Zeng Yuan smiled bitterly. "You have convinced me. The Human Race could still advance without adopting vernacular characters, but with them, it would advance faster. So adopting vernacular characters is the better choice. From now on, I will never urge you to use fewer vernacular characters in the People's Gazette. Instead, I will urge you to use more, because that will allow more people to read it. At the same time, I must admit a mistake to you."
"Oh?" Fang Yun looked at Zeng Yuan.
Zeng Yuan flushed slightly and gave a light cough. "I did not realize it at first. Only after hearing your explanation did I understand that, by supporting complex standard characters, I was actually using them as a roadblock to obstruct others. Writing is a tool, and the information it carries can continually help us improve ourselves. People differ in how well they master this tool. The more complicated it is, the more people there are with a weak grasp of it, and the fewer there are with a strong grasp. With standard characters that are harder to learn and articles in standard characters that are more troublesome to read, the gap between those people and me would only grow. Only a tiny handful of geniuses could equal or surpass my Imperial Examination results while falling far short of me in health, available time, family background, and other respects. Standard characters might not hold those geniuses back, but they could make most ordinary people even more mediocre. In truth, I was not deliberately trying to obstruct others. It was simply... my instinct to do so."
Fang Yun said, "That is why Confucius once spoke of restraining oneself and returning to propriety. A Saint must restrain and discipline himself and follow the teachings of propriety to attain