How did the ancient emperors solve the regional language differences?

How did the ancient emperors solve the regional language differences?

Kyushu people have different opinions, and the people have come to Changran. Lisao is a spread of Seven-character Poems marked by Spring and Autumn Annals, and it is a classic work covering Ci studies in the early Ming Dynasty. Later, Yang Xiong wrote Dialects, which was fully prepared. But they all test the similarity of names and things, and do not indicate the right or wrong pronunciation and reading. Only when Zheng Xuan annotated the Six Classics, Gao cited Lu Lan, Huainan and Xu Shen made Shuo Wen, did there exist examples. However, the old saying is not what it used to be, and it is still unclear. Using words inside and outside, talking nonsense and reading if are beneficial to make people doubt. Erya Yi Yin, written by Sun, is a unique satire in the late Han Dynasty. As for Wei's family, this matter is very rampant. The noble rural public doesn't understand irony and thinks it's weird. Since then, the rhyme has its own local style, and it is not a smile, it refers to the horse's words, but it is unknown. * * * Take the emperor as the capital, participate in the school spirit, evaluate the past and present, and compromise. Just measure it casually, only Jinling and Charlotte. The soil and water in the south are warm and moist, and its sound is clear, but it is superficial and its language is more vulgar. The mountains and rivers in the north are deep and the sound is heavy and turbid? ? Blunt, its quality is straight, and its words are archaic. However, Guanjun, the south is superior; Small people in the river, the north is better. It is easy to talk with it, and the southern scholars can argue with several words; Listening to the language through the wall, the northern ruling and opposition parties are neck and neck all day. However, the influence of wuyue in the south and the invasion of foreign countries in the north have deep drawbacks, which are out of the question. If the mistake is minor, southerners regard money as saliva, stones as shooting, meanness as envy, and so on. Northerners take Shu as their defense, Confucianism as their Confucianism, Zi as their sister and Qi as their friends. In this case, both lose a lot. When Ye arrived, I only saw Cui Ziyue, Cui Zhan's uncle, Li Zuren and Li Wei's brother, all of whom were quite eloquent and not quite right. Li Ji wrote Doubt about Phonology, but sometimes he made mistakes. Yang Xiuzhi's "Qieyun" is very rare. My children, although young, gradually supervise them; If you make a mistake, you think you have committed a crime. Cloud is a commodity, and journalists who have not passed the exam dare not call the roll, as Cao Cao knows.

-Northern Qi Yan Zhitui's Yan Jiaxun Zhuyin Ci

Yan Zhitui's cultural accomplishment was very weighty at that time. He worked as an official in many countries in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, so he had a say in pronunciation. This passage of his pointed out that dialect differences have existed since ancient times, and there are problems in the Eastern Zhou classics such as Chunqiu and Lisao, which reflect dialects of various countries. He also pointed out that there were many dialects in his time, which would lead to some confusion. Even when scholars edit books about phonetics, they will infiltrate their dialects in some way. Yan Zhitui thought that Luoyang and Nanjing sounds had social advantages at that time. It should be pointed out that this Nanjing sound is the old Luoyang sound brought by northern scholar Du Nan in Yongjia, not the local sound of Liang Wudi. He also believes that the accent of ordinary people in the north is higher than that of ordinary people in the south, and the accent of southern gentry is higher than that of northern gentry, while the language differentiation of northern class is not great, and the gap between southern gentry and ordinary people is obvious. In his later works, Yan Zhitui also cited many examples to criticize his incorrect pronunciation and publicize his correct pronunciation. It can be seen that although there are different dialects, there is still a better and more correct "standard language" in the minds of scholars.

In fact, standard language has a long history, and Confucius used the so-called "elegance" in his lectures. Of course, language develops. The ancient "Mandarin" is not the same as today's Mandarin, and the standard languages of past dynasties are also different.

The landlord asked the emperor how to communicate with the people below. When talking to the emperor, of course, try to learn the standard pronunciation that the emperor wants to see. This is not only for the convenience of communication, but also in line with the social status and cultural literacy of both sides. When discussing state affairs, we can't speak the dialect in the streets. Even a minister who was born and raised in Beijing in the Qing Dynasty would never say to the emperor in Hutong language, "Your Majesty, don't reward him. Look at his cowardice. He can't control his side. What can he do but brag? " You must speak the language of a literate person to be proper: "I think …". In fact, speaking bad standard language in front of the emperor is a joke, as shown in the following example.

