自家其土地，汝有行透未？（福州語）

有蜀回放假著厝辰候，共朋友攀講講遘旅游計劃，我就講：“若有閑，第一想將閩江由頭遘尾行透，由建寧閩江源直頭行遘閩江口五虎礁。是總款蜀回旅行，無十工行賣完，時間實在無。”伊聽了，講：“我無甚乇興趣。有茲時間，固是去外省名勝客調。”伓是我見覺其他位處無仂囝意思，㑚是自家骹底茲土地有茲夥有味其位處我固未了解，有茲時間，固是無辜負茲塊神奇其土地，使自家其雙骹去實實在在了解伊。㑚退悔做細佮厝未多行，仱著茲遠也無再夥機會，㑚忖偌工轉去，好好行伊蜀環，將許閩北閩南閩東閩西，榕泉漳汀，甚乇土樓、廊橋、宮廟、大厝、茲江許溪、茲山許嶺，統統行透。許，無一定著使我蜀世時間，㑚因茲地是茲般深厚。

多元的土地——福建

在我开这个blog的时候，困扰我的第一个问题就是如何给我的母邦福建一个罗马化的名称，用于这个blog的英文部分。现时，中国官方以Fujian作为福建的罗马化名称，但我实在不太喜欢这个拼法，因为这个拼法完全基于北方汉语（官话），却和福建本土语言的发音没有关系，换句话说，如果你对一个在纯母语环境中长大的福建人（比如某些完全接受闽语单语教育的老人）说Fujian，他/她会完全不晓得你说的是什么。但问题是福建至少有9种主要的本土语言，而“福建”二字在这些语言中的发音各不相同，这就让我很难取舍究竟使用哪一种罗马化的拼法。因此，我只好选择了最常用的3种罗马化拼法：Fujian（官话/普通话），Fukien（老官话）和Hokkien（闽南语）作为这个blog的英文部分中福建的拼写。为此，我不得不牺牲了自己的母语福州语中的罗马化拼写Hok-giong，因为如今已经很少见到这种拼法了。

从本土复杂的语言系统上，就可以窥见福建文化高度多元的一斑。我知道相当多人（甚至包括不少福建人），都并不了解福建各种语言的相互亲缘关系以及地理分布状况，所以还是借助这一张福建语言地图和下面的语言分类树状图来解释这个问题吧。这张地图上标出了8种语言的分布，分别是东北部的闽东语（Eastern Min），东南部的闽南语（Southern Min），中部沿海的莆仙语（或称兴化语，Puxian），西北部的闽北语（Northern Min），中西部的闽中语（Central Min），西南部的客语（Hakka），以及西北部最北端的一小块吴语（Wu）和西北部西端的小块赣语区（Gan）。前面提到的福建9大本土语言中唯一没有在地图上标识出的是畲语，即福建畲族人的母语，分散于福建沿海的山区中，大概由于历史上畲族人在迁到现今聚居地之前曾与客家人混居的原因，福建闽东一带的畲语十分接近于客语。闽南语、闽东语、闽北语、莆仙语、闽中语共同构成闽语，而闽语也是福建使用人数最多的一个语支，客语次之。闽南语是福建使用人数最多的语言，它不仅分布在福建的南部，还分布于广东东部的潮汕一带（潮州话）和西南端的雷州半岛（雷州话），及海南的很多地区（海南话）；闽南语同时也是占台湾人口约70%的闽南族群（河洛人）的母语，在台湾被通称为台语，台湾官方则称之为台湾闽南语；闽南语还是东南亚华人各族群母语中使用人口最多的一门，包括了福建话（Hokkien）、潮州话（Teochew）、海南话（Hainan）等分支。闽东语是闽语支中的第二大语言，包括了南片的福州话（福州语）和北片的福安话两大分支，且南北两支之间的交流起来非常困难。闽东语（这里特指的是福州话）也是比较国际化的一门语言，它随着历史上的福州移民潮而分布于马来西亚、印尼、文莱、新加坡、美国、日本、英国等许多国家。莆仙语在东南亚也有一些使用人口，但据说现在东南亚的兴化族群基本上很少说母语了。客语则是福建又一门广泛分布于东南亚和世界其他地区的语言。赣语和吴语则分别存在于福建与江西和浙江交接的小片地区。


