13=Zhao |first13=Jing |last14=Guo |first14=Jianxin |last15=Hu |first15=Rong |last16=Wei |first16=Lan-Hai |last17=Chen |first17=Gang |last18=Yeh |first18=Hui-Yuan |last19=Wang |first19=Chuan-Chao }}{{cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Fei |last2=Song |first2=Feng |last3=Song |first3=Mengyuan |last4=Luo |first4=Haibo |last5=Hou |first5=Yiping |title=Genetic structure and paternal admixture of the modern Chinese Zhuang population based on 37 Y-STRs and 233 Y-SNPs |journal=Forensic Science International: Genetics |date=May 2022 |volume=58 |pages=102681 |doi=10.1016/j.fsigen.2022.102681 |pmid=35263703 }} and cluster with Han Chinese from Guangxi and Hainan, who themselves mixed with the minority peoples of their respective provinces.{{cite journal |last1=Cong |first1=Pei-Kuan |last2=Bai |first2=Wei-Yang |last3=Li |first3=Jin-Chen |last4=Yang |first4=Meng-Yuan |last5=Khederzadeh |first5=Saber |last6=Gai |first6=Si-Rui |last7=Li |first7=Nan |last8=Liu |first8=Yu-Heng |last9=Yu |first9=Shi-Hui |last10=Zhao |first10=Wei-Wei |last11=Liu |first11=Jun-Quan |last12=Sun |first12=Yi |last13=Zhu |first13=Xiao-Wei |last14=Zhao |first14=Pian-Pian |last15=Xia |first15=Jiang-Wei |last16=Guan |first16=Peng-Lin |last17=Qian |first17=Yu |last18=Tao |first18=Jian-Guo |last19=Xu |first19=Lin |last20=Tian |first20=Geng |last21=Wang |first21=Ping-Yu |last22=Xie |first22=Shu-Yang |last23=Qiu |first23=Mo-Chang |last24=Liu |first24=Ke-Qi |last25=Tang |first25=Bei-Sha |last26=Zheng |first26=Hou-Feng |title=Genomic analyses of 10,376 individuals in the Westlake BioBank for Chinese (WBBC) pilot project |journal=Nature Communications |date=26 May 2022 |volume=13 |issue=1 |page=2939 |doi=10.1038/s41467-022-30526-x |pmid=35618720 |pmc=9135724 }}{{cite journal |last1=Zou |first1=Xing |last2=Nie |first2=Qianyun |last3=Li |first3=Wenhui |last4=Chen |first4=Yinyu |last5=Song |first5=Tao |last6=Zhang |first6=Peng |title=Genetic variation and phylogenetic analysis of 23 STR in Chinese Han population from Hainan, Southern China |journal=Medicine |date=31 May 2024 |volume=103 |issue=22 |pages=e38428 |doi=10.1097/MD.0000000000038428 |pmid=39259071 |pmc=11142786 }}{{cite journal |last1=Sun |first1=Qiuxia |last2=Wang |first2=Mengge |last3=Lu |first3=Tao |last4=Duan |first4=Shuhan |last5=Liu |first5=Yan |last6=Chen |first6=Jing |last7=Wang |first7=Zhiyong |last8=Sun |first8=Yuntao |last9=Li |first9=Xiangping |last10=Wang |first10=Shaomei |last11=Lu |first11=Liuyi |last12=Hu |first12=Liping |last13=Yun |first13=Libing |last14=Yang |first14=Junbao |last15=Yan |first15=Jiangwei |last16=Nie |first16=Shengjie |last17=Zhu |first17=Yanfeng |last18=Chen |first18=Gang |last19=Wang |first19=Chuan-Chao |last20=Liu |first20=Chao |last21=He |first21=Guanglin |last22=Tang |first22=Renkuan |title=Differentiated adaptative genetic architecture and language-related demographical history in South China inferred from 619 genomes from 56 populations |journal=BMC Biology |date=6 March 2024 |volume=22 |issue=1 |page=55 |doi=10.1186/s12915-024-01854-9 |doi-access=free |pmid=38448908 |pmc=10918984 }} One study shows that Han Chinese from northern Guangxi have more ancestry related to Austronesian, Kra-Dai and Austroasiatic groups, than those from southern Guangxi.

