If one were to speak of the foundation on which the great clans had relied during their thousand years of glory, it would be—knowledge.
Precisely because the great clans controlled access to knowledge, they were able to control the imperial bureaucracy and force the emperor to compromise with them time and again.
The claim that all the officials in the realm came from the great clans might be an exaggeration, but there was absolutely no doubt that eighty percent of them did. As for commoners, in an age when even filling their stomachs was a luxury, how could they possibly study?
Moreover, with books themselves completely monopolized by the great clans, there was no channel through which people could obtain knowledge, let alone anything else.
"To guard the realm on Heaven's behalf"—that was the Scholars' slogan.
The realm belonged to the imperial family, but it also belonged to the Scholars. The emperor only needed to do his own job. As for the immense responsibility of governing the realm, that could simply be handed over to the Scholars!
In fact, if this era had continued developing along its current path, it might eventually have become a Western-style constitutional monarchy. Unfortunately, the rulers of every dynasty had been unwilling to let power slip from their hands. Using eunuchs and imperial relatives to balance the Scholars had been a method that ran throughout the entire feudal era beginning with the Han.
"Printing Technology?" Guo Jia frowned as he looked at Wang Xuan and Li Ru. "Haven't we already implemented this in Qingzhou?"
"It's different!" Wang Xuan shook his head with a smile. "There aren't any great clans in Qingzhou. Although we've promoted it throughout Qingzhou for three years, in reality, throughout the rest of the Han Empire, sales of paper books were only