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Xie Qian smiled and picked up the chopsticks, demonstrating to everyone, and said: "The chopsticks of our Great Qin are not only used for dining, they also contain many essences of Chinese culture."
After listening to Xie Qian's words, out of curiosity, Douglas and others were not so embarrassed. After all, they were told that this pair of chopsticks contained deep Chinese culture, and it was understandable that they had not learned how to use them for a while since they had just arrived.
"Thank you, sir, can you tell us about the cultural essence of these chopsticks?"
Xie Qian smiled and said, "I am happy to serve you envoys. As you can see, these chopsticks are in pairs. Intuitively speaking, they embody a spirit of unity and cooperation. Please see, the two chopsticks must work together well to pick up the food."
Xie Qian picked up the food with chopsticks easily, but did not put it into his mouth. Instead, he continued, "We Chinese people value peace and harmony. If we regard these two chopsticks as two countries, it is the same. Only if the two countries can cooperate with each other can they benefit each other.
We have idioms here such as "a single tree cannot make a forest" and "a single chopstick is easy to break, but a bunch of chopsticks are hard to break", which all emphasize the spirit of harmony and unity.
In addition, our chopsticks are usually made of bamboo. In Chinese culture, bamboo is an elegant thing. Plum, bamboo, orchid and chrysanthemum are collectively called the "Four Gentlemen" and are fearless in the face of severe cold.
The heart of the bamboo is hollow, just like a person, who needs to be open-minded to accept more things.
Although bamboo is hollow, it is very resilient and not easy to break. People should also be like this, so in Chinese culture, there is a saying that a gentleman is like a bamboo.
Plum blossoms are often aloof and proud, orchids are often free from worldly desires, chrysanthemums are often pure and sad, but bamboo is always strong and resilient. Being proud yet humble is the quality of a true gentleman and a great man. Bamboo is simple and honest, its quality is unique and elegant, its shape is quiet and pleasant, and it has joints before it emerges from the ground.
Bamboo not only represents elegance, but also integrity and a heart of a valley. In this world, there are many people who pursue fame and fortune, but only true gentlemen have the heart of bamboo. Understanding the meaning of bamboo, it is no coincidence that we Chinese use chopsticks as chopsticks. "
After Xie Qian finished speaking, Douglas and the others seemed to understand but not quite, and felt that it was unfathomable. Suddenly, they felt that the chopsticks in their hands were somewhat sacred...
How sacred must a nation be that eats something so sacred...
Xie Qian was not pretending to be a novice. The emperor said that Chinese culture is contained in every item of daily life. When explaining Chinese culture to foreigners, we cannot expect them to recite the Four Books and Five Classics from the beginning.
Instead, we should start from the details, such as a pair of chopsticks, an inkstone, or a piece of porcelain, so that they can feel the profoundness of Chinese culture.
In addition to the introduction, we also wanted to show them the most prosperous and affluent areas of Daqin on the way from Ningbo to Nanjing.
In Hangzhou, there are willows and painted bridges. Wind curtains and green screens, and 100,000 houses. Clouds and trees surround the embankment, and the raging waves roll up frost and snow. The natural moat is boundless. The market is lined with pearls and jade, and every household is filled with silk and satin. What's more, there are luxurious houses. The lakes are stacked on the mountains, and there are autumn osmanthus and ten miles of lotus. Qiang pipes play in the sunshine, lotus songs float in the night, and fishermen and lotus girls play. Thousands of riders surround the high-ranking officials, and they listen to the flute and drums while drunk, and chant and appreciate the clouds and mist. Such a scene makes the envoys of various countries feel like they have fallen into a fairyland and linger.
Xie Qian also took them to Feilai Peak to see the scenery, told them the story of Sansheng Stone, and had tea, meditation and witticism with the white-haired monks at Lingyin Temple, so that they could experience Chinese Buddhist culture firsthand.
From Hangzhou, we travelled by boat all the way. The banks of the Grand Canal were covered with fertile fields and picturesque scenery, and merchant ships were everywhere on the river.
After arriving in Suzhou, Xie Qian took them to visit the Suzhou gardens and the gathering of literati on Tiger Hill, so that they could feel the grand scene of the quintessence of Jiangnan culture.
Finally, we went to see the industrial park outside Suzhou city, where there were spinning mills and weaving factories connected together, and large spinning machines driven by steam engines were operating.
Here, Douglas and others were shocked again. Such a huge factory was powered by steam engines. The spinning machines could spin dozens of strands of yarn at a time. The efficiency was so high that it was amazing.
