The establishment of a unified society in China began in the Qin Dynasty. However, according to historical records, the Qin Dynasty only unified the characters, that is, the so-called "books with the same language", and there was no unified language. Until today, dialects in different parts of China are very different, which is also a problem left over from history. Before the Qin Dynasty, we had reason to believe that the official languages of Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties should be relatively unified, but during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, each independent kingdom was basically its own independent official language. Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao, Wei, Qin and wuyue. The official language of each court should be different.
So what is the official language of the central court after the establishment of a unified centralized government in the Qin Dynasty? According to common sense, the official language of the Qin Dynasty may be based on Shaanxi and Xianyang dialects. As an ancient historical capital, Xi has long been the seat of the central government in the history of China. Therefore, it is reasonable to think that before the Yuan Dynasty, the official language of China government should be Shaanxi dialect or xi 'an dialect.
The reason why we want to talk about this problem is that we will encounter a problem when we study China's ancient poems. China's ancient poems pay great attention to melody and level tones. So, in which language are melody and tonality expressed? In other words, what language should Li Bai's poems be read in to be more rhythmic and even? Today, we all read the poems of Li Bai and Du Fu in Putonghua, but in the Tang Dynasty, when Li Bai was above the imperial court and asked Gao Lishi to take off his boots and write poems for him, what language did he use? Today, we pronounce the word "reading" in Mandarin, and the accurate pronunciation is "cutting down trees" in Shaanxi dialect. Then, when people in the Tang Dynasty wrote down the word "cutting down trees", should it be read as "cutting down trees" or "reading" in Mandarin today? Although there seems to be no big difference between ancient Chinese prose and ancient Chinese poetry today, it is very important when we study the rhythm of ancient Chinese poetry.
Su Dongpo's poems in Song Dynasty are very famous. Su Dongpo is from Sichuan. I've heard of reading Su Dongpo's poems in Sichuan dialect, which is very tasty and not inferior to reading them in Mandarin today. However, can we be sure that the melody of Su Dongpo's poems is based on the pronunciation of Sichuan dialect? There seems to be no good reason.
There was also a poet named Zhou Dunyi in the Song Dynasty, who wrote the lotus flower "out of the mud but not stained". According to historical records, Zhou Dunyi's poems are the best combination of language and melody. Today, we read Zhou Dunyi's works in Mandarin, and this feeling is not obvious. The so-called coordination between language and melody can be illustrated by a modern example. The famous composer Gu Jianfen has a song called Little Girl in Mushroom. Gu Jianfen said that when she wrote this song, she basically read the lyrics and found the musical melody in her tone. When we sing this song, "Little girl picking mushrooms with a big basket on her back" is really close to chanting, which is one of the reasons why this song is catchy. It's a pity that many composers don't quite understand this truth now. Back to Zhou Dunyi's question, the ancients commented on Zhou Dunyi, saying that his poems are the closest and most in line with the melody, which is difficult for us to feel in Mandarin today. Perhaps the reasonable explanation is that the most suitable language for Zhou Dunyi's poetry may not be Mandarin today.
As an academic study of linguistics, there were two large-scale phonetic events in the history of China language, one in the Han Dynasty and the other in the Song Dynasty. However, the phonetic norms at that time are still vague today. For example, in Shuo Wen Jie Zi of Han Dynasty, today's annotation on pronunciation is not accurate enough. For example, according to the tone law of Shuowen Jiezi, the pronunciation of the word "Liu" can be annotated as "Li Louqie", that is, the initial of "Li" is tangent to the vowel of "Lou". However, it seems that "six" can also be pronounced like this. Of course, the more appropriate phonetic notation for "Liu" may be "Li Leaked Cut". However, when we don't know the standard pronunciations of Li, Lou and Lou, how can we get the accurate pronunciations of Liu and Liu? To some extent, the phonetic notation in Shuo Wen Jie Zi is a cycle. Only by mastering the pronunciation of "Li, Lou and Lou" can we master the pronunciation of "Liu", but to master the pronunciation of "Li, Lou and Lou", we must also master the pronunciation of other words first. This cycle of phonetic notation lacks the standardization process of primary school students learning phonetic notation first today. The same "Li Louqie", read in Mandarin, Sichuan dialect and Cantonese, will get different results, and it is difficult to achieve the effect of unified language pronunciation. For linguists, many prosodic phenomena in ancient literary works are often covered up by a simple explanation-ancient pronunciation is different from today's pronunciation. And I think the real reason is the difference between the ancient official language and today's official language.
