Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 580 Changshengtian, commonly known as Yuanshen
Other religious items in the church are also very characteristic of the Purple Horde Khanate. For example, there is a small seated statue of Brother Tian with a smile on his face, as well as posters encouraging everyone to produce more and have more children.

Next to the portraits of Heavenly Father and his family, there are such religious paintings.

On the wall on the left, in the center is an old man with a halo on his head, standing in the forest with an ax on his shoulder, and "Heavenly Father" written in a small box next to it. He led a group of people dressed as villagers to drain water and cut down trees in the swamp. At the back of the team, there is a woman holding a child. Next to the mother and child are written "The Holy Mother" and "The Holy Son". There are also a group of women and children surrounding them.

Under the picture, in bold Chinese characters, it is written, "If the farm wants to be rich, have more children and cut down more trees" - this was recently specially printed and prepared to be used for propaganda purposes for the newly-attached Russians.

On the wall on the right, there is a woman wearing a simple dress, spreading her hands to protect a group of children, turning her head to look behind anxiously. In front of her, a strong old man with a halo on his head was holding a hoe. His muscles were tangled and his beard was bulging out in anger. He looked like he was about to attack. He also had "Heavenly Father" written next to him.

Opposite the Heavenly Father, there was a gorgeously dressed Greek lady. She seemed to be frightened by him. She was bending over, looking back at the Heavenly Father in panic, then turned around and ran away in embarrassment. There's also a little box next to her that says "Leto." A child broke free from her right hand. The skirt of his clothes was still in hand, but the dagger in his left hand had just fallen out of her hand. The poison bottle on his waist also fell down and scattered on the ground. Under the picture, it says, "Report all acts of harming children! Dad will take action!"

"What kind of story is this?" Theodora asked doubtfully.

"Isn't it written next to it?" Tuohuan pointed to a line of small words in the corner of the scroll: ""Heavenly Father vs. Leto", produced by Dadu Printing Factory."

"I saw it, but what is the setting for Heavenly Father to fight Leto..." Theodora was confused.

"This seems to be a Greek myth." Guo Kang thought for a while and replied: "There was a woman who had many children, so she bragged to the goddess." He pointed to the picture: "As a result, the goddess was very angry and took away her children. All killed. The designers probably used this story instead.”

"The same is true for our current names. Wouldn't it be enough to call it Changshengtian? Of course not. We also used it like this when the country was first founded. However, the Yuan Dynasty called Changshengtian every day, so that this name was bound to them When everyone heard it, they thought it was a primordial spirit, not a universal title, so we avoided it in daily use. "

"Indeed." Tuo Huan also nodded: "But I think the type of clothing doesn't matter. I used to read Greek mythology, and I felt that the goddesses in it were not much different from today's Greek women. Maybe, the Greeks have always been It hasn’t changed.”

"A few more names..." Theodora said helplessly.

"What's so weird about that?" Tuohuan asked confused.

"The name is not important. Anyway, they all refer to the same god. People at that time had limited cognitive abilities and naturally could not understand clearly." Guo Kang said: "Just like Changsheng Tian is also the heavenly father, Hu Da is also the same in Persia. These names are just names from different places and have no influence.”

"Look at the picture just now. Anyway, it has little to do with the original work." He returned to the picture of "Heavenly Father vs. Leto": "Originally, in that myth, people were not so hands-on. Moreover, No matter how you look at it, this woman does not look like a goddess from the classical era. On the contrary, the clothes, the dagger and the poison make her look like a stereotypical Greek noblewoman... Of course, this kind of painting is not what she wants. Just restore it so that people who are not very literate can understand the meaning.”

"It can be changed like this..." Theodora didn't know what to say: "The picture of plowing just now seemed weird to me, and this one is even weirder..."

"Oh, that's called the Bull of Heaven." Guo Kang thought for a while and began to add settings temporarily: "There is this myth."

"Huh?" Theodora was dumbfounded, obviously she had never heard of it.

"I'm quite surprised. It turns out that Heavenly Father was born as a tenant farmer!" Tuohuan said in surprise.

"Why are you paying attention to this direction..." Theodora reminded him quickly.

"Who are you talking about being a Greek?" Theodora became dissatisfied.

