A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1088 Wei Wang Li Tai Qian Wan Guan

Wei Wang Li Tai is still somewhat talented.

Wu Huaiyu looked at the fat prince in front of him. He had lost a lot of weight recently, but he was still as fat as a bear.

Under the big money willow tree in the courtyard of the Wu family, Li Tai finally found a chance to talk to his teacher Wu Huaiyu.

The tree has lush branches and leaves, and is as prosperous as a canopy.

Because the fruit is as green as coins, it is also called Qingqianliu, or money tree.

This tree was moved to the Wu residence in Xuanyangfang. It has grown very prosperously under the care of dedicated people over the years. It is now more than ten feet tall, with gray bark, brown branches, and green leaves hanging down in strings.

The branches and leaves are beautiful and colorful, like strings of copper coins, swaying in the wind, which is pleasing to the eye.

Wu Huaiyu also liked to use the golden willow leaves to fry some tea and drink it, and the taste was also unique.

This summer,
Sitting under this money tree that is more than ten feet high, drinking Qingqianliu tea, it is very comfortable.
Li Tai sat opposite and seemed a little nervous.

Just when Li Tai was most proud, everything took a turn for the worse.

This book is based on the ten districts of the Tang Dynasty, with 358 prefectures and 1,555 counties. It draws extensively on classics and geographical records, as well as old records and news, and details the history of the establishment of each political district and its mountains and rivers. , products, monuments, customs, characters, anecdotes, etc., are very valuable.

"After completing the book of Kuo Di Zhi, go up and hide it in the Secret Pavilion." The little fat man said that he was a little regretful, although he did not take this book seriously at first, and those who actually compiled the book were the bachelors.
But after a few years,
Li Tai couldn't help but feel a little regretful when he thought about how he had revised the book.

But Cheng Qian received the support of Changsun Wuji, Wu Huaiyu, Wei Zheng, Ma Zhou and other important ministers, and he also realized that he corrected quickly.

Li Shimin was very happy and supported Li Tai's original compilation of Geography. Li Tai spent five years completing the book, and it was done very well. This also made Li Shimin happy. I saw the talent and ability of the second son of the emperor.

Kuo Di Zhi was the masterpiece of the original Wei royal party.

Then things went downhill, the situation took a turn for the worse, and he was getting further and further away from that position.

It took countless resources and five years to complete this 555-volume masterpiece with more than 10,000 words. Li Tai took the title of editor-in-chief. In fact, it was composed of secretary and young supervisor Xiao Deyan, Hongwenguan bachelor Su Xu and other scholars and great scholars. compilation,

That set of books, which cost countless money and efforts, has been shelved.

Over several years and countless manpower, material and financial resources, he completed the magnificent work "Kuo Di Zhi of Wei" in 555 volumes and more than 18 million words.
When the book is completed, enter it and hide it in the secret pavilion.

It's a pity that Li Tai fell short in the end. It's not that he didn't do well enough.

"Your Highness wants to print and publish Wei Wang Kunyuan's engravings?" Huaiyu gave Li Tai a cup of tea.

With the help of Wu Huaiyu's eldest son, Sun Wuji, the emperor and the prince reconciled, but he was also remonstrated by Wei Zheng and failed to move into the Wude Palace.

When Cheng Qian disappointed him, Li Shimin deliberately regarded Li Tai as an alternative for the crown prince.

In the past few years, Li Tai has been confused and hesitant.
But after all, I am still a little unwilling to live in a mirror and a dream.

'teacher,"

The emperor wrote an immortal comment that was enough to last for a long time, and gave him thousands of gifts, and even asked Li Tai to move into Wude Hall.

It is no longer the time when he was in glory a few years ago. Li Tai once thought that he was more liked and even appreciated by his father, the emperor and his mother, but he could not become the prince because he was not the eldest son. He thought that sooner or later, he would be easily crowned the prince.
When he was in his teens, at the suggestion of his supporters, Li Tai established a literary museum, recruited celebrities from all over the world, and established Kuo Guozhi.

"I have requested that this book be renamed "Zhenguan Kuo Di Zhi"." Xiaopang said.

Li Tai once hated his uncle Changsun Wuji, also hated Wei Zheng, and even more hated his teacher Wu Huaiyu. He felt that Wu Huaiyu only saw Prince Cheng Qian and did not regard him as a student at all.

I have to say that the members of the Wei royal family had quite some ideas at the time.
Li Tai compiled books, and then took the opportunity to set up a literary museum, recruit celebrities from all over the world, and finally established his merits and reputations. Throughout the ages, compiling books has been a shortcut to political success. For example, Lu Buwei in the Qin Dynasty compiled Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals, and left behind idioms worth a thousand pieces of gold.

