Sky Curtain: My Great Qin must have an aircraft carrier!

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Tianmu began his explanation at a leisurely pace.

Let's first take a look at some of the methods tried by the ancients: metaphor, reading as if, direct pronunciation, and fanqie (a method of indicating pronunciation by analogy).

"Scholars are always so fussy. Why don't you start by telling the story of Pangu creating the world?"

Zhu Yuanzhang had prepared paper and pen, waiting for the speaker to begin, but then he discovered that he needed to review everything again.

He herded cattle as a child, later became a monk, and then conquered the world; he always believed in being straightforward.

The dawdling in the sky was infuriating him.

"Biao'er, write this down for us."

"From now on, any official who dares to speak so arrogantly in front of us in court will be dragged outside the Meridian Gate and given twenty strokes of the cane! He'll be beaten until he can speak properly again!"

"Your subject obeys."

Zhu Biao quickly responded, feeling a pang of worry for those officials who dared to speak out.

Ever since the appearance of the sky screen, the old man's temper has become increasingly irritable.

The earliest method was called the metaphorical method, which simply means using metaphors to describe the pronunciation. For example, the Guanzi says: "Its sound is like the flow of water."

However, this method also has significant problems. Dialects vary greatly from place to place, and the tones are completely different.

Therefore, the ancients quickly invented the method of "reading by similar characters," which involves using similar characters to indicate pronunciation.

Upon hearing this, Ying Zheng finally felt a sense of familiarity.

The Qin Dynasty promoted the standardization of writing, and the small seal script dictionary presented by Li Si used this approach throughout.

"Meng Yi, look at what the sky says. The Great Qin is using this method now."

Ying Zheng pointed to the sky, his tone tinged with pride.

The policies he himself implemented were singled out and discussed by the immortal; that's quite a show of power.

Meng Yi nodded in agreement: "The method of reading is indeed convenient, and it is also commonly used in private schools to enlighten young children."

"But it's still a bit troublesome to use."

"How so?"

"I sometimes don't even recognize all the characters used to mark the pronunciation. In order to look up one character, I have to look up another one."

Meng Yi frowned, recalling his painful experience during his early education.

When you encounter an uncommon character, there's an even more uncommon character marked next to it.

I asked the teacher, and the teacher used a third uncommon character to explain it.

Ying Zheng recalled that he had also been tormented to the point of near death when he was young.

He sighed deeply: "Yes, if one cannot read, how can one understand the characters with phonetic symbols? This method of reading is ultimately only treating the symptoms, not the root cause."

[After the reading method comes the direct pronunciation method, which is essentially the same thing but with a different name; it also uses homophones for phonetic notation.]

The ancients also found this method of recognizing characters by hand to be too difficult to use, so the earliest form of pinyin—fanqie—came into being.

Invented during the Eastern Han Dynasty, the fanqie method was used until the late Qing Dynasty, making it arguably the most practical phonetic notation method in ancient times.

Its principle is very simple: the first character is chosen for its sound, and the second character for its rhyme.

For example, "East" is labeled as: German Red Cut.

Extract the initial consonant 'd' from the '德' (de) radical, extract the final vowel 'ong' from the '红' (hong) radical, and combine them to form 'dong'.

"Dehongqie...East?"

After Liu Bei recited this sentence, he felt inexplicably familiar with it, but he couldn't remember where he had heard it before.

"Kongming, this fanqie method sounds familiar... Have I seen it somewhere before?"

Zhuge Liang gently waved his feather fan and smiled slightly: "My lord has a good memory."

"It is said that Sun Yan, a disciple of Zheng Xuan, was researching something that coincided with this method of fanqie (a traditional Chinese method of indicating the direction of the characters in a book), and I have also heard about it."

Liu Bei's eyes lit up. The person who could create such a phonetic annotation technique must be a man of great talent.

What he lacks most right now is talent. If he could recruit this person to teach the soldiers to read, that would be amazing.

"Where does Sun Yan currently reside? I should personally pay him a visit and request his assistance!"

Zhuge Liang sighed, his feather fan resting on his chest: "Sun Yan is currently in Cao Wei's camp, so I'm afraid it will be difficult to invite him."

"oops!"

Liu Bei slapped his thigh, his face full of regret.

Such a talented person, yet he fell into the hands of the traitor Cao Cao! Heaven truly has no eyes!

At this point, some people are probably wondering how the ancients discovered initials and finals.

This brings us to that specific time period at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

When Buddhism was being transmitted eastward, scholars naturally began to examine the phonetic structure of Chinese characters while translating Sanskrit.

Sanskrit is a phonetic script, which greatly inspired Chinese scholars, leading them to separate initials and finals, thus giving rise to the fanqie method (a method of indicating pronunciation in Chinese characters).

During the Southern Dynasties period, scholars discovered the tones of "level, rising, departing, and entering".

