Chapter 1118: Language Reform

"Traitor!"

"Get out!"

"Liu Zheng, the great thief who stole the nation!"

"Return our Longyan glory!"

The loss of the Wusu region caused the entire public opinion of Longyan to explode.

Whenever Liu Zheng went out, he was greeted by these kinds of voices all over the streets.

And so...

It was rotten vegetable leaves and stinking eggs again.

Fortunately, the Duqi were protecting him, and Liu Zheng couldn't be bothered to explain.

What the hell was he supposed to explain to these people?

The Horse Carriage was moving.

There were still many things to come... such as the nominations and elections for the Upper House and Lower House, the formulation of various policies, and the redistribution of territories.

There were too many things...

Liu Zheng was very tired.

Over the past few days, there had been many assassination attempts against Liu Zheng on the road, but with Jiang Xuan and Pei Qianyun there, they couldn't even get close to the Horse Carriage before becoming corpses on the street. At this time, Liu Zheng's reputation in Longyan had split into two extremes.

One was that he was still the Contemporary Sage; this was based on the fact that Liu Zheng had no designs on the throne, including not having campaigned for Xie Chan. Those who held this view were mostly people with some learning who could understand the situation in Longyan.

And the other was to curse Liu Zheng as a "traitor"!

These people were mostly those with ulterior motives, the Royalist Faction, and even more were naturally those who just echoed what others said; once provoked slightly, their emotions would follow. These people had no independent opinions, no real learning, and couldn't even recognize characters. At times like this, their crudeness and ignorance were all the more apparent.

Liu Zheng.

Naturally, he did not blame them.

This was a problem with the entire society.

He had always encouraged the public to attend school; he had never liked any policy of keeping the people ignorant, although this was a bit contradictory when put into words. Rulers liked the people to be ignorant because it was easier to rule. Therefore, in this ancient feudal society, class solidification was very severe.

Suddenly.

A flash of inspiration struck Liu Zheng's mind.

You could say that with so many people cursing him, he could turn a deaf ear and ignore them, but he was definitely still annoyed inside.

So what could be done?

He had proposed the widespread construction of Academies in Longyan, but these Academies and the popularization of education could not be accomplished in a day or two...

Then...

To change this corrupt environment in Longyan, what should be done?

Vernacular Chinese!

Liu Zheng suddenly thought of this.

When he was at the Wangbei Academy, he had once introduced Vernacular Chinese. At that time, the emergence of Vernacular Chinese had caused the entire Longyan literary scene to be plunged into a bloodbath. Most people were opposed to it.

Vernacular Chinese...

What was this?

This was a desecration of traditional culture and Classical Chinese!

At the time, the appearance of Vernacular Chinese had caused an uproar in the entire literary scene. However, it could not be denied that after that, many books in Vernacular Chinese began to circulate among the common people. Especially those with lower levels of education began to develop a great interest in this Vernacular Chinese.

Facts proved that the mass market was the biggest market.

More and more common people began to accept this new thing.

And so, among the people, the first collection of essays in Vernacular Chinese appeared, the first novel in Vernacular Chinese, the first... in Vernacular Chinese.

Liu Zheng naturally still paid some attention to these.

It was just that he didn't have the time to go and work on these anymore...

But...

Things were different now.

Vernacular Chinese...

The foundation for Vernacular Chinese seemed to have already been laid in Longyan.

Then.

What about Simplified Chinese?

If this topic had been brought up in Liu Zheng's previous life, it would definitely have been a very sensitive

topic. Because back then, when the Traditional Chinese of Huaxia civilization began to be replaced by Simplified Chinese, it incited opposition from many people, and there were even scholars who used their lives to defend Traditional Chinese...

They felt that Simplified Chinese was castrating the traditional culture of Huaxia civilization!

Of course, from this perspective, this way of thinking was not wrong. It could not be denied that Traditional Chinese had advantages in aesthetics and typesetting, but for characters whose primary purpose was to disseminate information, Traditional Chinese was too cumbersome.

Here, a concept needed to be mentioned.

What is the attribute of writing?

When Chinese characters were first created, they were mostly constructed based on meaning, with strong concrete thinking, which led to the complex forms of early ideographic characters. But the attribute of writing should be ease of recognition, use, and dissemination. Therefore, large-scale simplification of characters was an inevitability of historical development. This could be seen from history; the first large-scale simplification and standardization of Chinese characters occurred after Qinshihuang unified the six states; the transition from Small Seal Script to Clerical Script was a process of simplification. If one were to speak from the perspective of the "traditional culture" that those public intellectuals believed in, did Qinshihuang back then castrate a lot of culture, or did he go down in history because he unified the writing system?

Afterwards, the evolution of writing still trended toward becoming simpler and simpler.

Writing would increasingly tend toward becoming symbolic.

And!

What was most important!

Liu Zheng believed that what Longyan needed to solve most urgently today was the improvement of the quality of its citizens!

Which meant starting a large-scale literacy campaign!

First, although the social status of many commoners has improved, because they are illiterate and lack education, many policies cannot be accurately communicated to them; in this process, they naturally lose many of their own rights for various reasons. This is not what Liu Zheng wants to see.

Second, it remains a matter of ignorance. The more illiterate people there are, the less developed their minds will be (though there are exceptions), which leads to a lack of independent judgment and following the crowd.

