Diqin Designer

Chapter 517 The shame of our Great Song Dynasty has reached the Great Qin.

Several days had passed since Li Nian spoke to the First Emperor and others. On another day of court assembly, the officials gathered at Zhangtai Palace.

Some were resting with their eyes closed, some were talking to each other, and some were reviewing and organizing the documents needed for today's court assembly. Suddenly, a "clang" was heard, and everyone stopped what they were doing, stood up in unison, and faced the front of the hall.

After the clang, another announcement came: "Your Majesty is holding court, all officials pay their respects!" A black figure appeared before the assembled officials. Although they could not look directly at the figure, they all knew that it was their Emperor.

After the figure sat down in front, the ministers, led by Wang Wan, all bowed in greeting.

The First Emperor, seated on the dragon throne, glanced at his ministers and said, "Rise, all of you, please sit!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" After thanking the First Empress, the imperial officials took their seats.

The ministers who had something to report were waiting for the First Emperor to ask if they had anything to report when the First Emperor said, "Recently, I heard some interesting things from Li Nian. I feel that I should not keep them to myself, so I will share them with you all today!"

The ministers were not surprised that His Majesty heard interesting stories from Li Nian; in fact, they were quite used to it. His Majesty often heard interesting stories or advice from that young master and then shared them with them.

What they were curious about was: what new thing was happening this time?
But given His Majesty's temperament, the interesting stories he shares with them will definitely be related to the Qin Dynasty, and most likely he will want them to express their opinions and offer advice.

As expected, as soon as the First Emperor finished speaking, eunuchs entered the hall carrying wooden trays, each tray containing a book.

The eunuchs distributed these books to each minister in the palace.

Li Si and Zhao Gao looked at the book in front of them. They noticed that there was no name on the cover, and they would only know what the contents were after they opened and read it.

But Li Si and Zhao Gao were used to this; it had happened many times before. Every now and then, His Majesty would share with them what interesting things or advice that Young Master Li Nian had said.

That young master truly enjoys His Majesty's trust and high regard; it seems they didn't receive such treatment when they were initially favored by His Majesty.

Zhao Gao and Li Si felt a mixture of jealousy, envy, and melancholy. The new generation replaces the old.

But they dared not show any hostility towards that person. His Majesty's high regard for that person was obvious to all. If they dared to use underhanded tactics, His Majesty would dare to take action against them.

Moreover, there was no need for it. Although that person held an official position, he did not even attend court and did not show a strong desire for power. Otherwise, given the extent of his favor with His Majesty, if he wanted to compete for power in the court, even veteran officials like Wang Wan would have to give in.

Furthermore, the departments appointed by His Majesty to oversee do not have a direct power conflict with them. The key issue is that those departments, and the things they do, seem to be beyond their capabilities. These include the Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Engineering, and various sub-disciplines such as physics, biology, and chemistry...

Upon hearing those words, Li Si and Zhao Gao knew that these things had little to do with them.

Not only should we avoid conflict with that person, we should also try our best to improve our relationship with them, or at least avoid becoming enemies, especially now that the crown prince has been chosen and that person has a fairly good relationship with the crown prince.

That person who is favored by His Majesty will surely be given important responsibilities after His Majesty passes away and the Crown Prince ascends the throne.

Thinking of this, Li Si and Zhao Gao felt a pang of jealousy. Two generations of emperors trusted and valued that person; he was truly fortunate!

Pulling their scattered thoughts back to the books in front of them, Li Si and Zhao Gao noticed that today's books were thicker than those they had been given before.

This shows that the interesting stories that Young Master Li Nian told His Majesty were very long and full of content!
However, no minister immediately opened the book; they needed the First Emperor's permission to do so.

After all the ministers in the hall had received their books, the First Emperor said, "Take a look, everyone!"

After receiving the Emperor's order, the ministers began to peruse the books. Before looking at their own books, Li Si, Zhao Gao, and others glanced at Wang Wan, Wang Jian, and others, and saw that they were also reading the books.

The book was naturally the history of the Zhao Song Dynasty that Li Nian had previously talked about, but some content that was not suitable for the ministers to see was deleted by the First Emperor and others, such as "Emperor Renzong's prosperous reign far surpassed that of the Han and Tang Dynasties." The "Han and Tang Dynasties" could not be retained.

This is why, even though quite some time has passed since Li Nian's speech, it was only today that the First Emperor shared it with his ministers, because it was to be "corrected."

The text in the book is written in simplified characters. Simplified characters have been promoted for some time and the people are gradually getting used to it and making it popular. But as a key minister in the central government of the Qin Dynasty, how could he not know the principles of simplified characters?
This is the unified script that the Qin Dynasty is now promoting to the whole world. If even a high-ranking official of the Qin Dynasty doesn't recognize it, how can it be promoted to the whole world?
The promotion of JianShu has progressed much more smoothly than that of Daqin Mandarin (elegant speech). After all, people are not stupid; they can still tell whether something is simple or convenient and easy to use!
As for the promotion of the Qin Dynasty's "unified language," it was not something that could be accomplished in a short time. Language is used more often than writing, so once a habit is formed, it takes even more effort to change it and unify it into one language.

