The younger brother of the First Emperor

Chapter 273 Zhangtai Academy, King Qin's Priest

Seven days had passed since King Zheng of Qin and Prime Minister Lu met in the Council Hall and reached an agreement.

The school was finally opened today, at the outermost part of Zhangtai Street, where it meets other streets.

The Jixia Academy was named after the fact that it was located outside the Ji Gate, the west gate of the Qi palace.

The Qin State’s academy followed suit and was named Zhangtai Academy.

Li Si and Zhang Cang, two of Xunzi's top disciples who studied at the Jixia Academy, stand in front of the main gate of the Zhangtai Academy.

They were the first teachers of Zhangtai Academy - Mr. Zhangtai.

The two Mr. Zhangtai are one quiet and one active, one thin and one fat.

Zhang Cang, who had a round body and chubby face, took a breath of cold air exaggeratedly:
"Brother, isn't this inferior to Jixia?"

Li Si nodded slightly.

Although his expression was calm, he was shocked in his heart.

Compared with the white-walled and red-tiled Jixia Academy, the black-dominated Zhangtai Academy is not only equally impressive in terms of construction scale, but is also far ahead in terms of the solemnity and majesty of the teaching profession.

The Zhangtai Academy, which is comparable to the Jixia Academy, a holy place for students all over the world, was built in just seven days!

Only the Qin State, which wrote everything into the Qin Law, could accomplish such a miracle.

The Qin State gave Li Si and Zhang Cang a small shock, and also gave the whole world a small shock.

The brothers walked up six steps and entered together.

Soon afterwards, a four-horse carriage with a carving of a black bird, custom-made for Prince Cheng Jiao, arrived in front of the gate of Zhangtai Academy.

He pulled the reins gently and the four horses stopped moving forward.

Young Master Cheng Jiao jumped off the carriage and looked at the wooden plaque hanging on the gate of the academy - Zhangtai Academy.

These four characters are vigorous and powerful, with a grand spirit. They were written by the calligraphy master Li Si and Li Tonggu.

Ying Chengjiao clearly remembered that Li Si and Zhao Gao were great calligraphers of the Qin Dynasty as certified by historical books.

The young man craned his neck and looked carefully at the four words "Zhangtai Academy".

To be honest, Ying Chengjiao just thought it was well-written and nice to read.

He didn't recognize any of the praises about "smooth flow" and "steady symmetry" mentioned in history books.

In his previous life, when he attended art exhibitions, he could only understand realistic paintings, and the most common word of praise he used was "the paintings are so lifelike!"

Paintings of extremely high artistic value, such as Van Gogh's Sunflowers and Picasso's Guernica, were not appreciated by Ying Chengjiao or Li Yi either.

Experts look at the details, while laymen just watch the excitement.

Without the excitement, Ying Chengjiao, as an outsider, could not see anything.

Ying Chengjiao stopped, and Hu, who was half a step behind Ying Chengjiao, also stopped.

The master stretched his neck as high as possible to see the plaque. Hu stretched his neck at an angle 30 degrees smaller than the master, and could also see the plaque.

"Master..." After looking at it for a long time, Hu looked embarrassed and asked in a low voice: "What language is this and what does it say?"

Huh, get to know Qin Wen.

This is not Qin Wen.

Ying Chengjiao, who didn't understand calligraphy very well, smiled with his eyes sparkling.

"New Qinwen." The young man pointed to four large characters from right to left and read them one by one: "Zhangtai Academy."

What made him stop was not Li Si's calligraphy, but the words themselves.

The simplified Chinese characters promoted by New China appeared two thousand years ahead of schedule.

There were objections to the change from traditional Chinese characters to simplified Chinese characters until Ying Chengjiao traveled through time, and every year people called for the re-enabling of traditional Chinese characters.

The reason is that traditional Chinese characters are more beautiful and the advantages of ideographic characters are more obvious. Simplified Chinese characters are completely inferior to traditional Chinese characters in both shape and meaning.

