Chapter 33 The book has the same text, the words have the same language
Li Nian nodded and said: "Your Majesty is wise! But if you want to implement education well, you must not only have appropriate content, but also have appropriate tools to make it easier for people to learn. , learn quickly.”
"The current use of bamboo slips to record text is very unsuitable for teaching in the entire Daqin. A bamboo slip not only records little content, but is also heavy and inconvenient to carry."
Listen to this, you also want everyone in Daqin to be literate. Study, get an education?
Also, he comes from a later generation, when everyone was literate and everyone knew history. For him, everyone's literacy and knowledge of history was like drinking food and drink every day.
Ying Zheng thought to himself and said: "Do you want to use what you call 'paper' to replace the bamboo slips?"
Li Niandao: "Yes, in our Chinese history, more and more people will be able to read and write. Because of the invention of paper and printing. ”
“Paper carries words, and printing is to print words on paper. The combination of the two solves the problem of the spread of written records."
"A book of this size would need a cartful of bamboo slips to record."
Li Nian used his hand. After comparing the size, Ying Zheng and Meng Yi were surprised. An object of this size was bigger than a cart of bamboo slips.
The "wu che" in the idiom "学富五车" to describe erudition refers to the "五车 bamboo slips".
Of course, the five carts are an imaginary reference, indicating that Kezi was knowledgeable, but if it were really based on the five carts of bamboo slips, it would be equivalent to dozens of modern books.
‘If books made of paper can really record so many words, it’s no wonder that everyone in future generations can be literate. ’
Ying Zheng could naturally see the huge advantages of books over bamboo slips.
“In addition to the need to change the recording and communication tools of writing, the writing itself also needs to change. With all due respect, Da Qin’s writing is really too difficult to write.”
"Words are a tool for disseminating content. I believe that conciseness and clear meaning should be the priority. It should be easy to understand and easy to learn, and it should accurately convey the meaning."
Ying Zhengdao: "How do you want to change it? What do you want to do? Imitating the writing of later generations? "
Li Nian really thought this way: "That's what I meant. The writing I learned in later generations also evolved from the writings of the Qin Dynasty. It has been tested in practice and is easier to learn. Change the Daqin script to Later Dynasty script I think there is nothing wrong with it."
Ying Zheng did not say yes or no, but said: "After the paper is made, you can copy an article in the next generation. Li Si's "Book of Remonstrance and Expulsion" was presented to the public "
Li Nian knew that Ying Zheng wanted to see the goods first before making a decision, so he said, "I obey!", and then said: "Not only the writing must be changed, but the language of Da Qin must also be changed. some changes.”
Ying Zheng asked: "Should we change it according to future generations?"
This time, Li Nian shook his head: "That's not necessary. We should adjust measures to the times and local conditions. The things of later generations may not be better than the things of Great Qin. It may not be suitable for Da Qin.”
Hearing Li Nian say that “things from later generations may not be better than those from Da Qin”, Ying Zheng was quite satisfied.
I, Da Qin, am not inferior to later generations in everything.
“The writing can be changed to the writing of later generations. First, not many people are literate today, so even if it is modified, the impact will not be great. The second is that the writing of later generations is also the evolution of today’s writing. After the modification, it will not be difficult for people to Accept.”
"The language of later generations is different from the languages of Great Qin and even the other six countries. If the language of later generations is forced to be implemented, it will be like making the people of the world learn to speak again."
Li Nian wants everyone in Great Qin to speak it Mandarin, but the fact is that this is difficult to achieve. It took many years to implement Mandarin in later generations, let alone Da Qin at this time. Without considering the actual situation of Da Qin and making random ideas, it will only be counterproductive!
After Li Nian explained this, Ying Zheng nodded secretly and did not make any random ideas. He felt that the things of later generations were good and he wanted to move to Daqin. He was careful.
“Are you going to use Yayan?”
There was also a common language in this era, called "Yayan". If there was no common language, how could the kings of various countries communicate with each other, and how could talents from other countries serve in the Qin Dynasty, and how could they bring an interpreter with them when they came to the court to meet the king?
But Yayan is only spread among elite groups, and ordinary people don’t know it at all, and they still speak the local dialect.
Li Nian spoke to Ying Zheng at this time, using elegant language. He said: "Elegant language is also acceptable. The change I mentioned is not to change how to speak, but to clearly establish a language. As the universal language of the world, no matter the people of Qin or the people of the Six Kingdoms, whether they are princes, ministers, or peasants, they must learn this language and spread it to the world. "
"Elegant words used to be spread only among princes and nobles, but the meaning of ministers is not limited to nobles. Traffickers and foot soldiers must also learn from it. "
The "car" that Li Nian wanted to give to the First Emperor. "The same track, the same writing, the same line, the same place, the same weight, the same shape." Add another "speak the same language", no matter which country you are from before, you will have to speak the same language in the future.
Ying Zheng understood Li Nian's intention and his expression became serious. If this happens, it will be of great benefit to Da Qin.
Language barrier is the biggest obstacle between people. If the language is fluent, many problems can be solved. Because of language barrier, it is impossible to communicate.
“In order to become a universal language, one must be eager to learn it. When I learn a language in later generations, I have the method of pinyin to teach me how to learn it quickly.”
“This method of pinyin is also Simple, the pronunciation of the word is divided into initial consonants, medial vowels, finals, and tones. You only need to master them. With the rules and a dictionary, you can learn the pronunciation of the world's characters."
Li Nian gave an example: "For example, in Da Qin's 'Qin', the initial consonant and final rhyme can be set to 'q'. Set to 'in', the tone is the second tone of Yangping, and it is pronounced 'Qin'!"
"q" and "in" were pronounced by Li Nian, not the pronunciation of later generations, but the pronunciation of the word Qin at that time.
This is just used by the author to express his intention. After all, the author does not understand elegant language.
Ying Zheng and Meng Yi were both extremely intelligent people in the world. They easily understood the meaning from Li Nian's expression, and the emperor and his ministers were quite surprised.
Because according to Li Nian's method, it seems that literacy is not difficult, but the prerequisite is that all the words in the world must be given the so-called "pinyin".
Li Niandao: "The difficulty of this method is that in order to phoneticize all the words, we need to compile a dictionary that contains all the words."
"A dictionary is a book that collects words. It contains the pronunciation and meaning of the words. Compiling a dictionary is not a trivial matter. It is best to gather knowledgeable people to compile it together."
Ying Zheng said heroically. : "As long as it is beneficial to the Qin Dynasty, no matter how difficult and dangerous it is, , I have nothing to fear! It’s just that the dictionary has to be made out of paper, right?” It would take several carts of bamboo slips, and only the so-called paper was suitable.
Li Niandao: "Yes! If you use bamboo slips to make a dictionary, you need to use many bamboo slips, which is not only inconvenient to carry, but also inconvenient to look up. One of the functions of a dictionary is that you can look it up when you encounter a word you don't know. "
Just think about finding an unknown character from a carriage of bamboo slips, and Ying Zheng immediately understood it.
(End of this chapter)