这种语言的多元化来自于福建的移民史以及福建多山而相对隔绝的地理环境。从晋代八姓入闽开始的几次大规模中原移民潮带来了上古和中古汉语，而这些中原移民可能和当时福建残留的少数原住民闽越人相互通婚，从而又将一部分古闽越语的元素带入语言中，这些不同时期的移民在福建山水隔绝的不同地区繁衍出了福建的几大族群，而这些使用不同语言的族群又发展出各自独特的文化习俗、艺术和建筑形式等。福建的族群文化是个庞大的主题，不可能在短短的一篇文章中讲清楚，还选择建筑和曲艺这两个在视觉和听觉上最直接和形象的主题来讲讲吧。

福建的古典建筑形式的种类就像她的语言一样界限分明，各地的建筑形式迥然不同。而不同建筑形式的地理分布常常是和某种语言的地理分布相重合的，因此你一眼就能分辨出哪个是闽东式建筑、哪个是闽南式建筑、哪个又是闽北式建筑或哪个是土楼式建筑。闽南式古典建筑最突出的特点就是红砖墙、以中庭为中心有明确中轴线的对称布局、以及复杂夸张的屋脊装饰，由于各个布局单元的可重复性，一些闽南式民居规模相当庞大，比如泉州南靖的蔡氏古民居占地面积就超过10000平方米。闽南式建筑主要分布在福建南部的闽南语区（但并非所有的福建闽南族群都使用这一形式，有的闽南人就住在土楼中），还随着历史上的闽南移民潮被带到了台湾，不过像潮汕、雷州、海南一带却没有这类建筑形式（大概是由于闽南族群前往这些地区的移民潮要早于这一建筑的成熟时期），但奇怪的是闽南裔移民似乎鲜有把闽南式建筑带往东南亚的，不知为何。红砖墙配上高度雕琢的屋脊，以及与闽东相比较为保守和稳重的封火山墙形状，让闽南式古典建筑在视觉上很容易辨别，泉州南靖的蔡氏古民居、鲤城区的杨阿苗宅、台湾台中的霧峰林宅都是非常典型的闽南式古典建筑。闽东式古典建筑则主要分布在使用闽东语的福州、宁德地区，其最鲜明的特点是弧度夸张的马鞍形封火墙、白色或灰色的外墙、带雨披和牌堵的大门以及同样以中庭为中心由可重复性空间单元构成的平面布局。其中，马鞍形封火墙是最容易辨别的特征，尽管闽东式建筑存在着地区差异，但马鞍形封火墙却是普遍的。闽东式建筑同样可以占据巨大的空间，实际上，中国目前最大的单体古民居就是属于闽东式建筑的闽清宏琳厝（面积17000平方米），而位于福州市中心的三坊七巷则是中国都市区现存占地面积最大的明清古建筑群。
闽北式建筑分布在福建西北部山区（闽北语区），它以精致的砖雕为特征，尤其是大门和檐墙等位置的砖雕特别突出，这些砖雕的主题多以动物和植物花样为主。莆仙古民居则同闽南古民居多有相似，同样也是以红砖砌墙，但与闽南建筑多使用硬山顶的情况不同，许多莆仙民居采用了悬山顶。闽中民居则像是各种建筑形式的混合体（闽南式、闽东式、客家式）。有些建筑形式并非只被一个族群采用，而是由几个族群共同分享，比如享誉盛名的土楼就分布于福建西南部和深南部，是由部分客家人和闽南人共有的建筑形式，比如漳州闽客混居的南靖县，就同时拥有客家族群的土楼（如田螺坑土楼群）和闽南族群的土楼（如下坂村裕昌楼）。土楼外观多呈圆形（也有方形土楼），外墙之内是多层向心的居住空间，包围着中心的公共建筑，土楼内的居民是聚族而居的。自2008年起，福建土楼被列入了联合国教科文组织的世界文化遗产名录。







