清代宮廷城門建築門額上的滿文初探

A Preliminary Study of Manchu on the Name Plaques of Qing-Dynasty Imperial Buildings and City Gates

《清史圖典‧光緒宣統朝》書中刊有一張光緒三十二年（1906）發行的伍圓紙鈔，鈔面上緣有一排滿文，下緣有一排漢文。這樣的設計緊緊抓住了筆者目光，不免自問：為什麼不是漢文在上，滿文在下呢？答案正與本文〈清代宮廷城門建築門額上的滿文初探〉嘗試提出的解答是一致的。下回當您到北京紫禁城或瀋陽故宮旅遊時，不妨抬頭看看建築物上方所立的門額，在那個不怎麼大的書寫空間裡，常見漢、滿文併排其上，到底是漢文位主、滿文位輔，還是反過來呢？文中所得結論是滿文為主，漢文為輔。此結論與大陸部分人士的主張不同，然而從北京與瀋陽皇室建築門額的滿文分析即可知曉，愛新覺羅氏統治階層自始所堅持的「國語騎射」草原傳統未曾一日更張過，直至帝國末日來臨仍緊抓不放。

There are fewer Qing dynasty imperial buildings and imposing city gates in Shenyang, the northeastern Chinese city from which the ethnic Manchu minority originated, than in Beijing, the capital from which they ruled China from 1644 to 1911. There used to be some city gates far away in Xinjiang, to which the Manchu-speaking Sibe people, a tiny nomadic minority, came as permanent settlers-on the decree of the Qianlong Emperor-to establish military strongholds in the northwestern corner of the empire, after a long journey westward from their home town of Shenyang, late in the 18th century.Almost all these brick-and-clay structures in the above-mentioned regions share one common feature: they are decorated with name plaques with, in most cases, Manchu and Chinese inscriptions, placed in high positions to facilitate visibility and, hence, identification. An analysis of Manchu on those name plaques is instrumental not only to the gaining of insights into the language from its creation and growth to its eventual disuse, but also in revealing a close link between Manchu and Jurchen, a language spoken by the Nuzhen people who occupied part of China in the 12th and-13th centuries. Perhaps even more importantly, moreover, it helps in the identification of errors or irregularities in Manchu usage made on certain name plaques and in dictionaries.