Chapter 35 Postscript About Manchu

The creation of characters by human beings dates back to thousands of years ago, and its development and evolution to the present is a history worthy of a special book; and the creation of various characters has its different causes, processes, different shapes and evolution processes However, the function and contribution are the same, they both convey the voice of the people and create civilization. "Historical Records" records that when Cangjie created characters, the situation of "rain in the sky, ghosts cry at night" may have various symbolic meanings; and the footsteps of human beings have begun to step from ignorance to civilization, and a arduous and tragic journey has opened a new page The opening ceremony of the book was described by Tai Shigong as shocking, and then it was a low-pitched--the successful creation of characters changed the fate of human beings and made human beings different from other creatures, but is it sad?hi?

The scene when the Sumerians created "cuneiform characters" was not copied by giants like Chinese characters, but it aroused the telemetry and imagination of later generations; whether there was heavy wind and rain, thunder and lightning at that time, it was the footsteps of human beings into civilization Applause at the start?Or do you lament that human beings have abandoned primitiveness and simplicity and entered the fate of complexity and dispute? However, the long river of history is rolling forward, the use of characters is extensive and common, and the level of civilization is increasing day by day. Of course, the idea of ​​​​wanting to return to the original and simple will disappear in a flash; the story of the creation of characters after the Middle Ages has never been mixed. The reason for the creation of characters, and the practicability of matching with the language accounted for the largest component. The reasons for the ethnic minorities who were originally less civilized to create their own characters even included national self-esteem.

The "Manchu" with detailed records of the creation process is a major example of various important human writings. It happened in 1599 - before that, the "Jurchen Big Characters" created in 1119 and the "Jurchen Small Characters" created in 1138 have been lost and no one can read them. Therefore, the Jurchen said Jurchen language, and Mongolian language—— It is recorded in "Records of Emperor Gao of the Qing Dynasty": The Supreme People's Government intends to promulgate the Mongolian character system as the national language.Bakshi Erdeni and Zarguqi Gagai said: "The Mongolian characters are learned by the ministers. It has been passed down for a long time, and it has not been changed!"

The above said: "Han people read Chinese, and those who have learned Chinese characters and those who have not learned Chinese characters know it; Mongolians read Mongolian, even those who have not learned Mongolian characters know it. The language of our country today must be translated into Mongolian. In short, those who have not learned the Mongolian language will not be able to know it! How can it be difficult to make characters in our own language, but it is easy to learn the language of other countries?" Erdeni and Gagai said to each other: "The Chinese language is the best at making characters, but the method of changing them is unknown to the ministers, so it's hard to hear!"

The above said: "There is no difficulty! But if you use Mongolian characters and the pronunciation of our country, if you combine them into sentences, you can see the meaning of the text. I have already learned about this, and you will try to write it. Why not?" Therefore, the emperor made an arbitrary decision: make Mongolian characters into the national language, create Manchu, and promulgate it in the middle school.Manchu spread since then. The records explain two points: first, the significance of creating Manchu is to unify the Manchu language and writing; Compose Manchu. How to connect the Jurchen voice with the Mongolian alphabet?According to the "Manchu Old Documents" in 1633 (the seventh year of Qing Emperor Taizong Tiancong):

There are no full words at the beginning.When his father Khan was alive, he wanted to create a full book, but Bakshi Podni refused.Father Khan said: "What do you mean you can't? For example, if the word A is combined with the word Ma, it is not Ama? The word Po is combined with the word Mo, so it is not Emo? My intention has been made, so don't say goodbye." Its method of spelling Manchu in Mongolian is as follows: Mongolian letters (阿, a) and (ma, ma), spelled as (阿妈, ama; Manchu meaning father).Using (额, e) and (颜, me), the spelling is (额比, eme; full semantic mother). Therefore, Erdeni and Gagai followed the basic principle of creating Manchu put forward by Nurhaci, imitated the Mongolian alphabet, and created Manchu according to the characteristics of Manchu phonetics.Manchu was born in Yan.This kind of initial Manchu has no dots, and later generations call it "Manchu without dots", or "Old Manchu".

