> How would two people living extremely far apart in China even know how each other would pronounce a particular character? China had an imperial bureaucracy f

> How would two people living extremely far apart in China even know how each other would pronounce a particular character? China had an imperial bureaucracy for over 2000 years, which sent officials from one end of the country to the next. In fact, a predecessor of Standard Chinese (a.k.a. "Mandarin") was called "the language of officials" (官話).