Typical Y-DNA haplogroups of present-day Han Chinese include Haplogroup O-M95, Haplogroup O-M122, Haplogroup O-M175, C,Haplogroup N-M231 and Haplogroup Q-M120.{{cite journal |last1=Zhao |first1=Yong-Bin |last2=Zhang |first2=Ye |last3=Zhang |first3=Quan-Chao |last4=Li |first4=Hong-Jie |last5=Cui |first5=Ying-Qiu |last6=Xu |first6=Zhi |last7=Jin |first7=Li |last8=Zhou |first8=Hui |last9=Zhu |first9=Hong |date=4 May 2015 |title=Ancient DNA Reveals That the Genetic Structure of the Northern Han Chinese Was Shaped Prior to 3,000 Years Ago |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=10 |issue=5 |pages=e0125676 |bibcode=2015PLoSO..1025676Z |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0125676 |pmc=4418768 |pmid=25938511 |doi-access=free}}

The Y-chromosome haplogroup distribution between Southern Han Chinese and Northern Han Chinese populations and principal core component analysis indicates that almost all modern Han Chinese populations form a tight cluster in their Y chromosome:

• Haplogroups prevalent in non-Han southern natives such as O1b-M110, O2a1-M88 and O3d-M7, which are prevalent in non-Han southern natives, were observed in 4% of Southern Han Chinese and not at all in the Northern Han.{{cite journal |last1=Wen |first1=Bo |last2=Li |first2=Hui |last3=Lu |first3=Daru |last4=Song |first4=Xiufeng |last5=Zhang |first5=Feng |last6=He |first6=Yungang |last7=Li |first7=Feng |last8=Gao |first8=Yang |last9=Mao |first9=Xianyun |last10=Zhang |first10=Liang |last11=Qian |first11=Ji |last12=Tan |first12=Jingze |last13=Jin |first13=Jianzhong |last14=Huang |first14=Wei |last15=Deka |first15=Ranjan |last16=Su |first16=Bing |last17=Chakraborty |first17=Ranajit |last18=Jin |first18=Li |title=Genetic evidence supports demic diffusion of Han culture |journal=Nature |date=September 2004 |volume=431 |issue=7006 |pages=302–305 |bibcode=2004Natur.431..302W |doi=10.1038/nature02878 |pmid=15372031 }}{{cite journal |last1=Xue |first1=Fuzhong |last2=Wang |first2=Yi |last3=Xu |first3=Shuhua |last4=Zhang |first4=Feng |last5=Wen |first5=Bo |last6=Wu |first6=Xuesen |last7=Lu |first7=Ming |last8=Deka |first8=Ranjan |last9=Qian |first9=Ji |last10=Jin |first10=L |display-authors=9 |year=2008 |title=A spatial analysis of genetic structure of human populations in China reveals distinct difference between maternal and paternal lineages |journal=European Journal of Human Genetics |volume=16 |issue=6 |pages=705–17 |doi=10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201998 |pmid=18212820 |doi-access=free}}
• Biological research findings have also demonstrated that the paternal lineages Y-DNA O-M119,{{cite journal |last1=Li |first1=Hui |year=2008 |title=Paternal genetic affinity between western Austronesians and Daic populations |journal=BMC Evolutionary Biology |volume=8 |issue=1 |page=146 |bibcode=2008BMCEE...8..146L |doi=10.1186/1471-2148-8-146 |pmc=2408594 |pmid=18482451 |doi-access=free}} O-P201,{{cite journal |last1=Karafet |first1=Tatiana |last2=Hallmark |first2=B |last3=Cox |first3=M.P. |last4=Sudoyo |first4=H |last5=Downey |first5=S |last6=Lansing |first6=J.S. |last7=Hammer |first7=M.F. |date=August 2010 |title=Major East–West Division Underlies Y Chromosome Stratification across Indonesia |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |volume=27 |issue=8 |pages=1833–44 |doi=10.1093/molbev/msq063 |pmid=20207712 |doi-access=free}} O-P203 and O-M95{{cite book |last1=Karafet |first1=Tatiana |last2=Hagberg |first2=L |last3=Hanson |first3=L. A. |last4=Korhonen |first4=T |last5=Leffler |first5=H |last6=Olling |first6=S |year=1981 |chapter=Balinese Y-chromosome perspective on the peopling of Indonesia: genetic contributions from pre-Neolithic hunter-gatherers, Austronesian farmers, and Indian traders |title=Ciba Foundation Symposium 80 - Adhesion and Microorganism Pathogenicity |series=Novartis Foundation Symposia |volume=80 |pages=161–87 |doi=10.1002/9780470720639.ch11 |pmid=6114819|isbn=978-0-470-72063-9 }} are found in commonly Southern non-Han minorities, less commonly in Southern Han, and even less frequently in Northern Han Chinese.{{cite journal |last1=Yan |first1=Shi |last2=Wang |first2=C.C. |last3=Li |first3=H |last4=Li |first4=S.L. |last5=Jin |first5=L |year=2011 |title=An updated tree of Y-chromosome Haplogroup O and revised phylogenetic positions of mutations P164 and PK4 |journal=European Journal of Human Genetics |volume=19 |issue=9 |pages=1013–15 |doi=10.1038/ejhg.2011.64 |pmc=3179364 |pmid=21505448}}
• Haplogroups O1 and O2 significantly peak in the southeastern coastlines and eastern regions of China respectively, according to one study.{{cite journal |last1=Li |first1=Jienan |last2=Song |first2=Feng |last3=Lang |first3=Min |last4=Xie |first4=Mingkun |title=Comprehensive insights into the genetic background of Chinese populations using Y chromosome markers |journal=Royal Society Open Science |date=September 2023 |volume=10 |issue=9 |doi=10.1098/rsos.230814 |pmid=37736526 |pmc=10509572 |bibcode=2023RSOS...1030814L }}

