Work! Why do you think about work all day long? Zhao Tuo was speechless by the words of the First Emperor.
I worked so hard to make paper for you to use, just to lighten your burden so that you don't have to work as hard as before. Who knew you were actually planning to increase the amount for yourself.
You are the emperor! The Palace of the Six Kingdoms is gorgeous and spectacular. There are so many beauties in the palace, why don’t you go and enjoy it?
After giving birth to Hu Hai, there were no more children. Can't we give birth to a few more? The beauties guarded the palace in vain, and the king worked hard to write a letter.
How can I bear this? Zhao Tuo complained in his heart, but he could only say weakly: "Although the paper is good, Your Majesty still has to put your body first."
"I understand." The First Emperor responded casually. Hearing the disapproving tone, Zhao Tuo knew that his words were in vain.
If it were placed at other times, the emperor's government affairs would not have been much. But now it is the time when the world has been decided, and everything is waiting to be done.
The Qin State annexed all the land in Shandong, and the area expanded several times. A large number of counties and counties were added. In addition, the Qin State launched many large projects in succession, and the affairs were complicated, and one thing happened one after another.
The number of government affairs that the First Emperor had to deal with every day also increased rapidly, and a lot of things needed to be reviewed every day.
"However, this piece of paper full of words is worth two or three kilograms of bamboo slips. Even if he increases the workload, his work efficiency will definitely improve a lot. The speed of reading a piece of paper is comparable to that of two or three kilograms of bamboo slips.
Bamboo slips are much faster."
"In this way, his daily working hours will be reduced." Zhao Tuo thought of this and became happy again.
In history, Qin Shihuang died before he was fifty. Later generations often speculated that the reason for his early death was that in addition to taking the elixir offered by the alchemists, it was also due to uncontrolled work and overwork, which induced the disease while on tour.
disease.
Now Zhao Tuo's papermaking should be of some use. At this time, seeing the First Emperor happy, Zhao Gao also praised: "This kind of paper, which is light and convenient and cheaper than bamboo slips, can be mass-produced and distributed to various places.
The counties and counties will definitely greatly increase the efficiency of our Qin officials at all levels in handling government affairs."
"Moreover, using this newly made paper to replace the previous heavy bamboo slips, one cart of paper can be worth dozens of carts of slips. Not only is it convenient to transport, but it is also of great benefit when stored in the government's treasury." Zhao Gaocong
The administrative point of view points out the function of this paper.
The First Emperor nodded. He reached out and picked up a piece of paper again, feeling the lightness in his hand, and his eyes were even more satisfied.
Yes, the emergence of paper not only reduced the burden on the emperor, but also spread it throughout the country, greatly increasing the administrative efficiency of officials at all levels.
This is a national weapon. And according to Zhao Tuo's subsequent explanation, this new thing called paper is made of materials such as linen and cloth, and is not a valuable item.
In addition, Zhao Tuo also said that paper can be made from bark, wood, bamboo, and even grass that can be found everywhere. The Shaofu is also exploring and manufacturing other types of paper.
Materials can be found everywhere, and mass production can reduce costs. The cost is much cheaper than bamboo slips, and it is lightweight.
Although it was the first day that Emperor Shi Huang saw the new thing paper, he had already made up his mind to popularize paper in Qin.
He looked at Zhao Tuo in front of him, and the more he looked at it, the more satisfied he became, and the slight resentment caused by the broken dream of the golden man also disappeared.
Zhao Tuo was very good, and everything he created was so useful. Especially when he thought of the caring words Zhao Tuo said when he presented the paper just now, the First Emperor felt warm in his heart.
He could still tell whether it was true or false. Zhao Tuo made paper for the sake of my health.
"The paper you made is very good, I am very happy." The First Emperor smiled at Zhao Tuo and nodded to show his approval and satisfaction.
"Your Majesty is happy, it is my honor." Zhao Tuo hurriedly bowed his head and responded. At the same time, his eyes flashed with light, ready to strike while the iron was hot, and brought up a major event that matched his papermaking, which could further highlight the role of paper.
Zhao Tuo cupped his hands and said in a deep voice: "I am reporting to your majesty that after making paper, I came up with an idea. Cooperating with this newly made paper will be of great benefit to the state. I should advise your majesty."
"Tell me and listen." The First Emperor heard
"It will be of great benefit to state affairs", he immediately sat down and wanted to hear the details. Zhao Gao next to him also looked at Zhao Tuo curiously, wanting to hear what other suggestions his brother had.
Zhao Tuo quickly sorted out his thoughts in his mind and said loudly: "When I heard that King Xuan of Zhou Dynasty, he ordered Taishi Zhen to write fifteen chapters of "Dazhuan", which is a common script in the world. Jin, Lu, Chu, Qi, Wu and other countries all use Zhen.
Wen. Therefore, all the countries in the world are divided into four seas, and they can communicate with each other through letters."
