"The emperor, the name of the so-called Tongwenguan comes from the saying of Ches and Tracks and Books in the Qin Dynasty. Xiao○ The characters in various countries were different during the Qin Dynasty, so Qin Shihuang unified the characters, which gave us the basis of our current Chinese. Since we can assimilate multiple characters into one, we can also translate them from foreign books. Isn't this a kind of homonym? Therefore, the Tongwenguan was set up to specifically translate foreign characters and works, so that China can also learn foreign characters and works, so that our Tang Dynasty civilization can be more advanced."

"The sea embraces all rivers, and tolerance is great. If our Tang Dynasty does not accommodate civilizations that are not as good as ours, how can we develop ourselves? Only by constantly absorbing civilizations that look inferior to ours can we truly become the sea. Therefore, setting up a Tongwenguan to translate many foreign cultural works, and then let our Chinese culture take its essence and remove its dross, and truly let us learn more."

The so-called Tongwenguan is actually an institution in Jingwen’s memory that learned and translated Western scientific and technological materials in the late Qing Dynasty. Now Jingwen also suggested that Li Shimin set up a Tongwenguan, which is the place to translate cultural materials from various countries. This allows everyone to translate these materials, so that China can learn the corresponding things. As for it, it can also specialize in cultivating translation talents to serve the country.

In ancient China, there were actually very few specialized translation talents, and foreigners came to learn Chinese characters. This situation did not change until the end of the Qing Dynasty, so Jingwen suggested setting up this Tongwen Pavilion to specifically translate and learn foreign languages, so that they could truly learn foreign culture.

"Is Tongwenguan? Is it a specialist in translating the West?" Li Shimin asked.

Jing Wen immediately said: "Your Majesty, it may not be necessary, you can also translate Turkic Silla, and even the texts of the Eastern countries of Korea, Japan. This is a translation agency specially established by the imperial court, allowing me to translate foreign materials and books. Then let my scholars learn from our country. And in the future, we have a group of specialized translators, which is of great benefit to foreign exchanges. In the future, my Tang Dynasty became more and more powerful, and foreigners came to my Tang Dynasty, and naturally they would bring a lot of their cultural materials. We only need specialized translation talents. Otherwise, just like this tool theory, I am afraid that the translation will not be very good, and in the end we can only make everyone at a loss."

Caesar was speechless and actually got involved with him.

"Tongwenguan? One can be set up! Then which yamen is placed under this Tongwenguan?" Li Shimin said.

Jing Wen thought for a while and said, "Your Majesty, you might as well put it in the province of the Ministry of Education. Their status is similar to that of Hongwenguan."

"No, how can this Tongwenguan be the same as the Hongwenguan?" Li Shimin immediately stopped and said.

Li Shimin does not think that this same as Wenguan can have the same status as Hongwenguan, because Hongwenguan has a different status!

The Hongwenguan was originally named Xiuwenguan. It was a place established by Emperor Gaozu of Tang Dynasty, which was for the descendants of senior officials and royal children to study. This kind of place was actually the place where the second generation of officials in the Tang Dynasty learned, and even the princes were studying there, so the importance was self-evident. Although the Hongwenguan seemed to be of low level, most of the Hongwenguan had third and fourth rank officials, and they would never let low-level officials take part in it. So although this Hongwenguan didn't look high, it actually had a very high status. And if you could enter the Hongwenguan, it would mean that you could become the teacher of many future stars of the Tang Dynasty in the future, and you might even have the chance to become the teacher of His Highness the Prince. In a few years, you will be the imperial teacher. Become the imperial teacher. It is the highest dream of countless ancient literati.

So Hongwenguan gave them such an opportunity, so the officials of Hongwenguan were very noble and had a very noble status. Everyone should respect them when they saw them. Li Shimin heard that Jing Wen actually raised the status of the Tongwenguan, who was responsible for translation, to the same status as Hongwenguan. This was obviously unacceptable.

"Your Majesty, I'm telling you why you should be the same as Hongwenguan. Now let's talk about how to recruit corresponding translators!" Jing Wen said.

"Translation? This translation of a vassal state near our Tang Dynasty is easy to do. But if it is a translation of a country in the extreme west, it may be a bit difficult!" Li Shimin said.

At this time, Caesar took the initiative to say, "His Majesty the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, if His Majesty is worthy of his respect, and my subordinates come to the East with us, I think many of them are willing to serve His Majesty the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty. When they come to the East, they all learned Chinese. Although they are not very proficient in Chinese and do not understand Chinese very well, I think it is only a matter of time. As long as they can live here for a few more years, they should be able to learn a lot and translate good books."

Jing Wen immediately said: "Mr. Caesar is right. We might as well ask those merchants from the extreme west to help us recruit some foreigners who are willing to serve for my Tang Dynasty!"

"Let foreigners become officials? This..." Li Shimin was very hesitant.

Although there were foreigners in the Tang Dynasty who served as officials within the Tang Dynasty, the so-called "foreigners" were all people who had joined the Chinese nationality. They joined the Tang Dynasty and settled in the Tang Dynasty, so it was not uncommon to let them become officials. There were even so-called foreigners who became prime ministers. These so-called foreigners were actually equivalent to China giving them some grace after they were conquered by China. Others also joined the nationality, which was equivalent to people from their own country, so it was not surprising that they were allowed to become officials. But if they did not join the Tang Dynasty nationality, they would appoint them as officials, which was obviously not good. Many official positions did not even have the chance to obtain them, so why should they give them to foreigners! The emperor's grace was not so casual, so Li Shimin believed that if foreigners were allowed to be Chinese officials, this would not be appropriate.

"Emperor, everything has a solution! Although we cannot grant foreigners an official, we can hire high salaries! Who stipulates that the people used by the court are officials? We can hire foreigners to help us do things. Can civil and military officials still have opinions? At most, the wages of these foreigners are higher, but what problems can that? People are urgently needed, and the salary is higher, so it doesn't matter. So there is no problem with this." Jing Wen said.
Chapter completed!