像这里多元的古典建筑形式一样，福建的曲艺也是高度多元，拥有34种曲艺形式，很多族群都有自己独特的剧种或曲种。比如福州族群就以闽剧为典型，而兴化人则有莆仙戏，闽南族群有高甲戏、芗剧和梨园戏，闽北人有游春戏，而客家人则拥有闽西汉剧。在这大大小小34中剧种中，闽剧、莆仙戏、芗剧（在台湾常称为歌仔戏）、高甲戏和梨园戏的影响力尤其大，被认为是福建的五大剧种。闽剧根植于福州，流传于包括福州和宁德在内的整个闽东地区和一些周边地区，甚至还随着福州移民而传播到东南亚，闽剧一般是以闽东语福州话的福州市区腔调为标准吟唱的。莆仙戏据说已有700年历史，用莆仙话表演，但由于莆仙话的局限性，该剧种仅在莆田、仙游以及惠安北部流行。得益于分布世界各地庞大的闽南语人口，高甲戏、芗剧（歌仔戏）、梨园戏这些用闽南语表演的戏曲在福建南部、台湾、东南亚诸国的闽南人社区都广为流传。

尽管福建的语言文化多元性在中国以汉人为主的省份中是最高的，但不幸的是许多人，不仅是中国人，甚至许多福建人都没有意识到这点。我不止一次被人问起“福州人说闽南语吗”或“闽南人不是客家人吗”之类的问题，希望这篇短文能回答这些疑问，让大家更了解福建这片多元的土地。

Fujian: a land of diversity

Interestingly, the first difficulty I ran into when I started this blog, a really annoying one, was to designate a Romanized name for my motherland. In Chinese characters, her name 福建 is a very unique one which could not be confused by Chinese, Japanese, Korean or ancient Vietnamese who share the similar hieroglyphic writing system of Chinese characters (漢字). But East Asian languages have different pronunciations of 福建, especially in 福建 itself where at least 9 different native languages are spoken, so the pronunciations become a big problem for a Romanized name. Although the official Romanized name for 福建 is Fujian in mainland China, I really don't like it, simply because it's from Mandarin Chinese (普通話/官話), the official language in China, which is not a native language in 福建 (Fujian) but a language spoken in North and Southwest China. However, since I can't use 9 different Romanized names for one land, I have to choose the most commonly used names, which are Fujian (in Mandarin), Fukien (in old Mandarin) and Hokkien (in Hokkien/Southern Min 閩南語). Sadly, I excluded the name "Hok-giong" in my mother tongue of Foochow/Eastern Min (福州語/閩東語), because this Romanized name is not well known.

To demonstrate such a complicated situation, I adapted and slightly revised a linguistic map of Fujian from Wikipedia. The 8 languages on this map are all in the Chinese language family, and they can be categorized into 4 groups: Min (including Southern Min, Eastern Min, Northern Min, Central Min and Puxian), Hakka, Gan and Wu. Min (閩語) is the largest language group in Fujian by both population and area, and has the greater dialectal diversity than any other division of Chinese. And Hakka is the second largest. The Min language group includes Southern Min (閩南語), Eastern Min (閩東語), Northern Min (閩北語), Central Min (閩中語) and Puxian (莆仙語). Southern Min (閩南語), commonly known as Hokkien (福建話) in Southeast Asia, is the largest language in Fujian and a very international one. In mainland China, it is spoken in Southern Fujian, Eastern and Southwestern Guangdong (廣東) and Hainan (海南). It is also spoken by a majority of people in Taiwan (台灣), where it is officially named Taiwanese Hokkien (台灣閩南語) and commonly known as Taiwanese (台語). In Southeast Asia, it is the largest language among the ethnic Chinese there, spoken in the Phillipines, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Thailand, etc. The total speaker of Southern Min worldwide is close to 50,000,000. Eastern Min (閩東語), the second largest language in Fujian, has two major dialects: Foochow (福州話) and Fu'an (福安話), who are hardly mutually intelligible. And Foochow is also spoken in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, US, Japan, UK, etc by oversea ethnic Foochowese. Northern Min (閩北語) is spoken mainly in today's Nanping region. Puxian (莆仙語), AKA Hinghua (Hsinghua, 興化語), is spoken in the eastern coast of Fujian. Central Min (閩中語) is the smallest of the five Min languages, spoken only by hundreds of thousands in Central Fujian. The Hakka language (客語) is spoken by the Hakka people (客家人), who immigrated to Fujian later than the majority ethnic Min, occupy the mountainous areas in Western Fujian and the adjacent provinces of Guangdong (廣東) and Jiangxi (江西). The Hakka also have a significant population in Southeast Asia. Gan (贛語) and Wu (吳語), the major native language in Jiangxi and Zhejiang (浙江) respetively, distributed on the border between Fujian and the two provinces mentioned above. Of the 9 major native languages spoken in Fujian, the only one off the map, which is also the only none Han-Chinese language, is the She language (畬語) spoken by the She people (畬族人) scattered in the mountainous areas on the east coast of Fujian. But the modern She language in Fujian is similar to Hakka, possibly because the She lived side by side with the Hakka in history before they migrated to their present locations.

