Qin Official

"In the sixth year of your Majesty's happiness, he served as the magistrate and historian of Anlu County and was in charge of documents. In the seventh year, he served as the magistrate and historian of Yan County. In the twelfth year, he was changed to Yan Hell and was in charge of the prison. In the thirteenth year, the Qin army attacked Zhao and joined the army. Fifteen years later, he served as a prisoner in Pingyang. A few years later, he returned to Anlu and served as a jailer. Passing through Yunmengze, he encountered a thief captured by a minister, but he was framed. He enforced the law impartially and cleared my grievances. "

This was a momentary impulse, but Heifu always felt that Xi's story should not only be known to millions of people in future generations, but also Qin Shihuang!

He should know, no, he must know! In the empire, there is such a diligent and conscientious Qin official!

"After I became the chief of the pavilion, I visited his home, but I saw that his family was in a simple situation, with almost no valuable possessions. When I entered his study, I found densely packed slips! When I opened it, I saw that there were legal regulations."

Hearing this, Qin Shihuang frowned, because the court had regulations that prohibited people from taking government orders home without permission, but then he relaxed.

But I heard Hei Fu say: "I still remember that Xi has always been indifferent, but when he introduced those slips, he was a little proud. He said that he had copied all these laws and regulations one by one over the past few years."

From Heifu's account, Qin Shihuang could imagine a scene like this. In the small place of Anlu, Nanjun, there was a grassroots official who would use the faint light every night to write carefully, stroke by stroke, on bamboo slips as thick as chopsticks. Demarcate the land and copy the legal provisions.

This copying lasted for four years, but I only copied more than 40,000 words, because writing on the slips was too slow. I was busy with official duties, there were seniors and juniors, and there were not many free days...

Qin Shihuang was slightly moved when he heard this. He was so aloof that he was only concerned about national policy matters all day long, and rarely heard about the hard work of the grassroots officials.

After finishing speaking, Heifu said: "Your Majesty, in the forty counties of the world, how many officials like Xi can copy the laws and regulations by hand!"

Just think about it. In Xianyang alone, there are countless departments that need complete sets of regulations. There are forty counties, hundreds of counties, thousands of departments, townships...

It is no exaggeration to say that the documents and laws copied by Qin officials in the past thirty-one years are probably longer than the Great Wall!

It’s just that the work is heavy, the problem is that it’s still slow. Writing in the era of bamboo slips was as slow as a snail.

Even if Heifu later made paper, Meng Tian improved his pen, and the court promulgated simplified official script, it only made the copying speed two or three times faster. Even the most skilled swordsman and penman would have cramps in his hands when copying every day. Writing more than a thousand words is as slow as a turtle.

This means that the tens of thousands of words of Qin's laws and regulations require dozens of swordsmen and pens to work day and night to copy them, which is extremely inefficient. This also led to the fact that only the county town had a copy of the complete laws and regulations, and even some small and remote counties could not afford even one copy.

The reason why books are expensive does not lie in the cost of materials, or even in the knowledge they contain, but in the labor and effort put into them.

Moreover, heavy copying often leads to mistakes. Once there is a mistake, strict punishment will be waiting for the penman! It is stipulated in the law that if you copy the wrong item, you will use that item to punish the swordsman and penman! But sometimes the petty officials are wronged. It was obvious that something was wrong in the county, and the county is copying the gourd. What can they do?

But now, with the advent of woodblock printing, all this is no longer a problem!

Tingwei Ye Teng nodded: "In this case, as long as the imperial censor's office has engravings and enough paper and ink, it is no problem to print ten copies of the laws and regulations in one day!"

Heifu smiled and said: "What Tingwei said is right. Compared with writing and copying on slips and paper, printing is as fast as a cunning rabbit, and it can be done with just a few people, so the cost is much lower!"

"In this way, in less than a month, all counties in the world will be able to obtain the full text of the law, and the content will be completely consistent with that of the Yushifu. There will be no possibility of errors or omissions! From now on, every year, the Yushifu's profit and loss law will only need to print hundreds of revised chapters. A thousand copies can be handed over to the county officials to take back and then distribute them to the counties. Even in the villages and towns, laws and regulations can be issued so that the officials can teach the people to learn them."

