Continuing from my previous post, here’s the second half of the essay.
“5) The collection of the famous “Three Hundred Tang Dynasty Poems” (唐诗三百首) sound better when recited in Hokkien/Teochew if compared to Mandarin.”
As mentioned previously, the literary pronunciations are used to read classical texts, and this set of readings mostly entered Hokkien the Tang and Song dynasties. Therefore, it is no wonder that poems written in that era would rhyme better in Hokkien, as well as other topolects like Cantonese and Hakka. Also, a higher number of tones (6 in Hakka, 7 in Hokkien, 9 in Cantonese) mean that a richer variety of dynamics is present when using these topolects to recite poems than, say, using Mandarin.
Since the checked tones (入聲) are largely intact in southern topolects like Hokkien, poems written to rhyme in the stop endings, like “滿江紅”, would generate a much more majestic effect when read in Hokkien, with the abrupt stops of the rhyming syllables creating a sense of anger and agitation.
“6) Consider this for a moment: Today, the Hokkien Nam Yim Ochestral performance still has its roots in ancient Tang dynasty music. Here’s the proof: The formation of today Nam Yim ensemble is typically seen in ancient Tang dynasty paintings of musicians.”
To be more exact, “Nam Yim”, or Lâm-im (“南音”; literally “southern sounds”) here refers to a form of Chinese classical music from Quanzhou (泉州), not the different art of the same name from the Guangdong province (廣東省). It is generally believed that Lâm-im was brought to Fujian (福建) towards the end of the Tang Dynasty when there was political unrest and refugees fled south, along with their arts. Many modern Lâm-im pieces are based on orchestral pieces in the Tang and Song Dynasties with verifiable origins.
“More astonishingly: Although not genetically-related, Hokkiens, Koreans and Japanese share many similar words (which are different from Mandarin). Example: news – 新闻 shimbun, world – 世界 sekai in Japanese). That’s because Hokkien was the official language of the powerful Tang Dynasty whose influence and language spread to Japan and Korea (just like Latin – [from] where many words were borrowed by the English, French, Italian, etc).”
“新聞” and “世界” are examples of what we call “wasei-kango” (和製漢語), or Chinese terms coined by the Japanese. When Japan first opened its doors to the Western world, it was introduced to whole new concepts, which Japanese scholars translated by recycling and inventing new terms using Chinese characters. These terms were, in turn, brought back and spread widely by Chinese students who studied in Japanese universities.
The Japanese can pronounce Chinese characters, or kanji, in either the native Japanese pronunciations (kun’yomi) or their original Chinese pronunciations (on’yomi). The most common set of Chinese pronunciations used is known as the “Kan’on” (漢音), which was adapted from the form of Middle Chinese spoken in Chang’an (長安; today’s 西安), Tang Dynasty’s capital. This was about the same time the literary pronunciations came into Hokkien, which explains why “新聞” and “世界” sound similar when pronounced in Hokkien and Japanese.
Korean, on the other hand, had extensive ties with the Tang Dynasty as well, so Korean pronunciations of Chinese words may sound similar to Hokkien due to the same reasons.
Simply because “新聞” and “世界” are not pronounced the same way in Mandarin does not mean that Mandarin “does not use them”, as the author suggests by the sentence “Hokkiens, Koreans and Japanese share many similar words (which are different from Mandarin)”. This two terms are shared amongst the different Chinese topolects, and simply because they are pronounced differently does NOT mean that they are not derived from the same origin.
Like how Hokkien is a Chinese language while Japanese and Korean borrowed words from the Chinese language, French and Italian are Romance languages (descendants of Latin) while English simply borrowed words from the Romance languages. Thus, it is incorrect to claim that French and Italian “borrowed” words from Latin – they descended from it.
To give an example, take the Latin word “monēta”.
The French word “monnaie” is DESCENDED from Latin.
The English word “money” is BORROWED from French (and indirectly Latin).
Trivia: The original English term representing this concept would be “schat” which is no longer used.
“To all 49 Million Hokkien Speakers: Be proud of your ancient Hokkien heritage & language! Speak it loud and clear. Teach your future generation this Imperial Language, lest it fades away. Be proud, Children of the Tang Emperors.
