<<——Preamble——>>
"The Manchus don't even know Manchu?"
The Qing Dynasty, established by the Manchus, ruled the mainland for nearly 300 years, and not only that, but the Manchus were the only four ethnic groups on the mainland with a population of more than 10 million, except for the Han Chinese.
However, few of the Manchus, with their illustrious history and large population, speak Manchu, which led to the listing of Manchu as "critically dangerous" in the United Nations' Atlas of Endangered Languages.
So, how did the Manchu language come about? What is its current situation? And what is the reason why the Manchu language is still dying out after nearly 300 years of Qing rule and the population base of tens of millions of Manchus today?
<< · - The appearance of the Manchu language - · >>
The Manchus are a member of the 56 ethnic groups on the mainland, and they are also a people with a long history, in history, the Manchus and their predecessors, the Jurchens, have twice ruled the Central Plains.
In the process of entering the Central Plains twice, the Manchus and their predecessors Jurchens also discovered a big problem, that is, although the Manchus have a very long history and have their own language, they only have language but no writing.
As a result, they often had to face various language communication problems when they entered the Central Plains.
Therefore, the Jurchens of the Jin Dynasty established their own language and script based on Khitan and Chinese.
However, it took only more than 100 years for the Jurchens of the Jin Dynasty to establish their own language and writing, and the once powerful Jin Dynasty was destroyed under the ravages of the Mongol iron cavalry.
Due to the fierce resistance of the Jin Dynasty to the Mongols, the Jurchen immigrants of the Jin Dynasty suffered great reprisals, which not only greatly reduced the number of Jurchen people in the Jin Dynasty, but also caused the Jurchen script to gradually disappear in the war.
Although in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, the new Jurchens re-emerged, but because the Jurchens of the Qing Dynasty and the Jurchens of the Jin Dynasty were not the same branch at all, and because they were abandoned for a long time, the Jurchen script left by the Jin Dynasty has become unknown.
And this gave the Qing rulers who wanted to enter the Central Plains at that time have the same problem as the Jurchen rulers of the Jin Dynasty: they did not have their own writing.
Faced with this situation, the Qing Emperor Nurhachi ordered his subordinates to create today's Manchu and Manchu languages according to the Mongolian script and combined with the language habits of the Manchu people.
<< - Manchus do not like to speak Manchu - >>
After the Qing army entered the customs, in order to ensure their long-term rule in the Central Plains, the Qing rulers chose to absorb and learn a lot of Central Plains culture.
As a result, a large number of Baqi disciples who came to the Central Plains from outside the Guanxi began to gradually learn the language and culture of the Han people in the continuous exchanges with the Han people.
In the process of learning, Manchu and Chinese collided greatly.
However, for the Manchu language, as a language that was quickly established to facilitate rule, it was naturally not as perfect as the Chinese language, which had been developed for thousands of years.
In addition, the large number of Chinese speakers, and a large number of allusions are written in Chinese, so that those children of the Eight Banners have to accept a large number of Chinese in their daily life.
As a result, the number of Manchus who were proficient in Manchu language declined dramatically, even under the Qing Dynasty established by the Manchus.
Faced with this situation, many Qing emperors wanted to save the Manchu from this unfavorable situation, so they made a lot of remedial measures, emphasizing "Chinese (Manchu) horse shooting".
So, did the remedial measures taken by the Qing emperors to deal with the decline in the number of Manchu-speaking Manchus have any effect?
<<·——雷声大，雨点小的补救措施——·>>
In fact, the emperors of the Qing Dynasty were very clear about the fact that the Manchus did not like to speak Manchu, and they also very much hoped to change this status quo. For example, Emperor Qianlong, he very much wanted to increase the importance of the Manchu language.
Therefore, during the reign of Emperor Qianlong, he specifically required officials of all ethnic groups (especially Manchus) to use the Manchu language in their communication with him.
However, as the saying goes, "there is a policy above, and there is a countermeasure below", and despite the coercive demands of the Qianlong Emperor, those Manchu officials still had their own policies.
They memorized the content that needed to be reported in Manchu in advance, and then reported to Qianlong about their work.
For Qing rulers, it was rare for even important Manchu ministers to be willing to continue using Manchu.
Due to the need for rule, coupled with the splendor and prosperity of Han culture, the Qing rulers could not force the whole country to use the Manchu language as "shaving hair and changing clothes".
Easy to shave
As a result, even in the nearly 300 years of the Qing Dynasty, which was established by the Manchus, although the number of Manchus continued to increase, there were fewer and fewer people who could speak Manchu and understand Manchu throughout the country.
After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the importance of Manchu was further reduced because Manchu was no longer an important official language, and many Manchus had to use the Han surname in order to avoid harm, which led to a further decline in the number of Manchu speakers.
So, why is it so difficult to promote the Manchu language?