Because there is no recording equipment, it seems that there is no necessary basis for exploring the pronunciation of ancient official languages. However, there are still some linguistic remains to be studied today.
There is a phenomenon in linguistics called "language island". Such as Hangzhou dialect. Anyone who is familiar with Jiangsu and Zhejiang dialects will know that Hangzhou dialect is quite special in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which is quite different from the dialects in neighboring areas. The most striking feature is that there are many "Hua Er". "Hua Er Yin" is actually an important feature of northern languages. The "Hua Er Yin" in Hangzhou dialect was actually in the Southern Song Dynasty. As the capital of Hangzhou (Lin 'an), a large number of northern nobles, represented by the royal family, arrived. The northern language became the official language of Lin 'an in the Southern Song Dynasty, which seriously influenced the language of the local people, making the language in Hangzhou very different from that in neighboring areas. Due to the tendency of leaning towards the official language, the word "er" in Hangzhou dialect is more prominent and emphasized than that in northern dialect. For example, in Hangzhou dialects such as "Guner" and "Baer", the pronunciation of the word "er" is very prominent, which means a little emphasis. In addition, Nanjing dialect also has this tendency. Because, I believe, even if Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, he still speaks his Subei dialect. Even many of his trusted ministers were all from northern Jiangsu, and the official language of the court in the early Ming Dynasty should be northern Jiangsu dialect. It was not until Judy, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, moved to Beijing that Beijing dialect became the official language of the imperial court. As the capital, Nanjing has all kinds of government agencies and a large number of northern officials to protect the elderly, so the northern dialect naturally has a great influence on the local dialect of Nanjing.
There is also a Hakka dialect in southern China. The so-called Hakkas are the foreign population. They moved to the south many years ago because of the war in the north and other reasons. Today, Hakka dialect and local dialect are still very different. It is reasonable to believe that Hakka dialect retains a large number of pronunciations of northern dialects in those days. Perhaps, when studying the migration law of Hakkas and the current language preservation, we can find many traces of ancient languages. Even if it is not Hakka, the pronunciation of ancient languages has been largely preserved in the present southern dialects. For example, the word "clothes" is rarely used in modern Mandarin, but it was often used in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Up to now, the word "Yi" is hardly used in dialects in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and most of them are "Yi", and the pronunciation of the word "Yi" in dialects is different from that in Putonghua. Can we say that the pronunciation of "clothes" in dialect is closer to the ancient sound?
In addition, there is another language worthy of reference, especially Japanese. Japanese is closely related to Chinese from writing to pronunciation. However, the formation of Japanese was roughly during the Tang Dynasty in China. Therefore, the pronunciation of Japanese probably retains some languages of the Tang Dynasty. Some people even study that the pronunciation of Japanese is closer to the languages in Jiangsu and Zhejiang during the Tang Dynasty.
In a word, few people have studied the official language of ancient China for a long time. Although this is not a main topic, it is beneficial to the study of China's poetry and folk drama. There is an unfinished serial on my blog, a thinking mouth. The first part says "eat" and the second part says "talk". Of course, due to the limited time, this idle topic has not been finished. Sometimes, it is basically to look at the lyrics and find the music melody in the pitch. When we sing this song, "Little girl picking mushrooms with a big basket on her back" is really close to chanting, which is one of the reasons why this song is catchy. It's a pity that many composers don't quite understand this truth now. Back to Zhou Dunyi's question, the ancients commented on Zhou Dunyi, saying that his poems are the closest and most in line with the melody, which is difficult for us to feel in Mandarin today. Perhaps the reasonable explanation is that the most suitable language for Zhou Dunyi's poetry may not be Mandarin today.
