Chapter 226 Waiting for the Rise
Li Jiancheng took several different copies of the Book of Changes from the scholar, and after a brief look, he said: "All industries are waiting to be revived, and the accumulated problems are too deep. If the dynasties in peace and prosperity could have sorted out the inheritance of classics and regulations, we would not have to start from scratch.

The problem cannot be left to future generations. Master Yan, you have inherited the family business since you were young, read widely, and studied the textual research of the Five Classics. It is natural that you will be responsible for the revision of the Five Classics. "

Yan Shigu came from a Confucian family, the Langya Yan clan. His ancestor was Yan Hui, a disciple of Confucius, and his family had a long tradition of learning.

"I will order that all the books in the Hongwen Library of the Secretariat be available for you to read, and all scholars will cooperate with you. I will also issue an edict to order noble families and common people to donate books for the purpose of revision and revision, so that classics can be passed down to future generations."

As soon as the scholars heard this, they knew that this was a great achievement that would go down in history. They could at least leave a few words behind for this event, so they all excitedly bowed to Li Jiancheng and said, "Your Majesty, your civil and military achievements are unmatched in the world. God will surely protect our Tang Dynasty and prolong the country's prosperity for thousands of years!"

Lu Deming, a famous scholar in Wuzhong, said: "Your Majesty, after Scholar Yan has revised the Five Classics, there is another more arduous task to be done, which is to unify the annotations of the classics. Nowadays, there are many branches of Confucianism and the chapters and sentences are complicated. There is often a lack of unified answers in the imperial examinations, which is due to this."

Finally, I come to the key point. Unifying annotations, that is, unifying thoughts, will have disadvantages, but for students from ordinary people's families who have humble backgrounds, limited knowledge, cannot read widely, and have no family tradition of studying classics, only fixed and unified answers can give them a chance to succeed.

Li Jiancheng sat in the Hongwenguan for a long time. More and more officials gathered there. When they learned that this imperial examination was for those officials who had been laid off, they were all delighted.

And judging from His Majesty's intention, it will not be just this time. Some of them will be able to come back. In addition, His Majesty has also promoted some young people from various families, so most of the resentment of the aristocratic families has finally dissipated.

As for the remaining small part, Li Jiancheng didn't care. It was impossible to satisfy their wishes in everything. The only thing he could do was not to let them have too much resentment.

You are so shameless. You have to pick a few people to make an example of them. After all, the emperor is the emperor.

After returning to the palace, Li Jiancheng summoned Yuwen Rutong, a Langzhong of the Ministry of Works. Yuwen Rutong was the eldest son of Yuwen Kai, the chief architect of the previous dynasty. Although his abilities were far inferior to his father's, he was a representative figure after all.

And because of his father, there were many skilled craftsmen in his family. After the establishment of the country, the Yuwen family surrendered to Li Jiancheng, and Li Jiancheng ordered them to continue to improve the papermaking technique in order to make cheaper paper.

The inevitable development of papermaking was printing. Woodblock printing already had its rudiments, and Li Jiancheng ordered people to perfect it and put forward the concept of movable type printing.

This was also the key to eliminating the knowledge monopoly of the aristocratic families: cheap paper, large-scale printing, and the court allowing common people to sign up for the imperial examinations themselves.

Yuwen Rutong replied respectfully: "Your Majesty, woodblock printing can already be used on a large scale, and movable type printing has also begun to be tested. Only the improved papermaking technology will take some time to test whether the quality of paper made from various papermaking raw materials is up to standard, and then we can select the most suitable one for mass production."

It is much easier to further improve on the basis of the previous generation's development than to create something out of nothing. Although the Yuwen family is not the best at building cities and palaces, at least this is enough to preserve their wealth.

Upon hearing this, Li Jiancheng expressed satisfaction with their progress. Woodblock printing and other methods would be put to great use after Yan Shigu and others had standardized the Four Books and Five Classics. Even if the paper was ready, it should be pressed.

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Li Jiancheng had just been quiet for a few days, and he took the queen and eldest son to accompany the emperor and queen to have dinner. Li Chengzong was more than two years old, and it was the most adorable and playful time. As the direct descendant of the emperor, his grandparents naturally loved him very much. Even Li Yuan had decided that when Chengzong reached the age of entering school, he would personally teach him, especially archery.

Among his four legitimate sons, except for the third one who was born weak and sickly, the other three all inherited his archery skills. He thought that his eldest grandson would definitely be able to learn and carry forward the skill.

Reluctantly handing his grandson over to his wife, Li Yuan sat down with his son in the side hall. Li Yuan said, "Li Youliang is not the one who has the guts to secretly raise scholars and make friends with people outside the country, but he has a rough temperament and is likely to bully the people."

Li Youliang was the son of Li Yuan's sixth uncle, and Li Jiancheng's cousin. He had no special abilities and had not made any achievements, but was granted the title of Duke of Changle County just because he was a member of the royal family.

Some time ago, Li Jiancheng issued an edict that those members of the royal family who had no merit would be demoted one level lower in title. He was reduced to the Duke of Changle County. Seeing that his title was getting lower and lower, he was afraid that he would not even be able to keep his title of Duke of Changle if he had no more merit.

After crying his head to the retired emperor in vain, he managed to cheer himself up and asked for a local post. Li Jiancheng then sent him to Liaodong.

As a result, not long after that, local impeachment reports came in, saying that he secretly sold salt, iron and other items to the Turks, used this to accumulate wealth to raise assassins, communicate with foreign countries, and might be planning a rebellion.

Li Jiancheng said: "If this is true, he is a relative of the clan, and he has been given a title without any merit. He is already rich and powerful, so his crime should be increased. He should be hanged to apologize to our ancestors."

Li Yuan was silent for a moment and said, "I always feel something is wrong. Perhaps someone wants to use him to cause trouble. You offended many noble families when you dealt with the redundant officials some time ago. However, they dared not stop you because this matter was the right one."

Li Jiancheng laughed and said, "How cunning are your subjects?"

It's not that the aristocratic families are not strong, but they are not as powerful in times of peace and prosperity as they were at the end of the dynasty or in times of chaos. Without the people to incite, what can they do with only a few hundred or thousands of young and strong servants?

A few years after Emperor Yang ascended the throne, he killed Gao Jiong, who had assisted Emperor Wen in establishing the glorious rule of the Sui Dynasty, as well as top Guanlong nobles such as He Ruobi, like killing chickens and sheep. Could it be that the deaths of these people were the cause of the fall of the Sui Dynasty?
The aristocratic families are powerful but also weak. After all, they have to wait for the imperial power to reveal a flaw before they can exert their power. Either they can usurp the throne when the ruler is young and the country is in doubt, or they can usurp the country when the people are living in misery.

Emperor Yang showed his true nature soon after he ascended the throne, and he had been domineering for more than ten years. If he could have come to his senses halfway through, the world would still have continued to be ruled by the Yang family.

The only special thing about Li Youliang was that he was a member of the royal family. But in fact, it was not that special because Li Jiancheng always used members of the royal family as the first step to deal with problems in order to show fairness.

"Yuanji..."

"Shimin is not immune to his faults, let alone Yuanji. Father, if you cannot restrain the royal family, the subjects will not be convinced, and the majesty of the country's laws and regulations will not be implemented. Without the authority of the country, the emperor will naturally have no authority."

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(End of this chapter)