Qin Official

Ganquan Mountain is located thirty miles north of Yunyang County. It is named after the clear spring in the mountain. Even in midsummer and June, it is still very cool here. Therefore, Qin built a palace here and called it "Linguang Palace".

Linguang Palace was not only a place to escape summer hunting, as it was not far from Beidi and Shangjun, it could also be used to train troops to intimidate the Rong and Di, and to entertain the vassals and barbarians. Every year, Qin Shihuang came to Linguang Palace in May and June, and returned to Xianyang and Zhangtai in August and September. .

According to the emperor's habit of never leaving behind government affairs wherever he went, many decisions were made here every year.

This year was no exception. Qin Shihuang's chariot had just entered Linguang Palace, leaving Hu Hai and other young masters to entertain themselves. He immediately summoned the accompanying three people, including Tingwei Li Si, CRRC Magistrate Zhao Gao, and Taishi Magistrate Hu Wujing.

After winning the feudal, prefectural and county disputes, Li Si had surpassed the two prime ministers and became the true prime minister of the empire. When the emperor decides on national policies, he often comes directly to him to ask questions. After the emperor and his ministers reach a consensus, they just notify the prime minister and the imperial censor...

Today, the emperor asked him to go to Linguang Palace with him and summoned him immediately upon arrival. Li Si had some idea what was going on.

Look at Zhao Gao and Hu Wujing on the left and right, the three great calligraphers of the Qin State.

The two of them respectfully asked him to come forward, and Li Si was not polite. After smiling slightly, he took the lead in entering the palace.

Qin Shihuang was wearing a dark "Qianxuan" and stood in the palace with his hands behind his hands. Under his feet was a white silk cloth with many words written on it. The emperor was staring at these words in silence at the moment.

"I will pay my respects to Your Majesty!"

The three of them bowed down together. Qin Shihuang turned around and said bluntly without any nonsense: "Since King Ping of Zhou moved eastward, the princes have been unable to unify the government. They have harmed themselves by rejecting rituals and music, and they have all removed their classics, so they wear different clothes." , the words have different sounds and the words have different shapes.”

"Nowadays, all countries in the world have different customs and different pronunciations. The elegant language of Zongzhou is no longer the same, and it is hard to return. That's it. However, the writing is the same. The seal script has been changed, and Qi, Chu, Yan, and the three Jin Dynasties have each formed their own systems."

He looked at Li Si: "Tingwei, you are a world-famous calligrapher. You once served as an official in the Chu State and know Chu characters. You also became a disciple of Xun Qing and learned the calligraphy of the Three Jin Dynasties from him. You also went to Jixia to calligraphy. Years are no strangers to Chinese characters. If I remember correctly, when I was fighting against the Yan State, it was Tingwei who translated the letters of the Yan State into Qin seal script for me. Let’s take a look and talk about these words today!”

Li Si agreed, then moved to the north of the hall, stepped on the word "Yan" under his feet and said: "Your Majesty, the people of Yan are after Zhao Gong, and the surname Ji is a big country. It is best to go back to the ancient times. They have learned the concessions of Yao and Shun. Even in words, they are also I often imitate the ancient ones. But what I imitate is not the big seal script, but the more ancient inscriptions carved on armor."

"Eating the past will not change." Qin Shihuang had the most contempt for the Yan people.

After saying that, Li Si moved to the palace again, looked at the characters of the three kingdoms of Zhao, Wei and Han and said: "In the land of the Three Jin Dynasties, the folk customs are impatient and they rely on opportunities to take advantage. Even the characters are impatient. They have simplified the seal script too much. A horse is not like a horse, a tiger is not like a tiger, and people from other countries cannot understand it at all.”

Next came the character Chu. Li Si showed no mercy to the characters of his homeland and said coldly: "The character Chu has always been different from the Central Plains. It resembles a bird and an insect, so it is called bird-insect seal script. In the past hundred years, its writing style has become more and more elegant and sloppy, making it difficult to fathom."

Finally, he pointed at the Qi characters and said: "Qi is a Confucian country and was influenced by the style of Zou and Lu. The characters of Qi and Lu are relatively square and straight, but they are somewhat similar to Qin's seals in terms of shape, but when it comes to the specific gestures..."