From using Mongolian script to using Mongolian alphabet to write and write Manchu, this is of course a great progress for the rising Manchu.As a tool for exchanging information, the old Manchu script played a greater role in issuing imperial edicts, transmitting orders, recording history, and translating Chinese books, compared with Mongolian script.The largest old Manchu literature that has been handed down today is the world-famous "Manchu Laodang". However, the old Manchu script, as a new script, has imperfections.Its main disadvantages are: the same pronunciation, but some use different letters to represent; different pronunciations, sometimes use the same letter.The same letter appears in the same position, and sometimes there are several ways of writing it.This brings difficulties to reading and writing, and affects people's mastery and use of Manchu.Moreover, the number of letters is not enough, voiceless and voiced consonants are not distinguished, upper and lower characters are the same, fonts are not uniform, grammar is not standardized, and structure is not rigorous, all of which have caused problems.

Therefore, in 1632 (the sixth year of Tiancong), Huang Taiji ordered Bakshidahai to improve the old Manchu script. "Records of Emperor Taizong Wen of the Great Qing Dynasty" records: The Shangyu Bakshi Dahai said: "The twelve characters in the national book have no circles, and the upper and lower characters are the same. When young children learn it, they encounter the ordinary language in the book, depending on the meaning of the text, and it is easy to understand. Wrong. You can add circles at your discretion to analyze it, then the pronunciation and meaning will be clear, and it will be more beneficial to the study of characters."

According to this instruction, Dahai improved the original Manchu.This kind of Manchu was later called "Manchu with dots" or "New Manchu". The improvements made by Dahai are mainly in the following aspects. 1. Using the method of adding circles and dots next to the letters, the sounds that could not be distinguished before are distinguished, making the letters more scientific in terms of phonetic representation.In the new Manchu, use no circle and add circle to distinguish the consonant k and h at the root of the tongue (here, the Latin alphabet symbols commonly used in the world to transcribe the Manchu alphabet are used here, the same below), k and h at the uvula, k and h of foreign sounds; use no dot or dot to distinguish vowels o and u, a and e in the middle position and word end position, consonant k and g at the root of the tongue, consonant k and g at the uvula, foreign Sounds k and g, consonants t and d, etc.

Second, standardize the shape of letters, so that the writing of letters has been unified.Basically, one sound is represented by one letter shape, and one letter shape only represents one sound. 3. The method of spelling compound vowels has been perfected.The letters y and w are placed between two vowels, and y and w are silent, so that the two vowels before and after are spelled into a compound vowel. 4. Added twenty-four "foreign characters" spelling foreign sounds (see the first prefix of "Qingwen Enlightenment"), making the spelling of foreign words closer to spoken language.These twenty-four "foreign characters" are analyzed by linguistic methods, and in fact six consonant letters and two vowel letters have been added.These eight letters, or letters that are not available in Manchu, such as ts〔tsh〕, dz〔ts〕, uz〔z〕, y〔s〕, y〔s〕 (the symbols in square brackets are the International Phonetic Alphabet ); or there is no such combination of syllables in Manchu and the letters that need to be added.For example: in Manchu, there are syllables in which root consonants k, g, h are combined with vowels e, i, u, but there are no syllables in which root consonants k, g, h are combined with vowels a, o.To indicate this latter case, some letters have been added.

