I recommend you an article to supplement the development history of Putonghua.
"Talking about Popularization" column
[Topic 3] Did the Han people in ancient China have the same language?
Author: Yuan
"You this big topic is not" text "? Why have you been speaking dialects for a long time, but you still don't speak Mandarin? "
Yes, it's time to speak Mandarin. However, because Mandarin is modern Chinese, before I speak Mandarin, I want to talk to you about ancient Chinese.
Our national language has gone through a long process from elegant language, lingua franca and lingua franca to Mandarin, Mandarin and Mandarin.
China has been a vast country since ancient times, and recorded dialect differences existed as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period and were quite serious. At that time, the Central Plains was called "Tiger", while the Chu State in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River was called "Yu Tu". Mencius said, "With Dr. Chu here, I want my son to say the same thing. People are all together, and the Chu people are wheezed. Although they are eager to get it, it is impossible to get it. In the years between Zhuang and Yue, although I have been begging for Chu, I can't get it. " An official of the State of Chu wanted his son to learn Qi dialect, and he found a Qi person to teach him Qi dialect, but all Chu people around him spoke Chu dialect, which actually interfered with his son's study. Although I urge my son to study Qi dialect hard every day, I always fail to achieve my goal. Let's just say that his son was sent to Qiguozhuang for a few years, and then he learned the dialect of Qiguo. At this time, he was severely urged to learn Chu language every day, but he could not learn it. Mencius used this example to illustrate that the influence of environment on people is enormous, even independent of cognitive will. However, we know from this that as early as Mencius' time, dialect differences were already very serious, and this story also tells us that learning a language must have a good language environment.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, dialects coexisted with the same language in the world, which was called "Yayan". This should also be a reasonable thing. Think about it. At that time, a hundred schools of thought contended, and debate and lobbying were very popular. Legalists, famous artists, Mohists, Confucianists, Taoists, Yin and Yang scholars, strategists, miscellaneous scholars and peasants traveled around the world to publicize their own theories. Can they speak their hometown dialect that others can't understand? I can only speak elegant words that all countries in the world can understand. Su Qin and Zhang Yi went to the seven-nation propaganda alliance, and Lian Heng had to tell them politely. The Analects of Confucius, which records Confucius' words and deeds, said: "Confucius speaks politely, and poems, books and ceremonies are polite." In other words, when Confucius read the Book of Songs, history books and presided over the ceremony, he spoke polite words, not hometown dialect and Lu dialect. Confucius has "three thousand disciples and seventy-two saints", so it can be inferred that what Confucius said on the platform must be elegant words, not Shandong dialect. The Book of Songs, which was compiled as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, collected 305 poems from the early Western Zhou Dynasty to the mid-Spring and Autumn Period. If we noticed that these poems came from Shaanxi, Shanxi, Shandong, Henan, Hebei and Hubei, and most of them came from folk creation, we should have reflected the differences of dialects in different places, but they were revised and abridged by scholars (such as Confucius) and matured in rhyme, indicating that the Book of Songs was finalized in the same language at that time.
Mr. Lin Tao, a famous linguist, told us in the article "Putonghua and Beijing Dialect" that from the Zhou Dynasty to the Qin Dynasty, every autumn, the royal family sent officials to collect local ballads and dialects all over the country and kept them in the "secret room" (archives room) of the court. It can be seen that the rulers at that time attached great importance to dialects, but unfortunately these precious materials were lost in the war at the end of Qin Dynasty. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Yang Xiong, a famous writer, saw some remaining materials. Based on these materials, he conducted a wide-ranging dialect survey of people from all over the country who came to Chang 'an, and spent 27 years sorting out dialects. This book records a large number of dialect words and explains them one by one. The first article in the book is: "Fang, Xiao, Zhe, know also. Chu refers to Fang, or Xiao; Qi Song was called a philosopher. " The use of "knowledge" to explain "Party, Xiao" in Chu State and "Zhe" in Qi and Song Dynasties shows that "knowledge" is a well-known word and a homonym, while "Party, Xiao and Zhe" is a dialect. It can be seen from this that at that time, dialects in various places must have coexisted with the same language in the world, and dialects did use the words "universal language" and "universal language" many times. All these can prove that as early as more than two thousand years ago, * * * coexisted with dialects.
