Paper is an important carrier of modern civilization. Before the emergence of electronic storage, the production of paper could even determine the development speed of a civilization.
Tang's paper production was the largest in the world, and its scale was the envy of other countries. The Tang State not only had a wide range of paper types, but also had a huge production capacity, so large that even the country began to vigorously promote the use of paper to wipe one's buttocks.
This is not a joke, but a true compliment: for many years, ordinary people were reluctant to wipe their butts with paper.
Most of the time, I just find a straw stick or the like and use it casually, or even use my hands directly. All in all, it was a disgusting time to remember, but it was also a tradition that was still continued in other countries.
People in the Tang Dynasty actually rarely abused their butts with messy things, especially when they discovered that toilet paper was actually very cheap.
Even though the quality of the cheapest toilet paper made in the Tang Dynasty is really not very good, it is still much easier to use than other things: at least you won't accidentally hurt yourself when you wipe your butt with it.
In addition to toilet paper, the Tang State also printed a large number of various textbooks, which greatly improved the learning efficiency of civilians.
With the deliberate intention of the Tang Dynasty's top officials, various simple literacy manuals were distributed everywhere. Even illiterate people who could not read a single big character could now at least write their own names.
Today's schools in the Tang Dynasty use more than ten times more paper for textbooks each year than they did in the past for copying classics around the world.
It is precisely because there is so much paper that it is easy to use paper no matter how you use it, which allows civilization to be passed on and spread at a faster pace.
Some of the techniques used in the Tang Dynasty used very large drawings, with length and width far exceeding the specifications of paper. This was unimaginable in the past.
Huge paper not only improves efficiency, but also makes large-scale drawings possible, allowing engineers to convey their design ideas more intuitively.
Color printing is nothing new. It can be combined with color photos to make the dissemination of information and knowledge more accurate.
Nowadays, primary school textbooks in the Tang Dynasty are all painted and printed, with text and pictures combined to create vivid images, which greatly improves learning efficiency.
This was impossible to achieve in the past. The exquisiteness of Tang primary school textbooks has far exceeded the printing technology level of the most important documents in the past.
No joke, it was these advances in paper and printing technology that made Tang Mo's decision to expand the scale of talent training possible. It was also when these books that passed down knowledge began to become popular in large numbers that the world could embark on the fast track of progress. .
Imagine that today you can tear up a piece of white paper at will, ball it up and throw it into the wastebasket, just because you wrote a certain word wrong or answered a certain question unsatisfactoryly. But in the past, only the emperor could afford a piece of paper of the same quality. How can such speed and scope of document dissemination carry progress?
The Tang State did not support any idlers: if they were discovered by the consul and officials below, He Kuai would find ways to arrange work.
Distribute leaflets, sweep the streets... in short, as long as you are able to work, you must go to work.
The officials of the Tang Dynasty would not be polite to those who persisted in cheating and cheating. They would really beat them with a leather whip and then send them to the "exhortation center" to force them to perform more intensive labor.
No matter how disobedient you are, it's easy to send them to a more harsh place: there are also labor camps and slave camps, there is always something suitable for lazy people.
In other words, this is a very strict wartime management system: manage all civilians, teach and distribute them according to the needs of the country, and punish any slightest disobedience.
In comparison, going to Siberia to farm seems gentler. But for those refugees who could not even have a full stomach in the past, the life provided by Tang State was already what they dreamed of.
The so-called starting point is low enough, so the expectations will not be too high: Tang Mo relied on the low expectations of the common people to force them to take action and contribute to the construction of the Tang State.
Under the pressure of this very efficient and cruel system, Tang Guo rarely saw idle gangsters, and the employment rate was close to 100%.
However, only God knows how many souls who died unjustly and how many unlucky ghosts who were caught in the labor camp and complaining are behind this.
What is surprising is that under this harsh system, the cities of the Tang Dynasty did not suffer from depression, but instead became pathologically prosperous and lively.
The streets are full of people who come out for recreation after work. As time goes by, the colors of the clothes on the streets change in a wonderful way.
There is some milky white color appearing at the beginning. Later, brown and dark red began to appear, and then exaggerated pink and red became beautiful embellishments on the streets.
Cars have also begun to become colorful. Bright red and white have become very common, and blue or beige have gradually begun to increase.
The buildings in the Tang Dynasty were not good-looking at first, because they were pursuing construction speed, so these buildings were basically all of the same style, and the outsides were clean without any decoration.
For fear of immature technology and low-quality work, Datang Group's construction team is unwilling to put any decorations on the outside of the building, which wastes materials and is easily damaged.
