Daming: My boss Zhu Yuanzhang

Chapter 73: You gave me my big treasure, and you still want to punish me?
"How could this be my misinterpretation? Your Majesty obviously didn't explain it clearly!"

"What, you still dare to quibble? Haven't we made it clear enough?" Zhu Yuanzhang glared.

"Of course I don't know. You ancients are so quick to talk nonsense. How can you blame me for misunderstanding?"

In fact, Li Wei was just quibbling. Zhu Yuanzhang had always spoken vulgarly, and he was not as careless as a man of letters.

But Zhu Yuanzhang didn't think so. He was self-taught and always felt that he was an outstanding cultural person. Li Wei's comment was exactly what he wanted, so Zhu Yuanzhang automatically ignored this bug.

"What's wrong with Zhihuye? Do you have to speak vulgarly like you to explain it clearly?"

Li Wei's eyes widened in surprise: "Am I vulgar? You say I'm vulgar? Your Majesty, don't you feel guilty when you say this?"

He was speechless. He was originally prepared for Zhu Yuanzhang to retort, "I don't care," but the result was far beyond his expectation.

"Biao'er, which one of us do you think is vulgar?" Zhu Yuanzhang turned to look for the elder to comment.

"..."

Zhu Biao, a real educated person, was speechless as he listened to these two "educated people" who spoke vulgarly but didn't know it.

"Of course...it's Mr. Li."

Zhu Biao commented with difficulty and without conscience. In fact, he wanted to say that you are both the same.

"Haha, I'm not helping you!" Li Wei sneered.

"Okay, we are asking you about misinterpreting our will, please don't interrupt us!"

Zhu Yuanzhang interrupted directly.

Li Wei coughed and cleared his throat. He was about to start cheating.

"Well, Your Majesty, look, there are an Analects of Confucius and various annotations. Are these annotations the original meaning of Confucius? This is obviously impossible. Some of the annotations even have completely opposite meanings. How could this be the same person? What do you mean?"

"What does this mean? It means that the meaning expressed in classical Chinese is unclear. This thing is fine for writing poems and arty lyrics, but it is definitely inappropriate for issuing decrees and national policies!"

"Your Majesty uses this thing to issue decrees. Since I can misinterpret the decree, those corrupt officials can even better. Since the common people can't understand it, why don't we just let them fool me?"

Li Wei said impassionedly.

"Father, I feel that Shilang Li is just messing around and has nothing to do with being illiterate."

The intellectual Zhu Biao couldn't stand it anymore and exposed him mercilessly.

Li Wei's expression changed, and he immediately put a high hat on Zhu Yuanzhang: "Prince, please don't talk nonsense. Your Majesty speaks well and has great literary talent, but it is obscure and difficult to understand. I just can't understand your Majesty's profound meaning. How can you be so arrogant?"

The corners of Zhu Yuanzhang's lips curled up, but he didn't expose Li Wei because of his good flattery.

"Huh, if you had been so good at talking earlier, you wouldn't have been beaten so much."

"..."

Got it, flatter me more in the future.

"Then tell me, how to solve it?"

Zhu Yuanzhang asked.

"My suggestion is that we should use more vernacular, and make it clear that one means one, two means two, and then punctuation marks must be added, otherwise the same sentence will have two meanings if used in different sentences."

He was fed up with the lack of punctuation.

"Oh? How can you see it?"

"For example, if there are no chickens and ducks, there is no need for fish. Different sentence fragments will turn into two completely opposite meanings: no chickens, no ducks, no fish..."

Li Wei cited an example given by a primary school teacher.

After hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang narrowed his eyes slightly and looked a little solemn.

Although he knew that Li Wei was talking nonsense just to avoid being beaten, the problem he mentioned did exist.

Government orders are passed down from top to bottom. If his edict is interpreted with completely different meanings at the bottom, then the original policy that benefits the people may become a policy that harms the people. He believes that corrupt officials will definitely do this kind of thing. Gotta come out!

"Well, please write out all your punctuation marks for us to see."

"okay."

Li Wei was not polite. He took a pen and paper, wrote the main punctuation marks on it, and marked its intention at the back.

"Your Majesty, look, this is called a comma, which means pause, this is called a period, which means the end of a sentence, and then there are question marks, exclamation marks, double quotation marks..."

Li Wei introduced them one by one, and Zhu Yuanzhang nodded repeatedly. After listening, he handed the punctuation marks written by Li Wei to the good boy.

"Biao'er, come and take a look too."

Zhu Biao couldn't suppress his curiosity long ago. He stepped forward to take it in his hand. He looked at it carefully and immediately understood the meaning of these symbols. If these symbols were added to the article, it would indeed make the sentence clearer.

In fact, ancient articles have their own way of reading broken sentences. For those literati, there is no need for punctuation marks at all, but it requires learning from an early age. Ordinary people don't understand it at all, and it is very complicated.

