A few days later, the palace examination was held, and Xue Xiyang passed it successfully and was admitted as a second-class Jinshi. He was immediately appointed editor of the Hanlin Academy and concurrently served as Zhongshu Sheren, compiling the "Da Ming Dadian".
Xue Xiyang's passing the Jinshi examination did not arouse much criticism. In the past three years, he consulted many famous masters on the meaning of the classics. The masters were willing to guide him for the purpose of "educating a person close to the emperor", so his knowledge of the classics and meanings
Everyone knows his level, and the exam is normal. What's more, the examination not only contains classics but also policy and theory. It is abnormal that his policy and theory articles are not good. Of course, the second point is more important. At this time, the power of relatives and nobles is not small, and it is not history.
In the late Ming Dynasty, when there was no risk in beating a fallen dog, anyone who wanted to advance in his official career did not dare to shoot at will.
But his job is too enviable. Participating in the compilation of the "Da Ming Dadian" and the compilation of comprehensive classics, what an honor it is! Although the "Da Ming Dadian" has not yet been compiled, according to the news circulating, it has already included 7,000 books.
There are many books. Comprehensive classics such as "Yiwen Leiju", "Taiping Yulan", and "Cefu Yuangui" compiled during the Tang and Song Dynasties only contain 1000-000 kinds of books. Even if they are added together, they are less than
Apart from the "Da Ming Dadian", all literati can already imagine the tone in which future generations will praise this unprecedented classic, the tone in which they will praise Jie Jin who presided over the compilation, and how can the people who participated in the compilation of this classic
How much honor and official qualifications have you obtained.
Many people wanted to participate in the editing work, but they couldn't get in; but Xue Xiyang could participate in the editing work just after becoming a Jinshi. You can imagine how many people would suffer from pink eye. They all made excuses, saying that although Xue Xiyang was talented and academic, he was still young after all.
, I am not suitable to participate in such an important matter. Emperor, should you consider me?
However, these excerpts had no other effect except increasing the workload of the eunuchs in the palace who were disposing of discarded excerpts. Xue Xiyang still participated in the compilation of the "Da Ming Dadian" under the jealous eyes of everyone.
That's fine, people could only talk about it jealously for a few days, and forget about it after two days. But not long after Xue Xiyang participated in the compilation of the "Da Ming Dadian", a memorial was published that once again aroused discussion among the government and the public.
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"I've seen Auxiliary Officer Li." The guards guarding the Qianqing Gate all saluted and said.
"Hello, guards." Li Ren also returned the courtesy. Although these are all low-grade guards, they might be favored by the emperor by chance and become famous. As long as there is no conflict of interest, it is better to be polite to everyone.
"Auxiliary Li, you are so polite." Several guards said something more, and then said: "Auxiliary Li, according to the rules, we have to test your credentials for entering the palace. Please forgive me."
"You are also acting according to the rules." Li Ren smiled and took out his waist badge for them to check. A guard came forward and took the badge, looked at it carefully, and handed it back to him respectfully. Li Ren smiled and said to them again
After a few words, he walked into Qianqing Gate.
He walked for a short while and entered the Qianqing Palace. He saluted Yunxi and sat down in his seat. He greeted Qiu Auxiliary Guo Zhen and looked at the empty seat of Dong Auxiliary Xie Jin.
He muttered to himself: "The great gentry (characterized by Jie Jin) didn't come again."
"What, Yuanfu (characterized by Li Ren), do you want to talk to Xie Jin about something?" Guo Zhen asked. Because Xie Jin was responsible for compiling the "Da Ming Dadian", he was away from the palace on errands all year round, so even though Guo Zhen and his colleagues had not been very familiar with each other for many years
On the contrary, Li Ren had only served as Xia Fuguan for less than a year, but he came to the palace every day to run errands and was a humble man. Guo Zhen became very familiar with him.
"I heard that the editors who compiled the "Da Ming Dadian" seemed to have some arguments yesterday, so I wanted to ask him what happened." Li Ren replied.
"When you get off duty, just go to his house and ask." Guo Zhen said nonchalantly.
"The gentleman's temperament, hey, if something happened, he would definitely not want to tell others. It would be in vain for me to ask." Li Ren said. In fact, his original intention was to use Yunxi here to ask for an explanation.
After Jin's question attracted Yunxi's attention, Xie Jin certainly did not dare to tell lies and had to answer, so he chose to ask in the palace because he should be able to get the correct answer; if he asked in private at home, his friendship with Xie Jin would not be deep.
, most likely you won’t get the answer. But it’s also hard to tell others, so you can only use this unreasonable excuse.
Fortunately, Guo Zhen didn't think too much about it. He chatted with him for a while, sat down in his seat, and began to draft the memorial sent by the Secretary of General Affairs last night. Of course, he also gave part of the memorial to the people in Zhongshu She. Every day in the Ming Dynasty
There were too many things to do, and there were too many memorials. One person could not finish the drafting, and Xie Jin was often absent, so he had to leave it to the people in Zhongshushe to draft the drafting on his behalf.