After Dahai's improvement, the shape and spelling of the Manchu letters were fixed, and there will be no changes in the future. There was also "Manchu seal script" in history, which was created based on the strokes of Chinese seal script.In the thirteenth year of Qianlong (AD 1748), thirty-two seal character fonts were promulgated, all named according to the characteristics of strokes, namely tassel seal, scissors seal, hanging needle seal, carved insect seal, Feibai script, Shu seal, Dragon script, Lin script, Bird script seal script, Turtle seal script, Fu seal script, Jincuo seal script, Luanfeng seal script, Hutou script, Tadpole script, Zhongding seal script, Yujin seal script, Zhuansu seal script, Chulu seal script, Grave script, Large seal script, small seal script, vertical cloud seal script, dragon claw seal script, odd character seal script, Zhiying seal script, inverted scallion seal script, upper seal script, sui script, bird trace script, biluo seal script, willow leaf seal script.This kind of seal character was published in Emperor Qianlong's "Shengjing Fu", and was also used on jade seals and seals related to the imperial court. During the Qianlong period, many Buddhist scriptures were translated.When spelling the Sanskrit mantras in the Buddhist scriptures, the existing Manchu letters were not enough, so Qianlong ordered Yunlu, Zhang Jia and others to formulate some new letters specifically for spelling Sanskrit mantras when writing the book "Tong Wen Yun Tong".These newly formulated letters are indicated by adding diacritics next to the original letters.Because these letters are only used to spell foreign words in Buddhist scriptures and are not commonly used in documents and other writings, the range of use is very small and has no impact on the development of Manchu. What really became the "national language" in the Qing Dynasty was the "New Manchu language", which has been used for hundreds of years and has had a major impact on and made great contributions to history and culture. In "History of Chinese Civilization", the section "Historical Role of Manchu" has a detailed explanation: In the culture created by our country's multi-ethnic groups, Manchu script has played a remarkable historical role. In the Qing Dynasty, there were a large number of Manchu documents, including a considerable number of archives, thousands of writings, and hundreds of inscriptions.These documents are important materials for studying the history and culture of the Qing Dynasty, the history of ethnic relations in the Qing Dynasty, the history of foreign relations, and the evolution of language itself.Some of these documents are unique and irreplaceable historical materials, and their value is immeasurable. In the Qing Dynasty, Manchu and Chinese were used together to exercise power internally and externally. Most of the edicts and edicts issued in the early Qing Dynasty were in Manchu.In order to improve the status of Manchu as a national document, several regulations were formulated specifically for Manchu officials to use Manchu in official documents.For example, it is not allowed to use Chinese characters to replay the imperial edict in Qing characters; the Manchu officials supplemented the ministerial books of various ministries and governors and governors of various provinces, etc., and used Qing characters to express gratitude in Beijing; Manzhouti town uses Qing characters for official affairs; the generals of the two northwestern routes, the guardian ministers of the tombs, and the generals of Fengning and Malan towns, except for the memorials in Chinese characters for local official affairs, other things such as thanksgiving, memorials for rain and snow, etc. Qing characters (see Bu Yipeng's "Memorial Style Book of Nations" for details). When communicating with foreign countries, especially Russia, Manchu is also one of the official languages.The "Sino-Russian Treaty of Nerchinsk" signed by China and Russia in the 28th year of Kangxi (AD 1689) was written in Latin, Manchu, and Russian.In the Manchu text of the "Sino-Russian Nerchinsk Treaty", it is also stipulated: "According to this, the revised texts will be stamped and exchanged, and published in Manchu, Russian, and Latin on stones, and placed at the junction of the two countries. , will always be a mark." On August 29, the 42nd year of Kangxi, General Bo Ding of Heilongjiang sent a letter to Mikhail, the governor of Nerchinsk City in Russia, which also said: Afterwards, if the Russian Chahan Khan is written, it will be written in Manchu, Russian, and Latin." Until the "Sino-Russian Treaty of Tianjin" signed in the eighth year of Xianfeng, it also stipulated: "Today, the two countries will reconcile the book with the In Russia, both Qing and Chinese scripts are transcribed, and Qing scripts are the main ones.” Manchu archives record the history of the Qing Dynasty, which is the original material and reliable evidence for the study of Qing history. At present, there are more than 1.5 million Manchu single-language files discovered and preserved in