晚清外交官群体，由于域外的语言接触，对中国既有的语言文字系统进行了整体返观，诞生了对后世影响深远的中国语言文字的现代变革命题——“言文一致”。在“言文一致”观的萌生阶段，呈现出一种“混沌”的原生质杂芜状态。黄遵宪的出现，扭转了士大夫的文化心理，从现代民族国家出发，建立起单向“现代”发展的“言文一致”观。由此“言文一致”，中国语言文字“现代”的“装置”边界，已然有所打造与建立。

The exposure to foreign languages prompted Chinese diplomats of the late Qing Dynasty to reflect over China's spoken and writing systems in general, resulting in the initiative for the modernizing reform of Chinese language and writing system which developed into the later far-reaching proposition of “unification of spoken and written language.” However, in the beginning, the conceptualization of the unification appeared to be heterogenously “chaotic.” When Huang Zunxian came to the scene, he helped to transform the cultural psychology of scholar bureaucrats by reconceptualizing the idea of “unification of speech and writing” from the perspective of the modern nation-state. As a result, the “apparatus” of the “modern” Chinese language was beginning to have a boundary.