However, Yunxi could not express these reasons. To say so would be tantamount to openly breaking with the civil service class. He was not like the Mongols who could completely dismiss Confucian scholars. At this time, in the system formulated by Zhu Yuanzhang, Da**
The three pillars of the imperial court are the clan, nobles and civil servants. He would not want to bear the consequences of cutting off one of the pillars hastily.
So Yunxi thought for a while and said to Rujun: "Aiqing once said just now that 'characters are indeed used to record things, but they are not only used to record things, they are also Chinese culture'; am I wrong?"
"What your Majesty said is exactly what I said."
"In this case, does Ru Aiqing think that if the characters are simplified, the Chinese culture will not be inherited?"
"Your Majesty, this is not what I meant." Ru Jin was about to defend himself.
Yunxi did not let him defend himself. "Ru Aiqing, suppose there are two places, one of which uses simplified characters, and the other uses unsimplified characters. There is a person in the place where simplified characters are used, who is familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics, and passed the exam.
Juren; and in another place where unsimplified characters are used, there is a person who has only studied for three years and knows one or two hundred characters. Of these two people, which one can inherit my Chinese culture?"
"This," Ru Yun was stunned for a moment, then said: "Your Majesty, this is just a special case and cannot be relied upon."
"This is not a special case." Yunxi immediately retorted: "If I issue a decree today and Zhili localities use simplified characters, while other places still use unsimplified characters, in a few decades, there will be no fewer than dozens of such examples.
Ten thousand."
"Ru Aiqing, you haven't answered me yet."
"Your Majesty, if this is the case, naturally the person who uses simplified characters will be better able to inherit Chinese culture." Ru Yu said through gritted teeth.
"In this case, in my opinion, the writing is only the carrier of Chinese civilization. Although it is inevitable to use it, it cannot be limited to this and cannot be changed at all."
"Your Majesty, I am not saying that the words should not be changed at all." Ru Yu quickly defended.
"I know that you have just said it. But what I want to say is that characters are only the carrier of Chinese civilization. The superficial form must not be limited to the form. So I think we can promote simplified characters."
"Your Majesty, I still believe that simplified Chinese characters should not be implemented." Ru Jin still insisted.
"Ru Aiqing," Yunxi's tone changed at this time and said, "I have made up my mind and there is no more words to say!"
"I obey the order." After thinking hard, Ru Yu bowed to accept the order, and then returned to his seat. Yun Xi has been on the throne for nearly eight years, and everyone has figured out some habits (Yun Xi actually also wants to have some habits)
(as a hint signal), after hearing his tone just now, Ru Rui understood that if he continued to resist, his end would not be good. If many people came together to remonstrate with Yun He at this time, it would be fine.
Doesn't the law punish everyone? But he was the only one to charge into the battle, and everyone else was watching. He sacrificed his own interests for the benefit of everyone? Some people may be able to do such a thing, but Ru Yu definitely cannot do it.
Moreover, he did not really understand why he was so opposed to simplifying writing. What Yunxi was thinking of was summed up by countless writers during the "Down with the Confucius Store" in history. People of this era, especially
In a country like China where religion is not obvious, the literati and officials may not really understand the truth. They just feel it vaguely, but not really, and they may not really understand the consequences. Therefore, most people realize that the emperor means
After that, he retreated.
But no matter why they backed down, all in all, the final result was that the decree to implement simplified Chinese characters was passed at the court meeting, and the decree was officially announced nationwide the next day.
Immediately, the temporary yamen of the Simplification and Writing Department was quickly established. Xie Jin selected many learned people to enter this temporary yamen, and entered the palace to listen to Yun Xi's teachings. Then, he saw an incredible scene.
"Your Majesty, are these words simplified by Your Majesty yourself?" Xie Jin looked at the pages in front of him and said in disbelief.
Of course, what was written on these pages were the simplified characters of Yunxi's previous life. Yunxi knew that simplifying characters was a huge project, and he was about to simplify the characters, so naturally he could only use ready-made characters.
