The Historical Origin of Ganzhou Dialect

Historically, some people who speak the same or similar dialects moved into the territory of people who speak another dialect, and the dialects they brought were surrounded by local dialects, just like islands in the sea, commonly known as "dialect islands". It is an indisputable fact that Ganzhou has been a Hakka settlement since ancient times. Therefore, it can be judged that the existence of dialect island phenomenon in Ganzhou dialect must have caused the large-scale infiltration of northerners in history. The infiltration of personnel has brought about language exchange. Then, why does the local Hakka dialect "give way" to today's Ganzhou dialect, which is what we usually call "Southwest Mandarin"? This problem has always been the focus of debate among experts. Population background theory: at that time, the population of Ganzhou decreased sharply.

Since Gao Yan, the chief of Nankang, founded the city, Ganzhou once moved back to the capital, but in the year of Liang Chengsheng Yuan (AD 552), the county moved back to Ganzhou. Since then, it has been the seat of gannan county, the state, the army, the road, the government and the road, and the center of politics, culture, economy and transportation. Most of the court officials stationed in Gannan in the past dynasties came from the north. They came here to rule with the northern dialect, and the language used was the earliest "official language". However, this official language based on the northern dialect did not completely change the local Hakka dialect in Ganzhou before the Ming Dynasty.

However, the military garrison system in the Ming Dynasty made a large number of officers and men who spoke Southwest Mandarin live in Ganzhou, which had a great influence on the original language of this city with limited population. Gong, a member of the Chinese Writers Association and a long-term researcher of Ganzhou local culture, believes that at that time, Gannan suffered from war and plague, and many residents fled because of bandits, and the overall population showed a downward trend. In the 24th year of Hongwu (A.D. 139 1), the total population of Ganzhou Prefecture was 59757 1 until Zhengde.

Wei Suozhi said: Wolf soldiers entered and assimilated the local language.

According to historical records, in the seventeenth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1384), military guards were established in various military locations throughout the country. There are 5,600 soldiers in one guard, followed by 1000 households and 100 households, with military flags and small flags. Each guard is subordinate to the office of the governor and the Ministry of War of the Fifth Army. If anything happens, it will be returned to the guard. The implementation of this law requires a household registration system, which can ensure the number of troops to maintain the operation of the medical system.

Luo Yong, director of the Hakka Research Institute of Gannan Normal University, said that military households, that is, household registration, belong to military households. There are two original sources, one is the original military household in Yuan Dynasty, and the other is the active military household further established after the compilation of the Yellow Book in the 21st year of Hongwu (AD 1388). Military families are hereditary and strictly managed, so it is difficult to get rid of military status. Generally speaking, it is impossible to get rid of the army unless Ding tries his best and someone in the family becomes a senior official or the emperor is exempted.

Luo Yong and Gong agreed to implement the garrison system in Ming Dynasty, and stationed 5,600 guards in Ganzhou Prefecture. These "wolf soldiers" recruited from the southwest (who are good at mountain fighting) speak "Southwest Mandarin". And these officers and men who speak southwest mandarin have lived in Ganzhou for a long time. Unfortunately, this army was basically killed and there was no resistance.

The book "Research on Military Dialects" published by Guangdong linguist Qiu pointed out that many military towns in southern China began to form military languages in the Ming Dynasty, and the research circles called them "military dialects". Military dialect is a dialect with the nature of "dialect island" scattered in Jiangxi, Guangdong, Qiong and Fujian. It was named because of its close relationship with military households in Ming Dynasty. Wuping, Fujian, Cangnan, Zhejiang, Huizhou, Guangdong, Danxian, Yaxian, Hainan ... These places still retain military dialects, which are completely different from local accents. Textual research on Xu Hui, a professor of Xiamen University who grew up in Ganzhou and studied the causes of Ganzhou dialect for a long time. Military dialect and Ganzhou dialect are basically similar, and Ganzhou dialect also belongs to the military dialect series.

Wang Yangming popularly said that people who can't speak Mandarin can't go to town.

Speaking of the formation of Ganzhou dialect, we have to talk about Wang Yangming. According to folklore, during Wang Yangming's reign in Ganzhou, in order to prevent the peasant rebels from spying on the military situation in the city, all residents in Ganzhou were required to master the "Mandarin" in a short time, that is, the southwest Mandarin prevailing at that time. Otherwise, they will be regarded as spies of insurgents or mountain thieves, and once caught, they will be dealt with severely. Influenced by this unified order, all the residents in Ganzhou learn "Mandarin" all night. Soon, Mandarin became a popular language in Ganzhou, and it has been passed down to this day.

Han Zhenfei, deputy director of Ganzhou Cultural Bureau and director of Ganzhou Museum, put forward in the book Ganzhou Song Cheng: "In ancient times, the official language of a region could only be changed by immigration, and only when the composition of residents changed significantly would the language change." According to his speculation, in the third year of Zheng De in Ming Dynasty, Chen Shu, Wang Yangming's predecessor, asked the court to transfer wolf soldiers from Guilin and Liuzhou in Guangxi because of frequent peasant uprisings in southern Jiangxi and insufficient local troops. This group brought Guilin Liuzhou dialect to Ganzhou and gradually formed Ganzhou Mandarin. After Wang Yangming took over, in order to prevent the peasant rebels from spying on the military situation in the city, it was stipulated that people who could not speak Mandarin were not allowed to enter the city. This move further promoted Putonghua to become a popular language.

Gong, a member of the Chinese Writers Association and a long-term researcher of Ganzhou local culture, believes that Wang Yangming can only be regarded as an auxiliary factor in the formation of Ganzhou dialect, which has played a promoting role. The essence of Wang Yangming's theory of mind is "to conscience". He put forward the idea that "a thief in the mountain is easy to break, but a thief in the heart is hard to break". By killing bandits, dropping soldiers, forcibly popularizing Southwest Mandarin and other cruel acts of war, he let the people know that being a thief and not listening to the court will not have a good end, so as to achieve his political goal of making the people unwilling to be thieves from the heart. Therefore, the process of fighting bandits in Ganzhou became his political process of promoting psychology, and Gannan became his political testing ground. Because there is no written record about the formation of Ganzhou dialect in historical materials, the cause of Ganzhou dialect is only experts' speculation based on historical facts and folk spread. Different versions have different views. However, both the population background theory, the health system theory and Wang Yangming's popularization theory provide reference for the formation of Ganzhou dialect island, and provide us with a clear context from the perspectives of history, culture and folk customs.