After laughing, Zhao Kuo looked at Zhao Zheng in front of him again.

"You've done a great job. Starting today, after you finish your studies, you can go to the intelligence department for an internship every seven days.

As for what specific work to do, let Minister Mao of the Intelligence Department arrange it for you at that time."

This is the formal recognition of Zhao Zheng’s wishes.

Upon hearing this, the young man also showed an excited expression on his face, and he respectfully said to Zhao Kuo: "Thank you, my father, I will definitely follow Minister Mao to study well and strive to do my best for my father as soon as possible."

Zhao Kuo looked at Zhao Zheng in front of him with a kind expression and patted Zhao Zheng on the face: "You are a person who can accomplish great things. I hope you can be cautious of arrogance and impetuousness. In the future, there will be some places where you can play!"

Winter has finally passed.

For the Seleucid mission, Imperial Capital was indeed a super big city and it did gain many completely different experiences here, but it was not their home in the end.

So just after the beginning of spring, Seleucus was making Doros unable to wait to explain his desire to return to the country to Su Li, the foreign minister of the Han Dynasty.

Zhao Kuo naturally approved this directly.

The day before the Seleucid mission left, Zhao Kuo met the second prince again.

Compared with the past, the atmosphere this time is somewhat sad.

The second prince raised the wine glass in his hand and sighed: "It really makes me feel very regretful when I think about not being able to listen to Brother Zhao's teachings all the time after I go back."

Although the two have not been together for much time, the second prince really respects Zhao Kuo, the "Brother Zhao".

For the second prince, this brother Zhao is not only a good friend who can talk to him, but also a mentor on his life! Zhao Kuo was calm and said with a smile: "Brother, actually, I think you are a very interesting person, but everyone has to return to the trajectory they should have.

It’s like you, you will inevitably fight for the position of patriarch of your father in the future. If you stay in the Imperial Capital City, how can you compete for this position?

So, my brother hopes you can look forward. After all, no one can say it well. Maybe we can meet again in the future."

After hearing Zhao Kuo's words, the second prince's expression also relaxed a little, and he said with a smile: "Brother is right, I am too sentimental."

Zhao Kuo smiled and said, "Brother, you have made great progress in learning the elegant language of our Han Kingdom these days. Now you are using these four idioms so skillfully."

The second prince was stunned when he heard this, and then laughed: "Yayan is really a very interesting dialect, but for me, what is even more interesting is actually the text of your Han Kingdom.

This kind of text is completely different from all the text I have seen, and it is simply amazing.

If I hadn't left the Han Kingdom, I really wanted to study this kind of text and understand the civilization of the Han Kingdom."

Zhao Kuo laughed and said, "This matter is not simple yet?

My brother has opened several bookstores at home. I will send you a cart of books here later. I will wait until you return to Seleucau and then study it slowly.”

The invention and popularization of printing technology have been several years ago. Today, there are printing bookstores everywhere in the Han Dynasty, and the imperial capital is even more dazzling, with almost all astronomy and geography.

This also plays an extremely important role in the popularization of knowledge. According to feedback from the academy, since the invention and promotion of printing technology, the grades of students admitted to the academy have increased year by year, which means that the average level of the lower-level intellectuals is constantly improving.

Of course, Zhao Kuo was very happy about this. What he most hoped was to popularize knowledge among the Han Dynasty and completely eliminate illiteracy like China in later generations.

However, with the current national strength of the Han Dynasty, the popularization of education is a long-term career that requires continuous high investment but low returns in the short term. Therefore, Zhao Kuo is not in a hurry and promotes it slowly, intending to completely solve this problem in about ten to twenty years.

After hearing Zhao Kuo's words, the second prince's eyes lit up and said with a smile: "To be honest, Brother Zhao said, I actually bought some books before, but most of those books are relatively ordinary books.

If Brother Zhao has connections and connections, I wonder if I can find books about the hundreds of schools of thought in the academy?"

Although printing has become popular and the academy has begun to recruit new students on a large scale, it is still difficult for other places to get to know the academy knowledge.

Why does this cause occur?

That's because the various schools of thought in the academy still have some intentions of hiding their own private affairs. They think that just passing things like learning to their own disciples, why do they have to pass them to other people?

Therefore, there are certainly books printed by various schools of thought in the academy, but these books are basically only allowed to be studied by various schools of thought and are strictly prohibited from being leaked.

But this phenomenon is actually not without exception.

Zhao Kuo smiled at the second prince and said, "Actually, this is why you don't know the situation in the school.

If you say you buy books from other schools, it will probably be quite difficult to buy.

But if you want to buy Confucian books, ask a few more stores, there should be some."

Yes, Confucianism is the exception among all schools of thought.

Confucius, the founder of Confucianism, had a very famous educational principle, that is, "there is no distinction between education."

The simple explanation of these four words is that anyone who is willing to follow Confucius is okay, no matter whether you are a noble or a civilian, whether you are a businessman or a slave.

It must be said that in the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius was able to propose this educational principle of equality for everyone, which was definitely a glorious point that shone in human history.

Not to mention anything else, even in later generations, will ordinary students have the opportunity to follow top teachers to learn?

Don't even think about it.

Confucius, as the most famous master at that time, was able to allow anyone to join his disciples and educate him equally. This is what Confucius was so awesome.

It is true that from the perspective of later generations, Confucianism does have many dross, but how could a school of all dross dominate the 2,000-year-old Chinese civilization for more than two thousand years?

Confucianism actually has many advantages, but later Confucianism was transformed by emperors of all dynasties and became a tool for emperors of all dynasties to fool the people, which was also separated from the original intentions of saints such as Confucius and Mencius! Back to the current Han Dynasty, Confucianism is also the only one among the hundreds of schools of thought that they are willing to publicly place books from their own schools in major bookstores for publicity and sale.