What's more, it costs money to establish a simplified writing department to allow knowledgeable people to simplify writing. Although after a year of relief, the Ming Dynasty's finances have eased. It is not like it was before the ships from the Hanzhou continent returned after the Yiwu War. The treasury
It's almost empty and I'm running out of money, but I'll save as much money as I can.
"Many of these characters are common characters that I selected from the inscriptions written by people in the past. Others are characters that I selected from the cursive scripts of ancient people. There are also a very few newly created characters."
"Your Majesty is truly a saint!" Xie Jin bowed and said. Although the emperor is usually called a saint, everyone actually knows that the emperor can make mistakes, and a saint cannot make mistakes. He is not a real saint, but this time
, Xie Jin’s tone was sincere.
Even if most of the characters are selected from the original secular and cursive characters, this is an extremely laborious task. Moreover, Yunxi has so many things to deal with every day, and there is not much time to select characters.
Perhaps only a saint can accomplish such a thing.
"There is no need to say more about this matter," Yunxi, who was already thick-skinned, silently took for himself the fruits of the labor of countless scholars from the late Qing Dynasty to the new regime for decades, and then said: "Some of the words in this are not particularly appropriate.
I was also a little anxious when choosing the characters. Maybe there are more suitable vulgar characters to replace them. Ai Qing and you learned people are thinking about it."
"In addition, I really don't know how to simplify some characters, so I have not simplified them. I will discuss with the people in the Simplification and Characters Department how to simplify them."
"I still have two things to tell you. First, to simplify the text, you should try to choose existing common characters or cursive characters, and don't create new characters without authorization."
"Second, don't discard the radicals." He added. Many simplified characters in later generations were not simplified very well. Among them, the most obvious one was the character 'LAN'. This character was originally written as 'LAN'.
;, after the simplification, the prefix "Cao" was removed, which is not good. The words on the pages that Yunxi gave Xie Jin did not include the word "LAN".
"Yes, Your Majesty." Xie Jin agreed one by one.
Yunxi gave him a few more instructions, thought about it, and muttered to himself: "That's all, let's say it all together, so as to save the trouble twice." After muttering these words, he said to Xie Jin again.
: "Xie Qing, I have one more thing to tell you, my beloved."
"I want to set up punctuation marks in the article."
Yes, the second thing Yunxi wanted to say to Xie Jin was punctuation marks. For Yunxi, the lack of punctuation marks was the second most painful thing about reading text after he came to Ming Dynasty. Because the inherited memory of Yunxi was not
Absolutely. It took him a long time to figure out how to break up a sentence at first, and he spent a year or two trying to break up sentences without making any mistakes again. But for him, breaking up sentences is also very time-consuming. So he wants to implement punctuation.
Symbols, and it is more urgent than promoting simplified writing. Even if the writing is not simplified, he can barely adapt to it. Anyway, as the emperor, he can leave the copying and writing to others. But the lack of punctuation marks is really hard on the eyes.
"Your Majesty, what does this punctuation mark mean?" However, Xie Jin, who had never understood Western culture, certainly didn't know what punctuation marks were, so he had to ask.
"Punctuation marks are things used to break up sentences in an article." Yunxi picked up a pen and paper and wrote a period on it, pointed at it and said to Xie Jin: "This mark means one sentence before and another sentence after it."
"Your Majesty, this" Xie Jin saw the benefits of punctuation at a glance: it would avoid ambiguity and make it easier to understand the other party's meaning. But subconsciously, he wanted to say something against the implementation of punctuation.
Yesterday, before refuting Rujun's words, Yunxi once thought: "The reason why these literati and officials oppose simplifying writing is because they actually don't want too many people to know writing; and the reason why they don't want too many people to know writing
, is to protect one's own privileges!'; In fact, this principle is not only suitable for words, but also suitable for punctuation marks.
If there are no punctuation marks, then even if you have learned how to write, if you do not have enough knowledge or have read enough articles, you still cannot understand the content of the article. You need a scholar to explain it to you and tell you how to segment and read sentences, so that you can understand
People who read sentences will receive extra respect, and will also receive some preferential treatment and privileges in society; if there are punctuation marks, the knowledge of sentence reading by these people is no longer important, and they will not receive extra respect, preferential treatment and privileges
, it is a loss for these literati and officials. In order to prevent themselves from losing anything, they will oppose punctuation!
