Nanjing is located south of the Yangtze River. Why don’t Nanjing people speak the Wu dialect?

Central Plains Mandarin is spoken in Xuzhou, Lianyungang and Ganyu, Jianghuai Mandarin is spoken in Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Huai'an, Nantong, Yancheng, Taizhou and Lianyungang, while Wu dialect is spoken in most areas of Suzhou, Wuxi and Chang in the south. This is one of the reasons why it is called "bulk Jiangsu".

As we all know, Nanjing and Zhenjiang basically belong to the south of the Yangtze River, but shouldn't they speak Wu dialect? Why did Jianghuai dialect prevail and become people's daily communication language? In fact, this has deep historical roots.

Historically, Nanjing belonged to the land of Wu. In 495 BC, King Wu Fucha established a smelting city in the back mountain of Chaotian Palace in Nanjing to cast weapons. Later, it underwent many reconstructions until 229 AD, when Sun Quan of Soochow made Nanjing the capital. During this period, the mother tongue in Nanjing was the preliminary Sinicized Middle Wu dialect, and people all spoke authentic Wu dialect.

However, everything changed after the Jin Dynasty, especially the Yongjia Uprising and the Wuhu Rebellion.

After the Wuhu Rebellion, the Han people from the Central Plains and the Han people from the Western Jin Dynasty migrated to the south one after another. Sima Rui established the Eastern Jin Dynasty in Nanjing (called Jiankang at the time), which was known as the "Southern Crossing in Clothes" in history. In ancient times, clothes were a symbol of civilization, and "clothing and clothes crossing south" meant the southward migration of culture from the Central Plains. This culture includes not only clothing but also language. After the establishment of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Central Plains gentry brought Luoyang Yayan. After that, the Wu language in Nanjing declined rapidly, so Jinling Yayin, which combined Luoyang Yayan and Wu language, began to form, and Nanjing gradually separated from Wu language.

From the Eastern Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Sui Dynasty, Jinling Yayin entered a prosperous period. The Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen regimes of the Southern Dynasties inherited Jinling Yayin, and it was highly respected politically and culturally. At this time, Jinling Yayin was closer to orthodox Chinese culture. After the Sui Dynasty unified China, the official rhyme book written by Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, Yang Jian, was a fusion of the pronunciations of Luoyang and Jiankang (Nanjing) at that time. From the Tang Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty, Nanjing's political status fluctuated and its influence was less than before, but the adjusted Jinling Yayin was still China's official language.

However, in the Ming Dynasty, Jinling Yayin underwent major changes. After Zhu Yuanzhang made Nanjing his capital, he sent 200,000 Huai people to settle in Nanjing, bringing fresh blood to the language of Nanjing. Later, the Ming government forcibly relocated a large number of people to enrich Nanjing. By the Yongle period, almost half of the 400,000 residents living in Nanjing were outsiders.

During this process, the Nanjing dialect evolved from Jinling Yayin and gradually merged with some Jianghuai dialects. The Ming Dynasty government established a common official language based on the Nanjing pronunciation at that time. This was the Nanjing Mandarin that accompanied China until modern times. After the renovation in the middle and late Qing Dynasty and the revival of the Republic of China, Nanjing dialect gradually formed the Nanjing dialect we hear today.