What was the ancient Mandarin like?

When it comes to the origin of ancient languages, it should have originated in the Weihe River and the Yellow River Basin. Fuxi's ancient cultural history, such as performing eight diagrams and "creating characters in Cangjie", took place during the Yanhuang period. According to Shan Hai Jing, Hai Nei Xi Jing and Shan Hai Jing Xi Shan Jing, the Yellow Emperor was born in Xuanyuan Mountain, which is three hundred miles west of Yushan Mountain. Scholars research: "Jishui, which originated in the Weihe River and the Yellow River valley, and the tribes led by Emperor Yan and Huangdi in Jiang Shui gradually merged the two languages of Han and Qiang, and kept some pronunciations of the ancient Qiang language. For example, "Xia" means "great, powerful and tenacious" in ancient Qiang language, and "Xuanyuan" means "big and round platform" in ancient Qiang language. Today, the platform above the plain will still be called "tableland" in Central Plains Mandarin. The famous title of "Dong Zhiyuan" in Qingyang, Gansu Province is located in Qingyang, Gansu Province, the birthplace of Zhou people's primitive farming civilization. The two tribes "Hua" and "Xia" gradually merged and absorbed the conquered dialects in the process of the Eastern Expedition, forming a unique northern dialect foundation in the Yellow River Basin. After the integration of the two tribes, the language reached a mature stage in the Zhou Dynasty, and the Book of Songs was written by people in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty according to the Luoyang pronunciation.

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".

The Western Jin Dynasty inherited the Han Dynasty and took Luo as the national language. In Yongjia Rebellion, Luo Jing and Jiankang (Nanjing), the capitals of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, were overthrown, and Luoyang Yayin was combined with medieval Wu dialect to form Jinling Yayin, also known as Wuyin, which was inherited by the Southern 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). Luoyang pronunciation was the standard pronunciation in Tang Dynasty. 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.

In the Song Dynasty, Mandarin was called "sound" and "elegant tone", and Luoyang intonation was still the standard. In the Yuan Dynasty, Mongolian was officially designated as the national language (mainly used by Mongolians), and then Beiping pronunciation, that is, the Chinese pronunciation of the Yuan Dynasty (Beiping), was used as the standard pronunciation, which was called "common language".

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 Jianghuai area is relatively pure, so Putonghua is based on Nanjing Mandarin and is the national standard Chinese pronunciation. During Yongle period, Beijing was the capital, and immigrants from all over the world moved to Beijing. Among them, there are about 400,000 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.

Before the Ming Dynasty and the mid-Qing Dynasty, the official standard language of China was Nanjing dialect. China language, which is taught and used by neighboring countries such as Japan and North Korea, is also the official language of Nanjing. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Chinese based on Nanjing Mandarin was popular among western missionaries who came to China. In the early years of the Republic of China, the "China Orthopedics Conference" hosted by western missionaries was also based on the Nanjing accent. For a long time, Nanjing dialect has been highly respected for its elegant and fluent appearance, intonation and unique position.

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. Beijing dialect was formed by adding a few transliterated Manchu words on the basis of the fusion of the old Beiping dialect and Nanjing Mandarin in the Yuan Dynasty (the Ming capital moved northward and more than half of Nanjing people immigrated to Beijing). By the middle and late Qing Dynasty, Beijing Mandarin gradually replaced Nanjing Mandarin to gain the status of Mandarin.