He originally intended to surrender to Wei, so why did he end up restoring Han?

Lu Wan was a little confused as to why paper nowadays had to be made so long, like a scroll.

Lu Wan still missed the kind of books from later generations—lightweight, affordable, and much better than the scrolls she had in her hand.

Lu Wan dipped the brush tip in ink and tried writing a few characters on it.

Yes, as expected, it's still just as ugly.

Lu Wan was also struggling with how to improve her handwriting. In this era, having bad handwriting was even more serious than being ugly.

The only notable calligrapher from the late Eastern Han Dynasty seems to be Zhong Yao, a subordinate of Cao Cao, but now is not the time to study there. I haven't heard of any calligraphy copybooks for sale either; I can't possibly rely entirely on figuring things out on my own.

Since no one is making calligraphy practice books, why don't I make them? Lu Wan thought about it carefully, but it didn't seem like a good idea. First of all, her own handwriting wasn't up to par, and secondly, there was no market for these kinds of books. Most of the people learning calligraphy these days are children from wealthy and powerful families. Their own teachers can teach them, so why would they need to buy them from Lu Wan?

"Then I can print some books to sell, like textbooks." Lu Wan's thoughts kept jumping around; since she was going to squeeze money out of big spenders, the more methods the better.

This matter naturally needs to be discussed with the leadership.

"Wen Yuan, your idea is very good, but... which school of thought do you plan to print?" Liu Bei was not only curious, but also wanted to know the academic inclinations of his advisors.

Then, watching Lu Wan standing guard with her left eye on duty and keeping watch with her right, a bad premonition arose in Liu Bei's mind: "Wen Yuan, you can't be unaware... You're educated, you must know, you wouldn't be against both factions, would you?"

Lu Wan also had a "Holy crap" in her mind. How could she forget about this when she was involved in culture! Could it be that she is the opposite of what the general said about "cultural workers must be cultured"?

This matter is the debate between ancient and modern texts.

This story begins in the Western Han Dynasty. After the peasant uprising at the end of the Qin Dynasty and the subsequent Chu-Han Contention, the entire land of China was devastated and in ruins. In the chaos of war, a great deal of valuable knowledge left by many thinkers of the pre-Qin period was burned to ashes.

But even the longest war has an end. When Liu Bang pacified the world, the Confucian scholars gathered together to continue promoting their school of thought, only to find that they had fled too fast and that the textbooks were gone while they were still there.

Driven by the spirit that one shouldn't be held back by needing to urinate, these old Confucian scholars relied on their memories to compile various classic texts. They were truly remarkable; it was through this method that civilization was prevented from experiencing a break in its continuity.

However, memory is inherently flawed, so when they couldn't recall something, the Confucian scholars would fill in the gaps based on their own understanding.

If we could just let the mistake continue, that would be fine. The problem is that since the mid-Western Han Dynasty, ancient books have been constantly being discovered in all sorts of obscure places. When we take them out and look at them, they are different from what everyone else has learned!

That's bad.

Some problems are fine, just a few words are wrong, and they can be corrected; others are completely wrong in meaning, how do you fix those?

If we don't change it, it's not like the ancient classics, so can it still be considered learning the classics of the sages? But if we do change it, wouldn't all the knowledge we learned before be wasted?

On this basis, the dispute gradually split Confucianism into two factions. On the surface, this is just a somewhat tedious nitpicking, but in reality, it involves a clash of worldviews and methodologies.

The New Text School advocates "profound meaning in concise words." They believe that the classic texts contain the political philosophy and moral precepts of the Sage Confucius. It employs an expository and philosophical approach.

The Classical School advocated "exegesis of words and things," believing that the primary task of academia was to clarify the original meaning of classical words and phrases, and to conduct more textual research on the classics.

During the Western Han Dynasty, these two factions were evenly matched, with neither able to gain the upper hand. However, things changed during the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Starting with Emperor Guangwu (Liu Xiu), the emperors of the Eastern Han Dynasty were very superstitious about divination and prophecy. The New Text School, because of the close connection between the Gongyang Commentary and divination, quickly became the darling of the Eastern Han imperial family and completely suppressed the Old Text School.

The classical prose school also shamelessly claimed that their version of the Zuo Zhuan was more consistent with the prophecies, successfully gaining attention from the emperor.

Previously, the Classical Prose School was considered a symbol of academic freedom and was highly sought after by many students from humble backgrounds. However, since then, the two schools have converged in their evolution, and the Classical Prose School has begun to evolve into an academic clique, just like the Modern Prose School, completely blocking the path for students from poor families.

For those who have received a modern education, both of these schools of thought are somewhat abstract, like trying to find a sword by marking the boat where it fell into the water, relying on the wisdom of the ancients to solve current problems.

Lu Wan genuinely disagreed with both sides: "To be honest, neither side is very good. Trying to find a sword by marking the boat where it fell into the water—that's not the attitude for learning the truth!"

"Han Feizi once said, 'In ancient times, there were few people and many beasts. People could not defeat the beasts. Later, someone built nests to defend against wild animals and taught others how to do so. People elected him as their leader, and this person was called Youchao Shi. But now, if someone still wants to rule the world by building houses, they will definitely be ridiculed.'"

"Those who try to govern the world by learning from the ways of ancient sages will surely be laughed at by future sages. Therefore, truly thoughtful people do not place their hopes on their ancestors, nor do they stick to old ways; instead, they adapt to the development of the world today."

Liu Bei was stunned when he received an affirmative answer. It seemed that his Zhang Liang and Xiao He were thinking a little wrong. He hurriedly looked around and found that his attendants had gotten into the habit of keeping their distance because Lu Wan often discussed important military matters with him. Only then did Liu Bei breathe a sigh of relief.

"Wen Yuan, you absolutely mustn't tell anyone this, it's not a good thing," Liu Bei warned earnestly. "If those pedantic scholars outside hear this, they'll tear you apart."

"Let's just honestly print some books and sell them, and not provoke those people."

Liu Bei was genuinely afraid that Lu Wan would clash with the Confucianists. He believed that the powerful families would do everything in their power to attack Lu Wan, thus ruining his future career.

"Don't worry, my lord, I'm not insane. I'm just wondering if you'd like Zheng Xuan or Zheng Kangcheng to come to Xuzhou?"

This abrupt change of topic completely bewildered Liu Bei. It took him a while to recover before he hurriedly asked, "Wen Yuan, do you really have a way to invite Mr. Zheng here?"

"Of course! When have I ever lied to you, my lord?" Lu Wan was clearly very confident in her calculations.

The previous attempt to lure Cao Cao away by developing infrastructure seems to have failed. After waiting so long, not even a secret message has arrived. Lu Wan, unaware that Cao Cao is preparing for a major operation next year, can only try to find ways to achieve something elsewhere.

The debate between ancient and modern texts provided Lu Wan with some new ideas. If he could connect with people in the academic world and achieve some results, he might be able to be recruited by the emperor to Xu County. Then, joining Cao Cao would be a piece of cake.