Three Kingdoms

Chang'an.

The mansion of the Han hussar general.

Backyard den.

Fei Qian and Pang Tong sat down in their regular clothes, drinking ice-cold wine and enjoying the coolness.

Although there is a slight chill in the morning and evening when Chang'an reaches the Lan Yue, it is basically still very hot during the day. I sweat all the time, drink some ice-cold wine, and then enjoy the breeze blowing through the hall. It is the most comfortable early autumn in the Han Dynasty.

People often say that July is the ghost month. The gate of ghosts opens wide, and then closes again on July 29th, and hundreds of ghosts run rampant. It sounds very scary, but in fact, in the Han Dynasty, July was still a representative month. The month of beauty and expectation is the beginning of the second half of the year, full of longing for the upcoming autumn harvest, and a month of hope.

The Ghost Festival on July 15th was originally a festival to pay homage to ancestors, but then it gradually changed under various religions and became the so-called Ghost Festival, and there were many horrifying rumors about it. If you look back, you must know that the "ghost" on July 15th was originally the spirit of one's ancestors, and then after constant tampering, it became a terrifying evil ghost...

Fei Qian swung the wine bowl and listened to the clinking sound of ice fish in the wine bowl. Then he took a sip and felt a bit of coolness coming from his mouth and seeping into his lungs, which seemed to dissipate some of the heat around him.

This is the case with current affairs. The changes of the times often cause some things to change their taste after fermentation.

Maybe it's like wine, the mellower it is, the more fragrant it is.

Maybe it's like mold, growing more and more rotten.

Fei Qian looked at Pang Tong, then at the table, thinking a little.

Now, perhaps it is time to change some things. However, Fei Qian was still a little uneasy, just like although he knew that he had thrown in the koji, no one could be sure that it would become fine wine after time of fermentation before it was opened.

"My lord, is there something on your mind?" Pang Tong drank a thin cup of wine, smacked it in his mouth, put the cup on the table, and asked softly.

Fei Qian glanced at Pang Tongyi, nodded slightly, and said: "I want to rebuild the ranks of historians..."

"The ranks of historians?" Pang Tong was a little confused about this new term.

Historian.

It seems that his whole body is full of official posts.

In the ancient Chinese era, because written records were sparse and there were not many items preserved and circulated, the political system adopted in the ancient period was often just speculation and it was difficult to have concrete evidence. Until the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, because there were special The established historians existed, so more information was preserved until later generations.

"Zhou Li·Chun Guan" records that the Zhou royal family has five histories. During the Spring and Autumn Period, the so-called "every ruler must write a letter" formally appeared, and historians were divided into major historians, minor historians, internal historians, external historians, left historians, and right historians, with a clear division of labor. "The six codes of the great historian govern the country, the minor historian governs the aspirations of the state, the internal historian governs the king's orders, the external historian governs the envoys in all directions, the left historian records words, and the right historian records events." 』

The Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system, and during the reign of Emperor Wu, the Taishi Ling was established, with Sima Tan as his post. After Tan died, his son Sima Qian succeeded him. After moving to death, those who knew about historical affairs were all from other officials, and Taishi was no longer in charge of historical affairs, and was limited to the scope of astronomical and calendar affairs. At the same time, the Han Dynasty's tradition of full-time writing of history was also followed by many feudal dynasties in later generations.

Fei Qian knew why after Sima Qian's death, Taishi Ling eliminated the authority to compile history books. It was not because Taishi Qian lost his descendants, but because the emperor felt that he had been constrained. After all, when he granted the Taishi Ling, he had said it very nicely and asked "Jun." "I must write a book", and after I finished speaking, I felt a stone hit my instep...

And it hurts.

It is rare for the emperor's authority to be effectively monitored, so when the emperor is mentally ill, he will sometimes do some unbelievable things. Using a slingshot to hit pedestrians is considered a common operation. As for those traitors, traitors, traitors, and tyrannical emperors. , palace secrets and so on, there are many kinds of them. And if all these are recorded in the annals of history and passed down to future generations, except for some completely crazy emperors, most of them will feel that their faces are crackling and their faces are too ugly.

As the saying goes, "His deeds are revealed in one day, and his infamy lasts for thousands of years." Which emperor would want historians to write down his dark side in detail and enter it into the history books?

However, the emperor pretended to be generous before, saying that when the Taishi Ling was responsible for recording history, he enjoyed the privilege of recording. The emperor could not inspect the records of the historians, nor could he change them without authorization. Even if he secretly read them and became angry, the historians even said " The traditional art of "Bingbi Zhishu"...

what to do?