the First Historical Archives of China.The archives departments and relevant units in Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, Beijing, and Taipei also have various Manchu archives.Some files are still scattered in Japan, the Soviet Union and other countries. Manchu archives are written in "Manchu without dots" and in "Manchu with dots", with the latter being the majority.Manchu archives are mainly found in cabinet archives, military aircraft office archives, archives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and archives in various places in the palace.The time span is from the 35th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty to the 3rd year of Xuantong in the Qing Dynasty (1607-1911 A.D.). The earliest cabinet file is the "Manchu Old File" written before the Manchus entered the customs.This file is based on excerpts from the original archives at that time.It records the previous conquests in the unification of the Manchus, the political and military conflicts with the Ming Dynasty, the exchanges with Mongolia and North Korea, and the activities of Nurhachi and Huang Taiji.The recorded historical facts and the time of the incident are relatively recent, so they are authentic and credible. The Archives of the Shunzhi Years of the Shengjing Internal Affairs Office mainly reflects the transfer of artisans, hunters and slaughterers in Beijing, Shenyang and other places from the fourth to eighth years of Shunzhi, and the tribute payment situation of the hunters and slaughterers.It is an important original material for studying the social economy, land system, and tax and service system of the Qing Dynasty in the early years of Shunzhi. "Hei Tu Dian" was formed from the first year of Kangxi to the tenth year of Xianfeng (1662-1861 A.D.), which records the documents between the Shengjing House of Internal Affairs and Beijing's Department of Internal Affairs and the Fifth Ministry of Shengjing.The main content includes selection, rewards, pensions, household registration, corvee, official villages, orchards, taxation, palace repairs, emperor's east tour, imperial food, money and grain write-off, supplies transportation, expenditure, and Xibo's business, etc., for the study of Qing Dynasty Modern Northeast local history provides good information.The Russian documents in Manchu record in detail the important events of Sino-Russian treaty, demarcation, border patrol, card establishment, trade and so on.The Manchu Torghut archives record that in the 1730s AD, the Turghut Mongolian tribe, who moved from my country to the lower reaches of the Volga River in Russia, sent envoys to Tibet to make tea, make offerings to Buddha, and pay tribute to the Qing government. .In the thirty-sixth year of Qianlong (AD 1771), Torghut's return to the motherland, the Qing government's resettlement of it, and Qianlong's reception and gift to its leader Ubaxi. In short, the Manchu archives complement and enrich the historical facts recorded in the Chinese archives, while some historical facts are missing or distorted in the Chinese archives.The historical value of Manchu archives is self-evident. There are about a thousand Manchu writings handed down from the Qing Dynasty, most of which were translated from Chinese books.Manchu original works include "Manchurian Records", "Exotic Land Records", "Journey with the Army", "Nishan Shaman" and so on.Because there are not many, it is even more precious.In terms of language and writing, the number and variety of works are great contributions to Chinese culture, especially in the field of dictionary compilation.From the first Manchu dictionary "The Complete Book of Qing Dynasty" published in 1683 to the 200 years before and after the Revolution of 1911, a total of more than 70 kinds of Manchu dictionaries were published.Such as "Daqing Quanshu" (Shen Qiliang, Kangxi 22nd year, AD 1683), "Tongwen Guanghui Quanshu" (A Dun, Liu Shun, Sang'e, Kangxi 32nd year, AD 1699) Three years), "Manchu and Han Tongwen Quanshu" (39th year of Kangxi, 1700 AD), "Complete Works of Manchu and Han Leishu" (Sang E, 40th year of Kangxi, 1701 AD), "Yu Qing Wenjian" (Kangxi forty-seven years, AD 1708), "Qing Wenhuishu" (Li Yanji, the second edition of Yongzheng first year, AD 1724), "Sanhe Bianlan" (Jingzhai , Fu Jun, Qianlong forty-five years, AD 178), "Qing Han Wenhai" (Guarjia's Bani Hun, Pu Gong, the first year of Daoguang, AD 1821), "Qing Wen Collection" (Zhikuan, Zhipei, Guangxu twenty-three years, AD 1897) and so on.Among the more than 70 dictionaries, the most famous one is Qingwenjian.Qingwenjian is a series of dictionaries.After the publication of the first Qingwenjian, the later Qingwenjian was compiled based on the existing dictionaries or added languages ​​​​of the contrasting language or added or deleted the original entries.The earliest one titled "Yuzhi Qing Wenjian", compiled from the 12th to 47th years of Kangxi (AD 1673 to 1708), collected more than 12,000 words and phrases, according to The meaning is divided into categories, and it is interpreted in Manchu.In the fifty-sixth