Chen Jing finally understood that the so-called lecture time was actually the Q&A session.
Chen Jing watched Mr. Pan leave the study, and was told that he could use the remaining time to look up books and consult dictionaries. If he had any further questions, he could go to the living room to find him, but there would be an extra charge.
After tricking a bunch of experts' apprentices, Pan Fengyu sat in his chair with satisfaction, had a servant bring him a bowl of tea, and grinned from ear to ear.
Pan Fengyu knew very well that the child, who hadn't received much formal education, couldn't possibly know how to use a dictionary.
He'll come out sooner or later and ask me for advice! Pan Fengyu thought to himself, and took another sip of tea, almost burning his lips with the scalding hot tea.
Chen Jing flipped through the dictionary. Having received a good education and had a broad perspective before his transmigration, he quickly mastered how to use the dictionary.
"If I could lend it out, I could learn those martial arts very quickly..." Chen Jing thought to himself.
Currently, all dynasties use the same script: Qin seal script, also known as the unified script, which means a script used throughout the world.
Qin seal script, or Tongwen script, is a pictographic script that closely resembles a certain stage of the Chinese characters Chen Jing used before his time travel. Individual characters are elongated vertically and narrow horizontally, with horizontal and vertical strokes that are even and symmetrical, and the layout of the characters has a unique requirement for symmetry.
The reason they used the same script was because the King of Qin had unified the entire continent, from the islands in the north to the swamps and rainforests in the south. Everything was either Qin territory or Qin's vassal state.
Under heaven, all land belongs to the king.
At that time, the King of Qin lived on Zhou Tian Island, which was at the center of the world. His decrees reached all places by ships. In order to ensure the smooth implementation of the laws, he ordered his son to be in charge of unifying the written language. He was a great Confucian scholar who brought peace to Qin and was also the ancestor of the future An Dynasty.
The King of Qin believed that his surname was supreme, so he arranged his surnames differently from others, with the given name first and the surname last, similar to the naming rules in the West before Chen Jing's time travel. This was to highlight the difference between the royal family and other people with the surname Qin. If a commoner was named Qin, he would be punished.
In addition to standardizing the written script like the Qin seal script, the King of Qin also unified weights and measures, currency, etc. However, due to the war of ruins, the destruction of the Song Dynasty, the division of four dynasties, the independence of two dynasties, each claiming to be the legitimate dynasty, and the breakup of many city-states and barbarian tribes, each country now adopts its own currency system and has different weights and measures.
The Song Dynasty originally used the Qin Dynasty's monetary system, with coins divided into upper, middle, and lower denominations. Upper denominations were square gold coins with round holes, middle denominations were diamond-shaped silver coins, and lower denominations were round copper coins with square holes. The conversion between them wasn't based on a decimal system, but rather on weight. This was extremely complex for a time traveler like Chen Jing. With the arrival of the modern era, various dynasties implemented reforms, the most obvious being the adoption of a more convenient decimal system and the increasing use of paper money as a form of fiat currency.
"Standardize the written language and the gauge of carts..." Chen Jing muttered to himself, finally finishing the preface of the dictionary.
"I must go out and ask later if I can borrow this dictionary. If I can, I can quickly learn martial arts and increase my ability to protect myself!"
With the help of a dictionary, Chen Jing continued reading the last part of the myths and legends.
Those are myths and legends about humankind, about heroes and gods who fought to break free from the enslavement of gods and demons and to eliminate the bloody sacrifices they demanded.
These stories possess a primal heroic spirit, depicting humanity losing their mother, the Wind Mother, at birth. The most powerful gods and demons either watched the Wind Mother perish or were her enemies. In this harsh and isolated environment, humanity began to explore the path of gods and demons.
Some of the pioneers became servants of gods and demons, while others became immortals living by the mountains. Only a few humans who lived with their fellow humans gained superhuman powers belonging to gods and demons, yet they did not abandon their fellow humans, believing themselves to be beyond human limits. Instead, they led them, taught them, and fought alongside them.
They are called heroes and gods.
"Tasting hundreds of herbs, inventing writing, passing on the torch, chasing the sun, shooting down the sun, guiding floods, filling in oceans, moving mountains, continuing to fight even after having his head cut off..." Chen Jing discovered several myths that were generally quite familiar, but there were some differences in the details and causes and consequences.
The stories of heroes and gods are almost all epic tales of tragedy and struggle. No hero or god has a good ending. They are either destroyed by gods, demons, or immortals who are far more powerful, or defeated by an immense mission that they cannot complete, and perish prematurely.
But the heroes are like weeds that can never be cut off; one generation falls, and another rises from among humanity, growing stronger and stronger.
As Chen Jing read their stories, his eyes welled up with tears. These stories seemed to possess the power to influence the soul, transmitting that power through the thin yellow paper and through unfamiliar, searchable characters, awakening something hidden deep within him.
I just finished reading another story of a heroic god, a god called "Star King." He led his followers through countless hardships and tribulations, achieving a delicate balance among many powerful enemies. He proved himself not weak, creating the first kingdom entirely for humankind. But in the end, severely wounded and nearing the end of his life, he was attacked by the immortal "Eight Desolate Dao Ancestor," whom he thought was an ally. He was reduced to ashes with little resistance, and his kingdom became the immortal's slave kingdom.
What a depressing and despairing story... Is this a myth belonging to the ancient Song Dynasty? Chen Jing temporarily closed the book, somewhat unwilling to continue reading.
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