清朝“同文之治”新论

A New Perception on“Rule of Tongwen”in the Qing Dynasty

“同文之治”是清朝治国理政的一项基本国策,但其内涵和实质直到今天还有不甚明确的地方,“同文之治”首先是一个语言文字学命题,由于语言文字学家的缺位,其“不求甚解”之处甚多。本文从语言文字学角度入手,从七个方面论证清朝“同文之治”的重要特征:(一)清朝“同文之治”是对周秦以来“书同文”的延续,是清朝以“天下一统”为前提治理多民族国家的重要国策,是清朝将其对多民族统治合法化的极其关键的理论与实践,是乾隆皇帝实现“圣王”理念的重要途径;(二)清朝“同文之治”就是“同文化之治”,就是在以儒家文化为代表的文德教化大一统的前提下,在华夏正朔文化通行天下的前提下,各族群在语言文字文化上的共存共现共享、交往交流交融;(三)清朝的“同文之治”自始至终以汉语文为通用语言文字,汉语文是其他语言文字的学习和注释工具,是各种语言文字进行沟通的桥梁;(四)清朝“同文之治”之底色是“通用语言文字”的大一统、规范化和标准化,而不同语言文字共同呈现是其表征;(五)清朝“同文之治”体现为诸种语言文字翻译、研究与互学互鉴;(六)清朝的“同文之治”包括通用语言文字在内的诸种语言文字的规范化与标准化;(七)清朝的“同文之治”还包括国家标准通用读书音与通用口语音——官音的推广普及。

“The rule of Tongwen”is a basic state policy of the Qing Dynasty,but its connotation and essence are still not very clear until today.Being initially a proposition of language philology,however,due to the absence of linguists and philology at the initial stage,there remain many aspects yet to be clarified.From the perspective of philology,this paper demonstrates the important characteristics of“the rule of Tongwen”in the Qing Dynasty from seven aspects.Firstly,It is the continuation of the“unity of Chinese language”since the Zhou and Qin dynasties,and it is an important national policy of the Qing Dynasty to govern the multi-ethnic country on the premise of the idea of unification of the world and to legitimize its multi-ethnic rule as an extremely critical theory and practice.It is an important way for Emperor Qianlong to realize his concept of being a“sage emperor”.Secondly,“the rule of Tongwen”in the Qing Dynasty is the“governance of unified culture”.It is the coexistence,co-occurrence,communication,exchange and integration of all ethnic groups in language and culture aspects under the premise of the unification of culture and morality represented by Confucian culture and the popularization of Chinese culture.Thirdly,“the rule of Tongwen”has always adopted Chinese language as the lingua franca,and using Chinese is a tool for learning and annotating other languages and a bridge for communication between various languages.Fourthly,the backbone nature for“the rule of Tongwen”in the Qing Dynasty is the great unification,standardization of“lingua franca”,with diverse languages and writing characters being all existed as the superficial phenomenon.Fifthly,“the rule of Tongwen”is embodied in the translation,research and mutual learning of various languages.Sixthly,“the rule of Tongwen”is the normalization and standardization of various languages,including the lingua franca itself.Seventhly,“the rule of Tongwen”also includes the promotion and popularization of national standard general pronunciation for both written and oral languages,or the promotion of the official pronunciation.