Chapter 361 Compiling the Eastern Han Encyclopedia
Zhang Fei did not receive the message from Liu Bei, and the half-true and half-false news was also passed to him by Jin Mao.

After meeting Guan Yu, Zhang Fei obediently returned to the Southwest Military Region to resume his post. Naturally, he could not avoid punishment and was demoted three levels to become one of the logistics lieutenants.

From then on, Zhang Fei became much more honest and even more open-minded. He got married, had children, and took several concubines. His life gradually became ordinary.

In his official career, Zhang Fei was eventually granted the title of Marquis, and could not be promoted any higher than the rank of Major General.

Luoyang.

Liu Bei did not wait for a reply from Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. He was disheartened. He unexpectedly learned from the gentry that Liu Xie intended to abdicate and let others take over. Needless to say, who the new emperor would be.

Even if this was just a guess, Liu Bei had not spent all these years in vain, and he could immediately tell the truth from the falsehood.

On this day, Liu Bei asked to see Liu Xie alone.

"Your Majesty, are you going to abdicate?"

Such a direct question made Liu Xie very unhappy. After all, he was the emperor, and it was not Liu Bei's turn to question him.

"presumptuous!"

Liu Xie was furious and slammed the table, and the atmosphere in the hall instantly dropped to freezing point. The guards cast vigilant glances, but did not dare to act rashly, because one of these two people was the emperor in name only, and the other was the only remaining nine ministers.

Liu Bei remained calm and his eyes were firm. He knew the purpose of his trip and the delicate relationship between him and Liu Xie. He took a step forward slowly and said in a deep and powerful voice, "Your Majesty, I have no intention of offending you. It is just that the general trend of the world is clear. Your Majesty only needs to let the King of Wu return power, and the world will still belong to the Han Dynasty!"

Liu Xie's anger subsided a little after hearing this, but he could not hide the loneliness in his eyes. He sighed, sat down slowly, and looked at the sky outside the hall with empty eyes, as if recalling the glory of the past and the helplessness of today.

"Lord Xuande, it's easy to say. It's easy to return the government, but can you really do it?"

Seeing this, Liu Bei sighed inwardly. He knew Liu Xie's helplessness and struggle, and also understood his difficulties as a monarch. He stepped forward, bowed, and said in a gentle but firm tone: "Your Majesty, I am willing to use my humble body to help you solve your problems. If your Majesty trusts me, I am willing to die to ask the King of Wu to return the throne!"

Liu Xie heard this, and a complex emotion flashed in his eyes, with both gratitude and expectation. He knew Liu Bei's talent and loyalty, and he knew that the Han Dynasty needed such a loyal minister and general at this time. He nodded slowly, with a hint of fatigue and relief in his voice: "Lord Xuande, I... I believe in you. But the King of Wu is not easy to deal with, so you should not go."

Liu Bei's heart trembled, and he understood Liu Xie's worries and concerns. He bowed again and said righteously: "Even if I die, I will die for the Han Dynasty. Future generations will praise me. Your Majesty, don't worry about my life!"

After hearing this, Liu Xie became more interested in talented people. Since the abdication could not be stopped, he might as well make some plans for the future.

"Forget it." Liu Xie covered his head and lay on the dragon throne, saying weakly: "Such a big matter cannot be solved by one person with just a few words."

"I appreciate Lord Xuande's kindness. If Lord Xuande doesn't abandon me in the future, even if I become a useless king, I will definitely seek an official position for him!"

Liu Bei felt a warm current in his heart when he heard this. He knew that Liu Xie's words were true and came from his heartfelt gratitude and trust. He hurriedly stepped forward, bowed again, and said earnestly: "Your Majesty, you are too kind. Although I am not talented, I am lucky to have your love. I am willing to use my humble strength to protect the Han Dynasty. No matter where your Majesty is, I will regard your Majesty as my king and remain loyal to you."

"As for the position, I have never been greedy. I only hope that Your Majesty can enjoy peace and tranquility. When the world is stable, it will not be too late to reward the meritorious service. The current urgency is to stabilize the government and appease the people. I am willing to lead the troops outside, clean up the world, and give the people a bright and peaceful world."

There was a determination gleam in Liu Bei's eyes. He knew that the road ahead was difficult, but he was willing to give everything for the revival of the Han Dynasty and the peace of the people.

Seeing this, Liu Xie felt slightly relieved. He knew very well that Liu Bei's loyalty and ability made him one of the few forces that he could rely on at the moment.

But he shook his head and said, "Lord Xuande cares about the world, and I am very pleased. Let's not talk about the matter of leading the army for now. I hope Lord Xuande can help me complete the matter of abdication."