Patrilineal DNA indicates the northern Han Chinese were the primary contributors to the paternal gene pool of modern southern Han Chinese. The data also indicates that the contribution of southern non-Han aboriginals to the southern Han Chinese genetics is limited. In short, male Han Chinese were the primary drivers of Han Chinese expansion in successive migratory waves from the north into what is now modern southern China as is shown by a greater contribution to the Y-chromosome than the mtDNA from northern to Southern Han.

During the Zhou dynasty, or earlier, peoples with haplogroup Q-M120 also contributed to the ethnogenesis of Han Chinese people. This haplogroup is implied to be spread across in the Eurasian steppe and north Asia since it is found among Cimmerians in Moldova and Bronze Age natives of Khövsgöl. But it is currently near-absent in these regions except for East Asia. In modern China, haplogroup Q-M120 can be found in the northern and eastern regions.{{cite journal |last1=Sun |first1=Na |last2=Ma |first2=Peng-Cheng |last3=Yan |first3=Shi |last4=Wen |first4=Shao-Qing |last5=Sun |first5=Chang |last6=Du |first6=Pan-Xin |last7=Cheng |first7=Hui-Zhen |last8=Deng |first8=Xiao-Hua |last9=Wang |first9=Chuan-Chao |last10=Wei |first10=Lan-Hai |title=Phylogeography of Y-chromosome haplogroup Q1a1a-M120, a paternal lineage connecting populations in Siberia and East Asia |journal=Annals of Human Biology |date=3 April 2019 |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=261–266 |doi=10.1080/03014460.2019.1632930 |pmid=31208219 }}

Matrilineal DNA

MtDNA of Han Chinese increases in diversity as one looks from northern to Southern China, which suggests that the influx of male Han Chinese migrants intermarried with the local female non-Han aborigines after arriving in what is now modern-day Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan and other regions of Southern China. In these populations, the contribution to mtDNA from Han Chinese and indigenous tribes is evenly matched, representing a substantial mtDNA contribution from non-Han groups, collectively known as the Bai Yue or Hundred Yue.