"I want to print this set of books so that more people can read them instead of putting them on the shelf. I also want to ask the teacher to draw a "Map of China and Foreign Countries in the Tang Dynasty". The map should be 33 feet long and 33 feet wide, with one foot representing 100 miles. Ancient place names are marked in black, and Tang place names are marked in red, showing all the regions of China and foreign countries at home and abroad."

The little fat man was a little excited when he said this, "There are still some omissions in the previous geographical records. I plan to organize people to revise them and add the geography of Luzon, Qinghai, etc. that have been newly expanded by the imperial court in recent years."

"I know that in the area of ​​engraving and printing books, the most sophisticated ones are Donggong Chongxian Press and Fanchuan Taoyuanzhuang Shidetang of the Wu family. Shidetang is larger in scale and has stronger printing capabilities. Fanchuan Taoyuanzhuang now has several Thousands of people are engaged in engraving, printing and binding,”

Xiaopang wants to print out Kuo Di Zhi.
Both the East Palace and the Wu Family can print. In fact, the Wei Palace also has a printing bookstore, but its technology and scale are not as good as those of the first two. More importantly, he wants to take advantage of the opportunity to build a relationship with his teacher Wu Huaiyu.

Li Tai is not short of money.

We have prepared sufficient funds to do this this time.
If we only talk about matters and engravings and geographical records, Wujia Shidetang is indeed the first choice.

You must know that these two families are the leaders in the printing industry today. The East Palace is exquisite, while the Wu family is larger. The Five Classics of Justice are read by everyone today.
The imperial court took the one published by Donggong Chongxian Hall and Wujia Shidetang as the final version.
Almost every scholar in the Tang Dynasty has a copy of the Five Classics of Justice published by Shidetang of the Wu family. Shidetang also printed a large number of the Four Great Sutras and Four Sons True Sutras.

Compared with hand-written manuscripts, Wu family's engraving books have many advantages. First, they are highly accurate. They write the manuscript, review the manuscript, engrave the engraving, review the edition, and then print and bind the edition. Once the edition is carved, it is reviewed several times to ensure that it is correct and handed over to the printer. , there will be no more mistakes or omissions.

Unlike handwritten manuscripts, it is prone to errors and omissions.

Furthermore, for large volumes of books, engraving is fast and low-cost, while hand-copying is very expensive and slow.
The quality also varies, but for engraving and printing, you can ask the best calligraphers to write the plates, and sometimes you can even ask Wu Huaiyu to write.

Moreover, one of the great advantages of Wujia Shidetang printing is that they also have Wu Huaiyu's unique printing style, also called Wu style or Tang style characters. The printing blocks carved with this font are horizontal and vertical, and the character frames are standardized. , it is thin horizontally and thick vertically, has a dignified structure, appropriate density, and clear fonts. Even if you read it for a long time, you will not get tired easily.

Li Tai's "Kuo Di Zhi" has 555 volumes and more than 18 million words. When it was originally compiled into a book, countless people were used to copy it.

There are only two copies in total, one is in the Secretary's Department and the other is in the Menxia Provincial Hongwen Hall.

If you want to copy a large number of copies by hand, it will be difficult to do it with Li Tai's current status.

Only print.

Li Tai chose Wujia Shidetang to engrave and print, and hoped to print more.

"His Highness wants to print and distribute Zhenguan Dizhi to the world, which is a good thing. However, as far as I know, this set of books has more than 500 volumes. If the engraving is done, the engraving will cost tens of thousands of pieces. This is not a good idea. It’s not easy to write a manuscript or engrave a small project.”

"I also know what the teacher said, but I also understand the process of engraving and printing books in Shidetang. The martial arts printing font used by Shidetang has a large number of excellent writers and engraving craftsmen. Although there are five There are more than a hundred volumes, but there are so many writers in Shidetang. If they write separately, the manuscript can be completed in one month at most, and there are also many engraving craftsmen in Shidetang.
More than 10,000 engravings should be completed in two to three months. "

The most powerful aspect of Wujia Shidetang's woodblock printing is the assembly line operation, such as manuscript writing, review, engraving, printing, etc., each link is separated, and even because the manuscript is written in the unified Wu style printing, the manuscript can be written separately , even if a set of books has hundreds of volumes and hundreds of people write manuscripts, each person only has a few volumes.

The engraving aspect is even more powerful.
There are countless engraving craftsmen in the Wu family. These people are basically illiterate, and they are not allowed to be literate, because engraving requires the craftsmanship of carving. If you are not literate and do not know calligraphy, it is best to just follow the manuscript. If you can read calligraphy, you can do it. Maybe when carving, you subconsciously bring in your own things, which are different from the original.

