The first perspective is diachronic, a look at the Chinese language in Qinghai over time. Because there are no sources that provide information about the early stages of the language, I will focus on the questions of when the Chinese language came to be spoken in Qinghai, and from what period the present variety of Chinese used in Qinghai descended. Because these are primarily historical questions, their answers are necessarily derived from historical sources. The second section takes a synchronic perspective, a view of the Chinese language in Qinghai through social and geographic space at the present time. This section will deal with the questions of what kind of Chinese is the Chinese in Qinghai, who uses it, and along what ethnic, geographic and social lines the intemal variations in the language are most strongly associatcd. These are more clearly linguistic and sociolinguistic questions, and the sources with which they are answered, primarily my own research along with essays f...
L'A. examine la langue chinoise parlee dans la province de Qinghai selon une perspective diachronique et une perspective synchronique. Il montre ensuite que les dialectes chinois de Qinghai ont ete fortement influences par les langues non-chinoises de la region et tente de determiner la maniere dont cette influence s'est exercee
A collection of notes by Jerry Norman, as edited by W. South Coblin and published in Yǔyán yánjiù jíkān 語言研究集刊 [Bulletin of Linguistic Studies], vol. 21 (2018). Shanghai: Shanghai cishu chubanshe. (Special number in honor of Jerry Norman.) pp. 79-122.
THE CHINESE LANGUAGB IN QINGHAI Keith R. S. Dede In this essay I will discuss the Chinese language in Qinghai province from two perspectives: The first perspective is diachronic, a look at the Chinese language in Qinghai over time. Because there are no sources that provide information about the early stages of the language, I will focus on the questions of when the Chinese language came to be spoken in Qinghai, and from what period the present variety of Chinese used in Qinghai descended. Because these are primarily historical ques- tions, their answers are necessarily derived from historical sources. The second section takes a synchronic perspective, a view of the Chinese language in Qinghai through social and geographic space at the present time. This section will deal with the questions of what kind of Chinese is the Chinese in Qinghai, who uses it, and along what ethnic, geographic and social lines the intemal variations in the language are most strongly associatcd. These are more clearly linguistic and sociolinguistic questions, and the sources with which they are answered, primarily my own research along with essays from the 1980s to the present by linguists in China, are quite different from those ofthe first section. Indeed, it may be that these two sections should actually belong in separate essays, because there is precious little that binds them into a single entity. However, in the fìnal section of this paper, I shall show that the Chinese dialects found in Qinghai have been heavily influenced by the non-Chinese languages in the area and try to explain how this influence may have occuned. This last point is inexplicable without both a synchronic and diachronic understanding of the situation. Moreover, the frnal section on linguistic contåct will point out the value that the study of the Chinese language in Qinghai can bring to the study of whole of the Chinese language. Studia Orientalia 95 (2003), pp. 321-146
322 KEITH R. S. D¿OT THE DIACHRONIC PERSPECTIVE The question of when the chinese language came to be used in Qinghai hinges on the question of what we understand it to be. Throughout this essay I shall use the term "chinese language" to refer to the common, oral communicative tool of the Han Chinese people, The Chinese language existed many centuries prior to the time that the term Han, originally a toponym later taken as the name of china's first, long-lasting dynastic empire, came to refer to the people who use the language. Still, the people of that fìrst dynastic empire identified as their ancestors those who first used the Chinese language, whose genesis is the oracle bone inscriptions ofthe late Shang period (ca. 1200 to 1045 ec). Certainly, an oral, communicative tool predates the written language pre- served on the oracle bones, but because we lack evidence, we have no way to determine what language it was, who spoke it, and how long it had been in use. Nevertheless, the written language used in the oracle bone inscriptions was clearly derived from an oral language that shares both lexical and typological features with the modern Chinese language. It is also certain the Chinese language has been used by people other than Han people, and in recent times, it has even been used as a first language by people other than the Han. Moreover, there are people today who may consider themselves to belong to the same ethnic group as the Han and who do not use the Chinese language. However, these are later developments arising out of special historical circumstrances which do not preclude our identification of the Chinese language with the Han people in early historical periods. Human habltation of Qinghal Archaeological evidence shows that the region of today's Qinghai province was inhabited as long as 23,000 yeaß ago by a people sharing cultural characteristics with peoples to the east, in what is now Northern China. However, we cannot say with certainty whether those people spoke a language ancestral to Chinese. Similarly, the Yangshao Culture artifacts, dating from 2000 to 3000 sc and found in Northeastern Qinghai, the area of Qinghai today primarily inhabited by Han Chinese, cannot in confidence be said to have been left by people who spoke Chinese. The earliest historical evidence for human habitation of Qinghai comes from the earliest historical sources of Chinese history, the oracle bone inscriptions. However, these sources clearly make a distinction between the people living in
