Vernacular characters were easy to learn and use, and many scholars were fond of them. When copying books or writing letters, many scholars switched to vernacular characters rather than complex standard characters to save time.
Halving the time spent writing could often open an enormous gap between two scholars who were otherwise evenly matched.
At present, scholars of the human race used standard characters on formal occasions, but vernacular characters often appeared in private or on less important occasions. Even the Calligraphy Saint, Wang Xizhi, frequently used vernacular characters in his calligraphy. His famous Preface to the Orchid Pavilion contained several of them.
The Sacred Academy's Ritual Hall had once cracked down on vernacular characters to make the human race "write with one script," but the effort achieved little and was eventually abandoned.
However, during the Imperial Examination, some conservative examiners would lower a paper's grade if it contained too many vernacular characters. Several hundred years ago, a student from Qi Kingdom had correctly answered many questions in the Appeal to the Sage's Words section, yet received a grade of C. Only after traveling to the capital and beating the Dengwen Drum did he learn what had gone wrong. He had no choice but to retake the examination. The second time, he used standard characters throughout and became the county's Case First. He eventually became a Grand Academician, renowned throughout Qi Kingdom.
Fang Yun said, "Then does that mean the People's Gazette will be very popular if it makes extensive use of vernacular characters and vernacular prose?"
Zeng Yuan looked troubled. "Vernacular prose throughout certainly played an important role in the popularity of your novels, such as The Legend of the White Snake. But in my humble opinion, those novels have a negligible effect on the human race. Your other