Li Si smiled and shook his head, and bowed to Qin Shihuang again: "In short, the characters of the Six Kingdoms are extremely disordered in form. There are as few as horse characters, more than twenty ways of writing, and as many as more than a hundred ways of writing, all of which are difficult to distinguish."

"As Tingwei said, now the six kings have confessed their crimes, and the six countries have been transformed into counties and counties, with one decree and law. However, recently, the guards and prime ministers in various places have reported that the six countries have different languages, and the decrees from Xianyang are still in the local area. It must be translated into local languages ​​so that officials selected locally can understand it..."

"Is this really unreasonable? Are the six countries unified by Qin, or is Qin unified by the six countries?"

Qin Shihuang was quite dissatisfied with this, and waved his sleeves and said: "Whether it is Mohism, Confucianism, or Legalism, they all say that the world is unified, but speaking of it, what is true unity?"

"It's just like the Zhou Dynasty. In the whole world, is it the king's land? On the shore of the land, is it the king's ministers. And then he rules it according to the customs?"

His ambition did not stop there, he shook his head and said: "I not only want to destroy the six kingdoms, but also one territory."

"I shall set the rules and regulations for the day, so that the zhang, chi, and cun of Jiaodong will be consistent with those of Xianyang, and the bells, stones, and buckets of Kuaiji will be the same as those of Bashu."

"I will make the tracks six feet wide in one day, so that officials and merchants from all over the country can come and go without any hindrance."

"Now, I want a new script so that all correspondence between the thirty-six counties can be written in Qin characters. There is no need to translate and re-copy, so that even a food official in Yuyang County can understand my edict. Only in this way can we achieve true unification. !”

Zhao Gao took the lead and said flatteringly: "Unifying the weights and measures, the chariots on the same track, and the books with the same text, this is an unprecedented feat since the beginning of the world. Your Majesty is far-sighted and I admire you."

Qin Shihuang also announced the purpose of summoning the three people: "If I want to stop him and refuse to cooperate with Qin Wen, from the first month of the next year, if an official uses the Six Kingdoms script again, he will be fined for the first offense and dismissed from office for the second offense!"

He also said: "Sanzi's calligraphy is exquisite and famous all over the world. Today, I will imitate the Zhou Dynasty's "Shi Zhou Pian" and reduce the complexity of more than 3,000 Qin seal characters to simplicity, and write on the bamboo slips with catchy chapters and sentences. . Then use it as a model and send it to the thirty-six counties, so that officials and schools can copy and practice it. The Qin characters will be promoted in all counties and the different characters of the six countries will be eliminated!"

Li Si, Zhao Gao, and Hu Wujing promised that "Shi Zhou Pian" was familiar to them. It was a literacy textbook written by Taishi during the reign of King Xuan of Zhou Dynasty. Qin Shihuang's intention was to let them each write a textbook in Qin seal that is suitable for all ages. Literacy teaching materials, promoted all over the world...

"Your Majesty, I, Mr. Heifu, are here to return your orders!"

Just after the three of them were ordered to leave, another loud voice sounded outside the palace, but it was Heifu, the commander of Huling who was ordered to go to Yunyang County the day before yesterday, who was back!

…

After receiving permission, Heifu hurriedly entered the palace. Qin Shihuang looked at him and said, "Is your minister Cheng Miao not dead yet?"

"Thanks to Your Majesty's kindness, Cheng Miao is lucky to be alive."

While saying this, Heifu also presented a piece of silk cloth and a piece of slippery paper in his arms.

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

"You're telling yourself now?" Qin Shihuang sneered: "What was Fan Yuqi doing when he rebelled ten years ago?"

Qin Shihuang didn't want to pick it up, but Hei Fu kept holding it up. He also saw the Six Kingdoms characters spread all over the hall, and secretly thought that he had come at the right time, so he lowered his head and said:

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

Then, Heifu combined Cheng Miao's ten years of meditation in Yunyang Prison, profit and loss in large and small seals with square and round strokes, combined with the shorthand style of Qin officials' records of cases, into a three-thousand-character official script, and reported it to the Ming Emperor in detail. .

Qin Shihuang's attitude was a little more relaxed. Cheng Miao had been doing this before he was imprisoned. Because of this, he spared Cheng Miao's life and wanted to see what results he could make.

But the First Emperor was not a patient person. This time he sent Heifu to inspect the area. If it was effective, it would be fine. If not, Cheng Miao might have to live in a real prison.