This linguistic diversity comes from the immigration history and the geographic isolation of Fujian. Waves of immigrants from central China at different eras in history brought the ancient Chinese language of different ages to Fujian, and probably the intermarriage between these ancient Chinese immigrants and a few native Minyue people of Fujian gave birth to the Min language group. The isolated regions in Fujian created by the mountainous terrains helped preserve the linguistic diversity. The differences in language resulted in the formation of different ethnic groups, and each ethnic group fostered its own unique culture.


Ethnic culture is too big a topic to deal with, so I narrow down this topic to architecture and opera, two objects that are visually and aurally vivid.

Like the languages, the traditional architecture styles in Fujian are distinct from region to region. The boundaries between different architecture styles usually coincide with the corresponding linguistic boundaries. So it is easy to distinguish Eastern Min architecture from Southern Min architecture or Northern Min architecture. The Southern Min architecture is distinguished by the red bricked walls, symmetric layouts with central atria and highly decorated roof ridge, and many of them can be huge, with areas of over ten thousand of square meters (over 2 acres). The most famous Southern Min architectures include the Cai's Mansion in Nan'an, Fujian (福建南安蔡氏古民居) and the Lim's Mansion in Taichung, Taiwan (臺中霧峰林宅). Southern Min migrants brought their architecture to Taiwan, but one question still puzzles me: why does Southern Min architecture only reach as far as Taiwan and I didn't see many of them in Southeast Asia? I really don't know.
Found in the Eastern-Min-speaking regions of Fuzhou (福州) and Fu'an (福安), the Eastern Min architecture is marked by the white or grey walls, saddle-shaped gables and gates with water drip eaves (雨披) and pai-du (牌堵). Eastern Min architectures can be huge, too, in fact, the largest single traditional mansion in China is said to be Hong-lin-cuo (宏琳厝), an Eastern Min architecture in Minqing, Fujian (福建閩清) with an area of 17,000 square meters (4.2 acres); and the largest living traditional urban building complex in the metropolitan areas in China is the Three Lanes and Seven Alleys (三坊七巷) at the heart of Fuzhou City, which consists of Eastern Min buildings. Northern Min architecture in Northwestern Fujian is famous for its brick carving, particular on the front gates and walls. The themes of the carvings are mostly plants and animals. With its red walls, the Puxian style architecture is somewhat similar to Southern Min, but it usually has overhanging gable roofs (懸山頂) rather than the flush gable roofs (硬山頂) in Southern Min architecture. Central Min architecture is a style mixed with many styles (Hakka, Eastern Min, Southern Min, etc). There are also architectures shared by different ethnic groups in Fujian, like the world-renowned Tulou (土樓), which can be found in southern and southwestern Fujian and is shared by both Hakka and Southern Min people. The shape of Tulou is a circular configuration surrounding a central shrine, inhabited by some clan groups. Fujian Tulou has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008.

