Xuande brought out the Primordial Heaven-Measuring Ruler and suspended it above the Bodhi Tree.
The ruler was golden, runes flowing across its surface as it radiated a rich aura of merit.
Jieyin and Zhunti sat cross-legged beneath the Bodhi Tree, their minds linked to Xuande's.
Xuande closed his eyes and immersed his mind in the Primordial Heaven-Measuring Ruler.
Using the power of merit as his guide and the principles of rules and measurement as his foundation, he began working out the structure of a writing system.
At its heart, writing existed to record and convey information.
Dao Script was so profound because every character contained truths of the Great Dao.
Xuande did not need every character in his new script to contain the Great Dao. It only needed to record the Great Dao accurately.
That would make it far easier to learn.
He settled on eight basic strokes:
Dot, horizontal, vertical, left-falling, right-falling, bend, hook, and rising.
Those eight strokes could combine to form countless characters. Each stroke carried its own meaning and Dao resonance.
The dot represented a starting point, an origin; the horizontal stroke represented stability and support;
The vertical stroke represented standing upright and connecting through; the left-falling stroke represented extension and dispersal; the right-falling stroke represented drawing inward and gathering; the bend represented turning points and change;
The hook represented attraction and connection; the rising stroke represented ascent and refinement.
The eight strokes corresponded to the Bagua and to the Daos of the three men in the West.
Once Xuande had worked out the eight strokes, Jieyin and Zhunti began combining them into characters.
They started with the simplest concepts, such as "heaven," "earth," "human," "Dao," and "virtue."
Each character had a fixed structure and meaning. It corresponded to Dao Script, but was much simpler.
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