For example, the word "dragon".

Simplified no feeling.

Just looking at the traditional Chinese character “龍” makes people feel that it is an animal with bared fangs and claws and horns on its head.

In the late Warring States period when oracle bone inscriptions were still preserved, the characters of various countries were more popular than complex characters in terms of shape and meaning.

But for Ying Chengjiao, even if simplified Chinese characters have many disadvantages, they only need one good thing - they are easy to learn.

New China promoted simplified characters in order to eliminate illiteracy, and Ying Chengjiao promoted simplified characters in order to enlighten the people.

Ying Chengjiao knew very well what he needed most now and what the Qin State needed.

No one has studied the classics better than the philosophers of ancient times.

The only one who can change the world is Ying Zi.

[The revolution has not yet succeeded, comrades still need to work hard!] Ying Chengjiao muttered to himself and climbed up the stairs.

The Zhangtai Academy wanted to quickly gain fame and truly compete with the Jixia Academy. How could Ying Zi, who had served as the chief academic officer of the Jixia Academy, be absent?

After crossing the palace gate, the first thing that caught Ying Chengjiao's eyes was a winding stone path with bare trees on both sides.

Ying Chengjiao, who was discussing the planning of Zhangtai Academy with his teacher and determining the final construction of Zhangtai Academy, seemed to see the flowers and plants on both sides of the stone path.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as if he smelled the fragrance of flowers.

In spring and summer, this place will be full of flowers and plants!
Continue along the stone path, and in less than twenty steps, the stone path will split into three paths.

In the middle of the three roads stands a tall stone tablet.

There are twenty-four characters engraved on the stele:

【The philosophers discussed the Dao, and there was freedom of speech. 】

【A hundred schools of thought contend, and all are inclusive. 】

【Commoners and princes are treated equally. 】

These twenty-four characters are the palace motto of Zhangtai Academy. They are also in simplified Chinese characters and were also written by the great calligrapher Li Si, but they came from the mouths of three people.

The first eight characters are Ying Zi, the middle eight characters are Qin Wang Zheng, and the last eight characters are Lü Zi.

Lu Buwei now has the nickname Lu Zi.

"A word is worth a thousand gold coins, and a beggar breaks the impasse" had a negative impact on Lü Buwei's prestige, but had a positive impact on "Lüshi Chunqiu".

If there really are omissions in "Lüshi Chunqiu", why should we just point them out directly? Why would we resort to such despicable means?

The method of deleting or reducing "之" is not feasible in academia and is deeply despised by academicians.

When Ying Chengjiao debated with Gongsun Long about his "white horse is not a horse" theory, if he had said "a white horse is not a horse, Gongsun Long's son is not a human", he would have been hated by other philosophers immediately.

A debate is not a war of words.

Ying Chengjiao never lost his smile.

Ying Zi, Lu Zi, and Li Si, the childless son.

The three sons were taught together, and this lineup was definitely far inferior to that of the Jixia Academy.

But apart from the Jixia Academy, there is no other academy in the world that can gather the three sons to teach.

The Jixia Academy was the leader in teaching, but its status has fallen sharply.

All beginnings are hard.

Being able to suddenly become the second in the world and even catch up with the Jixia Academy was already very good, and Ying Chengjiao was very content.

The teacher wanted to build the Zhangtai Academy of Qin into a sacred place for students that surpassed the Jixia Academy of Qi, creating a grand scene of a river of students flowing westward.

Ying Chengjiao doesn't have such grand ambitions.

He just wanted to enlighten the people and have more people learn to read and write.

Why are you so competitive?

Jixia and Zhangtai, aren’t they both part of our country?

Flowing east or west, it's all the same.

The master and his servant chose the widest path to move forward.

Although it is called a path, it is actually very wide, about two meters wide.

Along the way, the two of them saw several schools.

