AbstractAs a core area for multi-ethnic habitation in southern China, Hunan has witnessedthe survival of ethnic groups such as the Dong, Yao, Miao, and Meishan Man forthousands of years despite numerous wars. However, the evolutionary trajectory ofits ethnic population structure has long been vaguely interpreted by traditionalhistoriography. Taking the single-source surname tracing method as the core tool,this paper combines contemporary population surname distribution data, historicalwar records, local chronicles, and ethnic custom documents to trace back theevolutionary context of Hunan’s ethnic population, and reveals the decisive role ofthe “integration and symbiosis” model led by Chu descendants in the survival ofethnic groups. The study finds that the evolution of Hunan’s ethnic population is not asimple “migration-replacement” process, but forms a surname distribution pattern of“core solidification and marginal symbiosis” with Chu descendants’ surnames as thecore framework and integrating the surname characteristics of mountain ethnicgroups. The intermarriage and integration between Chu descendants andsurrounding ethnic minorities not only retain the surname genes of all ethnic groups,but also form a stable population reproduction system, which is the key reason whyHunan’s ethnic population can continue to inherit despite wars. This paper furtherimproves the theory of historical population calculation and provides a reproducibleparadigm for the study of multi-ethnic population evolution in southern China.
Yong Song (Sat,) studied this question.