Chapter 047: Language and Script

As if a spring breeze had swept through overnight, Luo Chong emerged from the cave one morning to a landscape transformed into a blossoming pear orchard of snow. The open ground in front of the cave and the trees of the forest were draped in a thick blanket of snow, heralding the long-awaited arrival of winter.

Snowflakes, thick as goose feathers, continued to fall from a heavy, overcast sky with no end in sight. Luo Chong, adhering to his routine, practiced his spear techniques to limber up.

The villagers emerged to relieve themselves; the men's logging activities were halted, and the women ceased their clamorous foraging, opting instead to feed the maral deer dried hay in the pens.

The young elephants, Meat and Grey, unlike the others, were not confined to the stables for fear they might demolish the structure with their strength. Free to roam within the enclosures, they sought food from the hay stacks when hungry.

However, providing water was a challenge. Luo Chong had a clay stove set up within the pen to melt snow for drinking water.

As soon as the pen was opened in the morning, the elephants burst out, charging through the snow with exuberant energy. Despite their lack of the woolly mammoth's thick fur, their dense skin and fat were sufficient for winter survival.

Exhausted from the run, Meat returned to the pen and stayed near the warm stove with Grey.

With the snowfall, brick-making was paused until the weather cleared. The villagers stayed inside the cave, some idle, others creating new life, and still others crafting ornaments. The children watched newborn rabbits nurse; the twenty bunnies, now a month old, were thriving in the cave's cozy environment.

Several girls from the former Che Ding tribe approached Luo Chong with intentions of procreation—an absurd thought, as Luo Chong, though a leader, was but eleven years old. Despite early maturity in primitive societies, Luo Chong had no such inclinations, nor was he attracted to them.

Thus, Luo Chong began a long-considered plan to introduce Mandarin and literacy.

With winter providing ample time, he refused to let it go to waste. Relying solely on gestures for communication had become frustrating. If not for the constant need to gesture while speaking, Luo Chong feared he might forget how to speak altogether.

Some villagers, especially the young like Go-Bing, had already picked up basic vocabulary through frequent interaction with Luo Chong. Common nouns introduced by Luo Chong were gradually becoming part of the villagers' lexicon.

Language is fundamentally simple, composed of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and abstract terms. Mastery of nouns and verbs alone can facilitate basic communication—much like how children first learn the names of objects (nouns) and actions (verbs) to form coherent speech.

For example, the sentence "I eat meat" consists of a personal noun, a verb, and a noun for food—simple yet effective communication through basic vocabulary.

Luo Chong's subtle influence had already taught the villagers many terms such as "basket," "spear," "fish," "grass," "cart," "soil," "brick," "deer," "tree," "axe," "rope," and more. Any new object they encountered was named by Luo Chong, enriching their vocabulary and understanding of the world around them.

The approach to learning characters would not involve complex scripts but rather focus on recognizability and utility, much like the pictorial simplicity of oracle bone script which could easily resonate with the villagers' understanding.

Teaching modern simplified Chinese characters was unrealistic due to their complexity and detachment from tangible objects. Instead, Luo Chong introduced them to clerical script, which, despite its formality, retained enough visual elements to be comprehensible and relatable.

Luo Chong's education plan emphasized verbal over written language. Learning to recognize characters was crucial, especially for children, but without paper or pencils, writing practice was impractical. Instead, Luo Chong used charcoal to write on the cave walls, reviewing lessons daily before dinner. Poor performers received less food, while those who excelled might enjoy treats like chestnuts cooked in syrup from the man-eating tree roots.

This method significantly boosted the villagers' enthusiasm for learning, blending the necessity of survival with the reward of food.