In the western suburbs of Xianyang, along the banks of the Weishui River, brand new workshops rose from the ground. The workshops are arranged neatly and the roads are clear. From a distance, they look like a military camp with a sophisticated structure.

The forefront of the workshop is the house assigned by the inner history. The gate of the house is newly decorated, with a brand new rosewood plaque hanging on it, and five large seal characters "Royal Mint House" are written on it.

Anyone who knows it knows that this is the original work of Cheng Miao, a calligrapher in Qin State.

Cheng Miao was originally a minor official Chen Cang, responsible for managing the granary. He did not block the rat hole in the warehouse in time. He violated the "Cang Law" and was sent to prison.

Meng Yi was promoted to Tingwei and was in charge of the judicial system of the entire Qin State. When Meng Tian arrived at Tingwei's mansion, he accidentally caught a glimpse of Cheng Miaoqi's memorial, which was written so beautifully and pleasing to the eye.

It just so happened that Meng Tian built a new royal coin yard and needed to recruit a large number of personnel. With a big stroke of Meng Tian, ​​Cheng Miao became a member of the coin yard.

"Cheng Miao, how did you design the text on Wuzhu coins?"

In the official office of the Mint House, Meng Tian sat in the main seat, Wu Huai on the right, and Cheng Miao who was preparing to make meritorious contributions on his crimes.

"I have been wondering whether to use large seal script or small seal script to describe the four words "Wuweihou" and "I have always thought about it as a criminal." Cheng Miao knelt on the ground, feeling full of gratitude. When he arrived at the coin yard, Meng Tian did not treat him as a criminal.

"The large seal used by the Zhou Dynasty was recognized by the nobles of the six countries. The small seal of the Qin State was now promoted to the world. Logically speaking, small seal should be engraved on the Wuzhu coins."

Qin Banliang coins were too heavy, and Meng Tian decided to directly adopt the Wuzhu coins standard that had been circulated for the longest time in later generations. In the coin minting house, Wuhuai, Cheng Miao and others soon got used to the name of Wuzhu coins.

"Will you just use Xiaozhuan at that moment?" Wu Huai smiled.

The money style of Wuzhu coins was designed by Meng Tian himself to change the tradition of round money and round holes and turn them into round money square holes to conform to the traditional philosophy of round sky and earth.

Meng Tian had summoned Shusun Tong to the coin minting shop to study ancient classics and find philosophical basis for Wuzhu coins with round outside and square inside.

The four words "The sky is round and the place" not only represent the four words, but also represent the casting of Wuzhu coins, which is in line with the traditional Chinese concepts.

"But in my opinion, Xiaozhuan is still a bit complicated."

Cheng Miao served as a minor official for a long time and needed to write a large amount of official documents. Qin law requires that everything should be kept and vouchers should be left for inspection. Officials of Qin State deal with documents every day and work is not easy at all.

In practice, when Cheng Miao accelerated his writing of official documents, he invented a simpler font with a clever idea. However, whether this font can be recognized by Xianyang, Cheng Miao was not confident.

"Cheng Miao, what do you think in your heart? Say it boldly. No matter whether it is right or wrong, I will not blame it."

Seeing Cheng Miao's desire to speak but stop, Meng Tian spoke and encouraged him.

"Wuwei Hou casts Wuzhu coins and spreads the world. The Qianshou in the world uses Wuzhu coins and faces the engravings on the Wuzhu coins every day. Then, the simpler the engravings, the better. The simpler the Guishou, the easier it is to identify the Qianshou."

Seeing Meng Tian say this, Cheng Miao no longer had any worries.

"You mean, do you want to engrave fonts that are simpler and easier to recognize on Wuzhu coins than Xiaozhuan?" Wu Huai's face was full of surprise.

Since Shang Yang's reform, officials of Qin have written a large number of official documents every day, and the Qin texts have been simplified. Today, the small seal script of Qin is not only more beautiful in form, but also easier to identify than the text of the six countries. Wu Huai did not expect that a small official would dare to claim that there are even better fonts than the small seal script.

"This is what I wrote by chance when copying official documents."

Wu Huai's reaction was so great that Cheng Miao seemed a little unconfident.

"Haha, Cheng Miao doesn't have to feel panic." Meng Tian waved his hand and smiled, "I always believe that the simpler and more practical things are, the more they can be circulated for a long time. Since Cangjie created the characters, there were first oracle bone inscriptions, then bronze inscriptions, and then large seal scripts, and small seal scripts. In the process of the passage of characters, it has been continuously simplified and become more practical. As time goes by, it is not unacceptable to have modern fonts that replace small seal scripts."

After Qin's annexation of the world, under the leadership of Li Si, he implemented various systems to unify the world. These measures seemed a little anxious for a while, but Meng Tian had to admit that the systems implemented by Qin could be followed for a long time and achieved the results of "all generations of Qin's laws" which was inseparable from the inherent rationality of the Qin system.

Taking unified characters as an example, the small seal script of Qin is more recognizable and easier to write than the six Shandong countries. The official script that appeared since then was simpler to write, beautiful in shape, conforms to people's aesthetics, and saves more effort.

Such words can naturally be widely used by people.

The Wuzhu coins cast by Meng Tian are round on the outside and square on the inside, beautiful in appearance, with less copper, simple casting, small space and easy to carry. In line with the principle of human-machine comfort, it can be foreseeable that the Wuzhu coins cast by the outside and square on the inside are better than the coins cast by the countries.

"Cheng Miao, what font did you invent? Write it out for everyone to take a look."

Meng Tian did not stick to Qin Xiaozhuan's consciousness at all, but instead had some vague expectations for the new fonts that were about to appear.

"I'll write it to Wuwei Hou to check."

Meng Tian's attitude did not seem to be fake, and Cheng Miao felt very at ease.

A moment later, there were servants from the coin metering house who brought in pens and ink and spread a square poplar board.

Some bamboo slips from the Qin and Han dynasties were made of bamboo, while others were made of wood chips. Officials in the Qin State usually wrote and drafted, but did not use stringed bamboo slips, but used thick wooden boards.

After writing, scrape it with a knife and continue writing, so that it will not be too wasteful.

The low productivity forces people to find ways to save a little.

Cheng Miao stretched out his right hand, picked up the brush, and dipped it in ink. His eyes were staring at the poplar board, concentrating on it, and his wrists waved. In a moment, four brand new black words appeared on the poplar board.

These four new characters have wide and flat shapes, long horizontal strokes and short vertical strokes. They appear to be silkworm heads and swallow tails, twists and turns, with traces of small seal script, but they are very different from small seal script.

After just a look, Meng Tian instantly understood.

The official script of later generations was invented by Cheng Miao in front of him.

"The sky is round and the place is full. If you write it like this, it will have a unique flavor." Meng Tian exclaimed.

"Yes, it's really easier to identify than Xiaozhuan." Wu Huai held the poplar board in his hand and held it in front of him, appreciating it carefully, and the more he looked, the more he felt the more interesting it was.

Cheng Miao was good at calligraphy and wrote very beautifully small seal script. With his brushwork, the official script he wrote would have a historical status of being above the great calligraphy works.

Should we take this opportunity to let Cheng Miao copy ancient classics and then bury them and leave them for future generations?

Suddenly, this thought arose in Meng Tian's mind.

:.:
Chapter completed!