Xinshun 1730

Chapter 290 Translation Movement
Blatant corruption and back door, this is really a trivial matter in the Celestial Dynasty.

If there are any vacancies in the navy, there must be. Dang Xuanming is just asking for directions, and Liu Yu doesn't need to reach out for the operation.

"Fourth brother, this matter... how should I put it. The Navy is just a shelf right now. Whether it will be promoted to the Admiralty in the future will have to wait for the court council and His Majesty's decision. For now, I advise you not to be in a hurry."

"With so many of you walking around with the Duke of Qi, His Majesty will definitely make arrangements. How about this, I will go to the Duke of Qi to find out first, and I will get back to you when I get the news."

"Let me put it this way, it's not a good time to squeeze into the navy now."

Once the Ministry of the Navy is established in the future, there will definitely be a lot of redundant staff, and many vacancies will inevitably be occupied by these noble children or officials' children, such as logistics, quilt procurement, etc., and the first-line captains... This is not to squeeze in. can squeeze in.

One more of him is not much, and one less of him is not much. In the end, it still depends on what the emperor does.

Dang Xuanming didn't think that Liu Yu was prevaricating, so he could only say: "Duke Qi, there are also rumors. It is said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be established, and Duke Qi will be in charge, standing side by side with the Li government. The Li government only manages tributary countries, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs manages non-tributary countries. Honestly, it's not a bad job."

"It's not a tributary country, so there's not much lucrative money. You see, this time the North Korean tribute mission came to Beijing, and the Li government mobilized some lucrative water. House repairs, food, clothing, housing, and transportation all have the practice of donating money."

"Which one of the people who went to North Korea to confer titles didn't get 5 taels? The subordinates were divided accordingly. The principal and deputy envoys ate meat, and the subordinates drank soup... This Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not seem to have any oil and water. Look. I don't want to go."

Looting against North Korea has existed since ancient times.Except for North Korea, tribute is actually a kind of official monopoly trade, and there must be a lot of oil and water in it.

Diplomacy... Many people still don't understand diplomacy. They always feel that if the tribute, free trade, and oil and water are all wiped away by the customs, then what is left of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs?
Dashun is not the late Qing Dynasty, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is of great significance. After all, whether the governor of the land can rule depends on the faces of foreigners.

Now this situation is really awkward.

Those who kneel and lick are all under the control of the government; the rest of the trade and disputes are under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, regardless of the faces of foreigners. It really sounds like a Qingshui yamen.

Liu Yu smiled and said, "Is that why you don't like it?"

"Not optimistic. It's like checking the border with Luocha. This must be under the control of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and let the Li government manage it. One is that they are not a tributary country, and the other is that they don't understand."

"Boundary survey, can you hold money? Of course you can, but this money... is easy to lose your head if you hold it in your hands. It is different when you go to North Korea. It has become a custom to ask for money for canonization. If the king of North Korea gives it, can you not want it? You don’t even need to open your mouth, you have your own routine.”

"Even if the Raksha people give money, who dares to accept such a big matter as boundary survey? So I said, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the entire Qingshui Yamen, is paid by His Majesty's internal money. The money from the treasury is easy to make, and the money from the internal money Hold it hot."

"Hahahaha..." Liu Yu laughed violently for a while, and then said: "Come on! Come on! I'll go to Qi Guogong to inquire about it. How about it, I will set up a game in a few days, and you call all the friends who are going to Europe this time. , let’s have a good chat. My Earl’s Mansion hasn’t been built yet, so let’s borrow my father’s first. I’ll also inquire about the news in the next few days, and we’ll talk about it later.”

"Then I'll go first. Say goodbye to uncle and aunt. Don't leave any food."

He got up to say goodbye, turned to his uncle and aunt, said the same thing, and hurried to Qi Guogong's place.

As soon as he entered the door, the Duke of Qi, whom he had not seen for many years, came to welcome Liu Yu and entered the main hall.

When he came here before, Liu Yu was still a son and nephew with no status; now it is very different, there must be no less etiquette.

"Shoutong, you came at a good time. This time I went to Europa, I have a lot of emotions, and I have too much to say. Your Majesty stayed with me for two days, and I only spoke half of it."

Completely different from Dang Xuanming's emotion, Qi Guogong's emotion is much more, and it can be seen that his expression is also extremely excited.

After several years of wind and frost, he looks much older. After all, he spends most of his time on the road. In a poor place like Russia and the bitter cold in Siberia, it is too painful.Even if you just pass by, you must have suffered a lot.

Talking about what happened when I just came out from my uncle, I couldn't help talking about Dang Xuanming's knowledge of this trip to Europe.

"What do these children understand? What birds see is food; what fish see is water; what scholars see is righteousness; what sages see is Tao."

"I walked this circle, and I have a lot of emotions. As the saying goes, there are some things that Westerners have, and the Celestial Dynasty still has to learn."

Judging from Dang Xuanming's attitude, Liu Yu really didn't feel that Dang Xuanming was a little arrogant, stupid and ignorant.

But the European system, there is really nothing to learn at this time.Culturally, China still has a great sense of superiority.

The real strength is hidden under the surface. It is hard to say whether the sudden explosive growth in Europe is a quantitative change leading to a qualitative change, or a sudden coincidence.

For now alone, even if Watt improved the steam engine, not to mention the East, even France, which is so close, had to react for a long time, and it was not until the textile industry was hit that it made a stress response.

On the contrary, Qi Guogong has a lot of emotions, and now he is excited, which makes Liu Yu quite curious.

