Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 529: For the sake of Heavenly Father, help the church members!
Behind a monastery outside the city, Zhu Wenkui and others completed the ceremony and left offerings in front of a new grave here.

A priest who led them explained the rituals here to a group of newly arrived retainers of Prince Wu's Mansion.

"Our tradition here believes that after a good person dies, he will be taken to heaven by the angels under St. Peter, go through various procedures, register various deeds in his life, and then get the corresponding position in heaven. This process is very detailed, because No one can hide this from Heavenly Father and the officials in heaven who perform their duties under His orders. But because of this, it will take a while for the angels to sort out these many documents," the priest said.

"Moreover, seven days is a Sabbath. Angels and the souls of the deceased will have a holiday on this day and move freely. Therefore, on this day, the souls of the deceased will return to the earth. Living relatives and friends will Sacrifice is held on this day to entertain and comfort him. At the end of this day, the soul will return to heaven and wait for the next Sabbath holiday to come again."

"After seven Sabbaths, the angels in heaven will have enough time to finish all kinds of affairs. The good people who have died will also be formally placed, bathed in the glory of Heavenly Father forever, and will be happy in heaven Live on earth. If there is no special mission, he will not come to the mortal world again. Therefore, after seven Sabbaths, our memorial activities will be over."

"So that's what it says." The new retainers all showed clear expressions: "As expected of Romans, their etiquette is thoughtful."

As he spoke, everyone followed Zhu Wenkui to the last grave, placed the sacrifices, ritually cleaned the cross in front of the grave, and then each paid tribute to the grave according to etiquette. On the cross is engraved "The tomb of Du Gong, the avant-garde commander of Wu Fan in Ming Dynasty".

"Let's take a look here too. Is this written in pinyin correct?" After the brief ceremony, Zhu Wenkui called the two monks at the end of the team to come over.

Behind the cross, written in Latin letters, is the pronunciation of the full name of "Karl Duvalc", the approximate year of his birth, and the time of his death. The monks checked it and told him there was no problem.

Tuo Huan and Guo Kang were also in the team, following Zhu Wenkui. Seeing them checking the words, Tuohuan followed them. You looked at the line of words and asked, "The pinyin seems to be different from ours."

"Other recording symbols we use are all pinyin characters. Including Greek letters and Latin letters, they are just tools for recording pronunciation, not words in the true sense."

"If he is willing, you can invite him to Dadu as a guest." Tuohuan said to the two monks: "Our pinyin collation work needs the support of such experienced talents. When the time comes, let him go directly to Guo Kang'anda That’s it.”

"Yes, Father Hu came from a poor background, but he has been very studious since he was a child. He has achieved his current achievements through diligent study and hard work. He is considered a typical scholar. Such people are respected by everyone everywhere. Zhu Wenkui said without surprise: "It is also a good thing to be able to do a good job in phonetic notation. In this way, our subsequent work will be much easier."

"It turns out that this is such a concept..." The two monks looked open-eyed: "No wonder everyone said that the East is the place favored by Heavenly Father, and the objects that flow out there are all treasures here. At that time When King Wu recruited us, he talked a little bit about it, and we were already fascinated by it. It seems that we still have to learn more from them."

"First of all, it is not the written characters that are called 'words'. It is said that before the Tower of Babel, human beings had only one language. After that, although the languages ​​were separated, Heavenly Father will always leave people with hope of correction. And opportunity. This opportunity is words.”

"The Church in Rome does not support our research." The monk who just asked the question told him: "They think Latin is sacred and cannot allow us to use our own words... ah, no, letters, to record."

"Later on, the original characters remaining in other places were gradually lost due to various reasons. However, the Chinese characters were still handed down and are still used today. At present, this is the only one that can be regarded as 'writing'."

"Moreover, after all, they have no writing, only this pinyin. If they are wrongly spelled, there may be errors that make it difficult to understand. Some phonetic notation methods are simply inaccurate themselves. In this way, it may even be separated by several villages. It becomes something completely different.”

"It's true that we didn't have our own writing before, but you do, and even where we are, there are many people who admire your writing." A monk wondered: "Since we have a more perfect writing, why do we still have it?" How about studying phonetic symbols?"

