The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

Ganquan Mountain is located 30 miles north of Yunyang County. It is named after the clear springs on the mountain. Even in June, the place is still very cool, so Qin built a palace here, called "Linguang Palace".

Linguang Palace is not only a place for summer vacation and hunting, but also a place for training soldiers to deter Rongdi and entertain vassal barbarians because it is not far from Beidi and Shangjun. Every year, Qin Shihuang went to Linguang Palace in May and June, and returned to Xianyang and Zhangtai in August and September.

According to the habit of the emperor not to neglect government affairs wherever he went, many decisions were discussed here every year.

This year was no exception. Qin Shihuang's carriage had just entered Linguang Palace, letting Hu Hai and other princes entertain themselves, and he immediately summoned the three people who accompanied him, Li Si, the Minister of the Imperial Chariot, Zhao Gao, and Hu Wujing, the Minister of the Imperial History.

After winning the debate on feudalism and counties, Li Si had surpassed the left and right prime ministers and became the real prime minister of the empire. When the emperor was deciding on national policies, he would often ask him directly for advice. After the emperor and his subjects reached a consensus, he would just inform the prime minister and the imperial censor...

Today, the emperor asked him to go to the Lingguang Palace together and summoned him immediately after arriving. Li Si had some idea of what the emperor was doing.

Looking at Zhao Gao and Hu Wujing on his left and right, the three great calligraphers of the Qin State were all present.

The two of them respectfully invited him to go first, and Li Si was not polite. After a slight smile, he entered the palace first.

Qin Shihuang was wearing a dark "袀玄" suit, standing in the palace with his hands behind his back. Under his feet was a white silk cloth with many words written on it. The emperor was staring at the words at this moment, silent.

"Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you!"

The three of them bowed together. Qin Shihuang turned around and said bluntly, "Since King Ping of Zhou moved east, the princes have been struggling to govern the country. They hate the harm of rituals and music, and have all abandoned their classics. As a result, their clothing, speech, and writing are different."

"Now, every five miles in the world, the customs are different, and every ten miles, the Zhou Dynasty's elegant language is no longer there. It is difficult to reverse the situation. That's all, but the writing is the same. The big seal has been changed, and Qi, Chu, Yan, and Sanjin have each formed their own systems."

He looked at Li Si: "Tingwei, you are a world-famous calligrapher. You were an official in Chu and knew Chu characters. You also became a disciple of Xunzi and learned Sanjin characters from him. You also went to Jixia for several years, so you are not unfamiliar with Qi characters. If I remember correctly, when I was at war with Yan, it was Tingwei who translated Yan's letters into Qin seal script for me. Let's take a look at these characters today!"

Li Si agreed, and then moved to the north of the hall, stepped on the word Yan under his feet and said: "Your Majesty, the Yan people are the descendants of Zhao Gong, a big country with the surname Ji, and they are the best at restoring the past. They learned the abdication of Yao and Shun, and even often imitate the ancient writing. But what they imitate is not the large seal script, but the more ancient jia-carved text."

"Stay true to the past." Qin Shihuang despised the Yan people the most.

After that, Li Si moved to the hall again, looked at the characters of Zhao, Wei and Han and said: "In the land of Sanjin, the folk customs are impatient, relying on opportunities to make a living, and even the characters are impatient. They simplified the large seal characters too much, and the horses don't look like horses, and the tigers don't look like tigers. People from other countries can't understand it at all."

Then came the Chu characters. Li Si showed no mercy to the characters of his homeland, and said coldly: "Chu characters have always been different from those of the Central Plains. They look like birds and insects, so they are called bird and insect seal characters. In the past hundred years, their writing has become more and more elegant and sloppy, and it is difficult to grasp."

Finally, he pointed to the Qi characters and said: "Qi is fond of Confucianism and was influenced by the style of Zou and Lu. The characters of Qi and Lu are relatively square, which is somewhat similar to the Qin seal characters in terms of shape, but when it comes to gestures..."

Li Si smiled and shook his head, and bowed to Qin Shihuang again: "In short, the writing of the six countries is extremely disordered. There are more than 20 ways to write the character "马", and more than 100 ways to write it, which are difficult to distinguish."