The Chinese Language in Qinghai 323 Qinghai, refened to as the Qiang j[,, and the scribes who carved the inscriptions. The Qiang were regarded as enemies, and, though it cannot be known for sure, likely spoke a different language from the people who inscribed the oracle bones. Thus, we can conclude that from the earliest historically documented times the Chinese language was probably not used in Qinghai. When the Chinese language came to be used in Qinghai is now a question of when Han Chinese people migrated into the area, settled down and established communities. We are not concerned with Han itinerant merchants, individual travellers, emissaries or other unsettled populations, who probably entered the region in very early, perhaps even prehistoric, times. Although they surely spoke some kind of Chinese, the fact that they did not settle down, raise families and form communities means that the Chinese language never developed a regional form associated with Qinghai. The migration of Han people into Qinghai has probably always been restrict- ed by two factors. First, the altitude and aridity of the region, which limited the ability of land cultivation to support a community, was unsuitable for the tradi- tional Han agrarian community. Second, the region was already inhabited by people who were hostile to Han immigrants. In fact, it was this second factor that instigated the first period of Han immigration. Beginning with the Han Dynasty (206 øc lo no 220), historical records document repeated military expeditions into northeastern Qinghai and the subsequent establishment of military colonies there in an attempt to paciS and secure the westem frontier. ÌVith the establishment of miliøry colonies, at times accompanied by penal and civilian colonies, the Chinese language came to Qing- hai and developed its own characteristics, undergoing phonological changes and borrowing from the local languages, as would any language in a similar situation. Indeed, as the following paragraphs will show, beginning with the Han Dynasty, the pattern of Han immigration to Qinghai and the subsequent use of the Chinese language in Qinghai was set. The pattem is that in times of a strong, central Han Chinese authority, Han immigrants arrived in the regions with arable land in the river valleys formed by the Yellow River and the Huang River in Northeastem Qinghai bringing the Chinese language with them. As long as the military colonies and frontier guards were able defend the area from incursions made by non-Chinese-speaking peoples and maintain the Han presence, the Chinese language was used. In other times, when strong, cenhal authority weak- ened or disappeared, Han people in the region either assimilated to the surround- ing non-Han populations, or emigrated to regions more securely within Chinese control, taking their language with them. Moreover, I will argue that the language brought to Qinghai by Han immi- grants during the last period of immigration, beginning in the Ming Dynasty
324 KEITH R. S. Døoø (1368-1644), is the ancestor to the variety of the chinese language that we ob- serve used there today. Han ers colonization The first central Han authority to colonize Qinghai was the Han Dynasty, specific- ally the Former Han Dynasty (206 ec - 25 ao). The first major expedition was carried out by the general Zhao chongguo i¿til El in ot Bc to prevent the eiang from forming alliances with the Xiongnu 4 ir to their north and cutting off the dynasty's trade routes to the west (QLJ, pp. 13-14). General Zhao succeeded in breaking up the Qiang and set up several military outposts with names like Linqiang tþi[, (overlooking+he-Qiang, near present day Huangyuan igù,?.), and Poqiang rÀi(, (Destroying-the-Qiang, near present day Ledu ,f.å¡r). These our- posts were essentially military colonies, staffed by soldiers of the Han army who cultivated land in order to sustain themselves, introducing irrigation and other advanced agricultural techniques to the region. These settlements were the first communities of chinese speaking people in Qinghai. unfortunately, as is true of all subsequent periods up to the 20th century, we have no record of what their language was like. This initial colonization was rather successful, lasting more than 200 years, despite periodic intemrptions due to both Qiang hostilities and internal Han Dynasty weaknesses. Although the disturbances were followed by renewed efforts at colonization, including more military-farming colonies, their existence depend- ed on the support of the dynasty's military, which by about 180 eo had weakened to the point that it was no longer able to sustain them (de crespigny l9g4: 146; QLJ' pp. 2314). The colonies \¡/ere abandoned, and the Han soldiers either retumed to the east, assimilated to the surrounding eiang people, or were ki[ed. Thus ended the first period of the use of the Chinese language in einghai. During the subsequent five centuries, there was no strong, central Han authority, and consequently there were no ñ¡rther attempts to colonize einghai and bring the chinese language there. Qinghai was largely abandoned to the non- Han peoples of the region, whose ethnic make-up changed during this period. several branches of the Xianbei gl4, originally from what is now the eastem part of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, moved into the area, subjugated the populations already there, and formed independent political entities that engaged in warfare and strategic alliances with polities to the south and east. over time, these groups, together with the people they subjugated, became known as the Tuyuhun "}.â¡F QLJ, pp. 5l-53).