But the Qin Dynasty was a good era. Many ideas had not yet been formed, and many aspects were like blank sheets of paper, which could be painted on by artists at will. If it were in some later dynasties, the difficulty of promoting simplified characters and Mandarin would increase dramatically.

Upon opening the book, Li Si, Zhao Gao, Chunyu Yue, and the others immediately recognized that it was about a country called "Song Guo" (怂国).

The method of advising a monarch using an existing country or even fabricating one is not new; Mencius and others have used it. However, they had never seen the fabricated name "Song Guo" before.

What an interesting country name!

After watching for a while, Li Si, Zhao Gao and the others gradually became strange. They all glanced in Chunyu Yue's direction, while Chunyu Yue's face turned bright red, as if he was angry.

Although Li Nian brought about changes that made Chunyu Yue less insistent on restoring the Zhou rites to the First Emperor, his temper hadn't changed much; he was still outspoken.

That's just his nature; otherwise, he wouldn't have dared to dampen the Emperor's spirits at the banquet when the Emperor was in a good mood.

People only laugh at Chunyu Yue's foolishness, saying that advising the First Emperor to continue the enfeoffment system was a step backward in history. Little do they know that it takes courage to do such a thing.

Chunyu Yue, holding the book, stood up and said, "Your Majesty, this is a slander against Confucianism. Confucianism could never have such a disciple!"

The First Emperor and others deleted much of what Li Nian had said from the book, but deliberately kept some things, such as the fact that the scholars of the Song Dynasty were all Confucian disciples, and even intentionally added some things that Li Nian had not said.

Of course, the First Emperor and others patched it up, claiming that the Song Kingdom was a hypothetical country where Confucianism flourished, and that the Confucianism in the Song Kingdom was unrelated to the Confucianism of the Qin Dynasty.

It's just a hypothetical scenario, just a hypothetical scenario. The Confucian scholars of the Great Qin should not overthink it!
While the First Emperor was waiting for his ministers to peruse the books and handling state affairs, he heard Chunyu Yue's words and, without even looking at him, calmly said, "These are just assumptions, not true. If you are not happy, you can treat the Confucianists in the books as Mohists and Legalists!"

What the hell do you mean by classifying them as Mohists or Legalists? Is that something you can just decide to do?
The books in this book, intended for the imperial examinations of the Song Kingdom and for the scholars of the Song Kingdom to study, are clearly those of Confucianism. The ideological style of a school of thought cannot be changed simply by changing its name or its superficial aspects.

"Your Majesty..." Chunyu Yue wanted to say something more, but was interrupted by the First Emperor: "Finish reading the book before you speak!"

The Confucian school in the Qin Dynasty should be fine for at least his two generations and that of Fusu, but whether problems will arise after that is uncertain for him a hundred years from now.

However, judging from the Qin Dynasty's current reforms of various schools of thought and its own cultural and ideological development, there is an opportunity to avoid this.

The reason why Confucianism in history became what it is today is not only because the monarchs needed it, and because Confucianism intentionally made changes to cater to the monarchs, but also because there was no more suitable ideology.

In short, apart from Confucianism, the ideas of other schools of thought were even less suitable for the dynasties of China; Confucianism was both the chosen one and the only one.

However, Li Nian's arrival from the future gave the Qin Dynasty other options, allowing it to avoid following the Confucian path chosen by later dynasties.

The First Emperor knew very well what Li Nian wanted to do: to make the Qin Dynasty stronger, to improve the lives of the Qin people, and to prevent the Qin people, or rather the Chinese people, from suffering the humiliations of the past.

To achieve this, in addition to bringing science and technology to the Qin Dynasty, it is also necessary to instill in the Qin Dynasty a positive, progressive, courageous, and self-reliant mindset.

Li Nian wanted the Qin Dynasty to possess not only a strong physique but also a powerful spirit, and in Li Nian's eyes, the latter was even more important than the former.

Material strength may be defeated and lost, but spiritual strength can be passed down and continued. Even if one is temporarily inferior in terms of material possessions, as long as the spirit remains strong, one will eventually rise again.

China fell behind during the Qing Dynasty because its spirit was suppressed. Even so, when the Qing Dynasty was bullied by foreign powers in its later years, many patriots still stood up to save the nation and ensure its survival.

Now that the world is unified, the Qin Dynasty's ideology is undergoing a period of change. Whether it wants to change or not, it has to. The situation in the world has changed. If it continues to follow the old ways before the unification of the world, it will be following the old path of the Qin Dynasty in history.

