According to "the scale to take a stone", "a stone is a hundred and twenty catties". Qin Quan’s unit weight per catty is around 250 grams, and it can indeed be said that “Qin’s one catty equals half a catty today”. Based on the actual measurement data of Qin Quan's inscribed weight, the measurement historian knows that the average is 257 grams, and the "hundred and twenty catties" is 30.8 kilograms. With reference to Mr. Xing Yitian’s calculation of the average weight of the bamboo slips in the "Historical Records" of 51.015 kg, if Qin Shihuang's documents were written in the same form of 38 characters per slip, the length of "stone, hundred and twenty jin" could be written 317,900 words. .
Qin Shihuang “weighed the books by weighing the stones, and presented them day and night, and no rest was allowed if they were not presented.” The number of “books” that had to be processed every day exceeded 300,000 words. This is an amazing amount of reading!
Zhang Song: You can recite ten lines at a glance
Cao Cao met with Zhang Song, Liu Zhang's envoy, but did not give him courtesy. Yang Xiu, a senior civil servant under Cao Cao, valued Zhang Song's talent deeply. Yang Xiu showed the military book written by Cao Cao to Zhang Song, "Song Yan can recite it in secret at a glance." (Shuoyu Volume 58 in Chen Shou's "Old Biography of Yidu Qi") This story, "Taiping Yu" Literary books such as "Lan" and "Art and Literature Collection" are regarded as "strong memory", which is a typical example of excellent memory. According to the sequel of "Guixin Miscellaneous Knowledge" by Song Zhou Mi, Zhang Song is referred to as a "secular and powerful reporter". However, you can finish reading a military book between banquets, and the first thing you show is the excellent reading speed. The 60th chapter of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" "Zhang Yongnian fights against Yang Xiu, and Pang Shiyuan discusses taking Western Shu" is again rendered literary. In Luo Guanzhong's writings, Zhang Song and Yang Xiu had such a dialogue: "Xiu said:'In the border corner of the public, the prime minister is an expert? I will try to make it public.' Zhang Song. Song Guanqi's title is "Meng De's New Book." I read it from beginning to end, a total of thirteen articles, all of which are the essentials of using soldiers. After reading this, Song Guanqi asked: "Why do you call this book?" Xiu Said:'This is the prime minister's consideration of the ancient and the present, imitating the thirteen articles of "The Sun Tzu". The public deceives the prime minister without talent, can this be passed on to later generations?' Song laughed and said:'This book is a three-foot boy in the middle of Sichuan, You can also recite in secret, what is the "New Book"? This was made by an anonymous person during the Warring States Period. Prime Minister Cao stole it and thought it was his own ability, so that he could not hide it from his lower ears!'Xiu said:'The book in the Prime Minister's secret collection, although it has become a book, has not been passed on. The world. The public speaking of Shuzhong children secretly recite like a flow, why do you deceive?'Song said:'If you don't believe me, I will try to recite it.' Then he read the "Meng De New Book" from beginning to end, without a word. Mistake. Xiuda was shocked and said: "The public never forgets the sight, and the world's wonders are true!" Later generations have poetry praises and said: strange descriptions, tall and thin. The language is in the Three Gorges water, and the ten-line book is seen...." Later, Cao Cao got it. Knowing this, he said: "Could the ancients agree with me?" So "the book was broken and burned." "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" played down the plot of "between Yan and Yin" and weakened the infection of Zhang Song's talents. force. However, the so-called "viewing ten lines" in the hymn directly affirmed Zhang Song's reading speed. Imagine that the time for a meal can "read it from beginning to end" a "thirteen" military work. The reading speed is indeed extraordinary.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty: Reading less than 7,000 words per day
"Historical Records · Funny Biographies" wrote: "Sho first entered Chang'an, and when he wrote a book on the bus, he would use three thousand memorial slips. The bus made the two of them hold the book together, and they could only win. The owner read it from above. , No matter where it is, the second month is the end." Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty read this "two people holding the book together, and they can only win it", that is, two people can barely carry it." , I carefully marked the place where I stopped every day, and then continued reading from the place where the mark was marked. I kept reading "February" before it ended. Dongfang Shuo wrote "Use Three Thousand Slips", Mr. Xing Yitian analyzed, "If Dongfang Shuo does not use slips but uses Simplified, Three Thousand Slips weigh about 9491.825 grams, or about 9.5 kilograms." "If Dongfang Shuo uses simple and wide wooden slips. The weight of three thousand tablets is several times higher.” Assuming that the Dongfang Shuo writing slips weighed 9.5 kilograms, and still referring to Mr. Xing Yitian’s calculation of the average weight of 51.015 kilograms of the bamboo slips written in the "Historical Records", the number of characters in the Dongfang Shuo writing should be roughly the "Historical Records." "18.62%, which is about 98,000 words. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty spent two months reading these words, and the average daily reading volume was less than 1.7 thousand words. This is naturally related to the busy government affairs and extensive interests of this "talent and general" emperor. It seems that the reading speed of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty cannot be discussed only with the story of Dongfang Shuo's book "Reading in the second month is the end".