No matter who you are, as long as you pay to buy a book, you can get access to today's knowledge, learn about the works and views of the two saints of Confucius and Mencius, as well as the works and views of today's masters such as Xunzi, Han Fei, and Li Si. This is very attractive to many scholars who are eager to study.

Therefore, over the years, the basic foundation of Confucianism among the lower-level scholars has been expanding rapidly, and it is becoming a school of spokespersons at the bottom.

In fact, other schools have already noticed this situation and have begun to debate whether they should follow the footsteps of Confucianism and open up the sale of books.

But in general, there is actually no second school that has taken the initiative to make such a reaction, so when there are only one Confucian book on the market, Confucian books are basically sold out as soon as they are taken out.

The second prince just went there a few times and was a "foreigner" again in the bookstore, so it would be normal not to know this situation.

After hearing Zhao Kuo's explanation, the second prince suddenly realized and said, "So that's it. So it seems that this Saint Kong is also a very amazing person."

Zhao Kuo smiled slightly and said, "If it comes to governing the country, our Saint Kong is actually really mediocre.

But if we talk about educating disciples, he is indeed a very great saint."

Many great Confucian scholars taught by Confucius had a profound influence on the process of Chinese civilization. For example, the famous Legalists actually have a very deep relationship with the Confucian Xihe School founded by Zixia, a great Confucian scholar under Confucius. Many people even believe that the Legalists are the self-proclaimed after the Xihe School established its own business.

For example, Mozi, the founder of the Mohist school, also entered Confucianism to study. Later, the view proposed by Mozi was considered a rebellion by Confucianism, so Mozi's Confucian teacher fired him. Mozi founded his own Mohist school in anger and became a mortal enemy of Confucianism.

From a neutral perspective, the grudges between Mozi and Confucianism are actually not wrong, but from another perspective, if Confucianism is not inherited from Confucius' principle of "learning without distinction", how could Mozi, who is just a poor scholar, get the opportunity to enter Confucianism to learn knowledge?

Without the knowledge learned from Confucianism, the founding of the Mohist school was nowhere to be discussed.

The three schools of Confucianism, Law and Mohism are hostile to each other, but they have a connection that is difficult to resolve and messy. But no matter what, Confucius, the founder of Confucianism, is indeed a great man who profoundly influenced Chinese civilization.

After hearing Zhao Kuo's words, the second prince also showed a leisurely expression and said, "To be honest, Brother Zhao said, in fact, there are many such excellent great men in our Greek-Macedonian civilization.

For example, scholars such as Plato and Aristotle are also comparable to Confucius in my opinion.”

The second prince was worried that this statement would be refuted by Zhao Kuo, but he didn't expect that Zhao Kuo smiled heartily and expressed his agreement: "What you said is not wrong. In my opinion, Greek civilization is the only civilization in the world that is comparable to our Chinese civilization."

In world history, it is recognized that the four ancient civilizations are ancient Egypt, ancient Babylon, ancient India and ancient China.

But except for ancient China, the other three ancient civilizations have long disappeared due to the rampage of invaders.

The foundation of Eastern civilization is Chinese civilization, while the foundation of Western civilization is ancient Greek Aegean civilization.

The Romans conquered Greece, and drew enough nutrients from Greek civilization, and established a powerful Roman Empire.

After the decline of the Roman Empire, Western Europe was occupied by a group of Germanic barbarians, and the pope became the spiritual leader in people's hearts. The light of civilization declined, and the dark millennium medieval times came.

Finally, it was the Roman descendants of Italy. They once again raised the torch of ancient Greek civilization and launched the "Renaventure" activity, eventually breaking the shackles of religion on Europeans. This ushered in the Enlightenment Age, the Age of Discovery and the Industrial Revolution in Western Europe, allowing the West to truly lead the world trend.

From this point of view, although the ancient Greeks had long disappeared, their civilization had been passed down like the Chinese civilization, which is why Zhao Kuo recognized that ancient Greek civilization was as great as Chinese civilization.

After listening to Zhao Kuo's praise, the second prince was also quite excited and said, "I didn't expect that Brother Zhao would agree with my idea."

Zhao Kuo smiled and said, "Our ancestors once said a saying, "The stones from other mountains can be used to polish jade."

’The meaning of this sentence is that the nutrients absorbed from other civilizations can also be used for our own civilization.

Greek civilization is a very great civilization, and the same is true for our Chinese civilization.

If possible, I hope you and me can become the initiators of the integration and convergence of the two major civilizations, so that these two great civilizations can collide with each other to create a more brilliant spark of thought, and ultimately gather all humans in this world!”

After hearing Zhao Kuo's words, the second prince felt like a flame was burning in his heart, and he slapped his head: "What Brother Zhao said is really right. From now on, I will definitely vigorously promote exchanges between China and Greek civilization, so that you and our countries will become a real country of friendship!"

Zhao Kuo smiled and raised his glass: "So, great kindness! Come on, let you and me drink this glass for this beautiful future!"

The wine glasses in their hands were raised high and then sipped.

And under Zhao Kuo's further head, the young Zhao Zheng looked at this scene and couldn't help but shake his head slightly.

In Zhao Zheng's view, this so-called second prince of the Seleucid Empire was simply a fool, easily tricked by his father.

Such a fool can only become a stepping stone for our Han Kingdom to conquer the world in the future! When Zhao Zheng thought of this, he also made up his mind secretly.

"If I want to be a minister who satisfies my father, I will never be as stupid as this person.

It seems that I will continue to work hard and strive to one day be as easy as my father, and I will control everything in my palm in a calm and quiet way!"

For the young Zhao Zheng, the adoptive father Zhao Kuo in front of him is the most perfect idol in his heart!
Chapter completed!