Liu Bei looked up in disbelief. Liu Xie's personal admission of this incident still dealt a heavy blow to Liu Bei.

Liu Bei's eyes flashed with surprise, but he quickly regained his composure. He knew that in this chaotic world, the imperial power had fallen into the hands of others. Although abdication was not what he wanted to see, it was also forced by reality. He slowly knelt down, clasped his hands together, and said in a steady and firm voice: "Your Majesty, although I am not talented, I swear to be loyal to the Han Dynasty until death. If abdication is really the will of heaven, I will do my best to ensure a smooth process, reduce unrest, and protect the people of the Han Dynasty from the suffering of war."

Seeing this, Liu Xie's eyes flashed with mixed emotions, with gratitude for Liu Bei's loyalty and helplessness about the change of ownership. "Lord Xuande, I already know your intentions. Although I am the Son of Heaven, I am powerless to change the situation. I only hope that the world can return to peace in the hands of wise and capable people. Compared with Cao Mengde, Sun Zhongmou and other princes, you are more benevolent. I believe you can lead the Han Dynasty to a new glory."

Liu Bei felt mixed emotions when he heard this. He knew that he was not only shouldering the burden of a country, but also the expectations of countless people. He kowtowed again and vowed: "I, Liu Bei, will not let down your majesty's trust and the people of the world. When the time is right, I will clear the four seas, restore the glory of the Han Dynasty, and let the people live and work in peace and prosperity."

Afterwards, Liu Bei and Liu Zuo discussed the specific matters of abdication. Although the two had different intentions, at this moment, they were working together for the future of the Han Dynasty.

During this period, Liu Xie was more immersed in memories and reflections. He knew that although he was the emperor, he was powerless to change the overall situation and could only place his hopes on Liu Bei and other loyal ministers and generals. He prayed silently that the future of the Han Dynasty would be better and the people could truly live a peaceful life.

...

Luoyang, Yique Pass.

As Liu Xie's envoy, Liu Bei invited Jin Mao to come to Luoyang to discuss the abdication.

According to etiquette, one needs to decline three times and accept three times.

However, some ministers died, some retired, and no one knew the specific details.

Fortunately, Jinmao saved the Dahan Library, which contains detailed records.

However, it is not easy to find it among hundreds of thousands of bamboo slips.

So, Jin Mao asked Liu Bei to reply to Liu Xie, saying that this matter should wait for the time being and it would not be too late to deal with it after finding the book.

As for everything in Luoyang, it was officially connected to the outside world, but the three dukes and nine ministers were idle, and officials under Jin Mao were temporarily in charge of related matters.

Jin Mao also ordered people to spread the news of Liu Xie's voluntary abdication throughout the country, and it was expected that he would officially ascend the throne two years later.

Before that, many things need to be prepared.

First, the books of the Eastern Han Dynasty need to be sorted out.

Jinmao planned to compile an encyclopedia based on the books he obtained from Dongguan.

With the development of papermaking and movable type printing, it was only a matter of time before bamboo slips were abandoned and paper was used.

Paper was already widely used in Jingzhou, Yizhou and Yangzhou, and even in ordinary people's homes one could occasionally see a few sheets of paper.

Areas north of the Yangtze River, Jiaozhou and other places will have to wait a little longer as there are simply not enough people.

Jinmao originally wanted to designate a few people to write the encyclopedia, but he never expected that this matter would be taken far more seriously than he had imagined.

Not only did important officials in office such as Xi Zhicai, Xun You, and Jia Xu strongly demand to join, not to mention other scholars, even Kan Ze and Wu Fan, who had always been indifferent to fame and fortune, were extremely interested.

Perhaps Jin Mao could not understand the temptation of leaving a name in history for scholars and patriots, but the enthusiasm of the officials was visible to the naked eye. Therefore, the first national academic seminar was officially held.

Unlike the last national debate conference, there is no topic this time. Instead, everyone who wants to compile an "Encyclopedia of the Eastern Han Dynasty" is required to submit their work voluntarily.

There is no limit on the subject matter, quantity or discipline for everyone. As long as you think you are an expert in this field, you can come up and show off your skills.

The only requirement is that everyone must emphasize which subject it is in the article, otherwise it will not be included.

At this moment, the whole country was immediately caught up in an academic frenzy.

In the land that had already been plundered by a wave of hermit scholars, a large group of powerful people once again emerged.

The teachers of Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong and others, all kinds of unpopular subjects that disappeared in history, and even legendary gods like Zuo Ci and Nanhua Xianweng came to an end.

At the beginning, Jin Mao was a little worried that his identity might be seen through by these legendary "immortal cultivators".

Later, I discovered it after contact.