"As the court judge said, now the six kings have been convicted, and the six countries have been transformed into counties, with the same political orders and laws. However, recently, the governors and chancellors of various places have reported that the writing of the six countries is different. The political orders from Xianyang must be translated into local characters when they are sent to the local areas, and those officials selected locally can understand them..."

"It's really absurd. Is this the unification of the six countries under Qin, or is Qin the unification of the six countries?"

Qin Shihuang was quite displeased with this, and waved his sleeves and said: "Whether it is Mohists, Confucians, or Legalists, they all say that the world is unified, but what is true unification?"

"Just like the Zhou Dynasty, all under heaven is the king's land; all the people are the king's subjects. Then rule according to their customs?"

His ambitions did not stop there. He shook his head and said, "I will not only destroy the six kingdoms, but also the territory."

"I will unify the laws and measures of the world, make the feet, feet and inches of Jiaodong consistent with those of Xianyang, and make the bells, stones and buckets of Kuaiji the same as those of Bashu."

"I will make the track width of the world six feet wide, so that officials and merchants from all over the country can travel without hindrance."

"Now, I also want a writing system, so that the correspondence between the thirty-six counties can all use Qin characters, without having to translate and re-copy them, so that a Yuyang County official can also understand my edict. Only in this way can it be truly unified!"

Zhao Gao took the lead in flattering: "Unifying the weights and measures, the track of the wheels, and the writing of the books is an unprecedented feat since the beginning of the division of heaven and earth. Your Majesty is far-sighted and I admire him."

Qin Shi Huang also announced the purpose of summoning the three people: "I want to dismiss those who do not conform to the Qin language. Starting from the first month of next year, officials who use the characters of the six countries will be fined for the first offense and dismissed for the second offense!"

He also said: "The three of you are excellent calligraphers and are famous all over the world. Today, you will follow the example of the "Shi Zhuan Pian" of the Zhou Dynasty and simplify the more than 3,000 characters of Qin seal script and write them on bamboo slips in catchy chapters and sentences. Then use it as a model and send it to 36 counties for officials and schools to copy and study. Qin characters must be promoted in all counties and the different characters of the six countries will be eliminated!"

Li Si, Zhao Gao, and Hu Wujing agreed. They were familiar with the "Shi Zhuan Pian". It was a literacy textbook written by the historian during the reign of King Xuan of Zhou. Qin Shi Huang meant to let them each use Qin seal script to write a literacy textbook suitable for all ages and promote it throughout the world...

"Your Majesty, I, Hei Fu, come to report!"

Just as the three of them were ordered to leave, a loud voice was heard outside the palace. It was Heifu, the Zhonglang Huling who was ordered to go to Yunyang County the day before, who came back!

…

After getting permission, Heifu hurried into the palace. Qin Shihuang looked at him and said, "Is the servant Cheng Miao still alive?"

"Thanks to your majesty's benevolence, Cheng Miao is fortunately alive."

As he spoke, Heifu presented a piece of silk cloth and a piece of bamboo slips in his arms with both hands.

"Your Majesty, this is Cheng Miao's confession!"

"He confessed now?" Qin Shi Huang sneered: "What was he doing when Fan Yuqi rebelled ten years ago?"

Qin Shi Huang did not want to take it, but Hei Fu kept holding it. He also saw the six kingdoms' characters all over the hall, and secretly thought that he came at the right time, so he bowed his head and said:

"Your Majesty, Cheng Miao knew he was guilty, so he spent ten years doing something that was beneficial to the country!"

Then, Hei Fu reported to the emperor everything about Cheng Miao's ten years of thinking in Yunyang Prison, adding and subtracting the square and round strokes of large and small seal characters, and combining them with the shorthand style of Qin Li's case records to create three thousand characters of official script.

Qin Shi Huang's attitude was slightly relaxed. This was something Cheng Miao had been doing before he was imprisoned. That's why he kept Cheng Miao alive and wanted to see what kind of results he could achieve.

But the First Emperor was not a patient person. If Heifu was sent to inspect this time, it would be fine if there were any results. If not, Cheng Miao would probably have to live a real life in prison.

He took the silk book and bamboo slips brought by Heifu, but saw that they were written in seal script and official script respectively.