In sharp contrast to this, Qin Shihuang, who has the same "talent and general strategy" and the same versatility, has a daily quota of more than 300,000 characters for processing official documents.
To make such a comparison, in fact, we should pay attention to the following facts: Qin Shihuang "weighs the stones by weighing the books and presents them day and night", which is precisely the routine work of performing military and political management. And the daily life of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty would have such office content. He read Dongfang Shuo's "Zouzhu", in fact, it can be understood as "amateur" reading "free books". In addition, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty seemed to read the letter to Dongfang Shuo carefully, "read it, stop, and find its place". And Qin Shihuang's handling of official affairs must be distinguished between primary and secondary, heavy and light, detailed and slightly different. As the supreme ruler, even if "everything in the world depends on it, no matter how big or small it is", it is impossible to study all the sutras in detail one by one. In addition, people will also wonder whether Sima Qian's record can be completely convinced.
In the "Historical Records: The Book of the First Emperor of Qin", "Up to the level of stone weighing books, there will be presentations day and night, and no rest is allowed if they are not presented." These remarks came from the mouth of the opposition alchemist. Sima Qian described it like this: "Hou Sheng, Lu Shengxiang and Mou said: "The first emperor is a man, he is a man of self-restraint, he will rise up from the princes, and he will follow the world, and he thinks that he is incomparable since ancient times. Fortunately. Although there are seventy doctors, the special staff is very useful. The prime ministers and ministers are all subject to success, relying on the judgment. Shangle uses torture as its prestige, and the world fears crime and holds loyalty. Don't dare to be loyal. , Xiafufu, deceived in order to gain tolerance. Qin Fa, can not be both sides and fail to verify, or die. However, there are up to three hundred people who wait for the stars, all of whom are good people, afraid of taboos and flattering, and dare not speak out. The matter of the world No small and big are all determined by the above, up to the scale of the stone, and there is no rest day and night. If you don’t get it, you can’t rest. If you are greedy for power so much, you can’t be a medicine for immortality.' So I perish." Involving Qin Shihuang official document reading Speed's comments on the work style of the emperor were published along with criticisms of tyranny and torture. Then Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng fled. The betrayal of the alchemist aroused the anger of Qin Shihuang. He said: "Lu Sheng and other people gave me such a generous gift. Today I slander me, saying that I am not ethical. For those who live in Xianyang, I will make people ask questions, or they may chaos Qianshou for barley speech." Then it caused a lot of trouble. The famous event in cultural history, "King Confucianism", "So he asked the princes to learn about the case and ask all the living creatures to tell each other. He eliminated more than 460 people who had violated the ban. All of them were in Xianyang, so that the world would know about them. After punishment."
Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng's remarks about "up to the scale of the stone, there are submissions day and night, and no rest is not allowed", is it "slander"?
Qin Shihuang’s so-called “I am slanderous of me because I am not ethical” should refer to such accusations as “full-time jailer”, “must use torture as prestige”, and “ignorant of the past but arrogant”. Based on the analysis of the existing data, there is no reason to judge that criticisms such as "weigh the stones by weighing the books and present them day and night" may not necessarily be attributed to "unmoral" criticism as "defamatory" language. Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng only proceeded from the standpoint of the alchemist, and from the perspective of mysticism culture, they believed that "they are so greedy for power and power, it is impossible to seek immortal medicine." The so-called "up to the scale of the stone, there are presentations day and night, no rest is not allowed", it is probably only a description of the objectivity of Qin Shihuang's administrative style. This situation is in fact consistent with the sayings of the emperor’s merits and diligence in the self-proclaimed words of the first emperor of Qin’s Langxie stone carvings, “worry for Qianshou, persevering day and night”, and “do your best, don’t dare to neglect”. . His political goal may indeed be to realize the so-called "Emperor is united, listen to everything, far and near; manage the group, test the facts, and each has its own name; both noble and inferior, good or bad before the old, lavish There is a state of "hidden feelings".
It should be admitted that Qin Shihuang had the evil of pursuing cultural despotism, severe torture and atrocities, and all kinds of political mistakes, which made "the people resent and hope for the mainland", "cutting wood as a soldier, opening a pole as a banner, and the world gathered to respond and win. With food and scenery, Shandong tycoons and lords merged and died of the Qin clan" (Jia Yi: "On the Passage of Qin"), which shows the history of its prosperity and its sudden death. But among the ancient Chinese emperors, he was indeed a rare model of diligence. Even if he simply browses the many documents submitted by the subordinates, or just chooses to approve, the total number of 317,900 words, calculated on the basis of 12 hours of "day and night" work beside the copy, the average number of written words per hour is about 26,500. The fatigue caused by this workload can be imagined. The so-called "permanent day and night" and the so-called "don't dare to neglect the fate" are indeed not false statements. The acute rhythm of the administrative characteristics of the Qin Dynasty can also be reflected. Not only was the efficiency of Qin Shihuang's handling of official documents very amazing, but his practice of "surveying the world and looking far away" (Qin Shihuang’s Kuaiji engraved stone) under very difficult traffic conditions for many times can also reflect the so-called "emperor's The reality of the administrative history of merit, diligence and skill.
