Chapter 65: At The End Of The Road
With the support of this rich woman E Ji, Feng An and Liang Kun bought a lot of books.
The paper here is earthy yellow and somewhat soft; as soon as the brush touches it, it spreads into a huge blot. Unless your characters are written large enough, it’s just an ink blob and cannot reach a level suitable for writing.
It’s not good for use in the toilet either; if you use a little force, it tears, getting that stuff all over your hand.
It’s rarely seen on the market and very niche, mainly used by witches and shamans. Its purpose is to conduct thoughts onto the paper, then burn it.
Silk brocade is not good for writing either; silk is too smooth and cannot hold ink. Unless using a special brocade for writing, which is thick and coated with an unknown juice on the surface that holds ink well.
Of course, this thing is outrageously expensive, and E Ji refuses to buy it.
Wooden slips and bamboo slips, being sturdy, durable, and relatively cheap, naturally gained E Ji’s favor. Therefore, when Feng An and Liang Kun went to buy books, they took a sheep cart.
When returning, they brought a full cart of books, piled up in the house like firewood.
Yun Ce looked at the catalog of books Feng An bought. Works before the Great Han are not numerous; Confucianism is dominated by Gongyang, Mohism by “miscellaneous books,” and Legalism has the most books, most existing in the form of legal statutes.
Dong Zhongshu’s 《Spring and Autumn Luxuriant Dew》 is clearly revered as a classic, yet obviously under siege by Gongyang Confucianism.
1 The books Yun Ce is most interested in are the local history books, titled 《Liu Yun. He thought this history book could trace back to the origins of history. After all, the Great Han people here haven’t experienced barbaric times. Unexpectedly, 《Liu Yun》, this most authoritative history book, remains vague about Yellow Emperor, only calling him First Ancestor.
1 There is only one First Ancestor, with no mention of Yan Emperor or Chi You. This proves that the myth of Yellow Emperor riding a dragon to ascend is true, after all, Yan Emperor and Chi You had no opportunity to ride a dragon.
1 《Liu Yun》 has few subsequent records about Yellow Emperor, only saying he led clan members and ministers to drive away vipers and beasts, capture wild beasts and domesticate them to serve humans, and build the most primitive city walls to protect the people. Of course, all praises end with mention of the divine dragon.
1 Historians devote more and greater space to the dragon, clearly recording the time and place of the dragon’s appearance, as well as the divine dragon’s majestic posture soaring in the sky.
1 It even specifically describes how to sacrifice to the divine dragon, what to do to make the divine dragon happy. Sacrifices include but are not limited to human sacrifice, beast sacrifice, image sacrifice, and artifact burial.
1 Among them, in the 985th year of the divine dragon era, the human leader at the time, after defeating Gui Fang, sacrificed 727 Gui Fang slaves to the divine dragon in one go.
1 The term Gui Fang is not unfamiliar to Yun Ce; 《Historical Records》 also describes Gui Fang, so Yun Ce guesses that the name Gui Fang must have been casually given by the human leader, and all foreign tribes could be called Gui Fang.
1 The later the records, the more radical the descriptions of the divine dragon become, with historians attributing all human achievements to the divine dragon.
1 The scale of sacrifices grew larger and more frequent, until sacrificing to and praising the divine dragon became the most important part of people’s daily lives, at which point things took a wrong turn.
1 Because sacrificing to the divine dragon was very important, a class naturally emerged among the people who lived off sacrificing to the divine dragon. They frequently used the divine dragon’s will to oppress people into doing things they were unwilling to do.
2 Although 《Liu Yun》 uses an upbeat tone throughout to thank the divine dragon, Yun Ce keenly perceived from between the lines that excessive sacrifices had already brought great harm to the humans at that time.
2 The strongest warriors took the proudest profession as becoming guards of Dragon God Hall; the most beautiful women took the proudest thing as becoming the lamp-holding maidservants of Dragon God Hall; even the richest people took pride in contributing all their wealth to Dragon God Hall.
2 This led to, over the long span of more than a thousand years, humans occupying very limited territory on this planet, and repeatedly failing in wars against wild beasts, causing population to not grow rapidly.
2 Yun Ce is willing to depict this segment of history as the Dark Black Iron Century, and this black iron century enveloped humanity for a full 1,700 years. Yun Ce roughly calculated that, according to Earth chronology, it should be around 2,600 years.
2 During this long period, gathering and hunting were the main lifestyles of people; agriculture was not mainstream, let alone industry and technology.
2 The cart invented by Yellow Emperor is still in use today; some living methods taught by Yellow Emperor to people are still in use now, and the finger-sheep-as-horse that Yun Ce has always criticized also originates from Yellow Emperor.
2 Over 2,600 years, leaders have changed surnames many times, but worship of the divine dragon has consistently been inherited. Unfortunately, there has been almost no major development in politics, economy, culture, technology.
2 Of course, struggling in the Dark Black Iron Century for 2,600 years was not in vain. In the long, arduous struggle against nature, they evolved strong physiques. Some brave and wise people could use crude tools to hunt the fiercest wild beasts.