"However, since Zongzhou was in trouble and King Ping moved eastward, the princes were in power and were not unified by the king. They harmed themselves by violating rituals and music, and all of them lost their classics. As for the division into seven kingdoms, the fields were divided into different acres, and the roads were divided into different tracks.
The laws and regulations are different, the clothes and hats are different, the words are spoken in different sounds, and the writing is in different shapes.”
"Now His Majesty's divine power has unified the world's territory, with one acre system, one cart track, and one Qin law, which is convenient for the world. However, in all parts of the world, the words are still different and the characters are different. Words are difficult to change, and it is difficult for me to say more. But the characters are different.
, but it has done great harm to our Qin country!" Zhao Tuo thought of all kinds of weird character shapes in his mind, and said sadly: "What I saw when I conquered the world is that just for the word "horse", there are seven kinds of characters in the seven countries.
How to write!”
"Especially the Chu people's bird-and-worm seal script. The fonts look like birds and insects. I felt dazzled just by looking at them. I didn't know what they were writing. It was extremely difficult to learn."
"The characters in different places are in different shapes. This situation not only prevents the officials sent by the Qin State to various places in the princes, but also cannot quickly grasp the local situation. They cannot understand the local people's documents and classics, and are easily deceived by the local people."
"Furthermore, the government orders sent by Xianyang to various places have strange characters that cannot be understood by the local officials and the capital of Guizhou. This may cause unsolicited Qin officials to use this matter to privately change the edicts for their own purposes.
Self-interest situation."...Zhao Tuo talked about a lot of disadvantages of abnormal writing in one breath.
At the last moment, Tu Qiong saw him and revealed his true purpose.
"I ask your Majesty to use the Qin character as the standard for writing in the world, so that all the thirty-six counties in the nine states and the four seas use the Qin character, so that the people of the world can understand your Majesty's words even if they don't need to be translated and explained by officials.
Order, only in this way can the world be unified!" The book has the same text.
The First Emperor's face moved slightly. The writings of the seven kingdoms were different, and he knew it very well. Before the six kingdoms were destroyed, he corresponded with the monarchs of the six kingdoms, and he could not understand what the monarchs of the six kingdoms wrote in their letters.
What is.
It also needs a specialized translator to translate it into Qin seal script before he can understand it, which is indeed very inconvenient.
This was a very unpleasant thing for a king who was committed to controlling the world. The King of Qin said something at that time.
"In this world, there are nineteen ways to write a word, and they don't know each other, which is extremely inconvenient. After I destroy the six kingdoms, I will abolish all the miscellaneous words and leave only one kind. Wouldn't it be a pleasure?" Now
, the territory of the world is unified.
Car tracks, acreage systems, laws, and even currency will all be unified. This text should indeed be unified.
Even though Zhao Tuo did not bring it up this time, the First Emperor was ready to start this matter after finishing all the matters at hand.
Now Zhao Tuo expressed this idea in advance, which surprised the First Emperor, but also made him quite happy.
He thought that Li Si would be the first to understand what he meant and make suggestions about the writing of the book. Unexpectedly, it was Zhao Tuo who spoke first.
This son is indeed his close friend. Thinking of this, the First Emperor looked at the thin pile of linen paper in front of the eucalyptus.
"The book is the same as the text, paired with this new paper..." Zhao Tuo not only made suggestions, but also came up with a new carrier for the book and the text.
It was really thoughtful. At the same time, Zhao Gao was also full of surprise. He felt that his brother was really far-sighted and the suggestions he made were related to national affairs.
Based on Zhao Gao's understanding of the First Emperor, Zhao Tuo's proposal struck a chord in his heart, and the emperor must have been extremely happy.
"I also want to learn from him and make some suggestions that are beneficial to the country. Maybe I can be reused by the emperor, and I might become a minister in the future." Zhao Gao secretly made up his mind.
Seeing that the First Emperor was seriously considering his proposal, Zhao Tuo felt that there must be no problem with this matter. Because historically, Qin Shihuang had the idea of writing with the same script, and issued an edict to unify the world's scripts in this year.
The carriages run on the same track, the books share the same text, and weights and measures are unified. This has been recognized by later generations as one of Qin Shihuang's achievements.
What Zhao Tuo did was just to advance this matter a little bit. The paper he invented would play a huge role in the process of unifying the Qin Dynasty's books with Chinese characters.
This is also the reason why Zhao Tuo immediately chose to let Zhang Han make paper after taking office as Shaofu. He really didn't make paper for the purpose of going to the toilet.
He is for the emperor and the world!
"But in history, it seems that Li Si came up with the idea of writing the same text. It has been seven months since we unified the world, and I am about to start unifying the currency. Why hasn't he mentioned it yet?"
"Is it because of me that this incident changed?"
"Mr. Li, it seems that I have to do this for you." Zhao Tuo sighed, feeling that he was really worried about national affairs.