5 times
As for "Hakka", historians generally believe that the Hakka are Han people who migrated south from the Central Plains. Due to the intrusion from the border tribes, the Hakka ancestors migrated from the Central Plains to south. After that, they then moved further south and dispersed to various places, forming a situation where the Hakkas were scattered in many areas.
The first great migration of the people of the Central Plains (317-879 AD) was caused by the invasion and separatist rule of the Five Hus. In order to seek refuge, since Yongjia in the Jin Dynasty, the Han people from the Central Plains began to move southward, and they were called "migrants" at that time. Gradually three major tributaries were formed. Finally, the far ones reached central and southern Jiangxi, Fujian and other places, while the closer ones still lingered in the Yingshui, Huaishui, Rushui and Hanshui areas.
The second southward migration (880-1126 AD) was caused by the Huangchao Uprising in the late Tang Dynasty. After more than ten years of turmoil, people from all over China migrated separately. During this migration, a few of those who migrated far away reached Hui, Jia, Shao and other places, while the majority stayed in Minting Prefecture and other places in the eastern part of Ganzhou.
The third migration (1127-1644 AD), during the Song Dynasty, due to the invasion of the Jin and Yuan people, part of the Hakka people migrated again. This time, as Wen Tianxiang and others organized troops to resist the invading foreign tribes in the mountainous areas of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi, the junction of the three provinces became a key offensive and defensive area for both sides. As a result, the Central Plains clans that first arrived in Fujian and Jiangxi were divided and moved to eastern Guangdong and northern Guangdong. At the same time, more and more people flowed into Tingzhou.
The fourth migration (1645-1843 AD), in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, on the one hand, the Hakka internal population has continued to expand, on the other hand, the Manchu tribes have entered China. After being unable to resist the Qing's invasion, the people moved separately again and were forced to live in scattered places. A considerable number of people moved to Sichuan and other places that were destroyed by war and re-cultivated the land. This is the fourth migration, "moving to Huguang and filling in Sichuan". In order to win over the people in the south, Emperor Kangxi gave each man 8 taels of silver and each woman and child 4 taels of silver to encourage the Hakkas to move to Sichuan, Guangxi and Taiwan. The ancestors of Comrade Zhu De, who has always been proud of the Hakka people, moved from Shaoguan to Sichuan during this migration.
The fifth migration occurred at the end of the Taiping Rebellion (after 1866), in the late Qing Dynasty. This can be said to be a worldwide migration. The population is increasing day by day, and the conditions in the mountainous areas are poor and insufficient to support the population. As a result, the Hakka people moved south to places such as Leizhou, Qinzhou, Guangzhou, Chaoshan, etc., and then crossed the sea to Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Nanyang Islands, and even as far away as Europe and the United States.
After many migrations, the Hakka people were able to settle down and live in various places, and they multiplied from generation to generation, and today they have become an important and special ethnic group of the Chinese nation.
Up to now, some people estimate that there are about 120 million Hakkas at home and abroad. Among them, one-third of the Chinese in Hong Kong are Hakkas; one-fifth to one-quarter of the Chinese in Taiwan are Hakkas. One of the population is Hakka. In the mainland, in addition to Fujian, Jiangxi and Guangdong, there are also a considerable number of Hakkas in Hunan, Guangxi, Sichuan and other provinces. Overseas, there are also many Hakkas in Southeast Asian countries, Australia, the United States, and Canada.
From numerous precious historical and genealogical materials, we can see that almost every surname in every place respects the ancestors who first moved to western Fujian as the ancestors of the south, and regards western Fujian as the ancestors of the Hakkas in culture. The journey is the end of farewell to the Central Plains and the starting point of becoming a Hakka.