【故国神游】Pre

In terms of public discourse, the pre-Qin period was all about letting a hundred schools of thought contend. It generated light, big time. But it generated heat, big time too. Does it sound like today's social media? You bet. Pre-Qin social media was as much a debate hall as a popularity-contest arena. Debaters could be rational to a fault. They could also be irrational to a tee. They targeted the powers that be. They never quite forgot the mass, though. How did they get their messages across? They tweeted. What they tweeted on were bamboo slips 竹简. They didn't have to worry about Big Tech censorship.


A bamboo slip carried words, elegantly written. It made a point, designed to be remembered and recited. It was slim in shape and light in weight, conveniently being passed around for messaging. In every town square, bamboo slip messengers would likely attract people's attention. A marketplace could easily turn into a media outlet broadcasting news and comments. Literate or illiterate, folks could have their share of what the hundred schools of thought had to say, until everyone was silenced by the First Emperor.


Speaking of the First Emperor, Qin's book-burning business was NOT a spectacular success. For one thing, a book made of bamboo slips could often be put together or put apart at short notice. This flexibility gave the banned books a new lease on life. 


Author: renqiulan 

 

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Enjoy reading your prose, especially its flow and rhythm

Thank you so much! Yes, I am a prose person.

Advising you not to blame Qin Emperior the First,

as the campaign of burning books and burying Confucians is arguable------Mao Ze Dong

 

 

Please bring him up here and let me debate him. Hahaha!

When it comes to English, I am not a poetry person.

+100

You have a good sense of humor.

so rare a person can focus and excel on different forms

of writing in two different languages, at ease, I wouldn't believe it if told by others

Wow! It would take ages for me to tweet you this way.

I just happen to be bilingual.

Would you like to write something on a bamboo slip?

With a brush?

How about a carving knife?

Carving a bamboo slip? You must be kidding me.

inconvenient truth :-)

I am serious.

OK. Send me a blank bamboo slip.

You just called my bluff. OK. You win.

So much for carving a bamboo slip. Hahahahahaha

啊，水儿说的是秋兰吧：）

i got hundreds of bamboo growing in my yards, I may carve 江水兰som

sonething and haha on my bamboo and show up here....

i think rasier ti carve 中文 ，英文has more curves, harder to carve.

easier to carve chinese.

as shown here-- easier to get english typo.

以前的竹简书，都得用牛车来运。

秦的宰相创造了篆体，书在竹简上分享，珍贵。

商晚期的甲骨文，更是珍贵。商代文字上承原始刻符號，下啟西周文字，是漢字發展的關鍵形態

小R总有独特视角，学习了！

Good idea! Pls tweet me with all the bamboo slips. Thanks!

That's an excellent point. Thanks, AP!

猫姐早安！对。书写文字一路简化。

花姐早安！先秦时代哪来推特？只想強调百家争鸣，势必带动文字交往，因而也推动信息传播科技。

水儿是向王武先生说的。她不爱赞我的，哈。

秋兰，标题党。秦的推特，也把秦始皇的帐户3了，他进不去推特了。哈！

有一位主席给秦皇大赞特赞呢。鲁迅也为秦皇说过好话。我则认为中国皇帝统一江山，历来都是无所不用其极的。话说回来，灭秦者秦也