On the morning of 10 June, when yesterday afternoon, when the decree of the Constitutional Yuan was issued to the Concert Yuan, demanding that it be immediately distributed to all ministries to implement the decree, it caused an uproar.

In the morning, the scholars and waiters of various departments pressed hundreds of people.

Originally, it was used to report daily work to the emperor and the Constitutional Yuan, but today it has become a court assembly.

In the vertical arch hall, three o'clock in the morning, when the sky is just gray and bright, the officials will enter the palace in turn and start today's early dynasty.

In the past, the early dynasty was mainly for everyone to discuss things together, but after Jing You's reform, the early dynasty became a work report, in essence, it was the time for Zhao Zhen to grasp the power of the political system and various departments.

Zhao Zhen can point fingers when various departments report their work through the morning court every day. He also expressed his views on political affairs through the regular meeting of the Constitutional Council in the afternoon.

In addition, he holds the big card of the Privy Council in his hands, and has the power to deploy the national army, and even reached the peak in terms of centralized power.

It is quite a bit of the meaning that the emperor of the Qing Dynasty grasped the national military and political affairs through the Military Aircraft Department.

It's just that the difference with the Qing Dynasty emperors is that in addition to the Yongzheng military aircraft department set up by Yongzheng to do a lot of practical things, the rest of the emperors are both vegetable and fun-loving, the level of governance is not high, but they like to point fingers, although the central power is highly centralized and of little use to the country.

And Zhao Zhen knows his own food, so the government affairs on weekdays are implemented by the Constitutional Yuan, as long as he has control. It is a bit similar to Thailand in later generations, where it has little interference in government affairs, but it has real power.

Therefore, in essence, the early dynasty became one of Zhao Zhen's means of centralizing power.

It's just that after the morning court is no longer a matter of deliberation but a simple report on work, it is a bit inhumane to go to court at three or four o'clock in the morning.

After all, it doesn't take that long to report work, almost an hour or two. So it was postponed by an hour, from three o'clock to six o'clock in the morning.

In this way, it is almost the end of the morning, and it is time to go to work at eight or nine o'clock in the morning, work until twelve o'clock in the afternoon, take a two-hour lunch break, and continue to work until five or six o'clock in the evening, which is about ten hours a day, which is much more comfortable than starting work at four o'clock in the morning.

There is another advantage of going to court in the early morning, there is no need to light so many candles, which can be regarded as solving a little redundancy problem from another angle. After all, Zhao Zhen used to have more than a thousand pieces of crabs, and a few hundred pieces of candles, which is quite outrageous.

"Your Majesty has arrived!"

With Wang Shouzhong's shout, Zhao Zhen walked out from the rear and sat on the high dragon chair.

"See Your Majesty!"

All the officials bowed below.

"Flat!"

Zhao Zhen raised his hands in vain.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

"If you have something to do, you can play early, and you have nothing to retreat!"

Wang Shouzhong shouted again.

According to the usual practice, each department is listed to report on the latest arranged government affairs.

For example, the progress of some projects that the Ministry of Industry has been repairing recently, where the Ministry of Finance has allocated funds before, and how many cases have been adjudicated in Dali Temple in the past few days.

But today, it was not immediately like this, but first of all, Hu Su, the secretary of the Ministry of Taxation, stood up and said: "Your Majesty, is it inappropriate for the Constitutional Yuan's latest decree on promoting education and popularizing culture? ”

The minister also thought it was inappropriate, how could this spoken language be written? In addition to this article, there is also this rural slogan, which is written everywhere and painted with lime, which is really unsightly. ”

"Folk slang and colloquial language are too vulgar, and the official documents and decrees of the imperial court must be taken seriously, and the minister feels that it is best if these decrees cannot be implemented."

And the decree said that they had to be informed in words that the people could understand. Let the dignified scholars and shout everywhere, will Sven sweep the floor? ”

Many officials have expressed their dissatisfaction.

In fact, although the policies formulated by the Constitutional Yuan cover more than 10 items and hundreds of articles, they must be implemented in turn, and cannot be achieved overnight.

Therefore, the first decree that began this year was the Vernacular Literature Movement.

Note.

This vernacular literary movement is still different from that of later generations.

It can be understood as the vernacular literary movement of the Song Dynasty, but the vernacular of the Song Dynasty is still very different from the vernacular of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.

The most intuitive thing is that the vernacular of the Song Dynasty is closer to the simplified version of classical Chinese, while the vernacular of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China is actually very close to the Mandarin of later generations.