"So, on the one hand, we need to standardize everyone's pronunciation, and on the other hand, we need to find a more accurate recording method. Now, not only us, many scholars in Bohemia are also studying this. The set they are using now Pinyin is the result of the 'Hussite orthography', which is currently the latest and most accurate."

"By studying doctrines and historical books, we can determine that in the earliest times of mankind, there was also only one kind of writing. And unlike language, this original writing has not been eliminated, but has been continuously developed and improved. In the earliest times, writing It may be preserved in more than one place. If the Central Plains is too far away, you can go to Egypt, which is closer, and you can still see something similar to ancient writing on the stone walls and stone tablets from the ancient times."

"Ignore him." Tuohuan disagreed: "Even non-clergymen like me know that the current Latin scriptures are not given by God, but were translated by Jerome, the great scribe of the year. He based it on The original text is also in Greek and Hebrew - isn't it just a bunch of phonetic symbols turned over? Is there anything sacred or unholy about it?"

"Yes. There are so many dialects in Europe. Everyone has different pronunciation, and it is very difficult to express the pronunciation." Zhu Wenkui said: "The pronunciation in Bohemia has not had corresponding phonetic symbols for a long time. I can only use the Latin alphabet to copy it, so there are always many inconsistencies.”

"I am also organizing people to study Pinyin." Guo Kang said: "As you just knew, Chinese characters are words. They are completely different from phonetic symbols, and they are not contradictory. So not only do we not oppose it, we actually support you. Research. But on the other hand, it is not very convenient to use Chinese characters for phonetic notation. So far, it is quite troublesome to promote common Mandarin Chinese pronunciation, whether in Han Dynasty or in Rome. Therefore, I hope that it can also Design a suitable set of phonetic notation rules for it.”

"Then, what kind of job does Mr. Guo do?" the monk asked, "Maybe we can really send a letter to Father Hus and ask."

"Oh, it was Father Hu who did it too." Tuohuan nodded: "Then he must have done a lot of practical work. No wonder he is so prestigious."

"Oh, this is different." The priest at the monastery next to him told him: "You just came here, so you probably don't know these theories yet. Now we here have done more in-depth research on the knowledge of language and characters. I I’ll briefly explain these concepts to you and you’ll understand.”

"I thought this was common sense, but I didn't expect them to actually use this to fool people." He shook his head: "The only text, which is also sacred text, is only Chinese characters. Strictly speaking, the other phonetic symbols are just pronunciation marks. tools. Some may be more comprehensive, mature and easy to use, but from a theological perspective, there is no distinction between high and low. Just feel free to use them."

"Ah, it's not that exaggerated..." Perhaps his father's exaggeration was too outrageous, and Zhu Wenkui felt a little embarrassed: "You don't have to worry too much, these are very simple knowledge, sometimes you don't need anyone to teach you, just see it by yourself There are many, and you can all feel it. When you really meet a need, a knowledgeable person can easily find it on your own. Look, Father Hu noticed this problem without any teacher and began to study phonetic notation. Is it done?"

"Moreover, from a religious sense, our universal church should also have a set of universal pronunciation rules." He continued to explain: "We will not pursue the unification of all languages. This goal is too ambitious. It is too unrealistic to consider it now. . But at least, a set of standardized phonetic notation methods that can be widely used should be developed."

"This is also very far-reaching." The monk said truthfully: "I don't know if it is feasible."

"Theoretically, there must be." Guo Kang nodded: "The phonetic symbol itself has no meaning, it is just a mark. Just like changing the Latin alphabet, it can also mark the Bohemian language; the Greek alphabet If you change it, you can also mark Slavic languages. This system itself can be designed artificially." "Now that we have universal beliefs and universal writing, then, a universal set of phonetic notation methods , it should be feasible. Based on the stable Chinese characters and this universal and rigorous phonetic notation method, there is no need to worry about problems in the dissemination of classics. With the cooperation of the two, accurate and concise documents can be used to facilitate Preservation; we can also train our clergy according to the needs of local believers to facilitate the spread of the gospel. This method of killing two birds with one stone is definitely much smarter than the current situation."

"So that's what it means." The monk understood.