But this punctuation mark is different. It is simple and clear. If it is really vernacular with punctuation marks, it will not be so easy for these scholars to use word games to fool the people.

"Father, I think this method is very good. With these symbols, it will undoubtedly make the article easier to understand and read."

Zhu Yuanzhang also nodded in agreement.Li Wei couldn't help but smile when he saw this.

"This is a good idea. Well, I will give you a credit this time. If you have such good suggestions in the future, report them to us immediately. We will not treat you badly."

After hearing this, Li Wei's eyes lit up: "Your Majesty, what are you planning to reward me this time?"

"Haha, let me reward you this time so that you won't get a slap in the face." Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said lightly.

"Ah?" Li Wei put away his smile and was a little dissatisfied. After thinking about it for a while, he confirmed: "Doesn't there be any need to write that word?"

"You don't have to write anything, you have to write! Look at the words you write, they look like dog scratches. Why don't you practice more! Ten thousand words a day, not a word less!"

Li Wei was unhappy: "I have dedicated such a big treasure to you, and you still want to punish me?"

"What are you talking about? We are not punishing you, we are doing this for your own good!" Zhu Yuanzhang's face straightened and he said seriously.

"Thank you!" Li Wei rolled his eyes: "But I don't think it's necessary!"

"Humph, we don't want you to feel it, we want us to feel it!"

Li Wei was stunned, where did you learn such unreasonable words?

"Your Majesty, you don't know something. We used hard pens at that time, and the brushes were soft pens. I couldn't write well because I wasn't used to it."

"Oh, is that right? Then take a hard pen and write a few words for us." Zhu Yuanzhang said disdainfully.

Seeing his attitude, Li Wei immediately angrily found his gel pen from the backpack beside him, grabbed a piece of paper and wrote a few words seriously.

Rather than fighting over the steamed buns, he felt that he had written these words very well, so he handed them to Zhu Yuanzhang with confidence.

Zhu Yuanzhang took it and took a look, and his eyes lit up. It was not because Li Wei's handwriting was beautiful, but because the words he wrote were as small as mosquitoes and flies, but extremely clear.

This pen is really good. Fortunately, it is already ours!
While Zhu Yuanzhang was congratulating himself on getting another treasure, he took the pen away, wrote a few words, looked at it proudly, and handed it to the elder again.

"Biao'er, you can also write a few words for him."

Zhu Biao took it and wrote a few words. Then Zhu Yuanzhang put away the pen, handed the paper to Li Wei, and said with disdain:

"See for yourself, do you still have the nerve to complain that the brush doesn't work well?"

Li Wei took it and took a look, and was immediately dumbfounded. The three lines of words on it were his most ugly.

If you can write well with a calligraphy pen, you can write well with other pens easily, but not the other way around.

"..."

Li Wei was silent for a moment under the disdainful gazes of Lao Zhu and his son, and finally had to admit that his handwriting was indeed bad, and it had little to do with the pen he used.

"Your Majesty, can you write less?"

"No, not a single word out of ten thousand words!"

"Then...then I can go home and write to the head office?"

Zhu Yuanzhang thought for a moment and said, "Okay, but don't be lazy. Just finish writing and hand it to us every day. We will check it."

Li Wei: (￣△￣；)
Li Wei vaguely remembered the fear of being dominated by work in the past.

"Okay, if you have nothing else to do, go away. Remember to bring our liquor and perfume as soon as possible!" Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Biao'er, you should go back too, it's getting late."

Zhu Biao: "Okay, Father."

Li Wei: "..."

Aren't sons and ministers both sons? Aren't both emperors and kings fathers? Why is there such a big difference?
Liars are all lies!
Li Wei left Qianqing Palace with Zhu Biao angrily.

The two walked side by side, and Li Wei had no idea what etiquette was.

"Your Highness, I remember that I helped you save your teacher. How about you help me beg your father this time and tell him not to let me copy!"

When Zhu Biao heard this, his face instantly became disappointed: "Father is also doing it for your own good, so please stop making trouble."

Li Wei looked at him in surprise: "What's wrong with you?"

"Hey, the teacher died of illness." Zhu Biao sighed.

Hearing this, Li Wei suddenly realized that although Zhu Yuanzhang spared Song Lian's life after Empress Ma begged for mercy, he also sent him to a remote place. Unexpectedly, he still failed to escape death in the end.

Li Wei didn't know how to comfort people, so he could only express his condolences briefly.

"I wanted to pay homage to the teacher, but my father didn't allow it." Zhu Biao said with a sad expression.

"As the crown prince of the country, the prince naturally cannot leave the capital lightly. You must also understand His Majesty." Li Wei advised.

"I know."

He understood all this, but he still felt melancholy and incomprehensible.

……

　Two chapters of [-] words. Let’s try it first. Please read it later.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)