Therefore, the buildings in the Tang Dynasty were all big, dark and thick rectangular shapes, dotted with windows, and they were as neat as a military camp.
It is impossible for such a building to have any sense of beauty. At best, it only reveals a somewhat helpless sense of order.
However, soon, as time went by, many streets began to pursue a little difference - they laid a few more bricks on the roofs of buildings to resemble the crenellations of a city wall to increase the aesthetics.
Immediately afterwards, some buildings began to build some vertical strip-shaped decorations on the exterior walls, and then some buildings left some protruding patterns on the outside of each window.
Later, the cement patterns and carved stone animals gradually became more varied. The orderly atmosphere of Tang's cities began to be broken, and the beauty of reinforced concrete began to bloom into beautiful flowers in the corners.
Those foreign artists who had seen the Forbidden City of the Tang Dynasty recognized the existence of artistic beauty in the Tang Dynasty. They marveled at the majesty and magnificence of the entire imperial palace, but dismissed the prosperity of Chang'an City.
For them, although the reinforced concrete high-rise buildings are shocking enough, they have no "aesthetics" at all.
But they saw another side of the Tang Dynasty in the Forbidden City and Zhuque Street, which was full of literary and artistic atmosphere and antique charm.
In the eyes of these artists, the Tang Dynasty was schizophrenic. Their emperor was simply a treasure in the art world, while other architects "just knew how to build houses."
In fact, in a sense, the art of the Tang Dynasty is indeed fragmented, revealing a chaotic and distinct "weird state".
According to the normal history of aesthetic development, it is impossible to explain the state of art development in the Tang Dynasty, which was like a chaotic dance of demons. Therefore, these artists who came from afar were basically driven crazy by the beauty and ugliness of Tang Dynasty.
This is actually an inevitable phenomenon, because these beauties that are not dependent on each other were copied directly from another world by Tang Mo, a time traveler.
It's very simple: if you only look at the luxurious lines of Rolls-Royce cars, then there is no doubt that Tang Guo's aesthetics is at its peak.
But if you look at the "People's" brand cars running in the streets and alleys, the straight lines combined with the rough welding technology will directly make people who have just seen a Rolls-Royce vomit blood.
If you have seen the wonders in the Forbidden City and Zhuque Street, and then go back and look at the ten- to twenty-story cement buildings on Chang'an Street... you will probably have the same illusion of schizophrenia.
In short, this is a pot of random stew. The cheese is making attractive bubbles in the pot. As a result, the chopped green onion and coriander are rolling back and forth with these bubbles, dotted around the beef brisket, exuding the aroma of Marsala.
If a poet saw such a magnificent city, saw the red palace walls, blue bricks and green tiles, and the gray steel and cement forest next door, he would probably write: "The willows in red are soft and beautiful, but the copper and iron walls are cold" or something like that to himself I don’t even know what the sentence is saying.
In fact, this is nothing. After all, with the air quality in Tang State...especially Tongcheng, even if Li Bai came, he would probably only be able to write five-character quatrains. Seven words... He had to cough for a long time before he could explain it.
It's a pity that Li Bai has never seen a train, nor a high-rise building, and of course he has never seen ballistic missiles or launch vehicles...
Otherwise, his level of bragging must be higher: If he had seen the buildings in Chang'an, he would have guessed that the dangerous buildings would have to be a thousand feet high...
Although the aesthetic development of the Tang Dynasty was severely fragmented, Chang'an still became a holy place in the minds of many artists.
Because here, just like Bunas in the past, every flash of inspiration reveals a condensed great wisdom. It's as if the hard work of millions of people has been gathered together, exuding an intoxicating light.
Various art festivals that were already world-famous in the Bunas era were held one after another in Chang'an.
It was only at this moment that people were surprised to discover that it was not Bunas who was shining brightly, but the genius who founded Bunas.
"He is an artist delayed by the world!" Standing in front of the gate of the Forbidden City, a contemporary sculptor sighed with emotion.
"You are wrong. He is an engineer whose future was delayed by art." A technician who came on pilgrimage retorted disdainfully.
"You are blaspheming an educator! You have no idea what he means to the education world." Behind the two of them, a man with glasses said quietly.
"Ha... If you had seen white phosphorus bombs, you wouldn't say that." Feng Kezhi said what he said without letting anyone hear. He just stood in the corner, looking up at the top of the Forbidden City: "He is the king of arms!"
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There will be another update later, it will be very late, you can watch it tomorrow morning
(End of chapter)
