Dialects have historically been an integral part of China's linguistic landscape. The Chinese early on pointed out that there was an 'elegant speech', yǎyán 雅言, which was the prestige language of the elite, and there were also fāngyán 方言 'dialects' and a tōngyǔ 通語, a lingua franca or koine used in broader communication across dialects and languages. Beginning in the Ming Dynasty, this lingua franca came to be called 官話 Guānhuà, literally "the language used by officials," now translated as 'Mandarin'. Guānhuà at that time was not simply a single language, but rather existed in at least two loosely understood varieties. This lecture will explore the Mandarin described by Western missionaries when they came into contact with spoken Chinese during the Ming and Qing dynasties, as well as the origin and evolution of Guānhuà. The aim is to gain a deeper understanding of the diverse dialect origins of Mandarin as well as of Western perceptions of China's rich linguistic environment in traditional times.