At the morning court session on June 10th, when the decree of the Constitutional Council from the previous afternoon was issued to the Court of Imperial Petitions, requiring the Court of Imperial Petitions to immediately distribute it to various ministries for implementation, it immediately caused an uproar.
In the morning, hundreds of ministers and vice ministers from various departments came together.
Originally, the daily work was to be reported to the Emperor and the Constitutional Council, but today it turned into a court meeting.
In the Chuigong Hall, at three quarters past noon, when the sky was just beginning to brighten, all the officials entered the palace one after another to begin today's morning court session.
In the past, the morning court was mainly for everyone to discuss things together, but after the Jingyou reform, the morning court became a work report. In essence, it was a time for Zhao Zhen to seize power over the Political System Council and various departments.
Zhao Zhen could make comments on the work of various departments during the morning court session, and he could also express his opinions on government affairs during the afternoon sessions of the Political System Council.
In addition, he held the powerful card of the Privy Council in his hands and had the power to deploy the national army, and he even reached the peak of centralization.
It is somewhat similar to the Qing Dynasty emperor's control over the country's military and political affairs through the Grand Council.
The only difference between them and the Qing emperors is that, except for Yongzheng who established the Grand Council and did a lot of practical work, the other emperors were incompetent and playful. Their governing skills were not high, but they liked to give orders. Although the central power was highly concentrated, it was of little use to the country.
Zhao Zhen knew he was incompetent, so he left the daily affairs of state to the Political System Council, and he just wanted to have control. It was a bit like Thailand in later generations, where he rarely interfered in government affairs, but still had real power.
Therefore, in essence, the morning court became one of Zhao Zhen's means of centralizing power.
However, since the morning court session is no longer a meeting of business but a simple work report, it is a bit inhumane to attend court session at three or four o'clock in the morning.
After all, the report shouldn't take that long, just one or two hours. Therefore, it was postponed an hour, from the third quarter of the Yin hour to the Chen hour, which was six in the morning.
In this way, when the morning court is almost over, it is time to go to work at eight or nine in the morning. I work until noon and take a two-hour lunch break. Then I continue working in the afternoon until five or six in the evening. In total, I work about ten hours a day, which is much more comfortable than starting work at four in the morning before.
There was another benefit to going to court early in the morning: you didn't have to light so many candles, which solved the problem of redundancy from another perspective. After all, Zhao Zhen used to spend more than a thousand coins on crabs, and several hundred coins on candles, which was quite outrageous.
"His Majesty has arrived!"
With Wang Shouzhong's shout, Zhao Zhen walked out from behind and sat on the high dragon throne.
"Your Majesty!"
All the officials bowed in greeting below.
"Stand up!"
Zhao Zhen raised his hands.
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
"If you have something to report, report it early. If you don't, leave the court!"
Wang Shouzhong shouted again.
According to usual practice, each department will come forward to report on the recently arranged government work.
For example, the progress of some recent projects under construction by the Ministry of Industry, where the Ministry of Finance previously allocated funds, how many cases the Dali Temple has judged in recent days, etc.
But today, it didn't happen immediately. Instead, the Minister of Taxation, Hu Su, stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, is the latest decree of the Constitutional Council regarding the promotion of education and popularization of culture inappropriate?"
"I also think it's inappropriate. How can such spoken language be written? Besides this, there are also these rural slogans, written everywhere and whitewashed with lime. It's really not a good look."
"Folk slang and spoken language are too vulgar. Imperial documents and decrees must be taken seriously. I think it is best not to implement these decrees at all."
"Also, the decree states that we must inform the people in terms they can understand. Wouldn't it be unethical to have a distinguished scholar shouting about this everywhere?"
Many officials expressed their dissatisfaction.
In fact, although the policies formulated by the Constitutional Yuan cover more than ten items and hundreds of clauses, they must be implemented in sequence and cannot be accomplished all at once.
So the first government order issued this year is the vernacular movement.
Notice.
This vernacular movement is different from that of later generations.
It can be understood as the vernacular movement of the Song Dynasty, but there are still great differences between the vernacular of the Song Dynasty and that of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.
The most intuitive thing is that the vernacular of the Song Dynasty was closer to a simplified version of classical Chinese, while the vernacular of the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China was actually very close to Mandarin in later generations.
The imperial edict stipulated that written language should be as colloquial as possible in the future. Instead of using obscure traditional Chinese characters as in the past, it should be written in simplified colloquial Chinese. This was especially true for writing for ordinary people.
Therefore, the vernacular movement you thought of, "I didn't kill you, why did you arrest me? Don't accuse me." should be translated as "I didn't kill you, why did you arrest me? Don't accuse me at will."
In fact, the vernacular movement, "I didn't kill you, why did you catch me? Don't accuse me." means "I didn't kill you, how can you catch me? Don't accuse me of anything."
It is very similar to the dialogues in "Water Margin" and "Dream of Red Mansions". This process is not to translate classical Chinese into vernacular, but to express it in folk vernacular, using the language more commonly used by the people. Therefore, the situation is different and the resistance is also different.
"Do you know why we do this?"
Zhao Jun stood up and asked.
The officials looked at each other, and some shook their heads and said, "Please ask the Minister to clarify this."
"It's simple. It's to efficiently convey the government's orders from above, passing them down level by level, so that the people know exactly what the court means."
Zhao Jun put his hands behind his back and looked at the officials. He said, "The vernacular we speak has been popular since the Sui and Tang dynasties. From the royal family to the common people, everyone speaks vernacular. This makes it easier to understand what the other person is trying to say."
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
