Which small county in Chengde, Hebei Province is the birthplace of modern Mandarin?

Where does modern Mandarin come from? Originally from Chengde, Hebei Province, a small county!

Article 19 of the Constitution of People's Republic of China (PRC) (1954) stipulates: "The State promotes Putonghua which is commonly used throughout the country."

So where does Mandarin come from?

Is it from the old China saying?

Answer: No.

Whether it comes from Beijing dialect, the so-called "Beijing film".

Answer: No!

Beijing dialect is close to Mandarin, but it is not standard Mandarin, nor is it the language source of Mandarin.

The birthplace of Putonghua is Luanping, a little-known county in Chengde, Hebei Province. Mandarin used to be just a dialect in this area.

Chengde city

1953, the State Council decided to use "Putonghua", the official language of the Qing Dynasty (called Mandarin in the Republic of China) as the standard language, and ordered language experts to find and collect standard pronunciations as templates in Hebei.

Linguistic experts visited Jingoutun Town, Bakeying Town and Huodoushan Town in Luanping for voice collection during their inspection of the production of common languages in China. Experts agree that the pronunciation of Luanping dialect conforms to the characteristics of "smooth syllable, concise tone and easy to distinguish" required by the standard pronunciation, and is suitable for broadcasting, speech and daily communication.

Experts believe that Luanping dialect has no foreign phonetic habits such as Beijing dialect (Manchu, Mongolian, Donghu dialect), that is, Beijing dialect, Beijing film, hutong pronunciation, etc., and it is easier to learn and popularize than Beijing dialect.

Note Luanping County belongs to the west of Chengde City, Hebei Province, the intersection of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, Liaoning and Mongolia, the northeast of Hebei Province, between the Beijing-Chengde Corridor, and the county seat is about 165 km away from Beijing.

There are traces of human activities in the Neolithic age in Luanping area. This place is the throat fortress leading from the Central Plains to the northern grasslands and western Liaoning. There have been many ethnic groups in history, such as Sushen, Shanrong, Donghu, Xiongnu, Wuhuan, Xianbei, Momoxi, Qidan, Bohai, Jurchen, Mongolia, Manchu and Han.

Location map of Luanping County

From the Shang and Zhou Dynasties to the Warring States Period, it was mainly the living area of Donghu Shanrong people. Shanrong has a history of more than 700 years in Luanping, leaving a large number of cultural relics of Shanrong. In the Han Dynasty, this place belonged to Yuyang County and Youbeiping County. After that, it was mainly the activity area of the Northern Emperor, Xianbei, Qidan and other Donghu people.

Luanping was founded in the Qing Dynasty (A.D. 1778, forty-three years of Qing Qianlong).

Luanping was the only place for the Qing emperor to travel between Beijing and Chengde Royal Summer Resort. Therefore, the royal culture of the Qing Dynasty has a profound accumulation, including five imperial roads, eight palaces, eight temples, four official posts and more than 360 other sites, relics and ancient buildings. Four emperors, Kangxi, Qianlong, Jiaqing and Xianfeng, made 230 trips to and from this place during the summer vacation, among which Kangxi and Qianlong made the most trips, both of which were more than 90 times.

After Manchu entered the customs, he was stationed in Luanping. During the Kangxi period, a large number of Manchu immigrants entered Luanping for colonization. Huang Zhuang, directly under the Royal Ministry of Internal Affairs, Wangzhuang, directly under Wang Fu, and all flag villages of officers and men at all levels of the Eight Banners have established "farms outside the mouth" in Luanping. So authentic and distinctive Manchu banners were popular here at that time.

Luanping's semaphore is the predecessor of "Mandarin" and Putonghua in the Republic of China.

Chengde city

From 65438 to 0953, the State Council, the central people's government, decided to take Luanping County, Chengde City, Hebei Province as the main collection place of standard Putonghua.

1955 10, held a national conference on character reform and a conference on the standardization of modern Chinese, and decided to make Luanping dialect in Hebei as Putonghua, which will be promoted and studied throughout the country as a model of Putonghua.

1955, the pronunciation was confirmed as modern standard Chinese, and its name was changed from "Mandarin" in the Republic of China (following the official dialect of the Qing Dynasty) to "Putonghua", which was written into the Constitution as the national common language. After the standard was formulated, the State Council issued the Instruction on Promoting Putonghua on February 6th, 1956, which was popularized throughout the country.

This is the origin of modern Mandarin.

Therefore, Putonghua is actually a very young language, not an ancient language that the Chinese nation has been using since ancient times.