The buildings of Zhangtai Academy are all the same, with roofs covered with green tiles and slightly upturned eaves.

Through the open door, Ying Chengjiao saw the extremely simple furnishings in the school, with only wooden tables and chairs.

His eyes flickered, as if he saw the elementary and middle schools in his previous life.

"A bit like..." He muttered and continued walking forward.

"Does it look like it?" Hu turned his head and looked around: "No, my lord. This doesn't look like a doctoral student at all."

To build a university comparable to the Jixia Academy and accommodating 3,000 students in just seven days would be impossible even if one put the Qin sword on the necks of the construction workers.

The miracles of Huoshenshan and Leishenshan belong only to New China.

This grand Zhangtai Academy actually connected the last six government offices on Zhangtai Street and was built on the basis of the original buildings.

Li Si and Zhang Cang were both insiders, but they were still shocked. At that moment, this was already a miracle.

"You are the only one with sharp eyes!" The young man curled his lips, and his sighing mood disappeared.

"I am good at shouting, but not good at watching." Hu could hear the dissatisfaction in his lord's words, but he didn't take it seriously and just laughed.

He respected and feared his teacher Gongsun Long, and respected and loved his lord Ying Chengjiao.

While the master and his servant were chatting, another carriage arrived in front of the gate of Zhangtai Academy - the five-horse royal carriage.

There was no sign of the driver making any movement as the five horses approached from afar, going faster and slower, and finally stopped in front of the gate of the academy, with all twenty horses stopping at the same time.

"Your Majesty." The driver Zhao Gao called softly.

King Zheng of Qin lifted the curtain and walked out, taking a look at his brother's custom-made four-horse carriage parked outside the academy.

"This kid runs so fast. He doesn't want to ride in my carriage, but insists on going first." King Zheng of Qin complained in a low voice while holding Zhao Gao's hand and slowly getting out of the carriage.

Zhao Gao chuckled and whispered:

“Inside, the king and Lord Chang’an have a deep brotherly love.

“Outside, the king is the ruler and the Lord of Chang’an is the subject.

"Changan Jun is not traveling with the king, which is a sign of respect for the king to those thieves."

Ever since he guessed that the king had almost unlimited tolerance for Chang'an Jun, Zhao Gao's "Chang'an Jun threat theory" turned into "Chang'an Jun is good, good."

Qin Wangzheng laughed happily as usual and nodded repeatedly:
"The ones who love me most are my brother and my mother."

Zhao Gao smiled knowingly.

He could feel that the king was becoming more and more fond of him.

"Good calligraphy!" King Zheng of Qin, who was about to enter the main gate and walk past the wooden plaque, turned back.

Facing the "Zhangtai Academy" written in the new Qin script, he praised it highly:

“It is straight and level, clumsy on the outside but clever on the inside, and has an appropriate density.

“The lines are round and strong, with even thickness.

“It is really rare to be able to write the new Qin script with only a few strokes and give it a round and heavy feeling!

"Go and find out who wrote this, and bring it to me."

Zhao Gao responded and agreed, looking at the king's eyes as if he had found a treasure, and made up his mind.

[Gaoyao calligraphy practice!]
The emperor and his minister entered the Zhangtai Academy.

That afternoon.

Headed by Ying Chengjiao, Li Si, Zhang Cang, Dun Ruo, Yao Jia... a total of twenty-one people became official Zhangtai masters with a salary of six hundred stones.

The head of Zhangtai Academy was also called Jijiu, and was appointed by King Zheng of Qin himself.

Mr. Zhangtai can meet the emperor directly without going through the government.

The chief priest of Zhangtai would visit Zhangtai every ten days to review the teachers’ lectures and examine the students’ courses.

That night.

The iron flowers of Qi State in the east are gorgeous in Qin State in the west.

Ying Chengjiao's eyes reflected the bright stars.

The young man was worried that the Qin nobles would rise up in opposition, and the strike protest did not occur.