"There is a saying that the earliest appearance of Heavenly Father was in ancient Mesopotamia. At that time, the Babylonians called Him Adad, the storm god." Guo Kang explained: "The bull in the sky is the landlord next door. It belongs to the Poishtar family. This cow was borrowed by Heavenly Father to plow the fields.”

"The meaning is quite simple, just report it as soon as you find something like this." Tuo Huan also understood: "The government, like Heavenly Father, will stop these prisoners. Look at this picture, the expression is quite obvious. No. You can understand the meaning by reading those words.”

"This is to make it easier for believers to understand. What you are saying is too metaphysical, and others will not understand it. Only by being close to people's lives can they understand it more easily." Guo Kang further explained: "In short, it is not a big theological issue."

Theodora nodded and reluctantly accepted.

"Aren't you the same? They painted a poster about Heavenly Father's family, and you were struggling there." Tuohuan spread his hands and said unwillingly: "You can't just be allowed to take advantage of others."

"The Heavenly Father is plowing the fields, not to mention whether it is in line with the teachings. What is the purpose of adding a cow?" Theodora gave an example: "You can't say that besides the Heavenly Father, Heavenly Brother, etc. , and a beetle, right?”

"Look at her, she probably didn't even need makeup to play Hera." He pointed at Theodora: "During this period, I saw her every day, and she chased other girls for no reason. With the Greek girl in mythology We all look the same..."

"Okay, okay, there are a few more pictures here. If you argue after reading this, I have to write a feedback to Master Wang." Guo Kang stopped him.

Both of them listened to him, so they stopped arguing and followed him to look at other paintings.

These paintings were also specially printed for promotional purposes. Before distributing it widely, it will be circulated in a small area to see how everyone responds. Their visit is also part of it. According to the process, every time the court has any policies that need to be publicized, they will be sent to the Ministry of Rites for study. There is a special committee in the Ministry of Rites, whose members include officials from the Ministry of Rites, military officers, church personnel and famous folk elders. The Great Lama Wang and several senior priests were among them, and I had to go to meetings with them from time to time. After the research is completed, they will convene professionals to design, and then send the designed manuscript to local governments and churches for everyone to post and paint according to it.

This is actually a tradition. As late as the Han Dynasty, officials began to write decrees on walls in conspicuous places to publicize them to the public. This habit has continued since then. After the invention of paper, there were more ways to post notices, with more and more tricks and more and more simplicity.

The literacy rate in the Purple Horde Khanate has never been ideal. Even though the government and the army have been working hard, the progress is still not fast enough. The imperial court had a need to unify political decrees, but the differences between languages ​​in various places were far wider than in the Central Plains.

When Qin Shihuang unified the writing system, it was not very difficult. Because although the writing methods of different countries' languages ​​are different, they are actually the same thing. Judging from the bamboo slips unearthed in later generations, the Qin State was in the south and received a large number of officials from the original Chu State. It only took a few months for these people to learn Qin characters and use the Qin format for official documents. It can be seen that the differences in writing are not that serious, and there are no essential differences in the operating modes of administrative agencies in various countries.

But, that's not the case here. Dialects vary widely from the Crimean steppes to the Greek mountains. In most areas, there is no text at all, and where there is text, it is not very easy to use. If you write a long text announcement, no local people can understand it. Even though the court has been working hard to promote it over the years, many people have limited writing skills.

Therefore, from the beginning, the church attached great importance to graphic propaganda. In recent years, there has been a highly recognizable style and even a whole set of theories. When Guo Kang was making the giant Celestial Brother slideshow, he had heard it from the Great Lama Wang.

The current propaganda routine of the church was set by the Great Lama Wang. However, he himself did not feel that this was any credit, but instead felt a little inferior from time to time.

The first two patriarchs were both elite talents who were well versed in classics and could master all kinds of knowledge at their fingertips. But the cultural level of Dalai Lama Wang is far behind, and he knows it very well. He told Guo Kang that he was really not good at the meaning of the scriptures, so since he took office, he had always followed the teachings of the two forefathers. He was extremely careful when interpreting the scriptures and did not dare to go beyond the ordinary. Go up, use your brains, and solve more practical problems.

He particularly favors Guo Kang for this reason - he has always felt that Guo Kang has talent in this area. If we want to truly inherit the legacy of our late master and continue to carry forward his teachings, we have to look to him.