He took the silk script and bamboo slips brought by Hei Fu, and saw that the memorial was written in seal script and official script respectively.

Heifu also relayed on his behalf: "Cheng Miao believed that after His Majesty's reign, political affairs became more and more complicated, both at the central and county levels, and the writing of round seal script was too slow and was no longer suitable for busy government affairs. And the official script created by Cheng Miao was based on the Qin seal script was used as the standard, and the shorthand writing methods of Qin officials from various places were mixed. Square fold pens were used instead of round seal scripts. Yunyang prison officials tried it and found that it took a quarter and a half to copy a 500-word decree in seal script, but it took a minute and a half to copy it in official script. It only takes a moment..."

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

Regardless of whether the central government or counties, there are a large number of people with swords and pens. In the years before printing, the only way was to copy, and the speed of copying directly determined the work efficiency.

Qin Shihuang was also a man who paid great attention to efficiency. He made a golden man and built a palace to be completed quickly. Sometimes the imperial edicts he issued could not be copied in time, and the emperor would be furious and lay off all the staff. Change 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 autobiography, Qin Shihuang asked: "How many official characters did Cheng Miao create in total?"

Heifu said: "There are more than 3,300 seal characters in total, and each seal character has a corresponding official script..."

Qin Shihuang pondered: "I want to make the world's scripts have the same script, so that the thirty-six counties will abandon the scripts of the Six Kingdoms and use Qin seals, get rid of the old characters of the Six Kingdoms, and establish new ones. Is there anything wrong? If these official scripts are distributed to the localities, officials will Can you recognize it?"

Heifu tried his best to promote this matter: "Cheng Miao said that the official calligrapher is the best at seal script. He did not re-create the characters, but only slightly modified them, and the shape and gesture of the characters did not change much. Furthermore, I heard a saying, called Simplicity is the most important thing in etiquette. Since Qin Dynasty's Shang Dynasty's reform, it has been streamlining etiquette and removing complexity. Why can't the writing be simplified?"

"When I was in Nanjun, I discovered that the swordsmen and pen officials in the county had long been using similar techniques to simplify the character shapes to make it easier to write and increase the speed. However, due to their different habits, abnormal characters often appeared. If things continue like this, it is not a good thing. . It is better to block than to sparse. It is better to use Xiaozhuan as the regular character, use it for edicts and documents, use official script as a supplement, and use it for ordinary records. In this way, whether it is Jiuqing or counties, when handling government affairs, they can use it to simplify and get twice the result with half the effort. , why not?"

These words dispelled Qin Shihuang's last hesitation, and he nodded and said: "Just as you said, Cheng Miao was released from prison, came to Linguang Palace to see him, and gave the official script to the swordsman and pen official. Waiting for the imperial officer, the order of Zhongche Mansion, Taishi ordered the three of them to write their respective chapters in seal script, and then let everyone copy them in official script and publish them together throughout the world!"

After saying this, Qin Shihuang sighed with emotion: "In the past, Cangjie created characters to teach his descendants, and there was writing in the world. Now there are officials writing official scripts to facilitate the agreement. Cheng Miao's sins back then can also be offset..."

"Your Majesty, Holy Might!"

Hei Fu lost no time and bowed again: "Inspired by Cheng Miao, I also have an idea, which may be able to help your majesty write the same text!"

Qin Shihuang laughed when he heard this: "Do you also want to learn how to make characters? First, there were officials who made official scripts. Now, you also want to make a kind of black characters?"

"Black... boldface?"

Heifu almost vomited blood. This kind of font did exist in later generations, but his idea was not for the font, but for the carrier of writing...

In order to attract Qin Shihuang's attention, Heifu simply started to brag.

He pointed at the slips piled up in the hall with one hand, and picked up a piece of white silk with six languages ​​written on the floor with the other hand, and said: "The slips are heavy and heavy. Your Majesty reads one hundred and twenty kilograms of memorials a day, and the visitors are exhausted from carrying them back and forth." . Silk and cloth are expensive, and non-official ministers would not dare to use them. Both have their own 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. I will write in seal script and official script so that His Majesty's concept of writing with the same characters will spread throughout the world!"

"I thought that this was as big an event as Cangjie's creation of Chinese characters! I hope your majesty will allow me to go beyond my duties and offer my words!"