But Jie Jin reacted before he spoke: The person in front of him was the person who severely scolded Ru Ru yesterday and promoted simplified writing. Not only would his objections be ineffective, but he would lose his sacred heart. This is not true for Jie Jin who is extremely passionate about fame and fortune
It was unbearable for Jin.
So he immediately changed his words and said: "Your Majesty is really a saint! Yesterday, he agreed with the minister's advice to implement simplified writing so that more ignorant people can read and no longer be ignorant. Today, he also implemented punctuation marks so that people who don't read much can understand.
There is nothing greater than a saint's intention to be good."
"Since ancient times, I have never heard of anyone who has done such a thing to educate all people! Throughout the history of emperors, only the late emperor who expelled the Tartars and restored China and your majesty deserve the name of a saint!" After saying this, Xie Jin even knelt down.
On the ground.
"My dear, please wake up! How can I deserve such a reputation!" Even though Yunxi has become thick-skinned after years of training, he just took credit for the creation of simplified Chinese characters, but when he heard Xie Jin say this
I still think it’s too boring. The emperors of the past dynasties were just limited in their knowledge and could not do things that transcended their times. When it comes to the job of being an emperor, outstanding people like Li Shimin and Liu Xiu could do it much better than myself.
"Your Majesty, how can you not afford this? Just promoting simplified writing and making more people literate is something that no one can do except Confucius. It is absolutely worthy of it!" Xie Jin said.
"Get up quickly! There's no need to mention this again!" Yunxi said again.
This time Xie Jin heard Yun Hei's harsh tone, and it seemed that he really didn't want to accept such a reputation, so he could only stop talking and stand up.
"Xie Qing, what you said just now must not be said to others!" Yunxi gave another stern instruction. People in later generations will say that it is a good reputation, but people at this time will say that it is shameless. Although he is not special
I care about my reputation in future generations, but I would rather leave a reputation as cruel, suspicious, and crazy than a reputation as shameless.
He glanced at the eunuchs present again. "I will give you some instructions later. If anyone dares to leak it, he will be beaten to death in public!";
"Yes, Your Majesty, I will never dare to say that." Seeing Yunxi's harsh words, Xie Jin could only solemnly agree.
After saying this, Yunxi continued to talk about punctuation marks. "Xie Qing, I originally wanted to set up punctuation marks, but I have never been able to think of a suitable symbol to use as punctuation marks. But after Claviyo came to the capital, one time
When I looked at his letters written in Castilian, I found symbols spaced between words. When I asked about them, I learned that these were punctuation marks used in Western countries."
"I have made some changes to the punctuation marks used in Western countries and formulated these punctuation marks. Please take a look and see if they are suitable for implementation in the Ming Dynasty?" As he said this, Yunxi wrote down semicolons, commas, and pauses on the paper.
, double quotation marks, single quotation marks, question marks and other punctuation marks, and explain the uses of these punctuation marks one by one.
"Your Majesty is a great talent!" Xie Jin praised again. Although the purpose of these punctuation marks was probably stipulated by Western countries before, and Yunxi was just following the script, it would not be wrong to flatter the emperor.
Yunxi smiled and said nothing more. He just asked whether these punctuation marks were suitable for implementation in the Ming Dynasty.
"Suitable, naturally suitable." Xie Jin said hurriedly.
"Okay, since it's suitable, I will make a decree to implement punctuation marks." Yunxi said.
"Xie Qing, when you go to compile the "Da Ming Dadian", you must remember to ask all those who copy the classics to leave a space where the sentence is read, so that you can add punctuation marks later." He also asked Xie Jin.
"Yes, Your Majesty." Xie Jin agreed again.
"Please step back." Yunxi gave him a few more instructions and asked him to step back.
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Thanks to book friends Dragon Soul and Chang Ge Shadow for the reward. (To be continued)
