Guozijian's status in the Tang Dynasty is quite special.

On the one hand, it is an educational management body, with some functions similar to those of the Ministry of Education in later generations.

On the other hand, it is also regarded as the highest institution of learning in the Tang Dynasty, and after Li Shimin ordered the expansion of the Guozijian last year, there were more than 5,000 students and teachings in it.

In terms of scale, it is not much worse than the current Guanshishan Academy.

During this time, various newspapers in Chang'an City were so popular, Guozijian naturally ran his own newspaper, and also gave a literary crepe name "Yafeng".

"Kong Sacrifice Wine, this is the sales of our latest issue of "Yafeng", except for the more than 800 copies ordered by the students in the Guozi Prison, less than 200 copies are sold outside."

Sima Caizhang is an assistant teacher in Guozi, and is responsible for the compilation of "Yafeng" in Guozijian.

As a Confucian who was edicted to write the "Five Classics" together with Kong Yingda and others, Sima Caizhang's talent is naturally extraordinary, otherwise Fang Xuanling would not have recommended him to Li Shimin at the beginning.

However, no matter how talented you are, it doesn't mean that you can manage "Yafeng" well.

"Less than two hundred? If I'm not mistaken, "Datang Daily" has now sold nearly 30,000 copies of an issue on the market, right? ”

Kong Yingda felt that this gap was a bit difficult to accept.

All along, he has been a little unhappy, no, it should be said that he is very unhappy Li Kuan.

It's just that this guy's life is getting more and more moist year by year, how can he stand it?

"Kong Sacrifice Liquor, if you add up all the sales to Datang, their latest sales have exceeded 30,000 copies, basically his sales are equal to the sum of the sales of all the other newspapers in the back."

Sima Caizhang added with a bitter face.

It's not that I don't work hard, it's just that my opponent is too strong.

"Even the kind of articles they wrote for Tian Shenu can sell 30,000 copies, why is there only such a little bit of our "Yafeng"? Essay pen, ten "Datang Daily" combined can't compare to us. ”

Kong Yingda has a lot of opinions about the increasingly vernacular writing of "Datang Daily".

However, this kind of thing, it's really a bit difficult for you to find a suitable reason to attack him.

After all, he is not an imperial history, and he is not good at talking nonsense there with empty words and white teeth.

"Writing? You may not have read their latest issue of the newspaper, where do they have any writing? It's just how everyone usually speaks, and they use whatever words to write it, and they can't see the elegance of the words at all. ”

Sima Caizhang, as the person in charge of "Yafeng", was beaten by a newspaper that had no writing at all, and naturally his face was gloomy.

"This ...... This is completely putting our scholars in the position of a field slave, in the long run, who will be able to understand the wonderful articles of the sages in the future? This is to cut off the root of our Confucian heritage. ”

The reason why the Confucian family has been able to stand in the world for so long without falling is not because of the banner of Confucius?

If everyone can't understand the Confucian classics, can he still stand under this banner?

The more Kong Yingda thought about it, the more worried she became, and the more she thought about it, the more angry she became.

We can't let this phenomenon go unchecked.

……

Li Shimin looked at the pile of impeachments in front of him with a little headache.

Many of the people who wrote these memorandas were great Confucians, although their official positions were not very high, their influence was not small.

Especially with the rise of the influence of the imperial examination in the Tang Dynasty, the influence of these great Confucians is also increasing.

After all, among the five subjects of the imperial examination, the status of Jinshi and Ming Jing has always been far ahead.

However, the professors and teachers of these two subjects are basically descendants of Confucianism.

In terms of the level of doing things, the successors of Confucianism are not bad.

It's not like the Ming Arithmetic Department, the Ming Medicine Department and the Ming Law Department, which are not condensed into a rope.

"Li Zhong, go and summon Li Kuan into the palace, I have something to ask him."

Li Shimin went through all these twists and turns, and basically understood where the root cause was.

During this time, Li Kuan's performance was very satisfactory to Li Shimin, so he didn't want to be directly reprimanded because of these twists and turns.

Judging from Li Kuan's past actions, the launch of this vernacular article should have his reasons.

"Your Majesty has a lot of opportunities, how can you have time to listen to Weichen's nagging there?"

Li Kuan knew why Li Shimin was looking for him today on the way to the palace, but he was in a relaxed mood.