Of course, the ancient homophony of * * * (elegant language, common language) and today's homophony of * * * (Mandarin) can't be said to be the same thing. When we say different, we don't mean that Yayan, Tong Tong and Mandarin are different in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. Of course, there are great differences in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar between ancient Tong Tong and Tong Tong today. When we say different, we mean that ancient homophones did not have clear standards in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar like Mandarin today, as long as everyone can understand them. Moreover, the ancient homophony of * * * only served a few literati classes, only circulated in the royal court, literati study and some merchant circles, and spread all over the country together with today's mandarin, which was mastered by the broad masses of the people and used by social economy and politics.
From Han Dynasty to Song Dynasty, although there was no noun referring to * * * homonym, * * * homonym always existed and was used. Today, when we read Tang poetry and Song poetry in Mandarin, we feel that most of the works have beautiful rhymes, but a few seem to have less strict rhymes, and some are slightly dull. Is it because poets in the Tang and Song Dynasties didn't pay much attention to the rhythm of poetry? Actually, it is not. Because from ancient times to modern times, pronunciation has changed a lot. For example, in today's Putonghua, the ancient entering tones are all pronounced as yin and yang, and the initials and finals have changed greatly. Poets in Tang and Song Dynasties used the phonology of their time. No matter where the original author was born, they were highly consistent in phonology and meter, so we can also draw a conclusion that there was still a common language that could cross the dialect barrier in Tang and Song Dynasties. In fact, from the Wei, Jin, Six Dynasties, Sui, Tang, Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Song Dynasty, although there were no new homonyms like "common language and common language", a large number of rhyme books were produced for writing poems and rhymes, including Wei's Tone Category, Jin's Rhyme Collection, Yue's Four Tones Spectrum and. The function of rhyme books is to correct pronunciation. What is right? Of course, it is the common language of * * *, and it will never be the words of one party.
Before the Han Dynasty, * * * was called "elegant language, common sayings and common sayings", and after the Ming and Qing Dynasties, * * * was called "Mandarin", but there was no * * name from Wei, Jin, Six Dynasties to Tang and Song Dynasties. I think this is because before the Han Dynasty (specifically before Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty), the world was undergoing a great transformation from a slave society to a feudal society. "He Zong and Lian Heng" are popular in the society, and they travel around the world to lobby and debate, gather talents from all over the world to give lectures, and talents rely on free competition, so eloquence research develops vigorously. Confucius, Laozi, Yan Zi, Mencius, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Xu Xing, Sun Wuzi, Sun Bin, Lin Xiangru, Mao Sui and Cao Gui are all eloquent speakers. Ancient books such as Mencius, Warring States Policy and Historical Records recorded many wonderful debate scenes. However, after the Han Dynasty, the unified feudal system became more and more stable, the self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy became more and more developed, people's horizontal communication became less and less, and eloquence was less and less emphasized in selecting talents (from recommending filial piety and nine-grade system to writing eight-part essay for life). The social demand of * * * homophonic is relatively reduced, and the social influence of * * * homophonic is naturally reduced, so that there is no fixed title. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the seeds of capitalism began to sprout, and cities, businesses, dramas, novels and even foreign trade became increasingly prosperous. Even western colonialists encountered gunboats or churches to preach, and western science gradually spread to the East. China's social demand for national homophony has risen again, and national homophony has finally attracted people's attention, which is called "Putonghua".
Although there are no clear standards and norms in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar of ancient homophones, the dialect of the ruling center at that time must prevail. From the Shang and Zhou Dynasties to the Northern Song Dynasty, the political and cultural centers of China were always in Chang 'an and Luoyang in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, so the elegant and common languages should be mainly Chang 'an and Luoyang dialects, or Chang 'an and Luoyang dialects were generally used at that time. By the Northern Song Dynasty, the Southern Song Dynasty and the Liao and Jin Dynasties, the world political and cultural center had moved eastward, and Beijing had been the capital for more than 800 years since the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, so the homonym of * * * had changed greatly since the Middle Ages. Putonghua is the result of the development of homophones after Yuan Dynasty.
The capital of the Yuan Dynasty was Dadu, which is today's Beijing. In the Yuan Dynasty, the imperial court stipulated that school teaching should use the common language with most phonetics as the main language. Zaju and Sanqu, two new literary forms close to oral language, prevailed in the Yuan Dynasty. Famous zaju writers Guan Hanqing, Ma Zhiyuan and Wang Shifu are cosmopolitan people, and their works Dou Eyuan, Autumn in the Palace of Han Dynasty and Romance of the West Chamber all reflect the characteristics of Dadu dialect at that time. The Rhyme of the Central Plains written by Zhou Deqing in the Yuan Dynasty is based on the rhyme of Yuan Zaju, and the phonetic system summarized in the book (initials, finals and tones) is quite close to that of today's Beijing dialect. The Central Plains originally referred to Chang 'an and Luoyang. At this time, the central plains has expanded to the vast northern region centered on the metropolis.