Heifu also relayed on his behalf: "Cheng Miao thought that after your Majesty took office, whether it was the central government or the counties, the political affairs became more and more numerous. The round seal script was too slow to write and was no longer suitable for busy political affairs. The official script created by Cheng Miao was based on the Qin seal script, mixed with the shorthand writing methods of Qin officials from all over the country, and replaced the round seal script with a square pen. The Yunyang prison officials tried it and found that it took one and a half minutes to copy a 500-word decree in seal script, but only one minute in official script..."

He had worked in the grassroots government, so he knew that because of the unique legal system of the Qin State, even a small county temple had to deal with a large number of lawsuits, receive many decrees, and issue many official books every day.

There were a large number of clerks in both the central and county governments. In the years without printing, the only way was to copy, and the speed of copying directly determined the work efficiency.

Qin Shihuang was also a person who attached great importance to efficiency. He required a quick completion of casting a golden man or building a palace. Sometimes, if the imperial edict he issued was not copied in time by the Censorate, the emperor would be furious and dismiss the clerks and replace them with a new batch.

Now I heard that official script can increase work efficiency by one third, how can I not be happy?

After reading Cheng Miao's self-introduction, Qin Shi Huang asked: "How many official scripts did Cheng Miao create?"

Hei Fu said: "More than 3,300 in total. Each seal character has a corresponding official script..."

Qin Shi Huang pondered and said: "I want to make the world write the same script, so that the 36 counties will abandon the six kingdoms' scripts and use Qin seal scripts, get rid of the old six kingdoms' characters, and establish new characters. Is there anything wrong? If these official scripts are sent to the local areas, can the officials recognize them?"

Hei Fu tried his best to promote this matter: "Cheng Miao once said that official script is a shortcut to seal script. He did not create new characters, but only slightly modified them, and the shape and strokes of the characters did not change much. In addition, I have heard a saying that rituals should be simple. Since the reform of Shang Yang, Qin has been streamlining rituals and removing cumbersomeness. Why can't the characters be simplified?"

"When I was in Nanjun, I found that the clerks in the counties had already used similar methods to simplify the characters, making them easier to write and increasing the speed. However, due to different habits, different characters often appear, which is not a good thing in the long run. It is better to use small seal characters as the main characters for edicts and documents, and official script as the auxiliary characters for ordinary records. In this way, whether it is the nine ministers or the counties, when handling government affairs, they can be more concise and get twice the result with half the effort. Why not do it?"

These words dispelled the last hesitation of Qin Shihuang. He nodded and said: "Just as you said, let Cheng Miao be released from prison and come to Linguang Palace to pay homage, and pass on the official script to the clerks. After the three people, the Minister of the Imperial Household, the Minister of the Imperial Chariot, and the Minister of the Imperial History, have their own seal script chapters, let everyone copy them in official script and distribute them to the world together!"

After saying this, Qin Shi Huang sighed: "In the past, Cang Jie created characters to teach his descendants, and then there were characters in the world. Now there are officials who create official script to make it simple and easy, and Cheng Miao's sins in the past can be offset..."

"Your Majesty is wise!"

Hei Fu took the opportunity to bow again and said: "Inspired by Cheng Miao, I also have an idea that may help your Majesty with writing and characters!"

Qin Shi Huang laughed when he heard this: "Do you also want to learn to create characters? First there were officials who created official script, and now you also want to create a black character?"

"Black... bold?"

Hei Fu almost vomited blood. This kind of font really existed in later generations, but he was not thinking about the font, but the carrier of writing...

In order to attract Qin Shi Huang's attention, Hei Fu simply started to brag.

He pointed at the bamboo slips piled up in the hall with one hand, and picked up a piece of white silk with six languages written on it with the other hand, saying, "Bamboo slips are heavy. Your Majesty reads 120 kilograms of memorials a day, and the envoys are exhausted carrying them back and forth. Silk cloth is expensive, and only ministers dare not use it. Both have their advantages and disadvantages."

"Now, I want to combine the advantages and disadvantages of the two and make a material for Your Majesty that is as light as silk cloth and cheaper than bamboo slips. Write in seal script and official script, so that Your Majesty's concept of writing with characters can be spread throughout the world!"

"I think this is as important as Cangjie's creation of characters at that time! I hope Your Majesty will allow me to make suggestions beyond my authority!"