When I asked Luo Bingwang to write articles in the vernacular, I knew that it would definitely cause some backlash.

After all, vernacular literature is not perfect, and it does have some shortcomings from the perspective of inheriting traditional literature.

"There are no hippie smiles there, they are all fathers of two children, and they don't have a proper shape all day long."

Every time Li Shimin saw Li Kuan's expression of not taking anything seriously, he couldn't help but get angry.

"I heard that the first batch of people who emigrated to Hedong Province have already reached their destination, and they can settle down before the heavy snow falls, and this immigration thing is considered to be more than half successful."

Li Kuan deliberately did not mention the matter of the newspaper, but even talked about the matter of immigration.

"I'll talk about this later, I ask you, why are all the articles on "Datang Daily" so vulgar and not a little beautiful?"

"Your Majesty, what is vulgar? What is elegance? This "Dream of Red Mansions" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Weichen was also written in a technique close to the vernacular, does Your Majesty think they are vulgar? ”

Li Kuan's words blocked Li Shimin's later words.

How popular this "Dream of Red Mansions" is now, just look at the performance of the concubines in the harem.

As for "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", not to mention.

Can Li Shimin say that they are vulgar?

This text is the essence of Sinology left over from the Qin and Han dynasties, and it is an important guarantee for the Central Plains Dynasty to be inherited for thousands of years. If everyone used the vernacular, wouldn't this inheritance be broken? ”

Some of the contents written in the impeachment fold by Kong Yingda and others are also recognized by Li Shimin.

His Majesty asked, and Wei Chen said what this text was. According to Wei Chen's understanding, this literary language is based on the spoken language of the pre-Qin dynasty and the language of the ancient works of the later Qin and Han dynasties. Define it like this, Your Majesty has no doubts, right? ”

Li Shimin glared at Li Kuan and did not speak.

"King Luo Bin of Weichen's Mansion once raised a similar question, and the explanation given by Weichen is that the reason why the ancients formed the first literary language after processing the spoken language of the pre-Qin Dynasty was because the ancient writing tools were clumsy, and the writing was very laborious, and it was inevitable to omit the pen and pay attention to conciseness."

"However, writing tools are constantly evolving, looking at Chang'an City, who else will use bamboo to write? However, even with the advent of paper, the literati of all dynasties still repeatedly emphasized the imitation and beautification of the inheritance of the literary language, and as a result, the literary language became a written language that was more and more distant from the spoken language of ordinary people. ”

Hearing this, Li Shimin frowned and asked, "Why do you say that there is a deliberate element of literati in this?" ”

As if he had guessed that Li Shimin would ask this, Li Kuan showed a smile on his face, "Your Majesty, it's actually very simple, only interests." Classical Chinese is the so-called Confucian orthodox way of speech in the imperial court and study. Its beauty and obscurity, its distance from the daily spoken language, so that the classical Chinese can ensure that the knowledge and culture it carries become the patent of the scholar class, making it difficult for ordinary people to achieve the leap of class, and the whole society has little room for upward movement. ”

"It stands to reason that words and speech have the same purpose, but why do these people use classical Chinese to conceal the meaning and purpose when they write articles, so that ordinary literate people can't understand them?"

Li Shimin: "Then why do you say so?" ”

Li Kuan: "Because in this way, the nobles of the family can always be high." Your Majesty, promoting vernacular literature is actually a way to crack down on wealthy families. ”

As soon as Li Kuan's words came out, Li Shimin's heart was shocked.

The promotion of this vernacular text actually has something to do with the suppression of the family that he has been promoting?

Is this wide, do-it-fu [58 fo] pen already so deep?

"However, it is also true that the promotion of this vernacular text will make it difficult for the sages' articles to continue."

Li Shimin was already inclined to support Li Kuan's idea in his heart, but he still had some questions to figure out.

"Your Majesty, the promotion of vernacular does not mean the complete abandonment of classical Chinese. For ordinary people, they can't even read a few big characters, and the use of classical Chinese will greatly raise the threshold for them to get rid of 'illiteracy'. As for the teaching of classical Chinese, it is natural that it can still be taught normally in various Mongolian schools, primary schools and academies. ”

"Illiterate?"

Li Shimin has heard this word for the first time.

I only know that blind people are called blind, and I have not heard of anyone who is called illiterate.

