Schismatic 'National Language'

In recent years,how to view the early Qing history is very different compared with early times,by many scholars' efforts.Qing has no longer been regarded as a tradtional dynasty,which ruled by Chinese elites,traditional politics,the legacy of Confucianis,culture,religions,or primary cause hindering the progress of Chinese civilization and leading to a fully blown recession of China.Due to the vast territory,diverse ethnics,complex and effective ruling measure in early modern period,Qing history has shown images with animation but challenging.However,how we consider Qing empire after entering the 19th century,especially in 1840,is still a complex and rigid mission for us.For instance,Qing's national language—Manchu,has long been considered to rapidly go into retreat since 1644,and lost its status as the national language ultimately.Reviewing Manchu language and script's political status as the'dynastic language'and'script'(Ch.guoyu,guoshu)in Late Qing and the relationship between Manchu and Chinese are the questions that my dissertation wants to answer.Through these perspectives,we can notice that there were two concepts about national language,and identity as well as power game embedded in different languages.This paper concludes that Manchu language had never lost its political statu as national language from Daoguang to Xuantong periods.Whether Qing emperors or eight banners officials safeguard guoyu as one of important responsibilities.Manchu language,as national language,not only embodied in Qing empire's thorough system,but in complex and varying political reality.Within Qing empire,when Qing emperors or eight banners officials had intense consciousness,Manchu was widely used under imperial domination.First,on the education level,emperors and officials attached much significance to Manchu language education.Despite manchu education had been affected in some regions by turmoil and wartorn,it maintained in Eight Banners society until the fall of the Qing empire.Second,during the process of government's activities,a lot of manchu doucuments,which demonstrated the participation of manchu in imperial politics,is left fortunately now.Furthermore,Clerk(bithesi ???),a bureaucratic groups mainly engaged in translation field,was also proof of the importance of manchu language in late Qing.On the other hand,abroad,manchu was not only used by Qing official,but by many foreign officials.Many countries,which were traditionally in charge of Court of Colonial Affairs and Board of Rites,still depended on manchu language in many ways,despite using manchu greatly reduced between Joseon dynasty and Qing.In many occasions,for instance,signing treaties,official documents and intelligences,manchu had a critical role to play in the field of diplomacy.At this point,the language governing strategy of Qing empire appeared high consistenc both at home and abroad.So how should we interpret the statement that manchu's decline since late Qing and early Republic of China?By studying diverse groups—bannners,reformists and revolutionaries-their discourses,we can find how they use National Essence to convey their definitions of state and language.In other words,they have different ideologies about national language.After the end of the Qing empire,the knowledge industry which controled public opinion and thought words power had woven a story about manchu's decline,which was in order to decrease Qing empire's ideology and memory of history.Finally,the connection of two typies of national language became fractured.Not only guoyu was destroyed,but simultaneous(hebi)language politic decimated.Henceforward China bagan to towards modem transition with a new feature of'nation state'created by people in modern times.