year of Kangxi (AD 1717), "Imperial Manchurian Wenjian" was published, and in the thirty-sixth year of Qianlong (AD 1771), "Yuzhi Supplemented Qing Wenjian" was published. The supervisor has made a lot of additions and deletions in the vocabulary, and the total number of words received has reached more than 18,000, and Chinese translations have been added.In the forty-fifth year of Qianlong (1780 A.D.), "Imperial Manchu Mongolian Chinese Character Sanhe Qieyin Qingwenjian" was published, and then "Imperial Four-Title Qingwenjian" was published around 1805. "Yuzhi Wuti Qing Wenjian", the total number of words collected has reached 18,671, and the number of languages ​​for comparison has increased to five, the order is Manchu, Tibetan, Mongolian, Uyghur, and Han.Among them, there are two kinds of Manchu scripts under the Tibetan column.One is "Qieyin", which uses Manchu letters to transcribe Tibetan letters, and the other is "Diaoyin", which uses Manchu letters to mark the actual pronunciation of Tibetan.Under the Uyghur column, there are only "diaphonies" in Manchu.Due to the many categories of words collected by the Qing Wenjian, the description of the meaning of words, and the comparison of words in multiple languages, this series of dictionaries occupies a prominent position in the Manchu dictionaries, and it is also brilliant in the history of dictionaries in the world. Other nationalities in our country are also deeply influenced by Manchu culture.The Xibe script used by the Xibe people living in Xinjiang today was originally Manchu.Among the Mongolian and Daur nationalities, there are also those who are proficient in Manchu.For example, Aola Changxing, leader of Hulunbeier Zuoling, is a member of the Daur tribe. After inspecting the Ergun River and the Udi River, he wrote "Guanbian Wandering Notes" in Manchu in the first year of Xianfeng (AD 1815) after inspecting the Ergun River and the Udi River. The language is beautiful. , very literary value.And now there are still some old Daur people who are familiar with Manchu. The book also mentions the current status of research on Manchu in the world today: Because Manchu plays an irreplaceable role in the study of Qing history, Manchu history and their own evolution, Manchu has become a worldwide subject. China is the hometown of the Manchu language, so it plays an important role in the study of the Manchu language.The writings on the Manchu language and characters in the Qing Dynasty are themselves excellent achievements in the study of Manchu language.After the Revolution of 1911, the study of Manchu language was mainly carried out around the research work related to archives.Special mention should be made of the research results of Li Deqi and others on the early Manchu script, such as "The Origin and Evolution of Manchu Characters" (Li Deqi, 1932 AD), "The Manchu Wooden Sign of the Azige Luoming Incident" (Li Deqi, 1935 A.D.), "Writing and Historical Materials of Manchu Old Files" (Li Deqi, 1936 A.D.), "Shu Manchu Old Files" (Zhang Yuquan, 1936 A.D.), etc. , which attracted the attention of scholars at home and abroad.After 1949 A.D., especially after 1976 A.D., Manchu studies showed a recovery.On the one hand, it is the scientific research on language and characters, and many monographs and papers have been published. On the other hand, it has translated a large number of Manchu files. Taiwan has also made remarkable achievements in the translation and research of Manchu documents.In 1970 and 1971, the "Original Documents of Qing Taizu Chaolao Manchu" translated by Guanglu and Li Xuezhi of National Taiwan University were published. In Russia, Manchu began to be studied in the 1820s.The most fruitful works on linguistic studies are Zakharov's "Manchu-Russian Dictionary", published in St. Language Grammar". At the end of the eighteenth century AD, some people in Western Europe also began to study Manchu.Published Amio's "Manchu Grammar" (AD 1789-1790), Mulindorf's "Manchu Grammar" (AD 1892), etc. Japan began to study Manchu after the nineteenth century AD.In terms of translating and annotating Manchu documents, in 1938 A.D., the "Manchu and Parallel Translation of Manchuria" was published in 1938. From 1955 to 1962, Kanda Nobuo, Matsumura Jun, and Okada were published. A Japanese translation of Hidehiro's "Manchu Old Documents".In terms of language research, in 1966 AD, "Wu Ti Qing Wen Jian Yi Jie" edited by Tamura Mizo and others was published. With the continuous deepening of our country's history and cultural research, Manchu and its literature will receive more and more people's attention.The study of Manchu and its literature will produce more fruitful results. Since its creation in 1599, it has been a full four hundred years. Thinking carefully about the past, present and future of Manchu is like reading a four-hundred-year history of writing and looking forward to an endless sky of development; The eleventh century is approaching, and the research work of a text with a history of four hundred years will of course be improved to a higher level!