There are 34 different kinds of operas in Fujian, including both existing and extinct ones. Almost each region or ethnic group has their own unique operas, for example, the Foochow people have Min Opera (閩劇), the Hinghua people have Puxian Opera (莆仙戲), the Southern Min have Gaojia Opera (高甲戲), Xiang Opera (known as Koa-á-hì or Taiwanese Opera in Taiwan, 薌劇/歌仔戲) and Liyuan Opera (梨園戲), the Hakka have Hakka Han Opera (閩西漢劇) and the Northern Min have Youchun Opera (游春戲). Among these 34 operas, the most influential five are Min Opera, Puxian Opera, Liyuan Opera, Xiang Opera and Gaojia Opera. Min Opera is rooted in Fuzhou and has influence in all over the Eastern Min speaking regions and even in some Southeast Asian Foochow communities. Min Opera is performed in standard Foochow language. Puxian Opera is said to have more than 700 years of history, but due to the relatively small Puxian-speaking population, it is restricted in Putian, Xianyou and part of Hui'an. Thanks to the large Southern-Min-speaking population, Gaojia Opera, Liyuan Opera and Xiang Opera are thriving in Fujian, Taiwan and many Southeast Asian countries, and they are all performed in Southern Min language.

Although Fujian has the highest linguistic and cultural diversity of all the Han-Chinese-dominant provinces in China, most people remain, unfortunately, unaware of this. More than once I heard people asking me if Hakka is the other name of Southern Min, or if the Foochowese speak Southern Min. Yes, many Chinese, even some Fujianese (not to mention the foreigners) fail to recognize the different ethnic groups in Fujian. I believe, once they see the uniqueness of the different ethnic cultures of Fujian, they'll be surprised. That's why I wrote this article.

All pictures are from the internet:)

所谓的“中央电视台首届海峡两岸闽南文化节”

如果你是像我一样被“闽南”这两字吸引上网去看这档晚会的话，我相信，无论你是泉漳闽南人、台湾福佬人还是南洋福建人，你一定会被恶心到。开头半小时，你能相信这是“闽南文化节”吗，除了孙燕姿唱了句“天黑黑，欲落雨”（姑且不论孙燕姿讲的是不是潮州话，毕竟潮州话也是闽南语的一支），完全充斥着主题千奇百怪的普通话歌曲，不知道小学先生教我的“扣题”两字是不是早就被扫进了垃圾堆。然后终于弄出一个泉州提线木偶的节目，谢天谢地，导演先生估计您也是看不下去了，觉得该上一个“闽南文化”节目了吧？再往后，有一出南音《梅花操》，整台晚会也就这一个正经的文化节目了。再下去，终于有闽南语歌曲，大概是歌曲串联之类的东西吧，但你千万不要以为终于进入闽南语时间了，因为下一个节目马上又是一堆莫名其妙的歌手唱着莫名其妙的普通话歌曲，然后晚会就莫名其妙的结束了。我本来是不看什么“晚会”之类的电视节目的，今天就因着“闽南”二字看下去，完场之后真的觉得自己很溪猪。看着一群莫名其妙的人，在台上说着莫名其妙的话，可怜天下又有多少闽南裔的阿公阿嬤完全雾煞煞。如果央视真要做闽南文化的节目，拜托你们对闽南语和闽南文化有起码的尊重和了解，“闽南”二字不是拿来给你们践踏的。

———— 惊魂未定，提笔牢骚

福建，被遗忘的土地

当你发现一个福州儿仔哥听不懂福州话，当你看见泉州电视台的节目里小朋友用普通话回答主持人的闽南语提问，当任何一个闽南人或福州人告诉你：“闽南话/福州话没办法用字写出来”时，你不要惊讶，因为这是些快要被遗忘的语言。当你听见一个福建人说：“福建没什么历史积淀”，当你听见一个入闽三十世的闽人问：“王审知是谁？”，当你站在空无一人的福州华林寺大殿前告诉你的福建同胞：“这是中国南方现存最古老的建筑”并看着他惊讶得下巴掉到地上的时候，你不要吃惊，因为这是部快要被遗忘的历史。当你碰到一个泉州人说：“我才不听南管哩”，当你听见一个福州人说“福州没读书的传统”，当你遇上任何一个福建人聊起：“我们福建没什么文化底蕴啊”，你不要笑他无知，因为这是个快要被遗忘的文明。

是的，这块土地是被她的儿女们所遗忘，当自己的母亲半身入土之时，她的大部分儿女们丝毫无动于衷，甚至有些还不忘先加一掊土。我不知道用什么方式能逆转这个颓势，但我仍然希望能够记录下我所知道的和想到的，让更多的人、包括我们的孩子们，能够分享和了解关于我们母亲的一切。