In other words, the Qin Dynasty perished precisely because it failed to adapt to the changing circumstances of the world, change its governing methods, and alter the minds of the people.

At this time, Li Nian, who traveled from the lower reaches of history, naturally wanted to shape a better ideology for the Qin Dynasty and give it vigorous vitality.

After listening to the First Emperor's words, Chunyu Yue sat down again and continued to read the book.

The main hall of Zhangtai Palace was very quiet, except for the rustling sound of papers being turned over.

As they flipped through the pages, Li Si, Zhao Gao, and the others gradually understood why the First Emperor had wanted them to see this book.

The book describes a ridiculous, weak, and foolish country, a country that truly deserves its name as "cowardly."

Upon first seeing the absurd and shameless acts of the Cowardly Kingdom, Li Si, Zhao Gao, and others wondered how such an absurd country could exist in the world.
Whether you win or lose, you still have to pay reparations. And that cowardly Emperor Taizong, as the emperor of a cowardly country, could drive a donkey cart for two hundred miles in one night...

And then there's that cowardly Emperor Renzong, who was clearly just an ordinary ruler who maintained the status quo, with no outstanding achievements, yet he was still praised by the ministers of the cowardly state as surpassing all other nations.

There's also the "alliance between the Jin and Liao to destroy Liao" that the weak state and the Jin state were trying to pull together. They had a dog tied up there, but they knew they couldn't really do it.

Furthermore, the actions of the Qin ruler and his ministers after the Jurchens marched south were so egregious that the Qin officials in the hall felt as if their brains had been insulted. How could a human being do such things?
After careful consideration, Li Si and others felt that the actions of the "cowardly state" were not entirely impossible. The First Emperor had shown them this book so that they would learn from the "cowardly state" in the book and not let the Qin Dynasty follow the same path.

Although Li Nian spoke for quite a while, once the book was compiled, it didn't take long to read through it, and the officials in the hall finished reading the contents of the book.

However, the First Emperor did not notice that his ministers had finished reading the book and continued to handle state affairs, and the ministers did not speak.

After a while, the First Emperor looked up and asked, "What are your opinions on this weak state?"

The First Emperor even specifically asked, "Zhao Gao, what are your thoughts?"

Zhao Gao rose and replied, "This cowardly country is utterly absurd and shameless. From its ruler to its ministers, most are utterly shameless. I have never seen such shameless people before!"

Upon hearing Zhao Gao's reply, the First Emperor glanced at him, thinking to himself, 'You've never seen it? Look in the mirror every day; aren't you the one? Your shamelessness, Zhao Gao, is no less than that of the people of the Song Dynasty.'

After Zhao Gao, the First Emperor called out Chunyu Yue, "Chunyu Yue, what did you want to say just now?"

Chunyu Yue's expression had returned to normal, but he was still angry. He stood up and said, "Your Majesty, I believe this book is slandering Confucianism. Confucianism could never produce such a cowardly and shameless person!"

The thought that those cowardly rulers and ministers in the books all studied Confucianism made Chunyu Yue's face turn red again. Those shameless scoundrels didn't even deserve to be called Confucian disciples.

If he were truly a Confucian disciple, Chunyu Yue would have loved to go into the book and strangle those scoundrels one by one; it was too absurd, too shameful, and too disgraceful.

They have no integrity whatsoever, and instead of being loyal to the emperor and serving the country, they are unwilling to resist the Jurchens. Instead, they want to make peace with the Jurchens, even if it means paying reparations and ceding territory.

They actually found a line of poetry in a collection of poems and took it as a way to save the country and resist the Jin dynasty, and as a result, they found a few sorcerers and shamans to lead the army!

He captured women from his own country and gave them to the Jurchens, and even got the title of "Grandfather of the Jurchens"?
There was also a minister from the Song Kingdom named "Hui" who killed a general of his own country on trumped-up charges. Was he really not a spy sent by the Jin people to the Song Kingdom?
These people are definitely not Confucian disciples; Confucian disciples would never be so absurd and shameless.

This book is definitely a deliberate attempt to smear Confucianism. If it gets out, how will people in the world view Confucianism?

Their reputation as Confucian scholars will be completely ruined!

After all, the country in the book uses Confucianism, and its scholars all study Confucian classics.

Even if it costs him his life, he will stop His Majesty from spreading this book!

Chunyu Yue made up his mind, but he was also a little confused: This book was obviously written by that young master Li Nian. He did have prejudices against Confucianism in the past, but he should have resolved them now.
They, the Confucianists, also actively adopted that person's words and made some reforms to Confucianism. Moreover, he did not recall that the Confucianists had offended that person recently. Why was that person still slandering the Confucianists in front of His Majesty?
This is not good news for Confucianism, as that person holds too much weight in His Majesty's heart!
(End of this chapter)