"Your Majesty, adults who are illiterate and cannot write, Weichen considers them illiterate. Ordinary people want to change the identity of illiterate, and the promotion of Chinese pinyin and dictionaries is the biggest help. However, if the vernacular language is not promoted at the same time, it will be more difficult for these people to escape from illiteracy at once. ”

The same is the difficulty of learning a passage, classical Chinese and vernacular, which is simply the difference between addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and calculus.

"Then according to what you mean, not only is there no need to stop the promotion of this vernacular language, but the imperial court should vigorously support it?"

Li Shimin is eloquent and strategic, so he is naturally not afraid that the people are educated, and the court will not be able to control it.

On the contrary, he had always worried that the power of the family was too great and not controlled by the imperial court.

When Yang Guang was in power, weren't the people who took the lead in the rebellion or behind the rebellion all the families?

A lesson from the past.

"That's right, even the imperial court can try to promote the vernacular first in the Ming Arithmetic Department and the Ming Medicine Department, so that everyone can feel the court's support for the vernacular language."

"I know!"

……

In the center of Wuhe, Zheng Hai and Changsun Chong sat together, discussing the matter of "Chang'an Evening News".

Although the newspaper of Weishui Academy is now the second newspaper in Chang'an City, the gap between the second and the first is really a bit big.

Neither Zheng Hai nor Changsun Chong was willing to accept such a situation.

"Brother Eldest Sun, in my opinion, the main reason why this "Datang Daily" can be so popular is the impact of the serialization of "Dream of Red Mansions", if we can find someone to write something similar, then the sales will have a chance to grow rapidly."

Zheng Hai himself is a fan of "Dream of Red Mansions", and naturally has a deeper understanding of the popularity of "Datang Daily".

However, Changsun Chong has a different point of view.

"The serialization of "Dream of Red Mansions" must have had a very big impact. However, I think there is another factor that cannot be ignored, that is, the articles in "Datang Daily" are written in easy-to-understand language, even those craftsmen who have rough words in the workshop can easily understand. ”

"Are you speaking in the vernacular? Hmph, although this thing will make it easier for literate people to read the newspaper, it will make the tone of the newspaper lower. Literati don't like such articles, if "Dream of Red Mansions" wasn't written well enough, "Datang Daily" would probably have been yellow a long time ago. ”

""Dream of Red Mansions" is well written, and I admit this, but if it is not written in easy-to-understand words, and it is as difficult to understand as "Spring and Autumn" and "Shangshu", how many people in Chang'an City will wait for new serialized content every day?"

Eldest Sun Chong's words left Zheng Hai speechless.

Indeed, no matter how well a book is written, what is the point if few people can understand it?

In addition to the excellent quality of the content, in the final analysis, the audience is very wide.

"Brother Zheng, I suggest that "Chang'an Evening News" also write articles according to the colloquial narrative method, so as to narrow the gap with "Datang Daily", otherwise, when everyone talks about newspapers, they will know that there is "Datang Daily", then it is meaningless for us to work hard."

"Although there is truth in this, I have heard that many people in the DPRK and China are now impeaching the use of this vernacular language, which will have a series of undesirable consequences, and other newspapers are still basically written in classical Chinese, and only some vulgar tabloids follow the trend of using vernacular Chinese, and if we change the court, it may cause a lot of trouble."

Although Zheng Hai did not realize what long-term impact the promotion of vernacular literature would have on the Zheng clan in Xingyang.

However, there are many people in Chang'an City who oppose the promotion of vernacular literature, and he knows this.

"You and I join forces, what trouble are you afraid of? It's good that we don't go to other people's troubles. Going back to the vulgar tabloid you just mentioned, people are using vernacular because they follow the trend, so the sales are very good. You see, the "Moon", which has just been ordered to close down for rectification, has caught up with us in sales in a short period of time; Moreover, people's sales are based on the basis of selling five times more than us, which if they sell for a penny like us, they may have surpassed us a long time ago. ”

Changsun Chong is also a regular customer of "The Moon", so he is naturally familiar with the situation of this newspaper.

The other party was ordered to suspend business for rectification, but he was happy and painful.

This painful feeling is the same as being sown off the shelves in the future.

"Since you say so, let's give it a try. However, I think we can use half of the layout in classical Chinese and half in vernacular. ”

Zheng Hai finally compromised.

"Okay, just follow your suggestion, Brother Zheng!"