A study by the Chinese Academy of Sciences into the gene frequency data of Han sub-populations and ethnic minorities in China, showed that Han sub-populations in different regions are also genetically quite close to the local ethnic non-Han minorities, meaning that in many cases, the blood of ethnic minorities had mixed into Han genetic substrate through varying degrees of intermarriage, while at the same time, the blood of the Han had also mixed into the genetic substrates of the local ethnic non-Han minorities.{{cite journal |last1=Du |first1=R |last2=Xiao |first2=C |last3=Cavalli-Sforza |first3=LL |year=1997 |title=Genetic distances between Chinese populations calculated on gene frequencies of 38 loci |journal=Science China Life Sciences |volume=40 |issue=6 |pages=613–21 |doi=10.1007/BF02882691 |pmid=18726285 }}

The Hengbei archaeological site in Jiang County, southern Shanxi was part of the suburbs of the capital during the Zhou dynasty. Genetic material from human remains in Hengbei have been used to examine the genetic continuity between ancient and modern Han Chinese.

Comparisons of Y chromosome single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) between modern northern Han Chinese and 3000-year-old Hengbei samples reveal extreme similarity, confirming genetic continuity between ancient Hengbei inhabitants to present-day northern Han Chinese. This shows that the core genetic structure of Northern Han Chinese was established more than three thousand years ago in the Central Plains Area.Reference Populations - Geno 2.0 Next Generation. (2017). The Genographic Project. Retrieved 15 May 2017, from [https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/reference-populations-next-gen/ link.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170207031612/https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/reference-populations-next-gen//|date=7 February 2017}} Additionally, these studies indicate that contemporary northern and southern Han Chinese populations exhibit an almost identical Y-DNA genetic structure, indicating a common paternal descent, corroborating the historical record of Han Chinese migration to the south. However, a study of mitochondrial DNA from Yinxu commoner graves in the Shang dynasty showed similarity with modern northern Han Chinese, but significant differences from southern Han Chinese - indicating admixture on the matriline.{{Cite conference |last1=Zeng |first1=Wen |last2=Li |first2=Jiawei |last3=Yue |first3=Hongbin |last4=Zhou |first4=Hui |last5=Zhu |first5=Hong |year=2013 |title=Poster: Preliminary Research on Hereditary Features of Yinxu Population |url=https://www.academia.edu/5297877 |conference=82nd Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists}}

About 2,000 years ago, between the Warring States period and Eastern Han dynasty, the northeast coastlines of China faced an eastward migration from the Central Plains, shaping the genetic structure of local populations to the present. These populations also have more southern East Asian ancestry compared to their predecessors.{{Cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Baitong |last2=Hao |first2=Daohua |last3=Xu |first3=Yu |last4=Jin |first4=Li |date=2024 |title=Population expansion from central plain to northern coastal China inferred from ancient human genomes |journal=iScience |volume=27 |issue=12 |doi=10.1016/j.isci.2024.111405 |pmid=39697594 |pmc=11652891 }}

