Chapter 141: The Office of Truth

Zhang Haogu’s work was extensive and complex. In terms of broad policy, the main functions of the Office of Truth were: to formulate the history of Ao-Song and its corresponding scientific, political, social, and cultural development; to set the technological boundaries for various departments; to screen the books and films in the Grand Library; to approve the scope of education for natives and their access to information; and to compile relevant manuals for the Yuanen to unify their talking points in various conversations—now that natives and naturalized citizens were increasingly participating in the work of the Yuanen, a casual remark from a Yuanen could become the source of future rumors.

In terms of specific work, it was divided into two parts. One part was the review of publications. Since the series of printing equipment and technological breakthroughs led by Zhou Dongtian had been largely completed, the printing and publishing business had developed by leaps and bounds. Various departments were writing and publishing a large number of textbooks, popular science books, and technical pamphlets. How to grasp the proper measure in this became a major part of Zhang Haogu’s work.

The other part was to be responsible for the selection and organization of “special propaganda materials.” Due to the limited number of Yuanen serving in the Grand Library and their busy schedules, apart from certain “major topics” that were “collective creations,” most of the materials had to be written by Zhang Haogu himself. Of course, he had the right to commission articles from other Yuanen and pay them a certain fee—this practice had long been implemented in the Propaganda Department. The Yuanen who wrote were mostly not for the few circulation coupons, but more to satisfy their own desire to write.

Technical matters were reviewed by the Ministry of Science and Technology. Anything involving “black history,” terminology, and political viewpoints fell under Zhang Haogu’s responsibility.

In addition to compiling “black materials,” he also had to review manuscripts, so the workload was imaginable. Moreover, due to the high sensitivity of this work, he could not directly use naturalized citizens and had to do most of the work himself. In contrast, the historical materials research group of the Grand Library could at least use a few naturalized citizens with a Confucian background to help search and copy ancient books.

“Damn it, they’re using me as a coolie,” Zhang Haogu grumbled, standing up and pacing around his office. The brilliant sunlight outside the glass window made one feel hot just by looking at it.

This was a corner of the Propaganda Department compound in Bairen City, which was originally the location of the Grand Library. After the Grand Library was moved to Gaoshanling, this place was occupied by the Propaganda Department. The containers that once held these priceless treasures had been moved, but the traces of the foundation stones were still faintly visible.

To facilitate serving the Yuanen, the Grand Library still had an office in the Propaganda Department compound. Several Yuanen were on duty regularly, available for consultation at any time.

Besides the Propaganda Department and the Grand Library office, this place was also the legal address of the Lin’gao Times, the Gewu Pictorial, the Publishing Guidance Group, and the Office of Truth—the reason for saying “legal address” was that there were simply not enough Yuanen and naturalized citizens to fill all these positions; it was mostly a case of several signs for one team.

Zhang Haogu’s Office of Truth occupied three offices in a corner of this compound. One was his reference room, where he stored the “black materials” he had collected and those transferred to him from various departments. One was his workshop, and the other was his dormitory. Like many Yuanen, he was accustomed to living in his office, ready to work at any time. As for personnel, there were only him and his maid.

His secretary-cum-maid heard his footsteps and came out from the adjacent dormitory. Seeing him sweating, she poured him a glass of herbal tea and lowered all the blinds in the room. The room immediately darkened, but it also felt much cooler.

On the desk were stacks of manuscripts—these were the master copies typed out by the printing press’s typists. Zhang Haogu spent his days constantly scribbling on the manuscripts with an ink pen, and from time to time, he would use a red pen to make corrections and revisions. The naturalized citizens who occasionally saw Zhang Haogu at work mostly thought he was a very important high-ranking official.

Zhang Haogu picked up the latest compilation catalog of “special propaganda” pamphlets. In the parlance of this era, this was called a “poster.”

In ancient society, a “poster” was a kind of leaflet, mostly anonymous, attacking a certain person or event, and sometimes directly targeting the court and the emperor.

In ancient society, due to the lack of sufficient technical investigation methods, it was generally difficult to trace the source of anonymous posters, making them very safe. The disadvantage was that the number of literate people in ancient society was too small, and their ability to radiate to the lower classes of society was limited. Therefore, posters could only influence officialdom and the literate class.

Since the Office of Truth was working to influence the masses of the Ming Dynasty, it could not, like other departments, completely detach itself from the historical reality of the time. It had to pay attention to some of the political issues of the late Ming Dynasty.

In this regard, some work had already been done in the past, including the compilation of the “Record of Atrocities” and the pamphlets distributed during the second anti-encirclement campaign. However, at that time, this was only sporadic work and was not implemented as a major means. Now, it had to be systematically organized and grasped as a task.

