In the face of Guo Kang's magical metaphor, Zhu Wenkui always felt that something was strange. But if you think about it, you can't find any obvious mistakes.

"Is there a resemblance between the Indian civilization and the Greeks?" He asked.

"It's hard to say how similar it is, but the influence and fusion between civilizations is real." Guo Kang can be sure of this: "For example, Buddhist statues, we all know about them, right?" ”

This time, even Princess Ma was interested and looked at him.

"I've heard that in the early days, Buddhism didn't have a tradition of making statues. Later, some monks began to worship statues. He looked at Monk Daoyan, and after he nodded, he continued: "The local Buddha statues in early India are quite different from the current Buddha statues. ”

"Soon, however, the custom of making statues in the northern Gandhara region, which was what Master Xuanzang called the 'Jiandala Kingdom', was influenced by the local Greek culture. The Greeks were very enthusiastic about sculpture, and the accumulation of technology was also quite rich, and soon eliminated the rough style of India, and all kinds of statues suddenly became robust and vivid. ”

"There are a lot of statues in that place, and there are curly hair and beards, and they look like the faces of the Greeks. And those wrestlers and Dharma protectors are simply Hercules who has changed his clothes. So, a rather pronounced style was formed. ”

"The various Buddhist statues in the Central Plains came from there, not directly from India. Therefore, obvious traces can still be seen in the early grottoes, and it was slowly transformed into the Central Plains later. ”

"So there's a Greek influence here." Monk Daoyan said with a smile: "The fate of the world is really magical, and the poor monk's trip is indeed not in vain." ”

Guo Kang nodded.

As the most influential foreign ideological system in the Central Plains in this era, Buddhism does have many extraterritorial elements. Yelu Abaoji's famous violent remark of "I don't believe it if it's not China" is actually not unreasonable...... It's quite interesting to look back closely.

And Zhu Wenkui sighed: "In this way, this Greek seems to have something to do with India." I thought it was just a joke. ”

"Uh, just kidding......"

"So, these Greeks, have they tried to sort out the Taoism and put forward theories?" Zhu Wenkui didn't care much about these things, and continued to ask about the previous topic.

"There may be, but there's really nothing to discuss, anyway, no matter how you sort it out, you can't get around Rome." Guo Kang said: "If the Greeks don't mention Rome, it's probably the same as Ceris doesn't mention it...... Uh......"

Halfway through his speech, he froze.

"I can't think of anything to compare." Guo Kang shook his head again and again: "I can't find a regime of equal importance in the history of Seris. ”

"If you have to say it, if Greece is a single country, it is a 'Jiangnan country'." He thought for a long time, so he had to forcibly give an example: "This is just a regional name, and the local area has been ruled by 'foreigners' for a long time since Great Qin - if you count all the southerners as outsiders." ”

"It's too difficult to create a separate legal system for it. Qin Hui couldn't make up a whole set of theories. Guo Kang shook his head: "Even if it's just to avoid the Northern Expedition, you can only press hard." Because this kind of state will definitely move towards the 'restoration of Rome', otherwise it will not be able to sustain itself internally. ”

"It seems to be ......," Zhu Wenkui nodded.

Guo Kang is more confident in this judgment. Because in his world, the Greeks did try.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Greeks began to try to gain independence from the Ottoman Empire, and eventually succeeded, establishing the first nation-states.

At the time, the concept was relatively new. The idea of "building a state of the Greeks" also seems to be advanced. So in terms of theoretical construction, there is only one small question left: what is a Greek.

Greek theorists have also been unable to solve this problem for a long time.

Before them, the only case that can be referred to is probably France. But the routes they carried out were in opposite directions.

On the French side, it is stipulated that all the people of the French land are of the French nation, so everyone must learn French – or Parisian – according to the requirements of the same nation. For this reason, successive French regimes have used administrative and legal means to constantly crack down on local languages.

Before the Revolution, only about one in five people in France could speak French, and one in ten could use it proficiently. For this reason, the National Convention held a discussion, and it was suggested that the king was the main culprit for this phenomenon of "Tower of Babel" with many dialects. Therefore, under the democratic system, whoever still insists on dialects and does not speak French is a betrayal of the country and needs to be severely punished. Under this characterization, the promotion of the French language was soon carried out through a series of decrees.

The confidence to do so comes from long-term accumulation and the strongest central power in Europe. As early as the time of the Valois dynasty, the king decreed that French was the standard language of the state. By the beginning of the 17th century, Richelieu had opened the Institut Française, whose initial goal was to standardize the French language.

In 1670, the first mass-printed French-Chinese Dictionary in Europe appeared in France. Another 24 years later, a standard French dictionary was produced. At the beginning of the 18th century, Louis XIV also hired a Chinese to write Chinese grammar, and later even the Kangxi Dictionary was introduced. As for why I like to refer to Chinese, I believe Chinese know best......

Thus, even with the successive dynasties, kingdoms, republics, and empires, the goal of unifying the French language has never changed.

Driven by the ideas of the Enlightenment, many people believed that a free people must have a unified language. Because the existence of dialects creates barriers, creates privileges, and creates inequality between citizens; It would also hinder the people's acceptance of knowledge and plunge the French nation into ignorance and confusion. Therefore, these dialects must be eliminated.

As for which languages are dialects of French, such as Occillus in the south and Celtic in Brittany, whether they are dialects or independent languages, successive French regimes have not distinguished whether they are dialects. By their standards, even German and Italian can be French dialects as long as they are within France, so they don't care at all.

This identification even transcends political leanings. After the Revolution, the imperial regime and later the Restoration dynasties also promoted the French language and redivided the local regions to break the dialect sphere of influence. Until the 21st century, France refused to join the European Union's treaties on the protection of local and national languages, because France did not officially recognize the existence of other peoples.

Even if he does, others can't do anything about him, because France has been a European hegemon all the year round, and it would be good if it didn't bully others, and who would use this issue to provoke it.

Even after World War II, it was a major power in Europe, so naturally it could not care. Even if France still claims that German in Alsace is also a French dialect, linguists can't do anything about it.

But the Greeks obviously don't have the capital.

(End of chapter)