It should be pointed out that even within the same dialect, there will be differences due to the speaker's cultural level, social status, language psychology and other factors. The Xi 'an dialect spoken by the professor of Chinese Department of Xi 'an Jiaotong University is definitely different from the Xi 'an dialect spoken by farmers in a township vegetable market in the suburbs of Xi 'an. The former will be more "bureaucratic" and "elegant" and closer to the standard language. Many southern dialects have been divided into pronunciation and white tone since ancient times. The former is the result of the infiltration of Putonghua, while the latter is closer to Putonghua. Educated people generally have a better grasp of reading and learn Mandarin more easily.

Most of those who can be ministers have high economic conditions, high education and high personal IQ, so they basically don't have to worry about not being able to speak standard language.

However, social communication in ancient times was not as developed as it is today. We have reason to believe that although people in dialect areas can speak standard language, most of them speak with accents, but in short, it will not affect communication. However, some courtiers, who lived in distant states for a long time, had a strong accent or were born in common customs, and could not speak "Mandarin" at that time, so they left many interesting records for historical reference:

"Yong, Zhang Yu Nanchang people also ..., the above want to reward the noble marriage, and the house of harmony is not correct, but four or five people in the palace are sent to tutor their children. Two years later, the emperor asked: Is your voice right? Harmony replied: there are fewer imperial secretaries, more ministers and family members, and they can't get the correct pronunciation, so they make imperial secretaries uncomfortable. The emperor laughed

-"Biography of Southern History Hu Xie"

That is to say, Liang Wudi in the Southern Dynasties wanted to correct the accent of a Jiangxi minister, so he sent imperial secretary to his home to be a language tutor. As a result, after a while, he found that the minister's family not only failed to learn pronunciation, but also brought out the accent.

When I met the consorts of princes, my words were not correct, and I dyed them from the inside to protect my wealth, but I didn't have a mentor outside. The drunken teasing that Liang had tasted and calling him "stupid" became a "joke". Yuan Di replied, "It's cool, but it's not dry wood." It is called "Yongzhou" and published a short article, Jane: "Wu entered the customs and became a success." And so on, all the same. Yuan Di taught philosophers to read by hand and took it as a warning.

-Yan Zhitui's "Yan Jiaxun Zhuyin Ci"

What is said here is that quite a few princes and consorts were laughed at by Emperor Liang Yuan because they didn't pay attention to their studies and their pronunciation was not very good. Emperor Yuan of Liang attached great importance to the standard of pronunciation, so he personally taught the children pronunciation.

"Hou Sizhi from jujube stone, pronunciation is not correct, to tell its advice. At the time of slaughter, they were listed in the same column: "Now slaughter (chicken cloud) laurel, (pig cloud) Zhu, (fish cloud) jade, (donkey cloud) wisp, (clouds) can not live (eat clouds), and empty (eat) knots (mi clouds) (noodles). Smile at Cui Yuxian. If you stop thinking and smell it, you will get angry. You can say, "I know thinking can't read." I used it. What are you laughing at! " Sacrifice can be about chickens and pigs, and then laugh and let them go. "

-"Tang Xinyu Scherzo":

During the Wuhou period, there was a minister named Hou Sizhi, who was laughed at by Cui Xianke because of his humble background and poor language. Wuhou was very angry with Cui and felt that he had not done a good job of unity. Cui imitated Hou's voice and laughed at Wuhou. This passage shows that by the Tang Dynasty, some people with lower education level in the north had completely confused the words/Confucianism, pig/Zhu, rice/Zhu (comparable to "Confucianism as Confucianism" in Yan Zhitui's article), while those with culture were more quaint and could still distinguish these words. It also shows that pronunciation is not allowed to be laughed at in high society.

Liu Changyan is from Quanzhou. Chen, a former official, returned to North Korea as a guest, willing to serve as a school official. For the Jinshi, three products are the first, and then enter the provincial court. He has been the deputy special envoy of the Committee for less than one hundred days. Taizong doesn't listen to people who speak too suddenly. The speaker was surprised, but he said, "I'm from Fujian. I'm afraid it's hard for me to fight with your majesty." Taizong said angrily,' I'll get it myself'.

