Other Records of Note

Among all the subjects this treatise must address, the present one affords the most genuine pleasure, for we arrive now at books and histories.

There are two bodies of history that Your Grace must have in hand before the rest of this treatise becomes fully useful. The first concerns Samarskand and the ancient world - that is, both the foundations and romanticizations of the present-day Empire. The second is the history of Singhapura, its growth and its mistakes. I have endevoured to address both here, drawn from the Seven Great Classics with such commentary as serves useful.

I urger Your Grace to find the time to read the Classics mentioned herein. My recommendations here are not borne solely of literary merit. Among Singhapura’s nobility, facility with the Classics is considered a mark of distinction; the inability to demonstrate it, a mark of deficiency. Students and noble families hold regular contests of quotation and call-and-reply. These in turn are cited in courts of law and in significant political arguments.

The Classics function, in other words, as a shared language among those with power; a ruler who does not speak that language fluently will find herself at the mercy of those who do.

The Modern Classics are included for two reasons. The first is that they are works of truth. Their authors were willing to reveal their respective worlds more clearly than the official writ, and have in several cases paid for that understanding with suppression, exile, and the like. The second is that they are oftentimes considerably more enjoyable than the works that precede them. A reader drawn in by interest remembers more than one who reads from obligation. If the Modern Classics serve as the door through which Your Grace the Seven Great Classics, they will have done their work.

Finally, I have included a section on books banned in Singhapura. It is small; but while people everywhere celebrate much of the same things, their fears are often unique to them and thus far more revealing. Your Grace would do well to see if these texts can be acquired.

Folio XIX · The World

Transcribed by Victor Konara