2 Until the 1,700th year of the divine dragon era, early spring, ninth day, Huo Qubing was sent by the divine dragon. From then on, 《Liu Yun》 is divided into two volumes.
2 After Yun Ce huddled in the house and spent two hours finishing 300 jin of bamboo slips, he wanted to continue reading but found no books at hand.
3 Feng An, who was reading, saw Yun Ce reading so fast, shook his head and said, “Reading should be savored; how can one chew like a stupid pig.”
3 Yun Ce shook the bamboo slip in his hand and said, “What about the next one?”
3 Liang Kun rolled up the bamboo slip in his hand and said, “《King Huo’s Biography》 is vast in length. The money given by Young Lord is not enough. Besides, your reading speed is too fast.”
3 Yun Ce ignored the sarcasm from the two and shouted toward the door, “E, I want to read books!”
3 E Ji wiped her hands and walked in, saying, “Then read them.”
3 Yun Ce irritably knocked the bamboo slip on the low table and said, “Finished them. Go buy more.”
3 Feng An hurriedly said, “《King Huo’s Biography》 totals 1,680,000 and 7,452 characters. Are you sure you want to buy it now?”
3 Yun Ce looked up at the roof and also felt this idea was unrealistic. Bamboo slips of 1.68 million characters could probably pile as high as a mountain.
3 “How do you read them?” Thinking from his own perspective, Yun Ce believed that these two poor people, Feng An and Liang Kun, probably never had the chance to read such a massive work.
3 Feng An sighed, exchanged a glance with Liang Kun, and said, “Never seen it. The teacher has. He was summoned by government officials and spent two years coming to Chuyun City to read this book. All we know about King Huo comes from the teacher’s oral accounts.”
4 “If you want to keep this book at home, first become a marquis.”
4 E Ji’s eyes sparkled as she looked at Yun Ce.
4 Yun Ce turned his head, somewhat annoyed, and said, “I want to read books.”
4 E Ji’s look of hating iron for not becoming steel drew laughter from Feng An and Liang Kun. Yun Ce tossed the scroll in his hand, feeling dejected. He thought paper and printing must come out, otherwise, for someone like him with a strong thirst for knowledge, wanting to read books but having none was truly a headache.
4 “If I have a great invention I want to present to the Great Han Emperor, who should I find?” Yun Ce picked a pleasing fruit from the fruit plate E Ji brought and tossed it into his mouth, saying to Feng An.
4 Feng An laughed, “Hand it to the county magistrate, and you can wait.”
4 “When will there be a reply?”
4 “No reply possible in this lifetime.”
4 “What if directly to the inspector?”
4 “If not too important, the inspector will use your novelty for business. If important, the inspector will send someone to kill you, or kill your whole family. Oh, your family is just you and E Ji. You dying is fine, but E Ji cannot have anything happen to her.”
5 “You mean don’t offer it?”
5 Liang Kun said, “He’s already said it clearly.”
5 Yun Ce scratched his head and said, “What if we do it ourselves? What would be the consequences?”
5 “If your invention is like cakes or your fried beans, and earns no more than 1,000 green money a day, you can do it yourself. If it doesn’t meet the above, advise you not to.”
5 Yun Ce glared angrily at Feng An and Liang Kun, saying, “In that case, what can I do?”
5 Feng An laughed, “You can be content with poverty like us, study diligently, and hope to be spotted by a noble, then rise rapidly.”
5 Liang Kun added, “You can learn from Feng An to seduce noble female family members. If you serve the noble’s female family members well, perhaps you’ll have good luck.”
5 “But, to be fair, the noble female family members you two can seduce are mostly insatiable types. Ordinary people can’t do that human-shaped teacher thing.”
5 Yun Ce sighed, “No wonder Miss Hong and them want to rebel. This world is unlivable.”
5 Liang Kun said coldly, “Miss Hong, Pei Chuan, and their fates are only death. Betting remaining life for momentary pleasure is not for the wise.”
6 Yun Ce said to Feng An, “You should still go seduce noble female family members.”
6 Feng An shook his head, “I had that idea before, not now.”
6 “What happened? The female family members of that grand master rank household too ugly to go down on?”
6 “No. You are the best noble we two can attach to. The reason for seducing that grand master rank household’s female family members was to seek a way out for you. As for us two, following you is fine.”
6 “You’re not participating in the Grand Competition anymore?”
6 Having someone kowtow in worship happen to him for the first time, Yun Ce felt somewhat excited.
6 “Participate, why not? If not participating, how to prove we deserve the money given by Young Lord E Ji?”
6 “Isn’t the money E Ji gave you deserved?”
6 Feng An sighed, pulled a money bag made of Yi tree bark from his sleeve, shook it, and the sound of coins clinking came from inside.
6 “One full moon cycle is worth 1,000 green money. Young Lord E Ji is young and doesn’t understand, gave too much.”
7 Liang Kun said nothing, just cupped hands in salute, his face calm and unruffled, without resentment or feeling insulted. It seemed this was the proper way for their trio to interact.
7 Yun Ce accepted the two’s salutes, but when sitting again, Feng An and Liang Kun placed cushions on Yun Ce’s left and right.