As an academic study of linguistics, there were two large-scale phonetic events in the history of China language, one in the Han Dynasty and the other in the Song Dynasty. However, the phonetic norms at that time are still vague today. For example, in Shuo Wen Jie Zi of Han Dynasty, today's annotation on pronunciation is not accurate enough. For example, according to the tone law of Shuowen Jiezi, the pronunciation of the word "Liu" can be annotated as "Li Louqie", that is, the initial of "Li" is tangent to the vowel of "Lou". However, it seems that "six" can also be pronounced like this. Of course, the more appropriate phonetic notation for "Liu" may be "Li Leaked Cut". However, when we don't know the standard pronunciations of Li, Lou and Lou, how can we get the accurate pronunciations of Liu and Liu? To some extent, the phonetic notation in Shuo Wen Jie Zi is a cycle. Only by mastering the pronunciation of "Li, Lou and Lou" can we master the pronunciation of "Liu", but to master the pronunciation of "Li, Lou and Lou", we must also master the pronunciation of other words first. This cycle of phonetic notation lacks the standardization process of primary school students learning phonetic notation first today. The same "Li Louqie", read in Mandarin, Sichuan dialect and Cantonese, will get different results, and it is difficult to achieve the effect of unified language pronunciation. For linguists, many prosodic phenomena in ancient literary works are often covered up by a simple explanation-ancient pronunciation is different from today's pronunciation. And I think the real reason is the difference between the ancient official language and today's official language.
Because there is no recording equipment, it seems that there is no necessary basis for exploring the pronunciation of ancient official languages. However, there are still some linguistic remains to be studied today.
There is a phenomenon in linguistics called "language island". Such as Hangzhou dialect. Anyone who is familiar with Jiangsu and Zhejiang dialects will know that Hangzhou dialect is quite special in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which is quite different from the dialects in neighboring areas. The most striking feature is that there are many "Hua Er". "Hua Er Yin" is actually an important feature of northern languages. The "Hua Er Yin" in Hangzhou dialect was actually in the Southern Song Dynasty. As the capital of Hangzhou (Lin 'an), a large number of northern nobles, represented by the royal family, arrived. The northern language became the official language of Lin 'an in the Southern Song Dynasty, which seriously influenced the language of the local people, making the language in Hangzhou very different from that in neighboring areas. Due to the tendency of leaning towards the official language, the word "er" in Hangzhou dialect is more prominent and emphasized than that in northern dialect. For example, in Hangzhou dialects such as "Guner" and "Baer", the pronunciation of the word "er" is very prominent, which means a little emphasis. In addition, Nanjing dialect also has this tendency. Because, I believe, even if Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, he still speaks his Subei dialect. Even many of his trusted ministers were all from northern Jiangsu, and the official language of the court in the early Ming Dynasty should be northern Jiangsu dialect. It was not until Judy, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, moved to Beijing that Beijing dialect became the official language of the imperial court. As the capital, Nanjing has all kinds of government agencies and a large number of northern officials to protect the elderly, so the northern dialect naturally has a great influence on the local dialect of Nanjing.
There is also a Hakka dialect in southern China. The so-called Hakkas are the foreign population. They moved to the south many years ago because of the war in the north and other reasons. Today, Hakka dialect and local dialect are still very different. It is reasonable to believe that Hakka dialect retains a large number of pronunciations of northern dialects in those days. Perhaps, when studying the migration law of Hakkas and the current language preservation, we can find many traces of ancient languages. Even if it is not Hakka, the pronunciation of ancient languages has been largely preserved in the present southern dialects. For example, the word "clothes" is rarely used in modern Mandarin, but it was often used in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Up to now, the word "Yi" is hardly used in dialects in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and most of them are "Yi", and the pronunciation of the word "Yi" in dialects is different from that in Putonghua. Can we say that the pronunciation of "clothes" in dialect is closer to the ancient sound?
In addition, there is another language worthy of reference, especially Japanese. Japanese is closely related to Chinese from writing to pronunciation. However, the formation of Japanese was roughly during the Tang Dynasty in China. Therefore, the pronunciation of Japanese probably retains some languages of the Tang Dynasty. Some people even study that the pronunciation of Japanese is closer to the languages in Jiangsu and Zhejiang during the Tang Dynasty.
In a word, few people have studied the official language of ancient China for a long time. Although this is not a main topic, it is beneficial to the study of China's poetry and folk drama. There is an unfinished serial on my blog, A Thinking Mouth. The first part is about "eating" and the second part is about "speaking". Of course, due to the limited time, this idle topic has not been finished.