The birthplace of Cantonese

Cantonese originated from Guangxin in ancient times-Wuzhou, Guangxi today.

1995 at the beginning,> The magazine published papers by two linguists, namely Ye, a professor at Sun Yat-sen University, and Luo Kangning, an associate professor at the Guangdong Provincial Government Counselor's Office. < Study on the Origin of Cantonese > > It is the first time to reveal the research results that Cantonese originated in Guangxi Guguang New Wuzhou and Guangdong Fengkai, which caused a sensation in the linguistic field. In that year and the following year, the Pearl River Cultural Research Association organized two multi-disciplinary expert argumentation meetings and reached a consistent conclusion. Since then, Xinhua News Agency, which reported this news, has spread all over the world, causing a shock among Chinese people all over the world.

As we all know, Cantonese originated from Guguangxin, which is now Wuzhou, Guangxi, and Fengkai, Guangdong is the jurisdiction of Guangxin County, not the place where it is administered. The earliest "capital" of Lingnan is in Wuzhou today. Only the Lijiang River, which is connected with the Yangtze River system through Lingqu, can become the ancient "Silk Road" on water. Basis: "The Book of the Former Han Dynasty" says: "Cangwu ... has a Zhang Lishui Pass"; "There is Lishui southeast to Guangxin". Traditional sayings, including authoritative Ci Hai, Ci Yuan, masterpieces and the sayings of modern and contemporary experts and scholars, all mean that Gu Guangxin is now Wuzhou City, Guangxi, under the jurisdiction of Cangwu County. Although some ancient books once said that Guangxin was opened in today's Guangdong (Fengchuan and Fengzhou), it was not taken by most rigorous ancient historians and modern scholars. For example, Du You, who was called by Tang Xianzong as "knowledgeable and knew the key to the evolution of past dynasties", made no mention of the rulers in his historical masterpiece "General Code".

The talented Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty put down the Lujia rebellion in South Vietnam 2 1 15 years ago, completed the great cause of the reunification of South China and Han Dynasty, rewarded meritorious soldiers, and ordered that Lingnan, the land of Na Man, be divided into Nanhai, Cangwu, Yulin, Hepu, Jiao Jiao, Jiuzhen, Rinan, Yuer and Zhuya Nine Counties. Five years later, that is, the fifth year of Yuanfeng (BC 106), the secretariat of Ji Jiao, which was in charge of the whole nine counties in Lingnan, was located in Guangxin, under the jurisdiction of Cangwu County, and became the capital and political, economic and cultural center of the whole South China. After 309 AD, Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty set up Jiaozhou, a place where animal husbandry ruled history, located in Guangxin, Cangwu County. At that time, there was no such name as Guangzhou.

Cangwu County is located in the center of the territory of Guangdong and Guangxi today, and its jurisdiction is equivalent to Wuzhou, Zhaoqing and Hezhou today. Gui Jiang (Lishui) in the north is connected with the Yangtze River system via Lingqu and Xiangjiang River. The mainstream of the Pearl River, Xijiang, the mother river of Lingnan across Guangdong and Guangxi, passes through the county seat. Guangxin, the capital of South China, is obviously very important.

What's so great about Cangwu Guxian and Guguangxin? During the 400-odd years of the Han Dynasty, a number of political, economic, cultural, academic and religious elites headed by the "Three Histories" emerged, especially the "Three Histories", which were well-known throughout the country and were first-class, worthy of being leaders, pioneers and core figures. "Zuo Jia is far away in Cangwu", and some comments made by the national academic circles at that time showed the lofty position of Lingnan in the national academic circles. At that time, Cangwu County was not only the birthplace of Lingnan culture, but also the center and peak of national academic culture, which was brilliant!

Today, the study of Lingnan culture cannot be separated from the old county of Cangwu and Gu Guangxin.

Cangwu County, which is universally recognized, is now Wuzhou, Guangxi, which is undoubtedly ancient and modern.

The culture and language of the Han nationality gradually spread eastward from Guangxin, and Cantonese gradually became the lingua franca from Xijiang River Basin to Pearl River Delta. After Cantonese formed its own characteristics and spread to a certain extent, it stopped accepting the further assimilation of northern Chinese and even resisted this assimilation. However, Central Plains Chinese is influenced by the languages of northern nomadic people, which is far from the Cantonese reserved in Central Plains Chinese before Sui and Tang Dynasties.

Guangzhou dialect was relatively stable when it spread from Guangxin to the East, and it has stopped accepting the further assimilation of Chinese in the Central Plains, especially in its attitude towards Hakka dialect. Hakkas entered Lingnan from the Central Plains, and reached a climax when they crossed south with Song Gaozong in the late Tang Dynasty. At that time, the original Han immigrants in Lingnan were very powerful and controlled the economically developed areas such as the Pearl River Delta and the plains on both sides of the Xijiang River. Therefore, the newly moved Hakkas can only settle in Lingnan Mountain area. Originally, Hakka dialect was regarded as a relatively standard Chinese in the Central Plains at that time, but it was unable to assimilate Cantonese, which had formed its own characteristics, after it was introduced into Lingnan. On the contrary, according to the principle of "poor learning and rich learning" in cultural exchange, Hakka dialect in some areas has been infiltrated by Cantonese, becoming "bilingual" and even becoming a Cantonese area. According to a survey, Cantonese is the most standard in three cities around the world, namely Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Wuzhou ~ ~

Some people say that Cantonese dialects are divided into three levels: the first level is Cantonese, which is the most popular major dialect in Cantonese system, based on the dialects of cities and counties on both sides of the Pearl River Delta and Xijiang River, including Wuzhou, Hong Kong and Macao. The second level is the peripheral or remote areas belonging to the Pearl River or Xijiang River basin, including Dongguan, Zengcheng, Conghua, Qingyuan, Yunfu, Luoding, Jiaozhou and Huazhou, as well as Cenxi, Yulin and Nanning. Compared with Guangzhou dialect, the dialects in these places have their own characteristics, but there are still many similarities in pronunciation and vocabulary. The third level is non-Pearl River or Xijiang Cantonese films, including Yangshan and Lianxian in western Guangdong, Xinhui, Taishan and Yangjiang in central Guangdong, and Hepu and Lingshan in Guangxi. This non-Xijiang Cantonese is very different from Guangzhou in pronunciation and vocabulary.