Workers loaded the mountains of yarn onto a rail car and sent them directly to a huge warehouse on the other side.
For fire prevention purposes, the factory building is kept extremely tidy inside and out. Before entering the factory, one must be checked by the security guard and it is strictly forbidden to bring fire into the factory.
Douglas proposed to go inside the factory for a tour, but was politely rejected by Xie Qian on the grounds that most of the people in the factory were women and physical contact between men and women was not allowed.
Douglas could only roll his eyes secretly. What was the saying about sex not being allowed to touch each other? Those people transporting goods in the factory were obviously men.
He was really interested in those large spinning machines, but he couldn't see what they were from a distance. The sight of hundreds of large spinning machines roaring together in a huge factory was very shocking to him.
In this factory area of several square kilometers, there are not only spinning mills, but also weaving mills and printing and dyeing factories. Rolls of brightly colored silk and cotton cloth are drying in the sun, occupying an area of several square kilometers. Looking around, the cloth swaying in the wind, colorful and dreamy.
What also surprised Douglas and his friends was the school in Daqin. In wealthy areas like Jiangnan, almost all children go to school.
"Thank you, sir. I heard that students in your country receive free education, right?"
This made Douglas very interested. He could not even imagine such a thing. From Europe to all the places he passed through, he had never seen any country that could provide free education for all children.
The envoys from countries like Ottosa may not have much feeling about this, but Douglas and Carlo from Britain and Portugal are very clear about the importance of education to a country.
Daqin is so big and has such a large population. If all children can receive free education, with such a large population base, how many talents will emerge in the future? Even if only one out of a hundred students becomes a talent, it is an unimaginable number compared to other countries.
Xie Qian shook his head modestly and said, "That's not the case. In our Great Qin, households are divided into upper households, middle households, and lower households. Only families in lower households can enjoy free education, while families in middle and upper households have to pay the full amount."
"That still means that all children in your country can receive education."
"Most of them, right? There are some children in remote areas that cannot be fully covered for the time being due to limited conditions."
"Thank you, sir. I heard that you have some kind of medical insurance system here, and the people can get free medical treatment?"
Wu County, Suzhou, happens to be one of the six medical insurance pilot counties in Daqin, so Douglas knew all this.
Xie Qian simply took them to Wu County to visit the Daqin Government Hospital and explained to them the medical insurance system proposed by Qin Mu.
"We are gradually promoting this medical insurance system in Daqin. People in the lower households can enjoy free medical care. As long as the middle and upper households pay some insurance premiums, they can also enjoy free medical care in the future, so as to prevent them from falling back into poverty due to illness..."
Regarding medical insurance, Xie Qian not only gave a detailed introduction, but also tried his best to boast about the superiority of this system.
He did not mention that Daqin had only selected a few counties as pilots and had not decided to implement it nationwide. He only vaguely said that some counties had not had time to implement it yet.
It would be great if the UK and Portugal emulated this system.
Of course, the United Kingdom and Portugal are small countries with sparse populations, so it may be easier to implement the policy.
Qin Mu said that the political system is also an important component of soft power.
An advanced system is often the basis for ensuring a country's strength and continuity.
Today's Europe has just emerged from the theocracy of the Middle Ages and is still in a relatively chaotic stage in terms of its political system. It is actually lagging behind China.
Xie Qian's efforts in promoting the various systems of the Great Qin were also instructed by Qin Mu.
After a lot of introductions, Xie Qian finally attributed the strength of the Qin Dynasty to the imperial examination system. He took them to visit the provincial school and the imperial examination hall and explained the imperial examination system to them in detail.
Douglas and others were once again amazed by this.
At present, Europe has not formed a fair system for selecting talents, and most of them are still hereditary.
Not to mention Douglas and others, in fact, in the original history, in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, many Western missionaries were greatly amazed after studying China and the imperial examination system. They believed that they had discovered a perfect civil service selection system that even the West had not yet found, and they were eager to introduce it to the world.
Therefore, after Xie Qian comprehensively introduced the benefits of the imperial examination system to Douglas and others, they were once again amazed.
Not only did everyone listen carefully, they even asked their accompanying staff to take notes one by one, intending to recommend this advanced civil service selection system to their own decision makers immediately after returning to their own countries.
And this is exactly what Qin Mu hopes to achieve.
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ps: Here comes the second update. I won't say much. I will continue to write. If you have monthly tickets, please vote for me. There will be another update in the evening. (To be continued.)
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