"And aren’t you afraid that as more people learn to read, your own children will be the ones who can’t?" The young man scratched his head. He was clever by nature, reading the official newspaper often, daring to think boldly about what he previously didn’t dare think about.
Speaking to these guests, he had a way with words.
Ironically, the less knowledgeable the guests, the more they loved to listen to him. After all, everyone admires the strong.
This became an advantage for the young man in attracting business, no wonder his shop’s business was getting better and better.
"Xiao Lu is right; many merchants used to wish their children could read. They weren’t short on money, so they would buy books early on. Perhaps their children can recognize many characters now. And for the wealthy households in the villages, will they just watch others surpass their children?" a middle-aged man said unwillingly.
"Xiao Lu, which bookstore are you talking about? I want to ask around."
"Take your children along, learn the alphabet song first, otherwise even with a dictionary, you won’t recognize the characters."
"Thanks for the reminder, I’ll go now."
In various places across the capital, similar news spread, and surprisingly, it was not the wealthy but rather the moners who were most excited.
Wealthy families didn’t lack taels of silver, they could afford a private tutor and didn’t actually appreciate this concept of Pinyin.
Especially some declining small families who had hoped to improve their status through official careers.
The introduction of Pinyin meant that increasingly more children from farming families and families who are not officials could read, a development that may not seem threatening in the short term, but these noble families, each with their long-standing heritage, had foresight. Such reform pointed to more candidates for the imperial examination in the future, making the petition to bee an imperial scholar even fiercer, which could spell disaster for them.
It was acceptable for those with more liberal mindsets, who might consider other avenues or seriously learn to read. Yet there were those stubborn ones who remained angry at home, jumping with rage.
In some county cities, incidents even arose where hooligans were hired to deliberately make trouble and resist this book.
However, the imperial court had already issued various decrees to every state government office and county city.
The yamen stepped in to support, ultimately suppressing the motion.
Meanwhile, on Emperor Xuanming’s desk, these days saw a continuous stream of memos delivered, none failing to find some reason to highlight the harms of a universal literacy campaign.
Clearly.
Emperor Xuanming’s advocacy of learning to read through Pinyin had touched the interests of most noble families.
In ancient times, rulers controlled the mon folk through literacy.
The more ignorant the populace, the easier they were to control.
After all, power was in the hands of a few.
If the official newspaper hadn’t already earned Emperor Xuanming a good reputation among the mon people, he wouldn’t dare to enforce this change.
It’s more than just offending the nobles; he feared his dynasty might be overthrown by the mon people.
You have to understand, what he’s doing now is unearthing talent, ensuring no shortages in the future—but if his authority is not centralized, it could be easily overthrown.
Ultimately, everything depends on public sentiment.
Emperor Xuanming placed even more importance on the official newspaper.
Being almost obsessed.
After being annoyed constantly by memos from local noble families for several days, he called Chu Heng into the palace.
"Minister Chu, how is the official newspaper lately?"
"Replying to Your Majesty, the ine from the capital’s official newspaper is very substantial and can fully support the normal operations of the Official Gazette Office."
"Official Gazette Offices in local areas have started to be established as well."
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