On the Chief Causes and Social Functions of Ethnic Migrations in Chinese History

Ethnic migrations in ancient China' s history had positive social functions,which falls into four stages:the first stage started from ethnic clans to Qin and Han Dynasties;the second started from Wei Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties to Sui and Tang Dynasties;the third from Five Dynasties to Yuan Dynasty;the fourth stage occurred in Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty.The chief cause of the historical migrations is social economy:the relationship between different nationalities urged them to migrate,some were forced.These migrations functioned positively in the history,for the migrations broke the isolation of different nationalities,causing them to mix up.The migrations have caused the ethnic nationalities to live with Han,which strengthens the cultural and economic communication between different nationalities.Today,the cultural harmony of different nationalities is still a chief mean for communication among nationalities in China.