辽朝语言文字行用问题初探

A Preliminary Study on the Use of Language and Characters in the Liao Dynasty

辽朝统治者选择了既接纳汉语,也保留契丹语特殊地位的做法。在日常的政务运作中,契丹语与汉语同为官方语言,并行不悖,而擅长契丹语的“国语”林牙也与翰林学士一起,共同承担着政务运作中不同种类文书的撰写工作。此外,与中原王朝的“通事”往往地位较低且仅仅承担与翻译相关的工作不同,辽朝的“通事”一般与君主之间保持着密切的关系,并从事着许多翻译以外的工作。从实际看,辽朝社会南北分治的政治背景直接导致了其政务运作中形成这一独特的语言行用体制,而辽人别具一格的制度创新,又促成了这一体制的长期延续。

During the Liao Dynasty,the Khitan rulers not only accepted Han language,but also preserved the special status of Khitan language.In daily affairs,both Khitan and Han languages served as official language,while Linya(Khitan academician)and Hanlin(Han academician)worked together to deal with documents written in different languages.Different from their inferior peers in the North Song Dynasty,the Tongshi(interpreter)also had varied works due to their close relationship with the Khitan emperor besides interpretation.In fact,the political background of the Northern and Southern Divisions of the Liao Dynasty mainly led to its special language policy.And the Khitan people’s institutional innovation also played an important role in maintaining the continuation of its language policy.