After hearing Guo Kang's advice, little Jeanne said nothing, but Zhu Wenkui was very interested.
"Then can you understand other civilizations now?" He asked curiously: "After all, you have been here for such a long time and have been in contact with both sides. You should have experience in 'translating' each other."
"In fact, we often can't understand it." Guo Kang said with a wry smile: "When we first went to school, we had to learn not only the history of Seris, but also the history of Rome and modern Europe. As a result, everyone often complained that these three subjects should not be taught at all. Juxtaposed. Modern European history is too thin..."
"European history? You compiled the textbook yourself, right?" Princess Jeanne asked.
"Yes, this thing took a lot of effort." Guo Kang said with emotion: "My great-uncle was in charge of editing this book and left special instructions, saying that it should be reviewed every five years and replaced every ten years. .It is important to remember that this is only an outline, and there are likely to be many errors."
"Why is this?" Princess Jeanne was a little strange.
"Because the information is too complicated, and its credibility is questionable." Little Jeanne, who had read the book, took the initiative to explain: "Many historical materials are the records of churches in various places, and there is no clear official history book like Seris As an outline. This is critical.”
"Although the contents of official history books may not all be credible, they provide an entire framework, and the overall timeline, sequence of events, and chronology of characters can be determined. Even if some achievements are exaggerated and some events are belittled, The impact on the overall context is also limited.”
"This is the trouble we have here." She shook her head and said, "If we really talk about the historical materials themselves, there are actually quite a lot of them. After all, every church has to engage in work such as counting church members and calculating taxes. Even if it is a monastery in the countryside, There are a lot of records accumulated over a long period of time.”
"But the biggest problem is that these records cannot be strung together. It's like there is only a pile of pearls, but the thread is missing." She said metaphorically: "In this case, if you want to write a general history, you have to start from scratch to find the information. , and then verify the connection between them. This will be too much trouble."
"That's right." Guo Kang agreed: "What's even more difficult is that these materials still exist in different places. For example, if you want to write the history of a place, you can only go to the local area to search for records. If you are lucky, the local priest may have written it. There are some chronicle books, but these books are also regional, and may not care about other places at all. Everyone's records may not match up."
"This is indeed like fragments. It takes a lot of effort for local scholars to sort it out, not to mention outsiders like us. The local lords and churches may not welcome us to check the books."
"Since many places cannot be visited, we can only entrust some scholars and businessmen to inquire - but this inquiry is very inefficient. As the princess said, their historical materials lack context, and it may be that after a few generations, they will Even I don’t know when important events happened or where they were recorded.”
"This is like studying the war in the late Sui Dynasty, but you only know that during that time, various churches said that the world was in chaos. It was not even clear how long the war lasted and who was fighting whom. Because various records are full of the priests' worst I like theological metaphors and prophecies, but some people’s descriptions will make you think that this is Satan’s counterattack on heaven.” He gave an example.
"However, because of its great influence, some more reliable church historians also paid attention to this war and recorded many details. You learned that a famous battle took place at Hulao Pass, and General Li, who was blessed by Heavenly Father, won Victory. But generally only so much can be written about church history, and you have to find the rest by yourself."
"If General Li's family is still there, you are lucky. You can probably find relevant biographies from their family records and get more detailed information. If you can't find them anymore, it will be even more troublesome. Hulao Pass The diocese where you are located may also have some records from other perspectives. If the author of church history is reliable enough to accurately record its location, and the local diocesan monastery happens to not be destroyed by the war, then you can go there again and complete the records. .”
"So far, we have only found this one person. Who exactly the enemy Lord Dou and Lord Wang are - or whether they are human beings or some kind of strange evil creatures, we have to continue to research."
"Don't laugh, this kind of curse is very common in descriptions of wars with pagans." He shrugged and said to little Jeanne: "Considering that the struggle for hegemony in the Central Plains is also a legal battle related to the right to sacrifice, its counterpart in Europe , may be more exaggerated than this. And given the habitual exaggeration of European recorders, we have to verify the size of the enemy ourselves - anyway, it is impossible for all enemies to have as many as five million."
"What I said is the most basic. When it comes to actual operation, even the problem of duplicate names can make the historians collapse. As I said before, they don't have a clear timetable. John Li of Jingzhao John II, John Lee III of Ten Thousand Years, John Lee III, the son of John Lee II of Jingzhao... will be mixed together. The kind of famous nobles are better, and can be distinguished by nicknames and genealogical order. If it is that kind of People who are not particularly famous may not be able to tell who is who at all.”
"That's right..." Princess Jeanne couldn't deny it and could only nod.
"At that time, we selected some events and composed a simple history book. We tried to include the major events in each country, such as the establishment and collapse of the Franks, so that students could have some preliminary understanding of the place." Guo Kang replied.
"It's just that we couldn't sort out too much at the time. We could only entrust others to collect it slowly, and then gradually fill it in. But even so, this part of the content is still much thinner than the other two."
"It's still history." Zhu Wenkui complained: "Is it necessary to learn this thing? Isn't it just..."
He originally wanted to mock the barbarians, but Princess Ma glared at him. Zhu Wenkui was stunned for a moment, then looked at Jeanna and her daughter, but hesitated to speak.
"It is still necessary. Especially the hostile countries in our north. It is more difficult to understand them, but we still need to work harder to study." Guo Kang said: "Only by understanding the enemy can we defeat them more efficiently."
"Didn't I just say that these people are difficult to understand?" Little Jeanne asked, "Is it useful to learn these things?"
"You don't need to understand, you just need to know the general logic of their behavior." Guo Kang told her: "As we are now, we have summarized three basic rules for combat."
"What is that?" little Jeanne asked curiously.
"If you can fight or make peace, then fight; if you can punish or pardon, then punish; if you can attack or attack, then attack." Guo Kang said: "This is what my uncle concluded back then."
"Although I often can't understand their way of thinking, the experience summed up in response to enemy behavior is obviously very useful. It is called the 'Three Principles of Guo'. We still use it to this day."
(End of chapter)