The Chinese Language in Qinghai 325 Sul-Tang era colonízation When the second period of Han colonization began, under the direction of the Sui Dynasty (581-618), who were able to unify China under a single regime for a short time, they came into contact with the Tuyuhun. Although the relationship started out on friendly, cooperative terms, by 609 it had deteriorated to the point that the Sui emperor, Yang Di 'lhñ (r. 605-617), personally led a punitive expedition against the Tuyuhun in eastern Qinghai (QLJ, p. 60). This resulted in the establishment of military colonies of the Han Dyanasty pattem seen above. Though the Sui Dynasty was short-lived, the succeeding Tang Dynasty (618- 907) continued the colonies and regularized those in northeastern Qinghai into their administration, establishing the prefectures of Shanzhou ü¡C'il (near modern Ledu) and Kuozhou ,fptll (near modem Jianzha 9i¿L) (QLJ, p.62). Again, these communities were rather successful as long as the Tang military was able to protect them from hostile groups on their southern and western frontier. Indeed, the Tang military was so successful at this task, that it largely destroyed the Tuyuhun as an independent ethno-political entity. In so doing, however, the Tang opened the way for direct conflict with the Tufan oJ.$, or Tibetan, forces expand- ing from Central Tibet toward the northeast into Qinghai. In 670, the Tang and Tibetan forces met at Dafeichuan *-1FJll, south of Qinghai Lake, resulting in a devastating defeat for the Tang armies, and threatening the survival of the Han colonists in Qinghai (QLJ, p, 7l). However, the Tang military held firm in northeastern Qinghai for nearly a century afterwards. In keeping with the pattern of Han colonization outlined above, not until intemal Tang weakness, the rebellion of General An Lushan .*r,Ê r, Q03157) in 755, did the Tang military abandon the northwestern frontier, thus ending the second period of Han colonization. For the next 100 years, Qinghai and its neighboring areas to the north and east constituted the northeastem part of the Tibetan empire. Again, the Han colonists must have either left, been killed or assimilated by the ruling Tibetans. There is some evidence that the latter occurred. ln 822, an ambassador of the Tang court, named Liu Yuanding I'|fr,fú (fl, 822), passed through Qinghai on his way to the Tibetan imperial court. At a town called Longzhicheng ,U,T.#i. (now ex- tinct, but probably near the present Gansu-Qinghai border), he wrote as follows: A thousand people in their seventies and eighties bowed to me and cried. They asked how the emperor was. One of them said, "1rlúe came here with the army. Even now our sons and grandsons heve not forgotten the clothing ofthe Tang people. Does the court still remember us? When will the army come back?" His speech was filled wilh sonow. (Xín Tangs hu 2 I 6,6 I 02-6 I 04.)
326 KEIrn R, S. DEDE The passage clearly states that the former military colonists had been cut off from the Tang world. The remark about clothing suggests they were under pres- sure to assimilate to the politically dominant Tibetan culture. Song and Yusn era The third period of Han colonization in the Qinghai region lasted a mere 28 years, from 1099-1 127, under the direction of the Northem Song Dynasty (960-1127). Prior to 1099, the kingdom known as the Qingøng â''Ë,/-¡fþ, formed from the remnants of the Tibetan empire around 1032, ruled most of northeastem Qinghai. From the Song point of view, the Qingtang served as a useful buffer between themselves and the Xixia € î (1039-t227) farther north and west. At the same time, the Qingtang was an irreplaceable supplier of horses for the Song military, and served as the conduit through which "silk Road" trade with the far west was canied out (QLJ, p. 93). In 1099, the Song, deciding it would be best if they ruled northeastern Qinghai themselves, advanced up the Huang River. They set up the Huangzhou i9,J'il commandery (near modern Ledu), and in ll04 set up another near modern Xining Él (QLJ, p. 95). Military-agrarian colonies were established again, bringing the Chinese language to the region. And, again, it was not because of local events that these colonies were abandoned, but rather weakness in other parts of the empire. In ll27,the Song's northeastern frontier was breached by the Jin (ll15-1234), an Altaic-speaking people from Manchuria. The Jin quickly swept across north China, occupying all areas vacated by the retreating Song army, including those in northeastem Qinghai, where they took over the task of defending it against the Xixia (QLJ, p. 104). Needless to say, the Song colonies met the same fate as those at the end of the Han and the Tang. For the next 250 years, northeastem Qinghai, like the rest of North China, was under the control of non-Han regimes. For the majority of that time, it was under the Mongol Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368), who swept through the region in 1227 on the way to conquering Central Tibet. Though the Yuan were non-Han, they considered Qinghai a strategically important area, and stationed a large number of troops there. Though still disputed, the majority opinion is that the present "Tu nationality" (Tuzu J-riå), more properly refened to as Monguor, are the descendants, at least in part, of portions of the Mongol army stationed in northeastem Qinghai. The descendants of other Mongol army forces are found in southeaslem and westem Qinghai. However, during this time there is no evidence of Han communities in the region, and it is safe to conclude that the chinese language was not used there.
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Keith Dede