<<·——残缺的弊端——·>>
As mentioned above about the origin of the Manchu language, although the Manchu has a very long history, due to some restrictions, the Manchus had to create their own script on the basis of Mongolian before entering the customs.
But the problem is that Mongolian is not a mature script, and the Mongolian language was created for the same reason as the Qing Dynasty, which is believed to have been created to rule over a vast region.
For such an artificially created script, it is natural to face many shortcomings, such as the use of new professional vocabulary, the flexibility of Manchu is naturally far less than that of Chinese, which is naturally formed by people.
In addition, the strength of Han culture was also an important reason why the Manchu language was difficult to promote in the Qing Dynasty.
Although the rulers of the Qing Dynasty not only required the ministers of all ethnic groups to report to themselves in Manchu during their reign, but also required the Manchu ministers to use Manchu when writing official documents.
But for the Qing rulers who wanted to ensure their long-term rule, although they could force some Manchus to write official documents, they certainly could not ask the Manchus not to study the cultural classics of the Central Plains.
You must know that the influence of excellent literary works is very large, just like the cultural influence of the United States today, the reason why it can radiate to the world is inseparable from the publicity brought by Hollywood blockbusters. The same is true of the influence of Han culture on the children of the Eight Banners.
Hollywood blockbusters
As a result, not long after the Qing army entered the customs, many high-ranking officials and nobles of the Qing Dynasty began to read a large number of excellent literary works, among which "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was once regarded as a military book by the generals of the Qing army.
After all, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty themselves were very fond of these cultural classics, so after the Qing Dynasty created the Manchu language, they constantly asked their subordinates to translate the Han classics into Manchu.
The translated classics of the Central Plains culture have become a must-read for the Manchu generals, and these cultural classics have greatly recast the values of the Manchu people, and their hearts have begun to yearn for the Central Plains culture more.
During the Qianlong period, the Qing army led by the Qing general Zhaohui was surrounded by the Hezhuo rebel army
In the face of the desperate situation of lack of food and clothing, the Qing army still maintained strong combat effectiveness and high will to fight, and this is related to a "Whole Book of Yue" brought by the artists accompanying the army.
Although the predecessor of the Manchus in the Qing Dynasty was the Jurchen, and the protagonist of "The Whole Book Says Yue" was the famous general Yue Fei who fought against the Jurchens of the Jin Dynasty, but for such a Han general who violently beat his ancestors, these officers and soldiers of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty admired it very much.
According to records, the most favorite thing for these officers and soldiers of the Eight Banners who were besieged at that time was the story of Yue Fei's violent beating of the Golden Vultures.
It was with the blessing of such spiritual strength that the Qing army was able to repel the attack of the Hezhuo rebels for more than three months, and held out until the arrival of reinforcements.
It can be said that it is precisely because of the strength of the Central Plains culture that the descendants of the Jurchens, the descendants of the Manchu Eight Banners, really wrote what Yue Fei said: "Ambition to eat Hulu meat, laughing and thirsty for Xiongnu blood".
Not only that, after the Qing Dynasty fought in Dzungaria and Daxiao Hezhuo, and recovered Xinjiang, the Qing Dynasty rulers took the "Book of Han" and "Book of Tang" to restore the place names of those cities in the history books one by one.
It should be said that in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, after experiencing the influence of the Central Plains culture for hundreds of years, the Qing Dynasty at this time has completely integrated itself into the values of the Central Plains culture.
Under such values, within the Qing Dynasty, especially among the children of the Eight Banners of Manchuria, there were naturally fewer people who were willing to speak Manchu.
So, since there were not so many Manchus willing to learn Manchu in the Qing Dynasty, the period when the Manchus had the highest status, why should we save the Manchu language today?
<< - Why protect the Manchu ?—— >>
As for why we want to save the Manchu language, we must first understand that the Manchus are a part of the Chinese nation, and the Manchu culture is also a part of the Chinese culture, and for the traditional Chinese culture, we naturally want to inherit and promote it.
In addition, during the Qing Dynasty, a large number of historical materials were compiled in Manchu, which provided an important reference for our study of ancient history.
However, the sheer volume of these historical materials was so large that more Manchu speakers were needed to translate them.
Another very important point is that Japan and South Korea have also opened their own Manchu language research institutes, and if the Manchu language disappears from China, then the "Manchu language" is likely to usher in the same crisis as the Dragon Boat Festival.
<<·——Conclusion——·>>
Today's Chinese nation is a big family composed of 56 ethnic groups, and the loss of any ethnic group's cultural inheritance is a very big loss, so the protection of the Manchu language and the non-disappearance of the Manchu language is also to avoid the huge loss of Chinese culture.
bibliography
Endangered Languages Atlas
"Tens of Millions of Manchus, Most of the Illiterate Manchu CPPCC Members Call for Rescue," China News Network, November 29, 2010
"Qing Shilu"