Plate him!

Chinese tradition goes online, since the problem cannot be solved, solve the person who caused the problem.

So until now, in the late Han Dynasty, Taishi Ling has lost the glory of Sima Qian. Most of the historians are appointed by other personnel appointed by the emperor. Instead, Taishi Ling focuses on astronomy and calendar, just like Xu Yue.

Naturally, there are fewer and fewer historians who write straightly. Most of them even look at the emperor's face when writing.

Of course, there are still some upright historians, but...

Throughout the ages, people who are too upright will probably not end well in the officialdom.

Now, Feiqian is ready to make some changes.

Because now, Fei Qian wants to set up a new functional department, called "Zhiyin Supervisor".

"Yin", among the oracle bone characters, the vertical one on the left represents the pen, and the right one is "you", which symbolizes holding the pen in the hand. Therefore, the responsibilities of the "Zhi Yin Supervisor" are very clear, and they are the specialized historian department.

"The person in charge is called the Supervisor of Zhiyin. He has the same position among the servants and is worth two thousand stones. He is responsible for supervising the compilation of national history, compiling historical events, recording daily life, and calendar records... This... there are three assistants, and they have the same position. The minister, Qian Shi, is called Zhiyin Supervisor of Compilation and Compilation. He has compiled some histories, written some books, and edited some... Each county also has a Zhiyin Academy, which does not participate in civil affairs and military affairs. It only records important affairs of the county and county, and has a compilation of one, four hundred Stone, repair book two, three hundred stones..."

Pang Tong looked at Fei Qian's idea of ​​the "Zhiyin Supervisor" architecture system, frowned, wrinkled his chin, took a breath of cold air, and kept silent for a while.

To put it bluntly, Zhiyin Supervisor is a purely literary department, responsible for recording various things happening at the moment and then compiling them into history books. The scope of this position can be neither large nor small. After all, the rank of a lieutenant can range from a noble lord to a doctor, so naturally it can fluctuate widely.

It looks simple, but it's actually not simple.

The significance of a historian is not only to record history, but also has a very important function, which is to serve as a supervisory force.

The emperor's power must be supervised, and so must the power of the prime minister.

The Zhiyin Supervisor is such an institution, independent of people's livelihood, military and government affairs, and is only responsible for recording and registering. After all, many times people do evil because they think no one can control them, or they think no one knows about it, or they think they can cover up their ugliness with one hand...

Although it may not have a direct effect, if you don't do this, the corruption of rights will definitely be like the Feihe incident, either due to personal laziness, or active pursuit of personal gain, and ultimately the corruption of the entire system. Collapse.

If Pang Tong had played the game of later generations, he would probably have muttered that Fei Qian was going to set eyes on the upper and lower roads, whether it was the main road or the wild!

And this is done openly, plus secretly...

What is administration?

How to weaken the control power of local gentry over the countryside?

If a prefect of a county, as the highest administrative official in a place, spreads the news about what happened in the local area, and he still doesn't know anything, but when the superiors ask him, he will still say anything and still need to investigate and study it. , and also ask the specific person in charge, then what is the use of such a county magistrate?

Going one step further, if the centralized power cannot hear or see anything at the local level, then what is the point of control and what kind of centralization can there be?

Although the Zhiyin Supervisory Yuan does not comment on politics, does not participate in people's livelihood, and does not care about military affairs, it is like a probe that leads directly to the local area from top to bottom. Of course, for the time being, it can only reach the county level at most. As for whether it will be expanded to counties in the future, we have to wait for subsequent developments...

"This matter is of great importance... The Lord's concern is really..." Pang Tong clicked his tongue twice, and then asked, "I wonder who the Lord wants to lure into his hands?" 』

This matter itself was an idea of ​​Fei Qian's, and he brought it up to discuss with Pang Tong first. Of course, the most important thing was that Fei Qian wanted to see Pang Tong's attitude towards this matter, so that he could find out how other noble clan members felt about this matter. view.

Fei Qian chuckled twice and said, "What do you think, Shi Yuan, of leaving Cai Zhaoji alone?" 』

"ah? What? Pang Tong was stunned for a moment.

Fei Qian continued to smile, "Furthermore, all female officials are employed in Zhiyin Prison. Women from good families are selected to join the posts. After the examination, the civil servants will take notes. If they are suitable, they will be kept in the prison." 』

This is a blind trick, false and true. After all, not everyone is like Pang Tong, who can understand the power of Zhiyin Supervisor. For some reason, he was blinded by Fei Qian, thinking that it was just set up by Fei Qian to please Cai Yan...