These "immortal cultivators" do have some skills, but they are not evil to the point of being weird, so naturally no one could see through Jin Mao's time travel.

Therefore, Jinmao specially recalled Bai Shi, the chairman of the Shenxinjiao Church, and returned to Jingzhou to communicate with these immortal figures, hoping to get some good things.

Who would have thought that Bai Shi has been talking nonsense ever since then, turning a religion that emphasizes faith into a superstitious religion, and almost praising Jinmao to the sky.

Helplessly, Jinmao could only stop the situation from getting worse and let Bai Shi follow the previous arrangements.

Bai Shi was as obedient as ever and never did anything like that again.

For less popular subjects, only one or two people publish articles, so there is no competition, so just include them all.

But there are countless articles on popular theories, such as Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism, Mohism, etc.

Even for Confucianism, the world's greatest subject, the number of articles there is probably more than the hundreds of thousands of books in the Dongguan collection.

Of course, it is impossible to include all of them in the encyclopedia, so we have to select the best articles and include them.

In this case, there must be judges.

But where do the judges come from?

All the great Confucian scholars were sent to Luoyang, where they either died of old age or were killed in the turmoil. Most of those who remained outside were disciples of the great Confucian scholars or impure Confucian disciples like Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong.

Letting these people be judges, not to mention whether people in the future will agree, even people today will not agree.

Is there going to be another debate conference?
It's not impossible. It has been a year since the last debate conference. According to the customs of later generations, it makes sense to hold it once a year.

Jin Mao waved his hand.

A new debate conference was held again.

However, the competition system is a little different this time.

The Confucian school debated with the Confucian school, and the Taoist school debated with the Taoist school. The voters also became students from each school, and there was no ranking this time, only elimination.

The schedule is very simple. The team that wins a game enters the winner group, and the team that loses enters the loser group. The final schedule is determined by the number of participants from each school.

For example, the Confucian school, which has the largest number of members, is expected to have more than 50,000 people participating in the debate.

It is definitely impossible for all 50,000 people to be selected. The loser group will have to go through four rounds of elimination, and in the end about 1,500 people will remain, while the winner group only needs to go through three rounds of elimination, and about 3,000 people will remain as judges.

For example, Taoism has the second largest number of participants, with more than 10,000 people. After dividing the winners and losers into two groups, they can conduct two or three rounds of elimination respectively. In the end, the number of people left will be similar to that of Confucianism, just a few hundred fewer.

And so on.

When it comes to selecting articles, it’s easy.

Jinmao will make thousands of copies of each article, and according to the principle of secret ballot, only articles with more than half of the votes can be included in the encyclopedia.

In this way, favoritism and fraud can be avoided to the greatest extent possible.

However, the workload of the judges is a bit heavy. After all, it would take half a lifetime to read and evaluate hundreds of thousands of articles like the Confucian school.

As a result, many people were persuaded to withdraw on the spot, including important officials under Jinmao.

Anyway, as long as the article is well written, it can be included in the encyclopedia. So why bother being a judge and being one of the few thousand?

It would be better to thank a few more articles so that these judges will stay in them for the rest of their lives and never come out.

Naturally, some smart people thought of this situation and immediately reported it to Jinmao.

Jin Mao frowned upon hearing the news, feeling mixed emotions. He knew that compiling an encyclopedia was a national event, aimed at gathering the world's wisdom and passing on the cultural essence, rather than becoming a place for fame and fortune for a few powerful people. If such a trend were to prevail, it would not only go against the original intention, but would also make this epic work a laughing stock.

Therefore, Jinmao quickly convened a think tank and several respected senior officials to discuss countermeasures. After a heated discussion, they decided to adopt a double review system and introduce an anonymous review mechanism. First, the initial screening team was responsible for screening out manuscripts that obviously did not meet the standards to reduce the workload of the judges; secondly, for articles entering the re-evaluation stage, they were anonymously submitted to multiple judges for scoring, and a minimum reading requirement was set to ensure that each judge could comprehensively and fairly evaluate each article.

In addition, Jinmao has also ordered the establishment of a supervisory committee composed of impartial people from different fields to oversee the transparency and fairness of the entire review process. Any judge found to have engaged in favoritism or fraud will be severely punished or even permanently removed from the compilation team.

This method cannot solve the problem of new articles. After all, as long as people are alive, they will not stop creating.

A new idea came to his mind. Jinmao decided to publish a journal and find a few editors to review new articles. As long as they could be published in the journal, they could be included in the encyclopedia review.

The only thing left is the livelihood of the jury.

Fortunately, these people are quite like the ancients, they regard money as dirt and are satisfied as long as they are provided with food.

There is nothing much to say. Jinmao can still afford to support tens of thousands of people.

(End of this chapter)