"At that time in France, the French invited me to watch the siege, and I knew it was the French showing their national prestige. Although it was a joke in the end, I was also disturbed."

"Fortunately, before I came back, I heard that the army of the Celestial Dynasty had changed, and I felt relieved. Shouchang, this matter is well done. If not, this time I will come back, and I must ask His Majesty Shangshu, force Chen about the military reform."

Seeing that he was talking about the army again, Liu Yu didn't want to talk about it, but humbly revealed it and said: "I was at my uncle's place, and I heard that His Majesty wants to entrust the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Duke?"

"It's not just the Ministry of Foreign Affairs." Qi Guogong couldn't help but sighed. He felt a little headache when the emperor asked him to take care of it.

"I was also asked to be in charge of translating Western books. This time, the books worth 4 to [-] taels were not bamboo slips from the time of Confucius. There were dozens of carts full of books, tens of thousands. Although I don't directly translate There is not enough manpower to translate."

"Those who understand Western languages ​​may not understand the content of the book. The imperial court banned religion, but those who understand Western languages ​​are mostly Catholics, and His Majesty is unwilling to use them. Do you understand what I mean?"

Translating foreign books, Qi Guogong just pretends to be a name and does some organizational work.This kind of thing was originally the daily life of nobles. Liu Yu's father was still famous. In order to express his importance to the previous dynasty and the transition from old to new, he even wrote Ming history.

Qi Guogong's meaning is easy to understand.

In court, or in the world, there are actually quite a few people who understand Western languages.

However, many people who understand Western languages ​​are proficient in the Bible, not science.

Even a character like Xu Guangqi from the previous dynasty can't understand the second half of the original geometry, so he can only wait for Matteo Ricci to translate.

But Matteo Ricci used this thing to fish, how could he go through it all at once?The missionaries who came after that were all average. Fortunately, the imperial court had produced a few characters before, and it was finally over.

But those are all books from 2000 years ago, so it would be troublesome to translate the large pile of books I got back this time.

Especially when the imperial court banned religion, there was a huge "translation plan" in the previous dynasty, but most of the books in that plan were religious books.

This time, religious books must be excluded.

If religious books are excluded, some people who know Western languages ​​will be useless, because what they know most is religious vocabulary, and they are also worried that these people will add religious private goods to it.

Furthermore, it’s okay to ask them to translate a theology book. Ordinary people are not capable of translating these science and engineering contents, especially the new achievements in recent years.

Wen Xian knew what Qi Guogong asked him to borrow?This is completely different from the route he envisioned. He doesn't think it is cost-effective to spend a lot of effort translating a lot of books.

"Duke, actually, let me tell you that the translation is not urgent. I have a few young men who can translate these practical books, but...everything has priorities."

"To speak of arrogance, the kid knows which books should be translated first and which ones can be discussed later."

"The manpower on my side can't be moved away. If I really want to use it, it will take three to five years. I have trained a group of people who can take over the translation of these practical books, but they haven't learned it yet."

"Has your Majesty given a time limit?"

Duke Qi shook his head and said with a smile: "No. But you know His Majesty's temperament. He only said that if you want to win, you must communicate first. Got impatient."

"Spent tens of thousands of taels of silver to buy the book and came back. His Majesty also knows the advantages of Westerners in machinery and military formation, so he is naturally anxious."

"But this is different from the military reform. The military reform has the foundation left by Emperor Taizong, and it is easy to train officers; but for translation, it is not enough to rely on the foundation left by Emperor Taizong."

"Your Majesty also deliberately asked that when translating, it must be strictly censored. It is to prevent the spread of Western religious demagogues. Those missionaries who are officials in the court are unreliable, and most of them who understand Western languages ​​in the court are former believers. I am After thinking about it, I can only find someone from you."

"But since you said that there are priorities, I don't really understand what the priorities are. How about this, you translate a few copies over there, and send them over, so I can do the job."

"The main reason is that His Majesty told me to select people, and I can't use religious believers. Where can I find so many people who understand Latin?"

After talking about the shortcomings in talent, Qi Guogong talked about something he had learned deeply before.

Translated by Sunyard.

When I first found Liu Yu, I asked Liu Yu to help translate the letter of credence for the Raksha Kingdom. At that time, I heard Liu Yu talk about the history of Russia and Byzantium for a long time, so I could figure out whether the translation was good or bad.

What needs to be translated now, except religious books, has history books, practical knowledge, and technology, which makes it even more difficult to translate.

To translate technical books, you must have relevant experience; to translate history books, you must understand Western history; to translate practical studies, you must have a mathematical foundation.

It also boils down to the "talent" issue, the translatable standard, which is the real headache.

"For example, when you said 'algebra', the missionaries translated it as 'Algerbara'; when you said 'Ireland', the missionaries translated it as 'Zibernia'; Translates to 'Ezebenia'..."

"Today, those who follow you know Ireland, but they don't know Zebania; those who follow the missionaries know Algebara, but they don't know algebra."

"If the same book is translated by different people, it will almost become two books. How to translate it?"

"If I didn't go to Europa in person, even if His Majesty wants me to preside over the translation, I'll just deal with it. Just find someone to look through it casually. I don't care if it's Algebala or algebra?"

"But now that we have gone to kiss each other, we should also know the length of the size. In this case, the translation is not a trivial matter, and it must be translated well."

"Otherwise, it will be the great responsibility of the country."

(End of this chapter)