"In this way, the swordsmen and pen clerks will not have to work hard to write documents, and the court's orders can be issued quickly and accurately! I hope that your majesty will allow it and the young master will set up an engraving and printing room in Xianyang!"

Qin Shihuang glanced at the ministers: "What do you think?"

Everyone looked at each other. Wang Wu, the fifth doctor, secretly looked at Li Si and found that he was silent. He took courage and raised a question.

"Your Majesty, this engraving and printing is indeed a sharp tool, but if it is obtained by someone with ulterior motives and prints "Poems", "Books" and articles that deceive people's hearts, what should we do?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Tingwei Ye Teng sneered: "I can't eat because of choking! How ridiculous! Does the Fifth Doctor think that Tingwei, jailers, and thieves are just decorations?"

"I..." Wang Wu was robbed and did not dare to argue with Ting Wei, so he retracted his head.

Qin Shihuang looked at Li Si: "What do you think, Prime Minister You?"

Li Si responded: "This thing is of great benefit to the court and does no harm at all."

"Great kindness!"

Qin Shihuang was very happy. He acted vigorously and resolutely, and immediately issued an edict, asking Cheng Shang to take the craftsmen back to Xianyang and set up a printing office in the Shaofu to assist the Yushifu in printing legal articles and make them available all over the world.

Cheng Shang took the order and left. All the ministers congratulated Qin Shihuang, but Hei Fu was thinking that maybe a hundred years after the wedding, he would be buried with him. In addition to the slips copied by his own hand, there might also be stacks of neatly printed documents. Where are the written laws and regulations issued...

Thinking of this, Heifu felt that he seemed to have done something right again.

At this time, Qin Shihuang began to ask Hei Fu again, where is the Anlu prison official Xi?

Heifu's face darkened and he said: "Because of his outstanding political achievements, Xi was transferred to Jiangling ten years ago. Later he was transferred to Dongting County and served as an official in Qianling County. Qianling is a newly established county and there are many barbarians from Yue. , local fever, husband died young. I recently learned from a letter from home that Xi Zai was seriously ill in Qianling and unable to manage. He has returned to his home in Anlu to recuperate, but he has not improved yet..."

After Qin Shihuang heard this, he tilted his head and called to pay homage: "I'm glad, Qin's administration of officials is now settled. Since I patrolled the east, I have seen that the officials are arrogant, extravagant and lewd. What is missing is the conscientiousness and diligence like this! Pass on my edict. Order, let Nanjun send famous doctors to diagnose and treat him, so that he will not die young, and he will be promoted to another rank, so that all officials in the world will know that those who are honest and don't be greedy, and those who are loyal to official duties will be rewarded for their hard work!"

Hei Fu was stunned, wait a minute, His Majesty the Emperor has suddenly come to his senses. He wants to launch a nationwide "Learn from Comrade Xi" activity and let the cadres of the Qin Dynasty hold meetings to learn from Xi's spirit?

He quickly said: "I would like to thank Your Majesty for your happiness!"

Having said that, Heifu didn't have much hope. After learning about this, he had already asked his family to hire the best doctor in the south to treat Xi. Fortunately, it was a disease caused by overwork, not a day's cold.

What Heifu didn't know was that historically, Xi was supposed to have died of illness in the 30th year of Qin Shihuang's reign. Because of Heifu's changes, he lived for an extra year, but still did not escape the disease. No one knows whether Xi can survive this or not. We can only do our best to make peace with Tianming...

Heifu then suggested that printing could not only be used to copy laws and regulations, but also print more things so that they could be widely disseminated among the people.

Historically, people in the Tang Dynasty first used this object to print Buddhist scriptures. The dense Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures were transliterated into Chinese. Believers worshiped in the Buddhist hall surrounded by incense and murmured "Amitabha". Later, printing was used Along with other books, the culture of the Tang and Song Dynasties reached its peak.

However, the printing technology invented by Heifu in the Qin Dynasty was already printing laws, calendars, solar terms songs, and agricultural books at its very beginning, and disseminated them throughout the world. These are all useful knowledge for ordinary people, and they can further Promote literacy and cultural dissemination. If this continues, what will the situation be like in a hundred years? Even Heifu couldn't predict it.