If you are illiterate and don't know how to calligraphy, you can just engrave according to the manuscript and it will be exactly the same.

Compared with the best manuscripts, the Wujia Shidetang engravings are indeed a bit straight-forward, but the efficiency and cost have been reduced, and they are even much better than most mid- to low-end manuscripts.

"I heard that at Taoyuan Village in Fanchuan, women and children, regardless of age or sex, work in Shidetang Bookstore, and many women also engrave and engrave calligraphy." Wu Huaiyu smiled, "That's true. It's not difficult to learn engraving and calligraphy. It takes some training. It takes time to learn, and with this skill, you can take on jobs and make money when you have free time. Anyway, the more you work, the more you get, and the people around Shidetang are willing to make some extra money."

Wujia Shidetang’s engravings are now sold all over the world.
It relies not only on the advantages of woodblock printing technology, but also its scale efficiency, and the fact that the Wu family masters the key ink technology of printing, and the Wu family has its own papermaking technology and papermaking workshop, using bamboo from the south of the Yangtze River to make bamboo. Paper, paper not only has the characteristics of thin, soft, light, tough, fine, etc., but the most important thing is that the production capacity is high and the price is lower.

Moreover, the binding of martial arts books has also been upgraded from traditional scrolls and albums to butterfly thread-bound albums.

Technology upgrade, production capacity advantage, scale effect,
In addition, the books published not only include Confucian and Taoist classics such as the Five Classics of Justice and the Four Sons True Classics, which are must-read for imperial examination scholars, but also some poetry collections, novels, and even some family trees, so the business is very flexible.

Wu Huaiyu's Qingyang Poems, Qingyang Collected Works, Qingyang Novels, and his Zizhi Tongjian were reprinted in countless editions.

Li Tai was very envious of Wu Huaiyu's status in the literary world.

Moreover, people can not only write poems and songs, but also write history and even compile medical classics.

The Compendium of Materia Medica of the Huangtang Dynasty, which he edited and edited, far surpassed the original limelight of Kuo Guozhi. Once revised and published, it immediately became a holy book in the medical field.

Wu Huaiyu's status in the medical world is becoming more and more stable. Among the three current medicine kings, he is the youngest, but his status is not inferior to that of Sun Simiao, and even surpasses that of Wei Shanjun.

"How many copies does King Wei plan to print?"

Wu Huaiyu did not refuse Li Tai’s order.

He knew that Li Tai had some small thoughts, but he felt that Xiaopang was actually not a bad person. He was a prince, and it was normal to have some ambitions.
But in the current situation, Xiaopang has no chance.
Wu Huaiyu thought that he would take this opportunity to get in touch with him, or to enlighten him properly, so that Xiaopang could change his attitude. The best way is to conquer the enemy without fighting.

Aren't these guys like Hou Junji just holding the banner of the Wei royal party to unite?
Now if Wu Huaiyu directly undermines Li Tai's ambitions and their flag falls, how can these people be united?
Li Tai hopes to print more copies, at least 10,000 copies.

Wu Huaiyu did not agree to him immediately, but first calculated the price of printing with him.
"Your Highness, the process of printing a set of books is still very complicated. First, you have to buy a wooden plate. The plate cannot be made without pear. Usually, pear wood is used as the plate. First, ask a carpenter to make the pear wood into a smooth plate. You can also use jujube wood.
Then ask the writer to write the manuscript, then the third draft review, and then the engraver to engrave the block.
After engraving, proofreading is still required.

Then it also involves paper and ink. According to the customer's needs, we provide corresponding paper and ink at different prices.

Printers and bookbinders are responsible for printing and binding.

Finally, there is the food expenses for these workers. Whether they are writers, engravers, school workers, printers, or assemblers, food is included. "

Wu Huaiyu and Li Tai were counting money one by one.
If you use different light plates, the prices will be different. If you use different paper and ink, the prices will be different. Even if you use different writers, the prices will be different.
Final total cost quote,
In addition, Shidetang has several modes of printing books. For example, it is only responsible for printing and does not care about other things after printing. There are also people who are responsible for both engraving and engraving, and are also responsible for sales, which can be divided into shares after sales, or they can be consignments.

Then there is this edition. Li Tai can buy it out. After the book is printed, the edition belongs to him and he can do whatever he wants. Another option is to return the printed version to the bookstore, and the bookstore can print it on its own in the future.

Or it may be agreed that if the bookstore prints and sells it by itself in the future, it will pay Li Tai a printing fee, and a sum of money will be paid for each printing according to the number of prints.

Anyway, there are various ways of cooperation, it’s up to Li Tai to choose.