To all Mandarin-speaking friends out there — do not look down on your other Chinese friends who do not speak Mandarin – whom you guys fondly refer to as “Bananas”. In fact, they are speaking a language which is much more ancient & linguistically complicated than Mandarin.
Keep in mind that Mandarin is just: 1) A Northern Chinese dialect 北方话 (heavily influenced by non-Han Chinese) that was elevated to the status of National Language by Sun Yat Sen (孙中山，原名孙逸仙) for the sake of China’s national unity. Mandarin was never spoken by your proud, imperial Tang Dynasty ancestors. It was probably spoken by the Northern (Non-Han) Jurchen, Mongols and Manchu minority. Start speaking the language of your ancestors today.”
[Credits to Leonard Luar for providing this useful historical information. ]
When the Qing Dynasty was established, Manchu became the national language, being after all the language of the Manchu rulers. However, the de facto language used in court was a predecessor of Mandarin, a Northern Chinese topolect spoken in the capital and surrounding areas spoken since the Ming Dynasty. In fact, in 1728, under Yongzheng Emperor (雍正皇帝), schools were built in the Fujian and Guangdong provinces to teach the officials and scholars Mandarin, showing that it was already of an unofficial national status.
In 1913, after the Qing Dynasty was abolished and the KMT came to power, it was decided that in order to unify the country, a “national language” (國語) should be set. To tackle this problem, scholars incorporated elements from both Northern and Southern Chinese topolects to form what is now known as the “老國音”. Both the retroflex consonants (捲舌音) and checked tones (入聲) coexisted in this new national language.
However, many scholars objected; instead they were in favour of directly adopting the Peking (Beijing; 北京) dialect of Mandarin as the national language. One of them argued that the 老國音 had such complicated phonology that only Chao Yuen-jen (趙元任, a Chinese polyglot/linguist who supported the 老國音) could speak it. To give you an idea of how the 老國音 would have sounded like, listen to how the elderly people around you speak Mandarin, with varying degrees of southern accents, like pronouncing “八” into something like “霸”(again, due to the checked tones, or 入聲).
After years of debate, in 1920, the 新國音 replaced the 老國音, its pronunciations based solely on Mandarin, to the strong objection of scholars like Chang T’ai-yen (章太炎) who called Mandarin “金元虜語” (the language of the Northern barbarians) – not that different as the author’s attitude towards Mandarin, I guess?
Standard Mandarin in Taiwan largely follows the 新國音 when the KMT fled to Taiwan in 1949, bringing along their languages. When the Communists took over Mainland China, they made modifications to Mandarin and in 1956, made it the official language of the country.
And the Sun Yat-sen story? Well, it was simply fabricated by Cantonese enthusiasts and spread by unknowing Cantonese web-users who wanted to emphasise how Cantonese was no less impressive than Mandarin. To set the record staright as well, Sun Yat-sen’s original name was “孫文”, not “孫逸仙”.
Finally, the passage phrases itself in a way which suggests that Jurchens, Mongols, and Manchus co-existed with the Tang Dynasty and had already begun to speak Mandarin. This is absolute nonsense. The Mongols and Jurchens (who were ancestors of the Manchus – the Jurchens only, I meant) only rose to power during the Song Dynasty, which was a few centuries AFTER the Tang Dynasty. The Manchus only came about and defeated the Ming Dynasty, two whole dynasties (and about another 400 years) after the Song Dynasty. There is still debate over whether the Manchu language shaped modern Mandarin or that Mandarin’s distinctive features (like the loss of checked stops) was already present when the Manchus came.
However, one thing is for sure:
The Manchus did NOT exist in the Tang Dynasty, and neither did the Mongols and Jurchens speak Mandarin in the Tang dynasty.
Some points that the original text made were quite valid, but overall I found it to be a little too biased towards Hokkien to make a good article. Besides, the way that the author phrases himself, his wording, makes the whole article seem like an advertisement for Hokkien or something. And the sheer number of factual inaccuracies is worrying.
While I am glad that in the age of the Internet, people are expressing the pride they have in their own cultures (judging from how many people shared the text), it is a bit worrying to see that they are misled by false statements and exaggerated claims, some even becoming Hokkien chauvinists (story for another time) after being spurred by such texts.