-"Green Box Miscellaneous Notes"

Someone advised Song Taizong not to hire Quanzhou people, but Taizong didn't listen. At last, the man said, "This Quanzhou person has a strong accent, which we can't understand." Taizong said angrily, "I can understand." But then:

"I didn't notice a word when I was making a long speech."

But Minnan dialect is really hard to understand ... the emperor can't help it.

"The ritual rhyme of the Song Dynasty began when Fujian people tried the inscription" Heaven is like a bow ". At that time, Fujian people gave a cloud: "How high is the sky and how high is the earth?" "Min people read" harmony "as" Hao ",and the examiners are also Min people, which is highly praised in the play. Colleagues argue with each other on the grounds of rhyme loss. As soon as I heard it, there was no official rhyme. "

-"Yu Chao Miscellaneous Knowledge"

In Song Dynasty, A Min was criticized for rhyming with "harmony" and "height" according to his dialect. But the emperor showed tolerance, after all, there was a lack of "official rhyme" as a standard. In ancient times, there was no distinction between "Ge/Yun Ge" and "Hao Yun" (including "Ge Geduo Po Moroto Guo Ge" and "Hao Yun"). The confusion of these two sounds is rare in China, so it has become a major feature of Fujian dialect, and this phenomenon still exists in many dialects in Fujian. The next article is a similar situation.

"Between Shaoxing, there is a rainbow with the title" Song of the Cave Fairy ".No matter its name, dragons and snakes are flying, but for fireworks. When all the rumors spread, I thought Dong Bin had written a book. Immersed in the Emperor Gaozong, Tian Yan smiled and said, "This is Yuner, a scholar in Fuzhou. "Ask the Oracle to explain the reason, saying," With its rhyme, it covers Fujian's sound cloud. His words said: "Flying beam presses water, Hong Ying understands. Orange fishing village is semi-tobacco Throughout the ages, things have changed, and the world is big, only Jiangshan is not old. Rain towel cover, who knows me all over the world? A sword has passed several times. According to Yulong, the hiss is unbreakable, the moon is cold and the waves are cold, and the cave entrance of Linzhai is unlocked. I think the cloud screen smoke barrier belongs to my family. I don't sweep it every year because it is covered with moss. "It has long been known that it was made outside Fujian Jinshi Forest. What a difference! Gailin wrote on the bridge with a giant boat, and the water and sky are boundless, and there is no trace beside it, so it is beneficial to God. "

-Ye Songshao Weng's "Four Dynasties".

In Song Dynasty, an anonymous sketch appeared in a scenic spot. Everyone guessed that the author was a fairy. When the emperor heard about it, he judged that the author was a contemporary Fujian by rhyming (Xiao/Cao/Lao/I/Du/Lock/Sweep, see the note in the previous paragraph for details). Min dialect was often hacked in Song Dynasty, and there were some similar examples.

"Although Gao Zu hates leaving Jiangnan, Chu Yin has not changed."

-"Song Shu"

There are also examples of the emperor's inaccurate pronunciation. This is the Song Dynasty in the Southern Dynasties. Liu Yuwen was originally from Xuzhou. He can't speak high-end Luoyang dialect or Jinling dialect. That's Jiangbei pronunciation.

"The first time Liu Zhenchang saw Prime Minister Wang, it was Xia Yueren. The prime minister ironed his stomach and played chess, saying,' What's the matter?' (Note: Wu people are characterized by cold. "Magnolia" Volume 2 1 Quote this note: "The voice is just the opposite") Liu came out to see the princes of the world. Liu said: I didn't see him at last, but I heard that he was Wu dialect. "

-"Shi Shuo Xin Yu" by Liu Yiqing in Southern Song Dynasty

Wang Dao was not an emperor, but the royal family actually held up half the sky in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, second only to the emperor. As a northerner, Wang Dao studied Wu dialect in order to unite the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, which was regarded as a miracle at that time.

Summary:

1. There were obvious dialect differences in ancient times.

2. Decent people try to speak "Mandarin". Of course, today's "national language" has deviated far from that time.

The emperor can't do anything about some people's accents.