Of course, there are also history books to be printed to brainwash scholars all over the world, a new subject that Heifu calls "National History"...

After so many days, Heifu thought it was time to settle this dispute!

"Your Majesty, as I said that day, hand-copied books are like soldiers of rough wood and stone, and engraving and printing are like soldiers of copper and iron."

"The former copies a book, spreads it to ten people, and affects a hundred people. The latter prints a hundred copies, distributes it to a hundred people, spreads it to a thousand people, and affects thousands of families! Comparing the two, it is like iron striking wood, destroying it! Your Majesty , if every public school disciple could have a copy of the newly compiled "History of the Country", and have the officials teach it, and publicize the difference between ancient and modern times, and the fact that prefectures and counties are better than feudalism, and then use it as a subject for examination as an official, people would When people recite it, why worry about them not abandoning the previous king and following the current king? Why worry about public opinion and people's hearts being different?"

Qin Shihuang touched his beard and nodded slightly. He had already made a decision in his mind, whether to ban private learning or regulate private learning, whether to burn books or to revise books, but he glanced at everyone:

"Do you still have any objections, sir?"

The ministers were silent. They all knew that the emperor was not asking him, but Prime Minister Li Si!

Li Si seemed to still be calm and calm, but underneath his calmness, his heart was in turmoil. This was the first time in the more than 20 years since he had followed the emperor that he had lost someone in terms of national policy!

At the moment of life and death, whether to expel or retain guests, he convinced Qin Shihuang.

On the issue of preserving and destroying Han, he defeated Han Fei and even killed this terrible opponent with the help of a knife.

In the debate between feudalism and prefectures, he defeated Wang Wan and successfully triple-jumped, rising from a court lieutenant to the right prime minister, one person lower than ten thousand people!

But just when he was full of ambition and was about to take the opportunity to completely defeat Wang Wan, starting with burning books, and through a series of drastic plans to win himself the title of a lord and a name for all generations, he was intercepted by the black boy who came out halfway. Huh...

What made Li Si's teeth itch was that Heifu was full of praise for his concept of "King of Fajin", but only slightly changed the methods. Using a gentler method to burn books, Li Si was originally confident that he could overwhelm him, but when Heifu brought out the printing technology, he understood that this matter could no longer be argued for.

Heifu won the favor of the emperor by relying on his vision ahead of the times and the new technologies he kept pulling out of his pockets.

Li Si knew that he lost this argument, not to Heifu, but to himself.

Although the slander of Feng Chan was serious, it was not to the extent that the emperor made a decision to completely abandon Confucian scholars and schools of thought in the world. Due to a series of changes, Lisby initiated the burning of books three years earlier in history, and the effect was not satisfactory.

Arguing forcefully at this time will only disappoint the emperor. Li Si knew that all he could do was try his best to hold on to the ground.

Make yourself lose less ugly? No, no, what Li Si wants in his heart is always to turn defeat into victory!

Long-winded rebuttals and controversies? No need. If Li Si wants to stand up, just one word will do!

So Li Si reported: "Your Majesty, I believe that the art of engraving and printing should be strictly adhered to, and at the same time, private paper making and use should be prohibited. The government is the exclusive owner of it, and it cannot be easily obtained by the Guandong scholars. After all, the people can use it, but they cannot make it known. !”

"Prime Minister, what you said makes sense." Qin Shihuang nodded and said yes.

Heifu frowned slightly. Li Si wanted to go all the way on the path of dumbing down the people. But as the saying goes, technology can make the authoritarian more authoritarian and the free more free. This is also a helpless thing. There is still a long way to go before the universal knowledge is spread. It's a long way off.

But Li Si's next sentence made Heifu completely refresh his understanding of him!

But I heard Li Si say again: "In addition, the veteran has thought over and over again and believes that poetry, books and the sayings of hundreds of schools of thought do not need to be burned blindly, which will cause the scholars to make noises. It is better to stay in the army, repair and burn! Just like Confucius said In other words, choose the good ones and follow them, choose the bad ones and change them!"

"However, I am not very talented in this matter of compiling books and history, so I would like to take charge of it! I hope Your Majesty will allow it!"

Heifu was stunned, and for a moment, his hair stood on end!