At the same time, Fei Qian did have other intentions in letting Cai Yan take over.

"Are they all female officials? Pang Tong glanced at Fei Qian and said, "I'm afraid something is wrong..."

Fei Qian nodded and said, "Shi Yuan might as well speak frankly." 』

In addition to being used to insert eyes, there is also the issue of the appointment of female officials.

In Chinese history, women have gradually lost their influence in power. One of the reasons is the emergence of writing and Confucianism, which caused women to lose most of their inheritance functions in addition to childbearing. Another more decisive invisible factor is the method of establishing sons and heirs that the Zhou Dynasty began to establish, which led to women gradually losing the right to inherit political power and becoming vassals.

The emergence of writing has caused human children to no longer rely entirely on the teachings of their parents, especially the words and deeds of their mothers. After all, they spend more time with their mothers during their childhood. Before writing, mothers were the closest and best way to acquire all kinds of knowledge. a source of experience and knowledge.

With the rise of Confucianism, the function of teacher has creatively emerged, allowing human beings to learn the knowledge and experience of their ancestors more systematically and efficiently, but it has also further reduced the role of women in the inheritance of experience...

The Zhou Dynasty is the source of most of China's feudal etiquette. Among the systems established by the Zhou Dynasty, three points are very important. One is the method of establishing heirs with the eldest son, the second is the ancestral temple sacrificial system, and the third is the prohibition of intermarriage with the same surname. , these three points have been used until later generations.

Fei Qian is neither a feminist nor a patriarchal person. From a certain point of view, once the butt is tilted to that side, it will be difficult to be correct.

Just like when feminists see anyone mentioning Wu Zetian, they can't say anything stupid that Wu Zetian did. If someone says it, they will either scold them with cold eyes and accuse them of being a lackey of patriarchy, or they will say that there are so many male emperors in China, and they are stupid and incompetent. , who is not as good as Wu Zetian, I don’t know how many times it is, and put on a trembling look.

Male emperors are indeed much stupider, and they are much worse than Wu Zetian. Wu Zetian also did some good things, promoting the children of poor families, whether subjectively or incidentally. During her reign, she continued to attack the gentry, especially the Guanlong family...

But for other issues, it’s just wrong. There is no difference between men and women, nor can special care be taken just because there are many people and few people.

Discussing things as they happen is the right thing to do.

Fei Qian believes that the emergence of writing is inevitable for cultural progress and cannot be resisted or turned back. Women’s wisdom also belongs to the wisdom of mankind as a whole. Women can also hold teaching positions, just like many teachers in later generations. A considerable part of the team is held by women, so Fei Qian's previous appointment of Cai Yan as a doctorate in the academy can be regarded as a beginning.

But such a beginning is not enough.

Now, as full-time female officials, and even the issue of female inheritance rights that will be promoted in the next step, may be able to break the shackles that the feudal dynasty has entangled on women in the future. Of course, it is also possible that with the evolution of the times, Fei Qian is just doing a white job and cannot completely change anything...

However, Fei Qian felt that since he was a descendant, he could not follow the crowd.

Especially at the higher levels, the political structures.

Just like the Zhou Dynasty established the three major pieces of feudal inheritance, Fei Qian also wants to establish a huge institutional system, making this institutional system strong and solid enough that even after Fei Qian has passed away, he can still rely on inertia to continue Scroll down for a while, the longer the better. As for whether it will be sustainable in the future, and whether there will be talented and talented people who can add bricks and lubrication to this system, Fei Qian cannot predict, but it cannot be said that because of the uncertainty of the future, nothing should be done now.

China has imprisoned women for thousands of years, which is basically equivalent to fighting other countries with one hand tied. Just imagine, what if the other hand was also let go?

Although it is said that due to medical conditions, living standards, etc., the protection of women and children was insufficient, resulting in the childbirth process occupying most of the space of ancient women, this is not a normal state.

Times will change. With the construction of Chang'an Medical Center, female doctors specializing in gynecological diseases are also being trained...

To give another extreme example, even war cannot be said to belong entirely to men. After all, the consequences of war are borne by all men and women. Why must women be refused to go to the battlefield and not allowed to take up swords and guns to fight for their own lives? Hope of going down?

Regardless of how the Shang Dynasty was smeared by later generations, during the Shang Dynasty, there was a record of "three thousand women were good, and they traveled ten thousand, and they conquered the country." That is to say, three thousand female soldiers were used to organize an additional ten thousand military brigade. Then set out to conquer the earthwork.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were also Rui Bowan's mother and Deng Man, the wife of Chuwu, who were all powerful among women. There were even some who had mixed reputations, such as Kong Boji...