But he opened the first memorial, glanced at it a few times, and stood up in surprise. Although he sat down again immediately, he frowned and thought for a while while holding the memorial, then stood up again and walked to Yunxi.
He bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I dare not draft this memorial. Please see it in person."
"You dare not vote for the memorial? Who entered the memorial? What was written?" Yunxi asked curiously. Under normal circumstances, memorials that ministers dare not or cannot vote for have been prepared in advance by literate eunuchs, Wang Xi or
The others are distinguished and will not fall into the hands of the fourth auxiliary officer.
"Your Majesty, this memorial was submitted by Xue Xiyang, a member of Zhongshushe. The content is related to the "Da Ming Dadian". In the memorial, he asked your Majesty to promote something: simplify the text." Li Ren said.
Simplifying characters is really too big. Although characters have been changing since ancient times, except for the "Book Tongwen" incident, they all happened spontaneously among the people, and the changes are not big. Most characters
Although there are some differences from the *** period to this time, they can all be recognized.
However, Xue Xiyang suggested in the memorial that the state should organize literati all over the world to simplify all characters with more strokes, and then promote them all over the world. Li Ren could only imagine how big a project this was and how much trouble it would cause.
Opposition, just like the "Shu Tongwen" in history, was opposed. Moreover, "Shu Tongwen" at least unified the scripts of the original Eastern countries and facilitated communication. It was only scolded for one generation in the Qin Dynasty.
Later generations will praise it; but Xue Xiyang's suggestion will not have such an effect, and there will be more opposition.
Li Ren just thought of this, and a look of distress appeared on his face unconsciously.
Yunxi didn't react much after listening to Li Ren's words. He just raised his head and said to Li Ren: "Read his memorial and I will listen to the reasons why he proposed to simplify the text."
Li Ren read the memorial from beginning to end. Xue Xiyang put forward three reasons for promoting text simplification in the memorial. The first point is that many texts are too complicated now, making it difficult for newly enlightened children to learn;
The second point is that because many characters are difficult to write, there are many things that are simplified privately among the people. Even the calligraphy of many calligraphers and painters in the previous generation used self-simplified characters to write. Rather than letting the people simplify on their own, it is better for the court to unified
simplify;
The third is that there are many strokes in the current text, and it is very difficult to write. In the process of compiling the "Da Ming Dadian", many people who were responsible for copying made copying errors. This page had to be completely scrapped, and the previously written ones had to be scrapped.
All the words were written in vain. It would be okay if I just wrote a few words, but it would be a pity if I had already written a full page.
After hearing this, Yunxi did not express his opinion immediately, but asked Li Rendao: "What do you think of Aiqing? Do you agree with simplifying the text or oppose it?"
"Your Majesty, I think that the strokes of some words are indeed too complicated. Not to mention the newly enlightened boy, even I have to write carefully to ensure that I don't make mistakes. Simplification is indeed beneficial."
"But I think we should be cautious about this matter. Writing has been handed down for thousands of years, and it has not changed much since the Qin Dynasty. A sudden change will cause many people to object. Moreover, the current writing style is beautiful and beautiful.
It is suitable for writing, but rash simplification may destroy the font. So I think we should be cautious." Li Ren said after considering it.
In fact, he himself is basically opposed to simplifying writing. Although the writing of today's writing is indeed very complicated, literati like them are used to writing. Anyway, they are not engaged in copying work, but drafting memorials and writing letters.
, and it doesn’t matter if there are more or fewer strokes.
Moreover, they are already accustomed to the current writing. If it is simplified rashly, they will definitely not be used to it and will make typos. They are not willing to make typos as if they are beginners. So they object.
However, who is Xue Xiyang? He is the emperor's brother-in-law and the biological brother of the current empress. It is possible that the memorial he submitted was instigated by Yun He. As an auxiliary official, one of the basic principles that need to be followed is not to interact with others.
The emperor stood up to him, so he couldn't say anything definite before he was sure of the emperor's true meaning, so he gave such an ambiguous answer.
His answer was naturally expected by Yunxi. Yunxi did not comment on this, but just told Lu Yi: "Send someone to make a few copies of this memorial, and send someone to ask the police station in the capital to go to the police station."
The chief seal officers of all the yamen outside Yuan and Jiangning counties and the chief censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate came to the palace. I want to discuss this matter with them."
"Yes, official." Lu Yi agreed, took the memorial and retired. Yunxi turned around again, discussed with Li Ren a few words about the two memorials he had drafted yesterday, and asked him to retire.
Not long after, several people from the Yamen at the entrance of the palace came to the palace; after a while, everyone arrived at Qianqing Palace.
Yunxi ordered people to bring in many chairs for them to sit down, and ordered the eunuchs to give each of them a memorial, saying: "I would like to ask your beloved ministers to discuss this matter. Should we implement simplified writing?" (To be continued)
