sjar Chapter 551 Familiar Text
Chapter 551 Familiar Text
"Let's go and see it together."
Jiang Xiaoqi made the final decision, and Liu Peng stopped trying to dissuade him.
The three straightened their clothes and went out together.
"Ahem, I'm knocking on the door~"
Xiao Ming knocked lightly a few times, and the door to the lecturer's office was opened from the inside.
The person who opened the door was a minor official from the Hanlin Academy without any official rank, who looked at the three people outside the door with a puzzled expression.
"What brings you three lords here?"
"Yes, there are some things I need to discuss, but I'm not sure if it's convenient?"
"Please wait a moment, gentlemen. Oh, it's because the Imperial Academy and Lecturer are all here. Lord Li, the Prefect of the Capital, has arrived. It seems he has important business to discuss. Please allow me to inform him."
"Okay, trouble!"
The three of them didn't feel awkward and just stood in front of the door waiting.
Before long, the clerk opened the door again and welcomed the three inside.
"Three adults, please."
Inside, several tables were arranged around all the old scholars who could come.
Lord Li looked at this and that, his eyes filled with expectation.
As a sheet of Xuan paper covered with strange symbols was passed to the last person, Lord Li couldn't help but ask.
"Well, gentlemen, what is this? What does it say?"
The oldest scholar shook his head. "It's probably the script of some country, but it's very likely Japanese."
Back then, they stole a lot of things from our Central Plains, modified them, and passed them off as their own.
Whether it's clothing, food, housing, transportation, or cultural heritage, they take things and use them; basically, nothing belongs to them.
"Look at these characters, they look incomplete and broken; they were taken from our characters and used in this way."
"Scholar Wu is indeed very learned. He even knows the origin of these characters, so he must be able to understand the contents of this text."
We would be grateful if you could translate this for us, so that we may have some direction and be able to solve the case as soon as possible.
Prefect Li felt his trip hadn't been in vain, as he had found an expert in this field right away.
However, Scholar Wu looked troubled and said, "Although I know the origin of this script, I have never studied any related books."
Knowing the source is true, but as for translating it, I might not be able to translate it accurately; I can only guess at the general idea.
"By the way, everyone has already seen it. Does anyone here have any expertise in this area? I won't presume to teach you, lest I delay Lord Li's important business."
Upon hearing this, Prefect Li immediately turned his expectant gaze to the crowd.
Everyone just shook their heads.
"This is a minor path, which even Scholar Wu hasn't explored, let alone us?"
"Yes, we do know some Persian and Mongolian, but there's really no need to learn the languages of that tiny place."
They stole our words, modified them, and claimed them as their own. Why should we try to learn from them? Wouldn't that just be humiliating ourselves?
"That's right, that's right. We scholars still have this much integrity; we can't bow down to thieves."
The group complained amongst themselves, unaware that Prefect Li's face grew increasingly dark and helpless.
He didn't care about whether it was a minor or not path; what he needed now was a clue!
Anyone who can translate this garbled scribbling for him will be his second parent!
Can we take a look?
Xiao Ming's voice suddenly rang out, and everyone turned their heads toward the source of the sound.
"Jiang Xiuzhuan, Liu Bianxiu, Xiao Bianxiu?"
Although it was Xiao Ming who made the call, he still called out the three people according to their rank.
Scholar Wu gestured for the three to come forward. This was his office, and he knew about it from the clerk's earlier announcement. He was wondering why no one had come in for so long.
It turned out that the person had already entered, but had remained silent.
"Yes, we apologize for disturbing you all, but we were really curious and wanted to see what kind of strange talismans they were, so we shamelessly came to your door."
The arrival of the three men elicited no particular reaction from the crowd. After all, they were scholars; wasn't it normal for them to be curious about matters of learning?
When Prefect Li saw the ages of the three men, he didn't react much. Even the old scholars couldn't translate it, let alone the young ones.
I doubt they even know what it is or where it came from; they're just young people with a lot of curiosity who came to join in the fun.
Sigh~ Today is destined to be a wasted trip. Just thinking about how more missing persons will come to his yamen and besiege it in a few days makes Prefect Li feel a throbbing pain in his temples.
"Lord Li, may we young men have a look?"
These questions were asked by Scholar Wu, who had a very good impression of the three young men, Jiang Xiaoqi and his companion.
"Alright, it's nothing valuable anyway, I just wanted everyone to take a look and help out."
When Prefect Li spoke, Jiang Xiaoqi and the other two finally stepped forward and took the Xuan paper from Scholar Wu.
There aren't many characters on the Xuan paper, and they're written loosely and carelessly. It doesn't look like it was written by someone who is well-read; it's probably just someone who knows how to read.
As for the aesthetic appeal of calligraphy, there is absolutely none of it.
The characters, which were already incomplete, were taken to an even higher level by the writer.
Xiao Ming was the first to take the paper and read it carefully from beginning to end.
"This looks like a 'male' character? And this one is a 'female' character? The others... they're a bit hard to recognize."
"Why don't you just say you don't understand? It's not easy to recognize."
Liu Peng ruthlessly exposed Xiao Ming's attempt to put on an act.
"Then look, come and see how much better you are than me!"
Prefect Li, who was standing to the side, had not had any expectations of the group, so his expression was normal and he showed no disappointment.
Forget it, let's just let the younger generation of scholars broaden their horizons, so they won't think it's unimportant and stop studying in the future.
"Is this Japanese?" Liu Peng recognized the source of the text.
"That's right, they're also called Wa now. It's a very small island nation, not too far from our Great Zhou, but separated by the sea. You need a ship, a seagoing vessel, to get there."
Scholar Wu added from the side.
"This seems to be a message being transmitted or recorded. These words seem to refer to the time, and these words seem to refer to the quantity."
Liu Peng has read some miscellaneous books, but he hasn't studied them systematically. There are just too many books in the Liu family's library, and he hasn't been able to read them all yet.
Busy with the imperial examinations, they had even less time left for these miscellaneous books.
Jiang Xiaoqi leaned closer and nodded. Liu Peng was right; the time, place, and quantity were all there.
"Do you really know it or are you just pretending? You're making it sound so convincing, Lord Wu. Is what Compiler Liu said correct?"
Xiao Ming was so eager to find someone to verify that he forgot that no one present actually recognized the characters.
"Uh, well, I'm ashamed to say, I only know the source, but not the specific content..."