However, Guo Kang felt that he was already a very capable person.

In his early years, the Great Lama Wang did not receive a systematic theological education. Instead, he wandered around among the people. To put it harshly, it was actually not much different from being a performer and begging for food. He has not studied any kind of classics specifically. Instead, he has participated in all kinds of teachings. In the end, my theological level was still very poor, and even attending remedial classes in the church did not improve me much. However, I did get to know a lot of people in the world, and I had plenty of experience in how to attract audiences and how to compete with other rural monks for business.

In the opinion of Dalai Lama Wang, there is no mystery at all. Because the vast majority of people in the public have little understanding of doctrine, it would be good to be able to distinguish between different sects. Propaganda to them does not require those profound principles. On the contrary, there are only two main points: one is excitement and the other is novelty.

He believes that there are still problems with traditional choir thinking because the threshold is too high and is not conducive to popularization. There are inherent flaws in getting close to the people and conducting propaganda.

The same is true for Greek drama. Even if it is regarded as a popular or even vulgar comedy performance, the cost is still too high. Although most citizens can go see it every now and then, in most places, it takes a long time to see a touring theater troupe. And because of cost issues, the performances of this kind of troupe naturally cannot be very good - as long as there is a chance, talented crew members and actors with excellent performance skills will definitely go to Dadu, which is richer and more densely populated. The place.

Therefore, the church needs to find ways to lower the threshold and be more conducive to dissemination.

To this end, Wang Dalai Lama organized a group of grassroots priests. In addition to chanting sutras and singing poems, they also learned various musical instruments. No technical skills were required. A few people could play the melody together. Then, he personally compiled some very popular songs for the priests to play and spread among the people.

In this regard, Lama Wang is still very good at it. Whether it is the content of lyrics, music, or stage effects, they can all be designed properly. Like before, he personally arranged the appointment of little Jeanne to play the role of fairy aunt. Under his promotion, these small troupes of three to five people quickly became popular.

Under the guidance of Lama Wang, churches in various places have organized some priests who can play musical instruments. They don't stick to specific forms, as long as they can come up with a tune together. These people went around singing and soon achieved good results.

The same goes for painting. In order to meet these requirements, the church maintained a large group of masters who specialized in painting. But the Great Lama Wang put forward higher requirements and hoped that they could produce more works.

Generally, church murals can be used for a long time after completion. But Lama Wang expressed his own hope, believing that the church should take advantage of the cheap and easy replacement of hanging paintings to create more works. In this way, we can more quickly publicize the policies of the court and the church, spread more doctrinal knowledge to the people, and persuade people to do good. In order to remain attractive to devotees, they should be changed regularly so that no one eventually gets tired of them.

This view is supported by many senior clergy. However, the creation of masterpieces always takes time. If you rush it too fast, the design may not be good. Since the establishment of the Purple Horde Khanate, it has attached great importance to farming and warfare but despised art, and has not intentionally cultivated talents in this area. Affected by this social trend, not many people are willing to take painting as a career.

Therefore, in order to provide enough paintings to meet the demand, domestic painters were quickly overwhelmed. The church also hired many people from Italy specifically for this purpose. The painting styles of these people are all different, and even a layman like Guo Kang can see their characteristics at a glance.

Like the painting on the right, "Heavenly Father vs. Leto," both the composition and the characters are quite different from traditional religious paintings. Even in the reprinted works, the color blocks and lines have been simplified a lot, but the characters' movements still look very tense. Compared with the other two stereotyped propaganda posters, the Heavenly Father, Goddess, and even the child next to him in this painting are much more refined, and their expressions and postures are very vivid. Obviously, this effect was carefully designed by the painter.

And everyone has become accustomed to these paintings of different styles. It is said that some people like to collect these things. Paintings that have been replaced by various churches are often bought. The church itself also has evaluation and feedback channels to see which ones are more popular.

After watching this circle, Guo Kang probably had an idea.

"Now I have collected eight. When I collect twelve pictures, I will find someone to print a batch of almanacs." He said to Tuo Huan: "I will distribute them all during the expedition."

"Are these useful?" Tuohuan still had no idea about this.

"The cost is not high anyway," Guo Kang said.

"Yes..." Tuohuan nodded and agreed.

(End of this chapter)