After careful consideration, Zhang Haogu decided to adopt a three-pronged approach to carry out special propaganda. The so-called three-pronged approach was to create propaganda materials tailored to the characteristics of different audiences.

First, by creating anonymous posters and forging official gazettes, the content would start with commentaries on the “Three Great Cases” and the “Three Great Expeditions,” covering the main political events of the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, including the “Treason Cases” against the Donglin Party during the Tianqi era, Zhang Juzheng’s reforms and the reaction after his death, and so on. It would emphasize the “re-investigation” and “rational analysis” of past political events, providing unique perspectives and information different from the past. On the surface, it would emphasize opposing corrupt officials and incompetent governance and supporting the emperor, but the underlying meaning was to guide “reflection” on the entire political system of the Ming Dynasty—this was aimed at the gentry class.

Second, using the model of vernacular novels, they would create popular pamphlets with a considerable number of illustrations. These would be distributed to storytellers in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions and could also be privately circulated as popular novels. The main focus would be on attacking the legitimacy of the Ming Dynasty and promoting the Lin’gao group. The expression would be relatively subtle and could be supplemented with some colorful court anecdotes, and even some new scientific knowledge could be promoted. This was mainly aimed at the urban class.

Finally, they would compile some folk songs and children’s rhymes aimed at the southern provinces. Although the technical content was low and the level was low, these things had had great destructive power since ancient times. Before every major political change, all kinds of insinuating children’s rhymes and folk songs would be spread everywhere, showing their power. This was aimed at the peasants.

Zhang Haogu’s main energy was now focused on compiling posters and creating vernacular novels. Both of these had certain technical requirements. First, their true source, the Australians, could not be revealed. Therefore, they could not use their lithography or lead type printing, but had to use woodblock or traditional movable type—such as clay or wooden movable type, which had a poorer printing effect. Zhou Dongtian had specially set up a traditional printing workshop in the printing press for this purpose.

As for the content, some of it was commissioned from the Yuanen. Ordinary Yuanen did not have the ability to write articles directly in classical Chinese or Ming Dynasty vernacular, so most of the manuscripts had to be written in “New Speak” by the Yuanen and then “translated” by Yuanen with such abilities.

These special propaganda pamphlets were mostly compiled according to the three principles of sex, politics, and secrets. The content was filled with the flavor of tabloid literature. However, the content of each issue of the pamphlets also had a certain focus and was adjusted according to the current situation and the target of attack.

In Zhang Haogu’s hand was the catalog of pamphlets that had recently been approved and were about to be printed. It listed twenty titles:

What were the three last wishes of the Wanli Emperor before his death?

Wei Zhongxian won the emperor’s favor, but why did he die without knowing it?

The main culprit in the persecution of the Donglin Party, the eunuch faction was expelled from the capital.

Fought over by 6 emperors for 60 years: the most sought-after woman in the Ming Dynasty.

A speech by Emperor Chengzu before entering Nanjing.

The truth of the Tumu Crisis: what was the sacrifice of the Ming army for?

Conflict in reform: Zhang Juzheng denounces scholars as “demonic people who bring chaos to the state.”

Li Chengliang’s debauched life and fierce style in the north.

“Beauty Killer” Ren Daidai: a courtesan was actually a pardoned assassin.

An eyewitness recalls: how the eunuch faction and the Donglin Party made a mess of things.

The truth of the “Palace Removal Case.”

Absurd stories of the “former dynasty’s” Forbidden City. The ten most famous beauties in Ming history.

…

These pamphlets were generally between ten and twenty thousand words long, with the longest not exceeding fifty thousand words. The print run was only a few hundred to one or two thousand copies each time. After printing, they were smuggled to the mainland for distribution. Due to the novel themes, engaging stories, and simple language, they were very popular among the natives. In Guangdong, the special propaganda pamphlets distributed by the Foreign Intelligence Bureau through the Black Dragon Society system had already created a rather vigorous demand market for underground reading materials. The originally free pamphlets were even being hoarded for speculation, and very crude pirated versions, printed with clay movable type and ink, had also appeared. This led Zhou Dongtian to seriously consider whether to formally sell these special propaganda pamphlets as popular reading materials to the Ming Dynasty.

Zhang Haogu believed that this phenomenon clearly reflected the severe lack of popular reading materials in the Ming market. Therefore, the Publishing Guidance Group could do more in this area—he had recently presided over the revision of Jin Yong’s works. Apart from “The Deer and the Cauldron” and “Sword Stained with Royal Blood,” the other eleven had all been revised and were being prepared for publication in succession. There were other publishing projects to be revised next…

“I’m working my ass off, I wonder what the effect will be?” he thought, placing the pamphlet catalog on the table and taking out the approval stamp of the Office of Truth from its box. He stamped it on the catalog. Seeing the bright red stamp on the paper, he let out a satisfied breath.