The edict stipulates that in the future, the written language should be as colloquial as possible, and that it should no longer be written in obscure traditional Chinese as before, but in simplified spoken Chinese, especially if it is written for the common people.

Therefore, what you think of as the vernacular literary movement, "I did not kill you, why did you capture me?" Don't slander me. It should be translated as "I didn't kill you, why did you arrest me?" You can't lie to me at will. ”

In fact, the vernacular literary movement, "I didn't kill you, why did you capture me?" Don't slander me. That is, "The Sprinkle family has never killed you, how do you hold the Sprinkle family, don't blame the ordinary people." ”

is very similar to the dialogue lines of "Water Margin" and "Dream of Red Mansions", this process is not to translate classical Chinese into vernacular, but to folk vernacular, which is expressed in the language more commonly used by the people, so the situation is different and the resistance is not the same.

"Do you know why you're doing this?"

Zhao Jun stood up and asked.

The officials looked at each other, and someone shook his head and said, "Please also ask the court to solve your doubts." ”

"It's very simple, in order to efficiently convey the decrees above, layer by level, so that the people can know what the court means."

Zhao Jun put his hands behind his back, looked at the officials and said: "The vernacular we speak on weekdays has been prevalent since the Sui and Tang dynasties, from the princes and nobles to the peddlers and pawns, they all speak in the vernacular, so that it is easier to understand the meaning that the other party wants to express." ”

He continued: "However, in the written language, the imperial court was still dominated by the written language, which seriously hindered the issuance of decrees. If it is changed to the vernacular, the imperial court will be able to better convey the decree to the grassroots and explain things better, unlike now, when a decree is issued, the people do not understand what is happening. ”

"But."

One person questioned, "Is this really going to be the effect we want?" Why spend hundreds or even hundreds of words on a problem that used to be solved with only a few dozen words? ”

"Because the text needs to be simplified, the meaning needs to be transparent. Otherwise, there are several meanings of one word, and the cultural level of the people is not high, how can they understand? ”

"The local government has its own county order, all of them are from Jinshi, and the decree of the imperial court is conveyed, and the local county order and the governor will explain it to the people."

"Thinking too much, are there still fewer local officials who distort the decrees above and act recklessly? Last year alone, more than 100 incompetent county magistrates were demoted or dismissed, and many of them took advantage of the people's inability to understand the decrees to take advantage of the situation and abuse the people. ”

Zhao Jun shook his head and said, "In the final analysis, this is a matter of interpretation. You want to hold the power to interpret the decrees of the imperial court in your own hands, but the imperial court wants everyone in the world to understand, and from now on they will no longer be wantonly oppressed by the government, landlords, and tyrants, so that they can understand that the imperial court is full of goodwill towards them. ”

For a while, there was quite a commotion in the venue.

Everyone listened to Zhao Jun's words, and many people fell into deep thought.

Because Zhao Jun said the issue of the right to interpret very bluntly, no matter whether anyone thought of this issue or not, everyone suddenly understood, and it seemed to be the case.

If it is written in classical Chinese, that word has several layers of meaning, and sometimes it is often a word different, and there is a world of difference.

Therefore, if the imperial court wanted to colloquialize the written language, everyone would understand it much faster.

For example, "Teacher, so preaching and receiving karma to solve doubts." Isn't it much easier to understand if it is replaced with "Teacher, who teaches you knowledge"?

In fact, many people have not thought about this problem before, and the reason why they oppose it is because it is too troublesome to write, after all, if it is replaced by classical Chinese, a few words can be solved in the past, and now it is necessary to write a few more words, and some people must be unhappy.

But if you think about it, if you look at it from an easy-to-understand point of view, it seems that this does make sense. Moreover, the vernacular of the Song Dynasty is not Mandarin, and the writing is nothing more than a few words, so it is not too troublesome.

"I know it's something that the doctors don't want to see. For example, if you make a county order in a county, and if you make a government decree, you can interpret it however you want, and you can control the power of life and death of the people. ”

Zhao Jun changed his words and said: "But all of you are members of the imperial court, even if you dance and write and chew words for profit on weekdays, it is difficult to do it with the supervision of the Constitutional Yuan and Your Majesty, so why stick to this?" ”

"What the prefect said made it seem like we were corrupt officials."

Li Ruogu, the secretary of the ministry, was slightly dissatisfied, but after a while, he said again: "However, what the prefect said is indeed reasonable, and changing it to a vernacular text will indeed make the people below understand things better." ”

After all, this vernacular text is just a simplified version of classical Chinese, and it is nothing more than a few words of thanks, clarifying the meaning of some difficult words, which is not bad.

