The World of Yellow Sky

Chapter 272 Yellow Sky Paper

The enlightenment of the Heavenly Book spread throughout the streets and alleys of Jinyang City in just a few days, and the content about the Heavenly Book was also spread.

Coupled with the secret fueling of Eagle Wolf Wei Tiqi and Zuo Tan, the rumors spread even faster, and more and more people were convinced.

However, Xu An didn't have the time to manage the rumors from the outside world. He still had one more important thing to deal with—improving papermaking.

When Xu An was watching film and television works about the Three Kingdoms, he had doubts why Cai Lun had already invented paper, but the Han Dynasty still used bamboo slips as a recording tool.

This also made Xu An look up relevant information and get an answer.

It has been 105 years since Cai Lun reported his improved papermaking technique to the court in the first year of Yuan Xing (AD [-]), and Emperor Hanhe ordered the promotion of his papermaking method.

However, most of the aristocratic and powerful families, even in the government, still use bamboo slips for daily writing and office work.

At this time, the nobles, powerful, and aristocratic families in the upper class all have inherent ideas. The most important documents and contracts should be cast into bells and tripods, and secondly written on bamboo and silk.

There is a sentence recorded in "Three Kingdoms Volume [-]", which explains the situation at that time very well, "The meritorious service is inscribed on the tripod bell, and the name hangs on the bamboo silk."

Of course, this is also related to the shortcomings of paper in the Han Dynasty. Even the improved "Caihou paper" still does not have the function of killing insects and moths, and is extremely easy to be damaged. Therefore, most people think that this is the only way to preserve it for a long time.

Although "Caihou paper" has changed the inability to write on paper and is cheap to make, it still cannot solve the problem of long-term preservation.

Xu An knew that only by completely solving the "shortcomings" of paper itself, making it easy to preserve and not easily damaged, so that the superiority of paper is more widely recognized, can it replace silk and bamboo slips.

After the popularization of paper books, the production process of bamboo slips was cumbersome, bulky and heavy.Silk is extremely expensive, and it is impossible for ordinary people to use it.

Xu An had wanted to set up an elementary school earlier, and after dictating the "Three Character Classic" and "Thousand Character Classic" that day, he officially put the establishment of a school on the agenda.

And to set up elementary schools, the first thing to solve is the matter of books. As for the people who teach, it is simple, and there are more than enough talismans in the Taoist hall.

After all, Xu An's plan is to build schools in various cities first, and then gradually spread them out.

The first and most important thing about the plan to establish a school is to expand the talent pool of the Yellow Turban Army and improve the literacy rate.

It's not just elementary schools, Xu An plans to build three kinds of schools in total.

One is elementary school, does not teach scriptures, but only teaches reading, writing, and simple arithmetic to children aged 6-12.

The second is county school, which recruits top-ranked students in Mongolian school, or those who pass the assessment, to teach more complicated arithmetic and political affairs. , Graduation can be awarded official.

The third is Guoxue. Those who enter the Guoxue Academy can be awarded officials as long as they graduate. Guoxue recruits county school graduates.

However, there is one special thing, that is, the students enrolled in the two schools of the county school and the national school can only enroll if they join the Taiping Road, otherwise they will not be eligible for admission.

The Taoist hall is relatively independent, facing the Fu Zhu in the army, and is not under the jurisdiction of the three schools.

Xu An's plan is to first set up two Mongolian Schools, one County School, and one Chinese School in Jinyang City in each city.

The national college will serve as the sacrificial wine, and the lecturers of other county colleges and Mongolian colleges will choose Fu Zhu to serve as the priest.

In order to open so many schools, Xu An also summoned craftsmen proficient in papermaking to gather in Jinyang City.

Now Xu An is taking Yang Ji, Fu Qi, and Pang Bo to inspect the papermaking situation in the papermaking workshop.

The biggest problem with "Caihou paper" is that it cannot prevent insects from being eaten for a long time, but there is a way to prevent insects from eating.

When Xu An understood why paper was not popularized at that time, he also found a way to popularize paper in later generations.

The core of this method lies in - yellow tiller (niè).

In the middle and late Eastern Jin Dynasty, Ge Hong, a famous Taoist scholar, invented this method of dyeing paper in order to prolong the life of paper while refining alchemy.

The paper dyeing method is to boil the yellow tiller to extract the juice, and then use it to impregnate the paper, so that the paper has the function of killing insects and moths.

This kind of paper impregnated with yellow tiller juice is called "jute paper". Although the yellow color is not as beautiful as white paper, it greatly prolongs the lifespan.

In one of the paper-making workshops, a stack of neatly cut, square, and yellowed paper was placed on the copybook.

"Is this the dyed paper?"

Xu An took a piece of "jute paper" and put it in his hand to examine it carefully.

This is almost the same as the yellow classic paper that he saw in some pictures in later generations.

Hearing Xu An's question, a craftsman who was standing not far from Xu An replied with a little excitement: "To the virtuous teacher, these are dyed with the 'paper dyeing method' taught by the virtuous teacher."

In Bingzhou, they had heard about Xu An's various deeds and rumors for a long time. Seeing such a legend with their own eyes, they were naturally a little excited.

What's even more rare is that Xu An increased the wages of these craftsmen, exempted them from corvee, and changed to the employment system, which made their lives much better than before.

There was an uproar in Jinyang City about the ignorance of Tianshu before, and the words that destiny lies in Huangtian are not uncommon.

Then Xu An summoned craftsmen to make new paper. It is said that this new paper can be preserved for a long time and is not afraid of moths.

If this kind of paper, as Xu An said, can be preserved for a long time and is not afraid of moths, then they are the first craftsmen to make this kind of paper, and they know the secret recipe, how can they not be excited.

Seeing the paper craftsmen with different expressions, Xu An said with a smile, "Of course."

"This method was taught by the immortal in my dream. How could it be false? At that time, elementary school and county school all over the world will use this kind of paper."

Although Xu An didn't know exactly how the effect would be, but if it was recorded, there would definitely not be much difference. As long as it could be preserved for a few years, it would be fine. After all, just making paper doesn't require much manpower and material resources.

Counting the collection of yellow tiller, it is just more people who collect it.

Yang Ji, Fu Qi, and Pang Bo looked at each other, as if hesitating to speak.

When Xu An was wondering why they acted like this, Yang Ji finally asked, "Excuse me, my virtuous teacher, what name should this paper be called?"

"name?"

Xu An didn't think about the paper name, but soon, he thought of what to call it.

"The method of dyeing paper was taught by my Taiping Dao immortal. Using this paper to compile books and spread scriptures, since it was given by Huang Tian, ​​let's call it 'Huang Tian Paper'."

(End of this chapter)