查mandarin

elusty

今天查Mandarin（普通话），发现MW Collegiate 11是这样解释的：
& O& M  F8 G1 n$ I, I% x+ l" Fa form of spoken Chinese used by the court and the official classes of the Empire
那么，这个大写的Empire就有点儿问题了，是哪个帝国呢？
5 z5 E! L1 A" T/ P! X% B
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mandarin
  {% I+ a# M& I. i- K; ?+ P: n" Qcapitalized
  ^/ k( z& b/ g' F0 La :  a form of spoken Chinese used by the court and the official classes of the Empire
2 \, }: f3 r) gb :  the group of closely related Chinese dialects that are spoken in about four fifths of the country and have a standard variety centering about Beijing