But someone else put it forward: "The prefect, painting slogans everywhere in the people is really an obstacle to elegance." ”

"The imperial court advocated pragmatism."

Zhao Jun pointed to the sky with his right hand and said, "Whether I am an official or an ordinary person, I should focus on practicality." ”

"Yes, whether it's a white cat or a black cat, if you catch a mouse, it's a good cat."

Zhao Zhen also agreed: "Painting slogans among the people is to let the people know the meaning of the imperial court and prevent the decrees from being distorted and corrupted by some people with ulterior motives below." ”

"Yes, in recent years, the law has been tested to rectify the rule of officials, and it has had some effect. However, there are still many treacherous officials who bully the people and do not understand the imperial decrees, and oppress the people and steal the people's private property by deceiving, concealing, and deceiving, which is really an unforgivable crime. ”

"It's infuriating that many people have been forced to ruin their families by such officials, and many people don't even know that they have to go to the local Imperial History Department and the Imperial City Department to report it, and a large number of innocent people have suffered disasters, which shows the harm of this decree being unsmooth."

"That is to say, the examination law is quite effective, and it restricts many officials, otherwise I don't know how many people have been subjected to this kind of power-for-money trading in collusion between officials and local bigwigs, and have become their slaves, so we and other prime ministers of the political system think that it is imperative to popularize it to the people."

Several prime ministers of the Constitutional Yuan also stood up to support, so that together with the forces behind them, seeing that the situation was developing in the direction that the decree should be issued, they also stood up to support it, and for a time the whole court was full of voices of praise.

Seeing this, the few opposing voices had no choice but to retreat, and the decree was passed naturally.

This is also the norm of the current imperial decrees.

Basically, as long as the Constitutional Yuan can pass it, then no matter how loud the opposition below is, it is useless.

Because more than ten prime ministers of the Constitutional Yuan represented more than ten forces, the main ruling officials of the Manchu Dynasty were Shangshu and Shilang of more than 50 departments, and these hundreds of people became the high-level executors of the Great Song Dynasty.

As high-level decision-makers, the prime ministers basically have a certain influence and influence among these executors, which is bound to allow the small half of the courtiers to unite the front.

The rest of the courtiers' battle lines cannot be unified, and with Zhao Zhen's support, then the final result is that the decree of the Constitutional Yuan will be passed on unimpeded.

This is in addition to the fact that these decrees were all carefully considered by Zhao Jun and Fan Zhongyan, and that they would be implemented only after the discussion was mature and the Constitutional Yuan would be issued after unified deliberation to ensure that they would not cause large-scale opposition.

There is another important reason, that is, Zhao Jun unified the ideology of the Constitutional Yuan and forcibly brought together a camp of different parties, different opinions, and different ideologies, which was naturally much better.

As a result, under the promotion of the government, the Song Dynasty version of the vernacular literary movement was successfully rolled out. After that, the form of Kumon will be changed from the original situation of classical Chinese to a simplified version of classical Chinese, which is easier to understand.

In addition to this, there are a number of other policies. For example, the development of non-governmental newspapers should be opened up, and private businessmen should be allowed to participate in the news industry. In this way, there are new newspapers and publications throughout the country, and the imperial decrees can naturally spread quickly.

Moreover, the opening of the newspaper industry also made it easier for the imperial court to control public opinion.

Because in the past, there were also private Hangzhou businessmen who saw the Bianliang Weekly Newspaper exploding on Gyeonggi Road, and after returning to Hangzhou, they went to Bi Sheng to engage in a set of movable type printing and make their own newspapers, but the water meter was quickly checked and the printing house was raided.

Now that it is open to the outside world, it is natural for the imperial court to set up a press and publication department to exert a certain degree of influence and control over the news and prevent the occurrence of rumors and incidents and the study of journalism.

So in general, the first step of this year's new deal is very simple, open public opinion, and emphasize the vernacular. I dare not say that the government decree should be issued to the grassroots level at the village level, at least let the people in various counties, prefectures and cities begin to understand the policy and understand what the imperial court wants to do this year.

This is already an extremely rare thing for a feudal dynasty to do.

But as long as you persist, maybe it won't be long before the population of the Great Song Dynasty is close to 100 million, and one tenth of them can read newspapers and read the new policies of the imperial court, which will already be a great victory!

(End of chapter)