In fact, among the ancients, some people used the vernacular to speak, and some people spoke in the vernacular, and I have four pieces of evidence

In what language did the ancients speak, whether in mandarin or vernacular? Since there were no phonographs in ancient times, it was impossible to record what they said. Therefore, we can only speculate and analyze.

There is a generally accepted view that language and writing start out as two systems. Language develops according to the system of language, and writing develops according to the system of writing, that is, language and writing are separated from each other from the beginning.

There's a little bit of truth to this statement, but it doesn't make all of sense either. The point I want to make here is that the ancients probably spoke in words.

Why do I say that?

Let's first talk about the generally accepted truth: words and language are separated from each other from the beginning.

How did words come about? There is a saying that "Cangjie made characters". What kind of person is Cangjie? He was supposed to be a wizard. The ancients once described "Cangjie to create characters" as "rain in the sky, ghosts cry at night". This just shows that Cangjie is a wizard. The ancient wizards, their task is to pray for the abundance of grain, for the world to eliminate disasters. "Heavenly rain millet" is the meaning of praying for the abundance of grain, and "ghost crying" means to eliminate disasters and disasters for the human world. Ancient wizards used divination to do their work. They are first on the bones of the tortoiseshell. Draw some symbols, then put the tortoise shell and animal bones on the fire and roast them. During the roasting process, the tortoise shell and animal bone will inevitably produce cracks. The wizards judged the good fortune based on the direction of these rifts and the symbols through which they passed.

Therefore, the text was indeed the symbol used for divination in the first place. Written expression is meant to communicate with Heaven. Since it is communicating with the heavens, it is impossible to say some vernacular, and if you speak in the vernacular, there is no lack of divinity, and the heavens will not pay attention to these words you write. At the same time, speaking in the vernacular, there is no mystery. The work of wizards must remain mysterious, and without mystique, the princes and nobles would not listen to them.

Once the writing was produced, it began to be used to record the words and deeds of kings. The so-called "left history of history, right history of events" means to record the words and deeds of the king. Why record the words and deeds of kings? Of course, it has the role of "learning from history". But the more important role is because the king is the appointed spokesman of God. The words and deeds of the king express the thoughts of heaven. Because if you record the words and deeds of the king, you must be a very complicated text.

Again, the writing instruments of ancient times were very limited. Whether it is recorded on the bones of tortoise shells or on bronzes, these things are very limited. It is also difficult to write, and it takes a long time to engrave the words on the bones of tortoise shells or on bronzes, and it takes a long time to carve a trace. It takes longer to write a word. Therefore, the ancient records cannot be recorded in the way they are spoken, they must be as concise and concise as possible, and one word must be able to represent many meanings.

Many of the words in the oracle bones we see now are mostly hieroglyphs, indicator words, or ideographic characters, and each word is worth analyzing by experts for half a day, which is the performance of the ancients' efforts to be highly concise and condensed.

Moreover, writing was also a tool of class rule, and in ancient times only the princes and nobles were eligible to read, the word. Therefore, if the princes and nobles were allowed to read and write, it would be impossible to learn some vernacular from them, and they could only use a standardized and condensed language, which could only be a literary language.

So why do I say that the ancients probably spoke in words?

I have four pieces of evidence.

Evidence 1: Ancient princes and nobles spoke in chinese.

Training how to speak is itself a basic skill of ancient princes and nobles. Confucius once said: "Literature wins over quality and wilderness, quality wins over literature and history, and literature is polite, and then a gentleman." "What is being said here is that the ancient princes and nobles spoke, not in the vernacular. Speaking in aristocratic circles, in big vernacular, is what you will be ridiculed for. Especially in diplomatic occasions, not only can you not speak the vernacular, but you must also be able to speak in the poetry of the Book of Poetry. Confucius also said, "If you don't study poetry, you can't say anything." That's the way it is.

It can be said that the ancient princes and nobles spoke in chinese and chinese, which was their basic skill. From this, it is concluded that the ancients spoke in words.

Ordinary people do not have the opportunity to learn, and they generally speak in the vernacular. But who cares how they talk?

Evidence two: The Hundred Sons wrote books and sayings in chinese and chinese.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, why did they write books and say? The purpose was twofold: one was to make the rulers see the books they wrote and accept their claims. Since the rulers are to accept their claims, what they say must be understood by the rulers. If the ruler does not understand, it is in vain. So the language in the articles they write is the language in which the ruler speaks. This shows that the rulers speak in words, and secondly, in order to widely disseminate their ideas and concepts. The ideas and concepts of the Hundred Sons and Hundreds of Families must be disseminated not only among the princes and nobles, but also among the common people, and to spread more widely, it is necessary to try to write their articles in the way of speaking. This shows once again that it is likely that people with a little culture in ancient times spoke in words.

Evidence Three: Some of the ancient idle books were written in chinese.

In ancient times, there were many idle books, such as the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", many of which were written by some folk people. Since it was written by folk people, they naturally wrote it in the language in which they spoke. The above is still used in the text. So we see that the above is still in words. This shows that the ancients used the language to speak.

Evidence Four: Many of the dialect words that remain now are wenyan.

There is too much such evidence. As far as the dialect spoken in that place in our hometown, the literary vocabulary in it can be said to be everywhere. This shows that the ancients did speak in words.

Some people may ask, in ancient times, did they understand each other by speaking in chinese?

I explain in one sentence. Sichuan people can't understand Cantonese people speaking, Guangdong people can't understand Shanghainese speaking, Shanghainese can't understand Sichuanese speaking. However, if they are the same Sichuanese, Guangdong, and Shanghainese, will they not understand each other?