The Han Chinese show a close yet distinguishable genetic relationship with other East Asian populations such as the Koreans and Yamato.{{Cite journal |last1=Horai |first1=Satoshi |last2=Murayama |first2=Kumiko |date=1996 |title=mtDNA Polymorphism in East Asian Populations, with Special Reference to the Peopling of Japan |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |publisher=Cell Press |publication-date=1996 |volume=59 |issue=3 |pages=579–590 |pmc=1914908 |pmid=8751859}}{{cite journal |last1=Shi |first1=Cheng-Min |last2=Liu |first2=Qi |last3=Zhao |first3=Shilei |last4=Chen |first4=Hua |title=Ancestry informative SNP panels for discriminating the major East Asian populations: Han Chinese, Japanese and Korean |journal=Annals of Human Genetics |date=September 2019 |volume=83 |issue=5 |pages=348–354 |doi=10.1111/ahg.12320 |pmid=31025319 }}{{Cite journal |last1=Pan |first1=Ziqing |last2=Xu |first2=Shuhua |date=2019 |title=Population genomics of East Asian ethnic groups |journal=Hereditas |location=Berlin |publisher=BioMed Central |publication-date=2020 |volume=157 |issue=49 |page=49 |doi=10.1186/s41065-020-00162-w |pmc=7724877 |pmid=33292737 |doi-access=free}}{{cite journal |last1=Shi |first1=Cheng-Min |last2=Liu |first2=Qi |last3=Zhao |first3=Shilei |last4=Chen |first4=Hua |title=Ancestry informative SNP panels for discriminating the major East Asian populations: Han Chinese, Japanese and Korean |journal=Annals of Human Genetics |date=September 2019 |volume=83 |issue=5 |pages=348–354 |doi=10.1111/ahg.12320 |pmid=31025319 |doi-access=free }}{{cite journal |last1=Siska |first1=Veronika |last2=Jones |first2=Eppie Ruth |last3=Jeon |first3=Sungwon |last4=Bhak |first4=Youngjune |last5=Kim |first5=Hak-Min |last6=Cho |first6=Yun Sung |last7=Kim |first7=Hyunho |last8=Lee |first8=Kyusang |last9=Veselovskaya |first9=Elizaveta |last10=Balueva |first10=Tatiana |last11=Gallego-Llorente |first11=Marcos |last12=Hofreiter |first12=Michael |last13=Bradley |first13=Daniel G. |last14=Eriksson |first14=Anders |last15=Pinhasi |first15=Ron |date=1 February 2017 |title=Genome-wide data from two early Neolithic East Asian individuals dating to 7700 years ago |journal=Science Advances |volume=3 |issue=2 |page=e1601877 |bibcode=2017SciA....3E1877S |doi=10.1126/sciadv.1601877 |pmc=5287702 |pmid=28164156 |last16=Bhak |first16=Jong |last17=Manica |first17=Andrea}}{{cite journal |author1=Wang, Yuchen |author2=Lu Dongsheng |author3=Chung Yeun-Jun |author4=Xu Shuhua |year=2018 |title=Genetic structure, divergence and admixture of Han Chinese, Japanese and Korean populations |journal=Hereditas |volume=155 |page=19 |doi=10.1186/s41065-018-0057-5 |pmc=5889524 |pmid=29636655 |doi-access=free}}{{Excessive citations inline|date=September 2024}} Although the genetic relationship is close, the various Han Chinese subgroups are genetically closer to each other than to their Korean and Yamato counterparts.

Other research suggests a significant overlap between Yamato Japanese and the Northern Han Chinese in particular.{{cite journal |last1=Cao |first1=Yanan |last2=Li |first2=Lin |last3=Xu |first3=Min |display-authors=etal |date=2020 |title=The ChinaMAP analytics of deep whole genome sequences in 10,588 individuals |journal=Cell Research |volume=30 |issue=9 |pages=717–731 |doi=10.1038/s41422-020-0322-9 |pmc=7609296 |pmid=32355288 |doi-access=free}}

{{Notelist|refs=

{{Efn|name=Han people|{{Lang-zh|t=漢族|s=汉族|p=Hànzú|l=Han ethnic group}} or
{{Lang-zh|t=漢人|s=汉人|p=Hànrén|l=Han people}}}}

}}

{{reflist}}

{{Library resources box}}

• {{cite book |title=The Magic Lotus Lantern and Other Tales from the Han Chinese |first=Haiwang |last=Yuan |publisher=Libraries Unlimited |location=Westport, Conn. |year= 2006 |isbn = 978-1-59158-294-6 |oclc = 65820295 }}
• {{cite book |title= Critical Han Studies: The History, Representation, and Identity of China's Majority |first= Thomas Shawn |last=Mullaney |publisher=University of California Press |location= Berkeley, California |year= 2012 |isbn = 978-0984590988 }}
• Joniak-Lüthi, Agnieszka (2015). The Han: China's Diverse Majority. Washington, DC: University of Washington Press. {{ISBN|978-0-295-99467-3}} (hardcover). {{ISBN|978-0295741789}} (paperback: 2017).

• {{Commons category-inline}}

{{Han subgroups}}

{{East Asian topics}}

{{Ethnic groups in China}}

{{Ethnic groups in Taiwan}}

{{Singaporeans}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Ethnic groups officially recognized by China