"Of course, what I say sounds nice, but the actual work will definitely be much more troublesome." Guo Kang added: "If you want to do a good job in phonetic notation, it is definitely impossible to do it behind closed doors. Like the Cyrillic alphabet I just mentioned, it is Saint Cyril and the brothers St. Methodius, who spent a lot of energy, traveled extensively in the Moravia area where they preached, conducted in-depth investigation and research, and learned from a variety of existing alphabets before finally developing it.”

"Moravia is right next door to you, and you should also know that. Father Hus' study of the Bohemian alphabet is probably related to his many years of grassroots experience. People who squat in the cathedral every day cannot make these things. . Therefore, this will be a long-term job, and scholars with rich experience and action capabilities are in great demand. We will definitely welcome experts like him."

The monk who asked the question thanked him again, but the other monk hesitated.

"We can help write letters, but I doubt Father Hus will come." He hesitated for a moment, then said directly: "He is paying attention to the Ecumenical Council scheduled to be held next year. For him, this conference is very important, It requires a lot of preparation, so I may not have time to come in the near future.”

"Why is there another meeting?" Tuo Huan asked.

"Your Highness may not know that Sigismund has been unwilling to accept the failure of the last meeting. He also called everyone to hold this meeting because he still wanted to solve the problem of church schism." The monk replied.

"Does he have this ability..." Tuo Huan complained: "Last time he had to hold a meeting and divided the two opposing Roman bishops into three; if we hold the meeting again this time, will there be four? ah?"

"I think this group of people is really incompetent." He shook his head repeatedly: "They can't even hold the post of Bishop of Rome now. Although they have always been hostile to each other, to be honest, I feel that they have embarrassed our God-worshipping religion. Since everyone worships the same God, for the sake of Heavenly Father, how can we live up to our expectations? If people know this, even we will be laughed at together..."

"It's only normal if it doesn't work. The Roman Church has been among the barbarians for so many years. Even with the legacy of St. Peter and the efforts of great scribes to save it, the process of barbarism is inevitable." Zhu Wenkui also said with emotion: " The current plan probably requires us to take action."

"Sooner or later, we have to intervene in this kind of thing." Guo Kang said: "They have sacrificed so many people for us, we can't ignore it. And, for the sake of Heavenly Father, we really should pull the church members A handful."

"Yes, our strength is limited now. Otherwise, we would have fought back to the city of Rome." Tuohuan also said: "Guo Kanganda and I wanted to invite Father Hu, but we saw that there was more and more chaos there. At the cusp of the storm, I'm afraid it will be unsafe. At least no one on our side dares to use any crooked ideas."

"Really? Everyone, come and thank these noble people!"

Other Bohemians came over to greet them and express their thanks. Some people directly began to urge the two monks to send the letter quickly.

"I will tell him in detail." The two monks looked at each other and replied, "But... to be honest, we still don't think he will come."

"Huh? Why?"

"You write it first and then talk about it..."

Everyone started talking.

"Okay, okay, don't worry." Captain Jessica quickly stopped them: "Listen to these two brothers first!"

"We are from Prague, and of course we know the situation there." A monk said: "But Father Hus really wanted to go, but no one could persuade him. If someone went to talk, he would comfort everyone and say Sigi Smond has given him a guarantee that he will protect his safety and will allow him to explain his views and debate with everyone in front of the entire European religious community."

"I heard that Father Hu was a well-known and well-informed scholar when he was young. He became the dean at the age of 30 and the president of the University of Prague two years later. Not only did he often travel among the people, he also interacted with the court and church senior officials. We have many contacts." Zhu Wenkui asked: "He can't believe this guarantee, right?"

"Yes, it is better to believe Sigismund's words than to believe that I am a heavenly brother descending to earth." Tuohuan curled his lips: "Why was he confused at the critical moment?"

"It's not that he is confused. He is indeed very aware of the criminal records of these people. Moreover, there are many people who dissuade him." The monk said: "It's not like we haven't read books, so we are so easy to fool. The mainstream opinion of everyone has always been not to go. .but……"

He sighed and said: "Father Hus took his own ideas too seriously. I suspect that he went there with the intention of pursuing martyrdom."

Everyone was silent for a moment.

"What are you picturing..." Tuohuan muttered.

"On behalf of us wanderers, I would like to thank you for your concern." Finally, Captain Jessica came out and said, "Just leave other matters to me."

Seeing what he said, everyone stopped saying anything and left the cemetery under the leadership of the priest.

(End of this chapter)