There are so many dialects in China, how did the ancients travel from one place to another?

There are many dialects in China. To what extent? Someone once joked that "a hundred miles of different sounds, a hundred miles of different languages", and now the country is vigorously promoting Putonghua, which has made great progress. However, in ancient times, it was not easy for ordinary people to travel far from home. Therefore, the ancient ruling class did not think less of ways, so don't underestimate the wisdom of the ancients. Qin Shihuang promoted books with the same language, cars with the same track, unified measurement and so on. Just to solve the problem of inconvenient transportation across the country.

Some people may say that there is nothing about language in the policies pursued by Qin Shihuang. Indeed, it is definitely not Qin Shihuang's turn. After all, before the Qin Dynasty, there were Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and governors from all sides always walked around. During the Warring States Period, Su Qin also won the titles of six countries. It can be seen that there was already a unified language equivalent to Mandarin at that time. Of course, at that time, Mandarin was not as popular as it is now, and it needed special study, and its name was not so common. At that time, Mandarin was called Yayan.

According to textual research, Yayan originated in Xia Dynasty at the earliest, or earlier than the period of Three Emperors and Five Emperors. Although the specific forms of Chinese before the Zhou Dynasty can't be verified, the characters of the Zhou Dynasty were learned from the Shang Dynasty, and the Yin people learned from the Xia people, so the ancient elegant characters were Xia language. According to legend, the capital of Xia Dynasty was established in Luoyang, Henan and its surrounding areas, and the capital of Shang Dynasty was also established in the Central Plains with Luoyang as the center, so it is speculated that the ancient Mandarin is based on the ancient Heluo language.

In 770 BC, the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was established in Luoyi, the capital of Zhou Pingwang. Since then, Luoyi language has gradually become the elegant basis of the whole Eastern Zhou Dynasty. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius gave lectures, and his 3,000 disciples came from all directions. It is said that Confucius gave lectures in Luoyang. "The Analects of Confucius" says in Volume 7: "As Confucius said, poetry, books and rituals are all elegant."

The national language of the Han Dynasty is Romanian, which is an elegant language inherited from Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties. Luo, the standard language of Han dynasty, is called "pronunciation" and "elegant language", also called "common language". The Western Jin Dynasty inherited Han, so Luo is also a national language. However, the Yongjia Rebellion was overthrown, the capital of the Eastern Jin Dynasty moved to Jiankang, and the Luo language was combined with the medieval Wu language to form Jinling Yayin, also known as Wuyin, which was inherited by the Southern Dynasties.

Later, China was unified by the Sui Dynasty, and Qieyun was compiled. The official tune of the Northern and Southern Dynasties was based on Jinling Elegant Tune and Luoyang Elegant Tune, which merged to form Chang 'an Official Tune (Sanpang). The Tang Dynasty inherited the Sui system, and the language of the Sui and Tang Dynasties was "Hanyin" or "Sanpang". Chang 'an is the capital of Sui and Tang Dynasties, and Luoyang is the eastern capital. At this time, Hanyin in the Central Plains and Guanzhong has evolved after blending with all ethnic groups. The national language of the Song Dynasty is called "Yin" and "Elegant Tone". On the basis of Tang Yun, Guang Yun was formulated in Song Dynasty. Liuyuan in Southern Song Dynasty is based on Guang Yun's Ping Yun Shui.

But in the Yuan Dynasty, Mongolian was forced to be the national language. After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, abolished Hu Yu. The publication of Hongwu Zheng Yun standardized Mandarin. In the Ming dynasty, the elegant sound of the Central Plains was an accent. Before the Ming Dynasty, the Central Plains was affected by war and other factors, and the elegant pronunciation influenced Nanjing, the capital of the early Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the official dialect is based on Nanjing dialect, which was the standard Chinese at that time.

During the Yongle period, the capital moved to Beijing, and various places immigrated to Beijing. Among them, there are about 400 thousand immigrants from Nanjing, accounting for half of Beijing's population. Nanjing dialect became the basis of Beijing pronunciation at that time, but Nanjing dialect was popular throughout the Ming Dynasty, and the scope of Beijing Mandarin was relatively small and its status was relatively low. In the early Qing Dynasty, Nanjing Mandarin was still the official mainstream standard language. However, during the Yong Zhengdi period, Andrew Pavilion was set up to promote Beijing Mandarin with Beijing accent as the standard. Beijing dialect was developed on the basis of the fusion of old Beiping dialect and Nanjing Mandarin in Yuan Dynasty. In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, Beijing Mandarin gradually replaced Nanjing Mandarin.

Therefore, it is precisely because of the existence of elegant characters that the ancients can travel freely from north to south without obstacles; If Ya Yan didn't exist, wouldn't Su Qin learn dialects from many places? Didn't Liu Bei make a fool of himself by moving to more than half of the territory of the Han Dynasty? Moreover, due to the strength of ancient China, Yayan was also extended to neighboring countries, and its status was probably similar to that of English now, and it was considered as the lingua franca of East Asia.