This Zhangtai Academy, which was jointly built by the king and the prime minister, did not arouse enough vigilance among the Qin nobles, or even a lack of vigilance.

He discussed the reasons with his teachers, brother, mother, Li Si, Yao Jia and others.

Everyone thought that the biggest possibility was that the nobles had never thought that the Zhangtai Academy would have an impact on their own status.

How many years has the Jixia Academy of Qi been built? Did it have any impact on the nobles of Qi?
The impact is minimal.

In this era, official positions were not selected or appointed internally, but were directly determined openly.

Can literate people become officials?

Who allowed it?

Either you are born into a noble family, or you become a retainer of a noble, or you make your name known to the ears of kings and princes.

Of these three ways of becoming an official, the only option available to common people was to become a retainer of aristocrats.

However, very few of the retainers can make a name for themselves.

Among the four famous princes of the Warring States Period, Lord Pingyuan and Zhao Sheng had three thousand retainers, but only one of them, Mao Sui, stood out.

This was the case even for those who had joined the army of Pingyuan Jun Zhao Sheng, not to mention the other nobles who had joined the army under Zhao Sheng's power.

The debater Yao Jia boldly speculated that the nobles might be happy to see the completion of the Zhangtai Academy, believing that it would help them improve the level of their retainers and provide them with high-quality servants.

As soon as these words were spoken, the place fell silent.

After careful thought, everyone felt that it made sense.

Qin Wang Zheng looked at Yao Jia approvingly, and said half self-deprecatingly and half sarcastically:

“It’s in a different place.

“No matter how you look at it, I am the one who is most disadvantaged by the establishment of this academy.

"This goes against the laws of Shang Yang, which have been followed by our ancestors.

"These 'loyal ministers' who have always wanted to abolish Shang Yang's laws may be happy to hear this, thinking that this is a precursor to abolishing Shang Yang's laws."

There was silence in the room and the meeting adjourned.

Ying Chengjiao didn't know what the truth was.

He only knew that Zhangtai Academy was successfully established.

Don't cause trouble when you are established.

It will be difficult to push it down again.

The elder brother, the teacher, and he, a boy, worked together. The young man stretched himself and felt that there was nothing in the world that could not be done.

Two days later, something impossible happened.

Prime Minister's Mansion.

Main hall.

The door of the hall was closed and there were only two people in it.

Ying Chengjiao stood in front of the commander's desk and asked loudly:
"Why hasn't the master returned the power to my brother?"

This time, the Minister did not avoid the boy's gaze, he looked straight at him and said calmly:
"I don't trust the king.

“When you have no power, the king can use the emperor’s disciples.

"Now that you have power, the king is very good at using nobles, so will he still use the emperor's disciples?

“The king has always dealt with those who are no longer useful in a simple way.

“Discarded like a worn-out shoe.

"I believe that the first thing the king will do when he takes power is to demolish the academy and turn it back into a government office."

"My brother will not do this." The young man leaned forward and said seriously, "He promised us. He will not fail to do what he promised."

"My lord, have you heard of Afang? She was a poor woman." Lu Buwei's face was calm, but with an unshakable determination: "A poor woman who dreamed of becoming a queen before she died."

Ying Chengjiao was speechless.

His trust in his brother comes from brotherly love and historical records.

The teacher's distrust of his elder brother comes from examples.

The young man returned to the palace, met his brother, and told him the teacher's reply.

Qin Wangzheng showed no strange expression, but smiled faintly and shook his head:

"I used Afang to break the impasse, but I got into trouble because of Afang.

"This world is really amazing."

Patting his brother on the shoulder, King Qin Zheng comforted him:
“Don’t mind.

"If Zhongfu really handed over power, I would be extremely terrified.

“There are only two people in this world who hold power without clinging to it.

“Duke Zhou and you.

"Most of your power is in Zhongfu's hands. If you don't want to be king, then don't get involved in the dispute between me and Zhongfu.