Only after thoroughly understanding the structure of the Chinese language can the beauty of its sounds reach its peak—Tang poetry, or more precisely, regulated verse.

What about my Great Tang Dynasty?

Upon hearing the Tang poem, all the scholars and military personnel in the hall were greatly invigorated.

Li Shimin even stood up from the dragon throne, rubbing his hands together unconsciously, his face full of joy.

I thought the Tang Dynasty was too powerful in military affairs and lacked literary talent, but I never expected it to reach the pinnacle of phonetic beauty!

Upon seeing this, Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui, and others all showed expressions of joy.

To receive such high praise from the heavens is undoubtedly another glorious achievement that will be recorded in history, following the reign of Zhenguan.

"Congratulations, Your Majesty! The Tang Dynasty's culture and education are flourishing, shining brightly for eternity!" Fang Xuanling stepped forward first and bowed deeply to the ground.

Changsun Wuji followed closely behind, loudly praising: "Your Majesty's civil administration and military achievements are unprecedented in history."

The officials offered their congratulations, and the hall was filled with a joyous atmosphere.

Li Shimin waved his hand, grinning from ear to ear.

He loved writing poetry most in his life, and often composed poems with his ministers in his spare time, considering himself to be a man of exceptional literary talent.

Since Tang poetry has been passed down through the ages, surely later generations must be reading Li Shimin's masterpieces?

Just as the Tang emperor and his ministers were celebrating, Emperor Qianlong's expression was rather unpleasant.

He spun the jade ruyi in his hand quickly, ignoring Tianmu's words with disdain.

"Tang poetry? It's nothing but the affected whining of literary figures; does it even deserve to be called the pinnacle?"

"I am equally skilled at composing poetry, never slacking off day or night. Why not mention me?"

Seeing his master in this state, Heshen quickly crawled forward on his knees.

"My lord, please calm down. This servant believes that the order of arrival in the sky is important."

"We're talking about the Han and Tang dynasties now; our Great Qing Dynasty is still to come."

Heshen smiled broadly and spoke in a fawning tone, "When Tianmu talks about the Qing Dynasty, he will definitely praise Your Majesty's poems as national treasures."

These words were extremely pleasing, easing the tension on Qianlong's face.

The Qing Dynasty's prosperity far surpassed that of previous dynasties; how could we not mention it?

Emperor Qianlong placed the jade ruyi on the table, but he still couldn't completely calm down.

He glanced sideways at the eunuch serving beside him: "Go, bring me my 'Imperial Poetry Collection'."

"I want to see exactly where my poems fall short."

Having discussed ancient methods of phonetic notation, let's now look at the earliest form of Chinese Pinyin.

Interestingly, the earliest form of Pinyin was a clever trick created by foreigners to make learning Chinese easier.

Just like how many people use Chinese characters to annotate their English textbooks nowadays.

If you can think of using your native language to annotate foreign languages, the ancients certainly could too.

[Including after the An Lushan Rebellion, when the Tang Dynasty was preoccupied with other matters, the Tibetan Empire seized the Hexi Corridor and ruled it for over a hundred years until Zhang Yichao led the Guiyi Army to reclaim it.]

However, more than a hundred years have passed, and the local people have become accustomed to using Tibetan script to annotate Chinese characters.

The Chinese language still exists, but Chinese characters are no longer needed.

The hall fell silent immediately.

Li Shimin looked at the sky and felt a chill run down his spine.

What exactly was the An Lushan Rebellion?

It was something that kept the Tang Dynasty from recovering for a century, and even the Hexi Corridor was occupied by the Tibetans for a hundred years.

The Tibetans were nothing but barbarians from the southwestern plateau. Since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, when had it ever taken them seriously?

But Tianmu actually said that the Tibetans occupied the Hexi Corridor for a hundred years!

Where did the Tang army go? Where did the spirit of the Tang Dynasty go?

"The An Lushan Rebellion, the An Lushan Rebellion..."

Li Shimin's lips trembled as he repeatedly chewed on those four words.

Was the person who started the rebellion named An Shi?

That should be the case. The sky never plays riddles; it says what it means, and that's what it means.

"Make this clear to me: from this day forward, no one named An Shi is permitted to hold office or enter the army!"

When Emperor Yongle (Zhu Di) saw this scene, he was deeply moved.

The rise and fall of dynasties are indeed unpredictable.

Will there be another foolish ruler among my descendants who will ruin a great empire?

Although Zhu Gaochi was a bit overweight, his civil administration was exceptionally outstanding, and he was unlikely to cause any major trouble.

Zhu Zhanji was no coward either, and he had quite the same demeanor as he had back then.

With these two around, the Ming Dynasty should be stable for the next few decades.

But what happens next is unpredictable; hopefully it won't be too bad.

"Fortunately, I had the foresight to take back the military power of the vassal kings."

Zhu Di comforted himself, "We don't even have soldiers. Even if a foolish emperor comes along, it won't lead to a disaster like the An Lushan Rebellion."