Did the ancient emperors speak Mandarin or dialect?

Each has its own dialect, and foreign emperors need translation. For example, many emperors in the Yuan Dynasty could not speak Chinese, and from the Qing Dynasty to Shunzhi, they could hardly speak Chinese. Ministers who can't speak Manchu can't enter the study. Later emperors strengthened education from an early age and needed to learn Chinese, Manchu and Mongolian. Manchu ministers who could not speak Manchu during Yongzheng period could not enter the Ministry.

As for the accent in the Qin and Tang Dynasties, it is very different from the local accent now, completely different.

The most obvious sign is the rhythm of Tang poetry. For example, many rhyming words in Tang poetry don't rhyme now. Also, in the Tang Dynasty, there were "rising tone, rising tone, rising tone and falling tone", while modern Chinese became "rising tone, falling tone", which is what we usually say, the entering tone disappeared-this shows the great differences in languages.

It is said that Hakka dialect retains many characteristics of Heluo dialect in Tang Dynasty.

The study of ancient Chinese phonology is also an important branch of current historical research.