Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

The revision of "Water Margin" is just the beginning of a series of book revision projects.

After the rapid progress of firearms and the confidence to quell internal and external troubles, Zhu Youjian focused more of his energy on the economy and culture.

Especially in terms of culture, he found that the books currently circulating, such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms, are very different from those in later generations. These famous works in later generations have not yet been finalized.

In addition, he was not satisfied with some plots of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, so he appointed Chen Zilong, a ninth-rank secretary of the Hanlin Academy, to revise the book.

The requirement is to correct all content that is inconsistent with history, but it is allowed to retain content that is not recorded in history and is fabricated by the author.

For example, the story of Liu Bei whipping the Inspector was changed to Zhang Fei, which he thought was completely unnecessary.

However, the Oath of the Three Heroes of Peach Garden, which was not recorded in history, can be preserved.

For fictional stories like passing five passes and beheading six generals, we also need to draw maps and revise routes to make them more credible, rather than just focusing on the plot.

Especially in terms of fighting, Zhu Youjian asked Chen Zilong to communicate with the Martial Arts Research Institute to make the fighting scenes in the book more exciting so that it can be used as teaching materials in the Martial Arts Academy.

The description of the war is more fictional and can be simply omitted.

It is said that the Jianlu fought wars by imitating the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and he did not want such a thing to happen again in the future.

He therefore requested that the fictional map of the Three Kingdoms be different from the real one.

The chronology is supplemented with the lunar calendar years to promote the Yellow Emperor's era among the people.

……

These requirements are no less demanding than those for the revision of "Water Margin".

He hoped that Chen Zilong, a talented man who was good at editing books, would revise and produce a better version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Now, Chen Zilong is holding books such as "Book of the Later Han", "Records of the Three Kingdoms", "Records of Huayang Kingdom", "Records of Heroes", etc., studying their similarities and differences with the Three Kingdoms drama and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and striving to revise a version that will satisfy the emperor.

He did not take this matter lightly, because in addition to revising "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the emperor also assigned him a task, which was to rewrite "Heroes and Martyrs".

Zhu Youjian was very dissatisfied with the "Ming Heroes" compiled by Guo Xun, not because Guo Xun exaggerated the achievements of his ancestor Guo Ying, but because the novel was not very attractive.

This book does not fully reflect the legendary story of how Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang built a great empire from a bowl. It cannot let more people understand the founding deeds and raise their respect for Emperor Taizu.

Zhu Youjian hoped that Chen Zilong would use his literary talent to write a better "Biographies of Heroes".

Even if it is not as attractive as Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it should at least be more in line with history, so that people can learn about the founding of the country through reading this book.

Chen Zilong attached great importance to this task, because the emperor had asked him to join the compilation of "Chronicles of the Guozhao" and become the proofreader of "Chronicles of the Guozhao" for this matter.

When the "Chronicles of the National Dynasty" is completed, he will be able to share the credit and leave his name in history.

Therefore, he now attaches great importance to revising "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", striving to produce a version that satisfies the emperor and get the opportunity to rewrite "Biographies of Heroes".

Zhu Youjian arranged for Yu Xiangdou and cultural figures from Buddhism and Taoism to revise the mythological novels such as "The Romance of the Gods", "Journey to the West", "Journey to the East", "Journey to the South", and "Journey to the North". He wanted to integrate these into a framework according to the established system of gods and immortals.

Feng Menglong was also revising his "Records of the Warring States Period" in an effort to have it included in Yuefu.

The publishing industry in the Ming Dynasty was therefore booming, and many people wanted to win awards such as Yuanshi by editing books.

However, these are still scraps. What the scholars really valued was the emperor's intention to imitate the Yongle Encyclopedia and include various classics.

Unlike the Yongle Encyclopedia, due to the advancement of printing technology, this encyclopedia will not be copied in just one or two copies, but will be publicly distributed for purchase by libraries, book collections and wealthy scholars across the country.

This attracted great attention from the court and the public, and many people competed for the chief editor of this great book. Like Xie Jin, they wanted to leave their names in history. Zhu Youjian only asked Lai Zongdao to prepare for the early stage because the project was very expensive. He spread the word to the public and asked the people to donate books on their own initiative.

The first works to be compiled were Confucian classics such as the Four Books and the Five Classics.

They are collectively called the Classics Books, one of the four parts of classics, history, philosophy and literature. The Chongwen Zongmu of the Song Dynasty, the Siku Quanshu of the Qing Dynasty, and the collection of Tianyi Pavilion are all classified in this way.

Zhu Youjian, in light of the lessons learned from the compilation of the Siku Quanshu during the Qing Dynasty, said to Liu Zongzhou:

"Sir, you are the most outstanding scholar of our time. You must take on the responsibility of compiling the classics of the Chongzhen Encyclopedia."

"All kinds of classics books from ancient times to the present should be included in it, and standard characters should be used as much as possible, and punctuation marks should be added."

"Other than that, try to keep the original text as much as possible. If you have to modify the content, indicate at the end of the book where you have proofread it."

"The text in the book that was changed to avoid taboos can also be changed back."

"I allow the Chongzhen Encyclopedia to be compiled without reservations."

Deciding to leave behind a comprehensive set of books for future generations, Zhu Youjian certainly would not tie the compilers' hands.

In particular, the Ming dynasty was founded on a legitimate basis, so there was no need to modify all words such as "barbarians" and "barbarians" during compilation, as was done during the Qing dynasty. As a result, the books in the Siku Quanshu were modified beyond recognition, and those who studied ancient books avoided the Siku Quanshu whenever possible.

He wanted to compile the annotated version of "The Chongzhen Encyclopedia" as a model for similar books, so that people would choose this version when citing references in the future.

However, Liu Zongzhou was somewhat worried about the emperor's thoughts.

"Your Majesty means well, but I am worried that some false rumors may spread."

"Are all fake books like the Bamboo Annals and some folk religious books or banned books going to be published?"

"Also, the number of volumes of the Chongzhen Encyclopedia may exceed 50,000, and it would be very expensive to print and publish them all."

This was because he was uneasy about the public publication of this great codex, and he believed that some books only needed to be copied a few more times, which would save time and effort.

Zhu Youjian considered this and nodded:

"Your concerns are correct. Some books are indeed not suitable for publication."

"But they are, after all, classics left by our ancestors, and we need to preserve them for future generations."

"In this way, the confidentiality level of the book is determined when it is compiled, and those that need to be kept confidential are not published or distributed publicly. Only a few copies need to be made and stored in libraries around the country."

"The catalog of books that can be published should also be announced when it is compiled, so that people who have other rare books can see the catalog and donate books that are not in the catalog."

"These books are available for pre-order by libraries, book collections and scholars from all over the country. Only those with pre-orders exceeding 500 copies will be printed and published."

"The compilation of the Chongzhen Encyclopedia accepted donations, and the donors, compilers, book donors and other meritorious personnel compiled a list and included it in the Encyclopedia."

"The donated books must be returned in the same condition in the future and no one is allowed to take them away without permission."

Let Liu Zongzhou use his fame to call on scholars all over the world to present their classics first.

Liu Zongzhou gladly accepted the order and served as the chief editor of the Classics section of the Chongzhen Encyclopedia. He planned to first compile the books of the Classics section from the Yongle Encyclopedia.

This work does not require too many people for the time being. In addition, the books of the classics are the best sellers, so it is very likely to make a profit. This is also the reason why Zhu Youjian chose to compile the books of the classics first. (End of this chapter)