Li Tai really didn't expect that there were so many details.

"What does the teacher think I should do?"

Wu Huaiyu thought for a while, "Your Highness's set of geographical records is still very valuable and worthy of promotion. If you want more people to see and collect it, you should print more. I suggest you cooperate with Shidetang."

He provides a cooperation model,
Li Tai provided the geographical records, and Wujia Shidetang was responsible for printing and sales.
The Wu family was not only great at engraving and printing, but also had many bookstores in various places, which both sold and rented books. They printed geographical records and put them for sale and rent in various places. There are more than 300,1500 counties in the world, and the market is still very large. big.

And you can also go through official channels. There are so many government schools in the Tang Dynasty, why don’t you buy some for collection?

When Li Tai printed books, he mainly wanted to be famous.

Wu Huaiyu was willing to cooperate with Li Tai. In addition to wanting to win over Li Tai, he also wanted to see the benefits involved. After all, this set of books was as valuable as the Tang Materia Medica he compiled. He would not worry about printing thousands of sets. Rent or sell.

As long as a certain amount is reached, block printing is very profitable.

The current carvers in the Wu family can carve a thousand characters per one stone. Except for the high wages for writing, other things are not high. But for the people in the surrounding area, this is a benefit given by the Wu family. After all, it is not difficult to learn lettering. They receive engravings when they are able to earn money. After carving, the money is calculated according to the words. The Wu family also makes money easily and will not deliberately make things difficult. .

Other carpenters, school workers, installers, etc. also feel that they often have work to do and can make money, which is very good.

"His Highness wants to revise a few more volumes of geographical records and add Luzon Prefecture, etc., and I still support it." Wu Huaiyu praised the fat student.

Support him in continuing to compile books.

Compiling books is worthy of support. It is better to compile books with peace of mind and gain both fame and fortune than to worry about fighting for wealth and heirs.

In the past three years, Li Tai should compile his geographical records in Chang'an, and don't get involved with Hou Junji and others.

Three years later, Li Tai took the money from the sale of the Kuozhi land and went to his East China Sea Liuqiu Island to become a vassal state in Taizhou. Wouldn't it be nice to concentrate on being his Haidong vassal?

"Then it's settled. I'll hand over the set of 550 volumes of geographical records from Menxia Provincial Hongwen Museum to the teacher, and Shidetang Printing House will be responsible for printing and selling them."

In this way of cooperation, Li Tai does not need to pay any more. He only needs to provide the manuscript of Kuo Dizhi, and Shi Detang pays for all other expenses.
However, Li Tai's dividend ratio will be lower because of this. Wu Huaiyu proposed two plans. One is to directly give him 10% of the selling price. For example, if a book sells for a hundred yuan, then Li Tai will get ten cents, and then multiply by The print run, if one thousand copies are printed, is worth ten thousand dollars. If this set of five hundred and fifty-five volumes is printed for one thousand, then the total of his percentage is more than five thousand dollars.

Another plan is for the Wu family to be responsible for printing, selling, and renting, and then share the profits with Li Tai after the cost is deducted.

The price of high-end handwritten books from Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty is very expensive, with a volume of a thousand copies being the base. But printed books are much cheaper, even ten times cheaper than high-end handwritten books.

But even a hundred coins per roll was still very valuable to the people during the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty. Two hundred coins could buy a piece of silk, and one hundred coins could even be exchanged for two stones of rice in the first two years.

The final price of Guo Ge Zhi will definitely have to take into account various circumstances, but it will probably be around a hundred dollars.

Li Tai finally chose the most worry-free way of dividing the money.
He requested the printing of 2,000 sets of Comprehensive Geography. He provided the manuscript, and the Wu family was responsible for the rest of the printing and sales. As for the share of the profits, he wanted 10,000 strings of cash.

Xiaopang also gave Wu Huaiyu a 10% discount. If he was given 10% of the book's selling price, he should get 11,100 yuan from these two thousand sets.

Now he only wants 10,000 coins.

In Xiaopang's view, this was the respect he gave Wu Huaiyu, the teacher.

Wu Huaiyu smiled and accepted it.

One thousand one hundred thousand dollars, he actually doesn't care about it at all now.

It was agreed that 20% of the ten thousand yuan would be paid first, and then another 20% would be paid every year after the book was released. The payment would be completed in four years. If it is reprinted in the future, it will still be divided according to this method to Li Tai.

Li Tai lamented that it took him five years to complete this set of books, and he used so many people to copy and proofread them. In the end, he only got two sets of books, which cost tens of thousands of dollars.

But now Wu Huaiyu can easily print two thousand sets in one year, which is 1.11 million volumes.

(End of this chapter)