Fei Qian felt that no matter what Pang Tong said, he would be able to find some reasons to convince Pang Tong, but he didn't expect that Pang Tong pondered for a while and then said: "In the long run, we must not only accept female officers..."

Fei Qian was waiting for a rebuttal when he suddenly felt something was wrong and blinked, "So, Shi Yuan doesn't hate female officials?" 』

Pang Tong said with a smile: "If all the female officials in the world are like Cai Jia, what's the evil?" When the lord chooses scholars, he should balance them with their virtues and talents. Can we limit the number of men and women we seek? Isn’t that absurd? 』

"What do you mean by Shi Yuan?" What should be done? Fei Qian felt that what Pang Tong said made sense, so he did not have to stick to his original plan.

"Cai's family has a good academic background, and he has a strong memory of Bowen. There is nothing wrong with appointing him as the direct supervisor." However, for the rest of the positions, talented people, regardless of gender, are all tested. If they are qualified, they will be accepted. If they are not, then they will be discarded..." Pang Tong looked at Fei Qian and continued to add, "If everyone in Cai has talented people, we can If you take action, you can also try it in the court. Only in this way can you find the right way..."

It is here that the memory of later generations has influenced Fei Qian, making Fei Qian always feel that women were very discriminatory in ancient officialdom, but in fact among the current big men, those who are discriminatory are all those who are too emotional and unreasonable. , regardless of gender. It's just that sometimes women will be more obvious in this aspect, such as Empress Dowager Xuan who used the bed mat as a metaphor for her foreign ministers, or Empress Dowager Dou who threw the shaft to the wild boar as a companion...

In fact, from the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, to the Qin and Han Dynasties, and even to the Northern Wei Dynasty, and even the Sui and Tang Dynasties, although the proportion of female officials did gradually decrease, they were not completely inaccessible to the court. Even during the Northern Wei Dynasty, the number of female officials was more than that of the Han Dynasty. , and became more institutionalized in the Tang Dynasty, everyone knew about it, and then in the Song Dynasty...

Confucius once said, "The wife is the lord of the relationship." However, the so-called "carrying forward" in later generations regarded this sentence as non-existent and only talked about the so-called three obedience and four virtues.

What Pang Tong said is also very pertinent. Cai Yong was the historian appointed by Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty. Historically, when Wang Yun wanted to kill Cai Yong, Cai Yong also said that he was willing to endure torture such as stabbing a sword and cutting off his feet to save the rest of his life and complete the history of the Han Dynasty. So from this perspective, Cai Yan inherited his father's wish and entered Zhiyin Prison to compile the history of Han Dynasty, which is considered a good story.

More importantly, Cai Yan does have strength in this area. Whether it is from the lectures at Qinglong Temple or the talents he has shown in the academy, he is admirable. Therefore, Pang Tong does not object to Cai Yan serving as the supervisor of Zhiyin. position, and even said that if Cai Yan felt it was inconvenient to be alone, he would like to have some close friends to accompany him. As long as he has real talent and practical knowledge and passes a public examination, he can still hold official positions and so on.

The only thing Pang Tong refuted Fei Qian was that Fei Qian had said before that only female officials were allowed to serve in Zhiyin Prison, believing that this was discrimination against men...

This... okay...

After thinking about it, Fei Qian nodded in agreement and removed this restriction. It was basically confirmed that Cai Yan would be officially appointed as the Supervisor of Zhiyin on the tenth day of the lunar month, mainly responsible for compiling the history of Han Dynasty. The subsequent construction of the Zhiyin Academy will be launched one after another after Cai Yan's formal appointment.

Cai Yan should not be just a beautiful vase, she should get her own position, and this position is based on her ability, not gender or appearance.

In the workplace of later generations, there are always some women who enjoy various women's benefits and do not do heavy work or menial work. They are picky and picky, while complaining about how difficult it is for women to get into high-level positions, and then they are tired of other male employees. Turning a blind eye to situations such as working hard, staying up late, working overtime, losing hair, dark circles under the eyes, etc.

After discussing and finalizing one thing, Fei Qian picked up a draft from the desk and handed it to Pang Tong. "How about Shi Yuan looking at this matter again?" 』

Now that the soldiers are free to repair, the rest of the people cannot be free.

Two words, make trouble!

Four words, keep making trouble!

Pang Tong murmured, knowing that today's wine was not good to drink. Then he took it and took a look, and his eyes widened...