Concerning this issue, we must first determine the concept of "going to court".

The kind of "Shang Dynasty" in our common concept is also the so-called "Da Dynasty and Chang Dynasty" in the Qing Dynasty, which is a very formal etiquette. Because modern people have been adversely affected by TV dramas, they often think that the emperor's court appearance is like this every day. Ministers of all ranks must attend, everyone is required to stand in line in formal attire (court attire), and there is an eunuch who shouts... The voice "starts the dynasty if there is something to do but leaves the dynasty without anything else" - however, in fact, this type of dynasty only appeared a handful of times each year in the Qing Dynasty, and would only be held when it had to be formally organized. This reason is also easy to understand. The formal attire of the imperial court (a large set of imperial robes, etc.) is really difficult to wear...The emperor is also a human being~

So although in theory, it is five days a month Regular court should be held on the 15th and 25th, but in fact this was completely ceremonial. Emperors rarely held regular court in the real sense, and sometimes they did not even hold it once a year. According to the records of wearing records, Qianlong wore formal clothes sixteen times in the seventeenth year of his reign - not all of which were worn in regular court affairs. The formal wear was also worn during sacrifices and major festivals (most of them were worn under such circumstances) - —Other years are not much different.

So if regular court meetings were not held, how could the monarchs and ministers of the Qing Dynasty communicate with each other and do business? The most common way is to "summon", and this summons is a daily occurrence. The file also records "crying out", which sounds quite vivid. There won't be many ministers meeting in this way, usually just one person or a few people. "Miscellaneous Notes of the Government and the Country since Daoxian" records: "Introducing officials, for example, led by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, should wear blue robes, sky-green coats, and hang court beads. On the first day of the lunar month, on the fifth day of the lunar month, and on the 10th, mended coats... ...When summoned, the color of the clothes is roughly the same, except for the long robe, which can be worn in blue, dark camel, or light brown, and also wears a loyalty and filial piety belt. "So it is much lighter to wear, and the emperor does not need to face it. So many people are making trouble.

After clarifying the concept of going to court, I think everyone should understand that in the Qing Dynasty, the emperor did not need to face many people when performing daily affairs, so although a classmate upstairs thought that this was the emperor's "most important thing" Stupid behavior”, but it is true that the emperor looks at what people say. When you need to speak Manchu, use Manchu, and when facing ministers who don't know Manchu, use Chinese.

Some students above said that Emperor Yongzheng could only curse people in Manchu. This is very inaccurate. Not to mention Yongzheng himself, many ministers during the Yongzheng period were also very good in Manchu, including the ministers of the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty, such as Nian Gengyao. I have read the Manchu memorials of the Nian Dynasty. The writing is skillful, and the key is that it is long enough... If you are interested, you can refer to the "Album of Memorials of Nian Gengyao" published by the National Palace Museum's Palace Document Editing Committee, most of which are in Chinese. It is "Qing Zi Zhe", which is Manchu Zhe. Since I don’t think anyone can understand it if I give an illustration, I won’t take up any space. Emperor Yongzheng's Manchu writing was even more wonderful. His Manchu writing was so brilliant that countless descendants who read the archives were moved to tears...

With the Qing Dynasty, the general direction was indeed towards the later generations. The scope of application of Manchu is smaller, but because the emperors of the Qing Dynasty always maintained "Mandarin riding and shooting", Manchu was required to be spoken on many specific occasions. Mr. Yingsheng once mentioned in the book "Miscellaneous Knowledge of the Manchu Language" that his great ancestor once witnessed Emperor Daoguang reprimanding the guards who had corrupted their Manchu accent when performing affairs in front of the emperor. It can be seen that at least in the Daoguang period, the emperor The prelude is still up to the person (and the accent is required to be standard T_T).

Some new information I have seen recently also shows that Manchu in the late Qing Dynasty still had a certain scope of application in archives, questions and answers between emperors and ministers, and formal occasions. For example, when meeting foreign envoys during the Guangxu period, records indicate that Emperor Guangxu used Manchu to host the occasion. The original Manchu text of one of the electronic versions of rare Manchu books recently released by Harvard-Yenching Institute, the "Sino-Russian Xianfeng Eleventh Year Treaty", points out that the final interpretation of the treaty is dominated by the Manchu version. Perhaps it was not mentioned much in Chinese history circles in the past.

Among the emperors of the Qing Dynasty, the one with the worst Manchu and the most inconsistent writing was Emperor Xuantong. This was also caused by the objective environment - after all, he abdicated before he grew up. Strictly speaking, there was no such thing. Receive traditional Manchu language education. Therefore, for other emperors, it is better not to generalize with Xuanyi.

In short, although the scope of application of Manchu in daily life is constantly shrinking, it is not as useless in formal occasions as we think. In daily summons (i.e., imperial memorials), the language spoken by the emperor depended on the identity of the ministers and the content of the memorial. In some cases, Chinese or Manchu was used.