Literacy campaign!

Experience from his past life proves that the efficiency of a literacy campaign using Simplified Chinese is twenty percent higher than that of a literacy campaign using Traditional Chinese!

Of course.

Liu Zheng also knows how much resistance he will encounter if he promotes Simplified Chinese.

But...

He feels that this process is imperative!

If his plans do not go wrong, the Longyan of the future will be a true superpower! He wants to make Chinese characters the most widely used and most popularized script and language in the world!

This will also further urge him to accelerate the reform of the script and language!

Not only that.

Completely removing the policy of keeping the people ignorant is also conducive to changing people's attitudes toward imperial power, and it will greatly influence the support rate for a constitutional monarchy!

This will also be of great help to the stability of the domestic situation!

"Quick, don't go to the Upper House, go to the Hanlin Academy!"

Thinking of this, Liu Zheng hurriedly lifted the curtain and said to Pei Qianyun.

Pei Qianyun was startled, but without asking why, he turned the Horse Carriage and headed toward the Hanlin Academy.

The people at the Hanlin Academy, hearing that Liu Zheng—who is currently in his prime in Longyan and could even be said to be covering the sky with one hand—had actually arrived, came out one after another to welcome him.

Seeing the people from the Outer Court and the inner court, and the various Grand Academicians, being so respectful, Liu Zheng felt somewhat unable to laugh or cry.

Come to think of it, he still holds a post in this Hanlin Academy; it seems to be that of a Reader...

He is in no position to accept such a bow from these people.

"Gentlemen, this junior truly cannot accept this!"

Liu Zheng hurriedly cupped his hands and bowed back.

"Hahahaha, we are bowing to Vice Minister Liu, the pillar of the state! The great talent of the nation! Why would we not be able to bow?"

Chen Qian laughed heartily; he is still the current inner court Grand Academician of the Hanlin Academy.

The others all followed him out.

The Hanlin Academy is the place where Longyan truly conducts academic research,

and it is also a place for studying the art of the emperor. How could they be like those gullible commoners, unaware of how much this Vice Minister Liu has sacrificed and how much he has done during this change of imperial power? Therefore, the way these people look at Liu Zheng is still filled with admiration and expectation.

Liu Zheng gave a wry smile: "Chen Lao, you flatter me too much."

"Vice Minister Liu, please!"

"Please!"

Chen Qian walked in front, Liu Zheng walked side-by-side, and the others followed behind.

Liu Zheng is no stranger to the Hanlin Academy; he has been here many times.

Chen Qian looked deeply at Liu Zheng and chuckled: "Jinghua has not been very peaceful lately. For Vice Minister Liu to have the time to come to the Hanlin Academy, what exactly is..."

Liu Zheng did not waste words and got straight to the point: "Chen Lao, this subordinate would like to propose an idea for everyone to discuss."

"Oh?"

The group of people looked suspicious.

Whenever there is a change of imperial power, their Hanlin Academy is the most idle, because they are unwilling to participate in it.

Most of the people in the Hanlin Academy are scholars with integrity who have never had much interest in power struggles, so no matter how chaotic the domestic situation is, the Hanlin Academy is considered a paradise away from the world.

But they did not expect...

This Vice Minister Liu, having just become a red-hot figure in Longyan, would come to the Hanlin Academy.

Why is this?

The group of people took their seats.

Those who could sit with Chen Qian to receive Liu Zheng were naturally people of high status in the Hanlin Academy.

They all looked at Liu Zheng suspiciously, waiting for what he had to say next.

Liu Zheng took a sip of tea and then chuckled: "This subordinate wishes to reform the script!"

"What?"

"Huh?"

"The script?"

The group of people's expressions changed drastically upon hearing this.

"Bastard, bastard, this Vice Minister Liu is simply a bastard!"

At this moment.

Inside the Imperial Palace.

Xie Ming's face was livid as he fiercely smashed things in the Yangxin Hall; the palace maids and eunuchs on the side only dared to clean up, not daring to advise him.

"Oh my, what has happened to Ming'er..."

"What is the matter!"

Dong Shuyu had likely received the news and hurried over.

Xie Ming suddenly looked over viciously.

Dong Shuyu trembled all over, then sighed and changed her question: "Why is the Emperor so angry?"

He is already the Emperor...

He is already the Emperor!

Why is it that everyone still does not treat him as the Emperor, including his own mother!

Xie Ming clenched his fists tightly, his gaze becoming increasingly sinister, yet he did not utter a word.

Dong Shuyu also sensed the psychological changes in her own son; she waved her hand, and only then did the palace maids and eunuchs depart.

She walked over to Xie Ming's side and whispered, "Emperor, do not be anxious. Current public opinion is still leaning toward us. You wouldn't know, but the Royalist Faction scolds that Liu Zheng half to death every single day!"

Dong Shuyu feigned a relaxed tone.

Only then did Xie Ming ask, "Is that true?"

Dong Shuyu chuckled, "Of course it is, Emperor, do not be anxious. I say these commoners are just a bunch of spineless wretches! They cannot live without an Emperor, and they cannot live without our Xie Family! Think about it, our Longyan has been this way for thousands of years; who says this state and nation can be changed just because they want to?"

Upon hearing this, Xie Ming's expression softened slightly, but a flash of intense killing intent still crossed his eyes: "How are our people's preparations coming along?"