The homonym of * * in Ming and Qing Dynasties is called "Mandarin". In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, worried that scholars were "confined to dialects and could not reach their superiors and subordinates" (the use of dialects was not conducive to communication between superiors and subordinates), and ordered people to compile Hongwu Zheng Yun, which was the official phonetic standard with Beijing accent as the standard. The name "Mandarin" appeared in the middle of Ming Dynasty. "Mandarin" can be interpreted as what officials say in officialdom, and it can also be understood as what people use, because "official" sometimes refers to "official". Go, for example, is called "official", so it is called "official". In the old society, "highway" was called "official road" and "official road". The appearance of the name "Putonghua" marks the initial formation of the early forms of homonyms in modern Chinese. Of course, there is no clear definition and unified standard for Putonghua. As long as it's not spoken at home, it's Mandarin in officialdom. Because Mandarin is popular in officialdom, scholars are also willing to learn Mandarin, and speaking Mandarin is a fashion. "Mandarin" even has a foreign name Mandarin (it is said that Mandarin is a transliteration of "Manchu" because Manchu officials speak Mandarin). Foreigners call Mandarin an official, and Portuguese missionaries call Manchu officials "Manchu adults", so even Mandarin spoken by Manchu adults is also called "Manchu adults", and that's how officials come from.
The TV series "Yong Zhengdi" has such a plot: the governor of Chaozhou, Guangdong Province pays tribute to the emperor, and the eunuch hands the peeled litchi fruit to the emperor. The emperor took lychee meat and asked the governor, "Is there a kernel?" The governor replied, "Wow." The emperor put litchi meat in his mouth. When he bit it, litchi stone made his teeth ache. The emperor was furious: "I asked you if you had a nuclear." How do you say' no'? " The governor was too scared to speak. A person who knows Chaozhou dialect quickly explained, "Your Majesty, this Chaozhou dialect is called' You 'wú, and our' Wu' is called Mó u". Although the emperor was angry, he thought that officials could not speak Mandarin very well, so he ordered officials in Guangdong and Fujian to speak Mandarin. Television subtitles tell the audience that this is the first official document to promote Putonghua in history.
It is a historical fact that officials in Guangdong and Fujian were ordered to speak Mandarin. On Shen Jiari (AD 65438+September 9, 0728) in August of the sixth year of Yongzheng, Yongzheng specially instructed officials to speak Mandarin when entertaining officials. The instructions say that officials often work in different places and use dialects instead of Mandarin. The result is that "officials and people don't understand each other", people don't understand the meaning of officials, "small officials tell stories on their behalf", "adding fuel to the fire" and "many people delay things". Therefore, he asked officials at all levels to use Putonghua when performing official duties (such as recitation, recitation, trial and judgment, etc.). ), rather than "keep used to the local accent". He also instructed the governors of Guangdong and Fujian provinces, where dialect barriers are particularly serious, to "transfer departments and teachers to their respective governments, regions and counties, and teach them to understand the language in various ways during their service." Yong Zhengdi is a clever man. He also noticed that language problems are important, but they cannot be solved overnight. So he instructed that "language is learned from childhood, and it is difficult to change suddenly, so it must be taught and taught, and it will last for a long time."
There are 355 words in the text of Yongzheng imperial edict, which well explains why officials should master Mandarin, when to use Mandarin and how to learn Mandarin. It is indeed the first emperor in all previous dynasties to explicitly require that "civil officials" must use * * * as the official language. After this imperial edict was issued, the imperial court decided to set up "Yin Zheng Academy" and "Yin Zheng Meng Guan" (equivalent to the current Putonghua training class) in Guangdong and Fujian provinces to train Putonghua learners. At that time, there was even a rule that "those who are not familiar with Mandarin should not be sent to the exam". Because the dialect barrier in Fujian is more serious than that in Guangdong, and Fujian has done more in this respect, it is probably not unrelated that the circulation of Putonghua in Fujian is higher than that in Guangdong today.
A Dream of Red Mansions, published in Qianlong period after Yongzheng, can be regarded as a model of Mandarin at that time. If you don't think there are many language barriers in reading A Dream of Red Mansions, then we can think that the language of A Dream of Red Mansions is Mandarin more than 200 years ago, or the predecessor of Mandarin.
The above is taken from China Language Network-Language Museum:
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Thank you for taking it as a satisfactory answer.