I am a Primitive Man
Chapter 894 – I Am a Primitive
“Ten years to grow trees, a hundred years to educate people.”
Education is the cornerstone of tribal development…
Compared to the tribe’s long-term educational plans, traveling south to build the second branch could indeed be postponed.
As someone who had received a formal education and deeply understood its significance, Han Cheng easily made a choice between the two.
Once he had a rough plan and made his decision, he discussed it with Eldest Senior Brother, Shaman, Shi Tou, and a few others.
As always, he explained the reasoning behind his decision.
Shaman, Eldest Senior Brother, and the others reacted as they usually did: if the Divine Child approved and explained the meaning, they would fully support it.
Even if they did not fully understand some aspects and needed further clarification, it did not stop them from wholeheartedly supporting his actions.
Some, including Shaman, Shi Tou, and Yuan, even wanted to participate in revising the textbooks.
For such matters, Han Cheng naturally agreed. Revising textbooks could not be done by him alone.
On the one hand, textbook revision seemed simple, but it was actually complicated, requiring attention to many details.
On the other hand, as a person from the future, Han Cheng’s thinking often differed from that of people of this era.
Many things he considered natural and easy could be quite puzzling to the people of his time.
With Shaman, Shi Tou, and others participating, the textbooks could better suit the era, reducing the difficulty to a manageable level.
Chinese-language textbooks were relatively easy to compile. Many classical texts already existed within the tribe. By arranging them according to difficulty and adding a few new chapters, the basic framework could be established.
For example, Han Cheng himself was now leaning over the table, recreating classical works from the future.
He was currently writing The Little Donkey Crossing the River.
Initially, he planned to copy it directly.
After arriving in this era, he had already brought many works from the future. Copying one more story did not cause him any psychological pressure.
After all, this was a longstanding scholarly tradition—elite thinkers in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods freely borrowed and modified each other’s ideas.
Even the later integration of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism followed a similar pattern.
As Master Lu once sharply summarized: “Can what scholars do really be called plagiarism?”
However, since the tribe had neither horses nor cattle nor mills, Han Cheng adapted the story to fit the tribe’s reality better, making it easier for children to understand.
Thus, The Little Horse Crossing the River became The Little Donkey Crossing the River.
The old yellow ox was replaced with a larger rhinoceros, which had appeared in the tribe before.
Going to the mill was changed to wanting to cross the river to eat better grass.
For a humanities student like Han Cheng, such changes were effortless.
After finishing, he picked it up, admired it, and aside from some imperfect handwriting, found no issues.
Of course, a textbook could not be just a plain story.
Each lesson included supplementary, engaging content.
For example, complex characters appearing for the first time were annotated for reading and writing practice.
Thought-provoking questions encouraged reflection. After the Little Donkey Crossing the River, Han Cheng asked:
Why didn’t the donkey cross the river the first time?
Why did it cross later?
What lesson does the story teach us?
Role-playing and small activities were also included.
Beyond The Little Donkey Crossing the River, Han Cheng slightly modified The Crow Drinking Water, The Clam and the Egret, and other stories.
These moral stories allowed the tribe to learn Mandarin and Chinese characters while internalizing lessons about conduct.
He also created original stories:
The Sheep’s Death: inspired by a captured sheep tribe leader who braved death rather than reveal the tribe’s location.
We Are Not Tired: based on Liutou and Sparrow riding overnight to warn the main tribe of an enemy attack on Copper Mountain, exhausting themselves almost to collapse.
These stories emphasized love for the tribe, bravery, and initiative.
Another story, I Am a Carpenter, depicted Lame, initially a hunting helper who became a burden due to injury, but through perseverance, achieved success and regained value to the tribe.
These stories encouraged the tribe not to give up in the face of adversity.
Inspired by his own experiences, Han Cheng considered writing I Am a Primitive, recounting his arrival in the primitive world, the hardships he endured, and how he gradually adapted—not by modernizing the tribe, but by being influenced toward semi-primitive ways.
However, he realized such a story was too bleak and lacked educational value, so he abandoned the idea.
He also wrote My Tribe, chronicling the Green Sparrow Tribe’s rise from a small, poor, backward tribe to a thriving, strong community.
The goal was to teach the importance of hard work and preserve the tribe’s history for children, showing them that current prosperity was earned, not accidental.
This focus on language over mathematics explained why Han Cheng started with Chinese textbooks.
Mathematics cultivates rational thinking, but language carries moral and cultural lessons, subtly influencing character.
Combining adapted and original texts, Han Cheng created 64 lessons, enough for the children to study for a substantial period.
Once texts and supplementary exercises were ready, he called Shi Tou and Shaman to handle the remaining tasks:
Ordering texts by difficulty
Identifying and annotating unlearned characters for focus
Adding thought-provoking questions for students
Finally, the drafts were copied into blank textbooks.
Textbooks had already been prepared: sheets cut to 25 cm × 15 cm, bound by puncturing holes and threading leather cords.
Concerned about durability, glue was added.
Without a printing press, all textbooks had to be handwritten.
Han Cheng had considered printing technology, but it required experiments and refinement, which could not be rushed.
With limited students, sharing one book between two or three children was acceptable.
With Chinese textbooks settled, Han Cheng began preparing mathematics books.
Since the tribe adapted quickly to addition and subtraction but struggled with multiplication and division, he wrote the 1×1=1, 1×2=2… multiplication table at the start.
This idea came from his childhood pencil box, which had a multiplication table printed inside. Repetition helped me memorize it.
Next, he wrote numbers 1–10, with mnemonic rhymes for easier memorization:
One looks like a pencil, two like a duck, three like an ear, four like a small flag, five like a scale hook, six like a spoon…
For 0, he drew an egg.
He then created simple exercises: addition and subtraction within ten, gradually increasing to hundreds, and combining multiple operations.
Multiplication and division followed, introducing remainders.
Advanced rules, such as (a + b) × c = ac + bc, were explained with examples.
The first volume covered the four operations; the second volume would expand to geometry, area, perimeter, volume, and surface area.
Before copying, Han Cheng carefully reviewed the draft, then had Yuan transcribe it into blank textbooks.
He provided a sample first, noting the page numbers and stressing accuracy.
Paper quality required writing on one side only, making textbooks thick.
He instructed consistency: do not shift content to fill space.
Yuan, unusually enthusiastic about mathematics, enjoyed the work. She often paused to think, laughed, or excitedly tapped the desk, then returned to copying.
Both Han Cheng and Shaman appreciated her dedication.
At night, she continued studying by oil lamp, solving problems and practicing calculations, immersing herself completely.
When Yuan had questions, she asked Han Cheng, who patiently explained:
“This is ‘a’, that is ‘b’. They represent unknowns that can be replaced by any number, thereby expressing operational rules. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division—all can use them.”