There are many troubles with the same text in the book. It is very complicated to explain in detail. To summarize briefly, it is probably...
First, the text is difficult to check.
Once the court's policy is promulgated, it is certainly impossible to say that everyone will strictly implement it. At least it will take a period of strict inspection by the Yamen before it can be truly promoted.
The carriage and measuring instruments are very easy to check - these two things are generally inseparable from the market.
The former mostly exists as a commodity, while the latter is a necessary tool for many traders.
It's all on the surface, and you can check it out accurately if you want to.
But the text is different.
Although it has a specific carrier, that is, a book, it rarely sells books.
Even if there is, it generally has nothing to do with the writing itself - they are only responsible for buying and selling, not writing.
And the circulation of books is really very small.
There are two main behaviors directly related to writing - one is official documents written by court officials, and a scholar copies books himself.
Let’s not talk about the former for now, but the latter…how do you want to check it?
Are you searching the Master's house one by one?
The problem is that books are too easy to hide if you want to. How detailed do you have to check to gain something?
Moreover, these days, those who have scholars or book collectors at home are generally not ordinary people.
For this kind of people, if you find evidence that they use old words, that's fine. If you don't, then you'll have a lot of fun.
Secondly, the writing itself is not easy to standardize.
Under normal circumstances, unless you deliberately copy and spend a long time studying, it will be difficult to write the same words as others.
The simplified regular script characters of later generations can be written in thousands of ways by thousands of people, let alone the much more complicated seal script characters.
As long as the carriage and measuring instrument are made as standard parts, the craftsmen can easily reproduce them exactly as they are - unless the craftsman's skills are too poor.
Of course, the court cannot require everyone to write in such a standard way, and deviations are certainly allowed, but... how to grasp this measure?
And if there is any deviation, it will unconsciously destroy the standard.
Where did the writing of the Seven Kingdoms come from?
Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao, Wei, and Qin all have nothing to do. Do they have to change and use the standardized text established by the Zhou Dynasty to feel comfortable?
We are all of Chinese ethnicity, who would compete with words when they have nothing to do?
It’s not just that the characters are difficult to write and generally written in a non-standard manner, coupled with poor regional circulation, it eventually evolved into regional character deviations, resulting in the emergence of some unique fonts for each country.
On this issue, small seal script is a little better than big seal script, but not much and not enough to change the fundamental problem.
Therefore, even the officials of the imperial court were not willing to take the trouble to standardize the writing.
Finally, and most importantly, the imperial court itself was relaxing the requirement that books be written in the same text.
After Cheng Miao wrote the official script, this type of font, which was much simpler than the small seal script, immediately became popular among the lower-level officials of the imperial court.
The reason is very simple. Although the unification of official documents into Xiaozhuan has greatly facilitated officials in writing official documents, it is still somewhat inconvenient.
Officials in the empire have a lot to do, and they have to write a lot of text every day. Even if there are unified standards, it is still a lot of work.
Choosing simpler official script can greatly reduce their workload and improve work efficiency.
Ying Zheng turned a blind eye to this, and even pardoned Cheng Miao, who was in prison trying to figure out the official script.
Under the influence of many aspects, the development of Shu Tongwen has basically been limited to the imperial court.
However, facts are facts, and the empire is still carrying out this matter to the letter.
In this case, if Fusu made trouble because of this, it would not be considered as deliberately making things difficult for Xiaoshengxianzhuang.
Xiaoshengxianzhuang is, after all, a Confucian holy land, a benchmark for scholars, so it has to set an example, right?
After figuring out where his omissions lay, Fu Nian had no choice but to wait and see what happened, so he simply replied:
"Of course I know."
"Okay." Seeing that he admitted, Fusu nodded, and immediately asked, "In that case, why did Xiaoshengxian Villa knowingly commit the crime?"
"Ignoring the old classics you have collected, why does this newly copied volume still use the old scripts of the Six Kingdoms?"
Fu Nian bowed and quickly explained in a deep voice, "The purpose of establishing the library in Little Saint Xian Manor is to hope that this place can become the source of Chinese culture, and that the classics of all dynasties can be passed down intact for our admiration. The merits of the forefathers will bless future generations.”
"Therefore, when Confucian disciples copy the books in the library, they will copy them completely according to the original text."
"This move is not a deliberate violation of imperial laws."
"Well... I can understand the Confucian intention." After hearing this, Fusu's face softened a little, and he nodded and asked, "But, does Mr. Fu Nian know the emperor's intention of promoting the policy of writing in the same text?"
"This... His Majesty the Emperor has a long-term plan. Fu Nian dare not make any assumptions." Fu Nian lowered his head and replied.
This statement is obviously meant to fool people.
What could be Ying Zheng's intention? To stabilize the rule of the empire.
Of course, the matter of writing the same text is of great significance, but for the rulers, 'meaning' does not mean much, only maintaining stability is the most important.
Fusu didn't care about Fu Nian's fooling around. This kind of question was destined to be impossible to answer.
He lifted his cloak behind him, paced back and forth, and explained at the same time:
"The text is the voice of the heart, and the different texts show that the heart is not unified."
"This is the greatest danger to the empire!"
"Since King Chuzhuang aspired to the throne, wars have continued for hundreds of years, and the root cause lies in the chaos of people's hearts."
"His Majesty the First Emperor was deeply aware of this, so he decided to follow the same national policy and write the same document, in order to unite the world as one and completely unify the universe."
"This is the only way to completely resolve the conflicts in the world and bring happiness to the people."
"Other than that, it's all trivial!"
Fusu's words were impassioned and seemed to make sense.
But actually...it's pure nonsense.
The human heart is so complex and elusive, how can it be possible to work together just because of some regulations?
The differentiation of words, the deviation of measurement, and the difference of carriages are essentially representations and results, not causes.
Because people are divided, these things born of people will be divided, not the other way around.
Whether Fu Nian, Yan Lu or Zhang Liang, there are countless rhetoric to refute Fusu, and even Fusu himself knows that his rhetoric is just high-sounding.
But Fusu had to say this. He couldn't say that he wanted the Great Qin Empire to last forever and his family's throne to last forever.
Even Fu Nian and the others couldn't refute - on this occasion, if you go against Fusu, you are making yourself uncomfortable.
With nothing else to say, Fu Nian could only obey:
"Thanks to Young Master's teachings, Fu Nian immediately arranged for manpower to copy all the books in the building using small seal script again!"
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