In what language did the ancients write poems? When did Mandarin begin to appear? When did China start to use Mandarin in a unified way?

The official languages of Chinese dynasties have different names, such as Yayan, Zhengyin, Mandarin and Mandarin, which is also the definition of "Mandarin" in different periods. Putonghua in different periods in history has a certain inheritance, and at the same time it is constantly changing because of the change of regime, the difference of capital and the migration of population. Modern Putonghua, based on elegant words in the ancient Central Plains of China, integrates the elements of the surrounding minority languages and keeps pace with the times.

1, pre-Qin

The Yellow River Basin in the Central Plains was the main activity area of Chinese ancestors during the Five Emperors and the Xia and Shang Dynasties. There is no textual research on the specific form of Chinese before the Zhou Dynasty. It is said that the standard language at that time was the predecessor of the standard language of the Zhou Dynasty.

Periodic Chinese standard language is generally considered as the language of the Book of Songs, that is, elegant words. Yayan is mainly popular in the Central Plains of the Yellow River Basin.

(Speaking of the origin of Yayan, according to experts, the philology of the Zhou Dynasty studied the characters of the Yin and Shang Dynasties. Yin people learn from Xia people. The ancient elegant word was Xia Yan. Xia Jian's capital was in Luoyang, and then the construction of the Yin Dynasty was around Luoyang. Therefore, the standard pronunciation of elegant speech in all previous dynasties was based in Luoyang, and it can be said that the ancient Mandarin was based on the ancient Luoyang dialect. )

2. Qin and Han Dynasties

The standard language of the Qin Dynasty is not examinable, and the grammatical system, according to Li Si's Zhuke Shu, the basic grammar of ancient classical Chinese has taken shape. This grammatical system also became the grammatical system of later Guoyu.

The national language of the Han dynasty is Luo language, which inherited the elegant characters of the pre-Qin period. The standard Chinese language in the Han Dynasty is called "pronunciation", "elegant language" and "common language". Yang Xiong wrote a dialect, contrary to Tongyu.

3. Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties

There are many standard terms in this period, which are different in different dynasties, such as elegant sound and Chinese sound. The pronunciation of modern Chinese dialects, as well as the pronunciation of Chinese characters in Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese, all come from the medieval standard pronunciation. It is one of the important methods to classify Chinese dialects according to the different inheritance ways of the tone-entering words in the middle ages. )

The Western Jin Dynasty inherited the Han Dynasty and took Luo as the national language. Yongjia Rebellion was overthrown, the capital of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was moved to Jiankang (Nanjing), and Luo dialect was combined with medieval Wu dialect to form Jinling Yayin, also known as Wuyin, which was inherited by the Southern Dynasties.

4. Sui and Tang Dynasties

The Sui Dynasty unified China and compiled Qieyun. Based on the elegant sounds of Jinling and Luoyang, the official sounds of the Southern and Northern Dynasties merged to form the official sounds of Chang 'an (Sanpang). The system of Tang and Sui Dynasties.

The Mandarin of Sui and Tang Dynasties is "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.

5. Song and Yuan Dynasties

In the Song Dynasty, Mandarin was called "pronunciation" and "elegance". In the Yuan Dynasty, Mongolian was officially designated as the national language (mainly used by Mongolians), and then the pronunciation was based on the Chinese pronunciation in the Yuan Dynasty (Beiping), which was called "the universal language in the world".

6. Ming and Qing Dynasties

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Mandarin was called "Mandarin".

In the Ming Dynasty, the elegance of the Central Plains was positive, but before the Ming Dynasty, the Central Plains region was formed by the integration of many northern nationalities. The "Voice of the Central Plains" in the Jianghuai area is relatively pure, so the Mandarin is based on the Nanjing accent, and the Nanjing Mandarin is the standard Chinese. During the Yongle period, he moved the capital to Beijing and immigrated to Beijing from all over the world. 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, while Nanjing Mandarin was popular throughout the Ming Dynasty.

In the early Qing Dynasty, Manchu was nominally the national language, and later Mandarin became the national language. Since the Qing Dynasty, Beijing Mandarin has been gradually divided into Nanjing Mandarin and Beijing Mandarin as the standard pronunciation of Chinese. In the early Qing Dynasty, Nanjing Mandarin was still the mainstream standard language of Chinese. In the eighth year of Yongzheng, Andrew Pavilion was established to promote Beijing Mandarin with Beijing accent as the standard. On the basis of the Yuan Dynasty (when the Ming capital moved northward and more than half of Nanjing people immigrated to Beijing), Beijing dialect merged with the old Beiping dialect and Nanjing Mandarin, and also some elements of Manchu pronunciation. By the middle and late Qing Dynasty, Beijing Mandarin gradually replaced Nanjing Mandarin to gain the status of Mandarin. 1909, the "Mandarin Editorial Committee" was formally established, which was the late Qing Mandarin.