Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1099 [Chinese Language and Chinese Land]

Wang Zongyao was born in the Chengdu Wang family, and was a member of the same clan as the former Song Dynasty Prime Minister Wang Gui. In terms of seniority, he could be considered a nephew of Qin Hui and his wife.

More than ten years ago, the Wang family in Chengdu was forcibly dismantled.

Wang Zongyao's family didn't get much land, but they got the Wang family's bookstore business. He failed the imperial examinations three times in a row, and his qualification as a juren expired and he had to take the exam again. He was so depressed that he simply went home to learn how to do business.

But he was only a bastard's son and had no share in inheriting the family business. At most, he could become a professional manager of the family business.

This time he discussed with his father and brothers and took some books and funds to Dali. Within ten years, he would return the capital with interest to his family, and the newly developed Dali industry would belong to him, but the family property in Chengdu would have nothing to do with him in the future.

What is Meizhou woodblock printing?
It's all a cover.

The books he brought were all printed in Chengdu and were of inferior quality.

Su Tong picked up a copy of The Analects and flipped through it, feeling that it was no more exquisite than the books from Dali. He couldn't help but ask, "Is this really a Meizhou masterpiece?"

Wang Zongyao smiled and said, "They are shipped from Meizhou. The three Su brothers, who were famous all over the world, often bought books in my store."

When the signboards of the "Three Su's" were displayed, these Dali scholars were immediately in awe, as if the textbooks in their hands had become more beautiful out of thin air.

"What are the entrance examination standards for the prefectural school?"

"I'll post it here, you can take your time to read it. It's actually similar to the provincial examinations, only the Four Books, Six Classics and Mathematics are tested. The Four Books and Mathematics are mandatory, and one of the Six Classics is chosen as the main classic."

"Which math book will be used for the math test?"

"The Ministry of Rites edited three types of mathematics: elementary, intermediate, and advanced. The government-run primary schools and county schools taught "Elementary Mathematics". The government-run prefectural and provincial schools required "Intermediate Mathematics" and offered "Advanced Mathematics" as an optional course. Only the Imperial College required "Advanced Mathematics", so once you graduated from the Imperial College, you would have the status of a Juren."

"Is this book in my hand Elementary Mathematics?"

"That's right. Just go back and flip through it. Although it is a required test, you haven't studied it carefully after all. This time, Dali Prefecture School will determine the number of students and admit the best based on the test scores. You don't need to learn all of Elementary Mathematics, you just need to do better than others."

"Don't you still have to study hard?"

"Yes. I was a juren in the past, and I know elementary mathematics like the back of my hand. I plan to open a temporary private school to teach mathematics in the near future. Of course, the tuition is quite expensive, and those who are interested can sign up."

"Sir, you are a Ming Dynasty scholar?"

"This is the admission ticket I took to take the imperial examination. It has the seal of the Ministry of Rites. I would never dare to forge it."

"How is the tuition calculated?"

"There are still more than fifty days until the entrance examination for the prefectural school. I will only accept thirty students, and the tuition fee for each student is fifteen strings of cash. I will teach them until the day before the examination."

"So expensive?"

“You don’t have to come to study.”

As long as you can afford the money, you would be a fool not to come to study. After all, the number of places in the provincial school is limited, and the more math problems you get right, the more chances you have of being admitted.

The scholars did not have enough money with them, but they all signed up with Wang Zongyao. They only needed to pay a deposit to reserve a spot, and then pay the tuition within three days to officially attend the math cram school.

If you don't make up for it within three days, the deposit will not be refunded.

These scholars were able to run to Dong Mingshou's house and stop the soldiers from arresting people. They must have come from local wealthy families and could certainly afford the mere fifteen strings of cash. They all paid a deposit to Wang Zongyao.

Then they began to read the Four Books and Six Classics.

The Dali Kingdom had no concept of the Four Books and Six Classics, and "The Great Learning" and "The Doctrine of the Mean" were not written as separate books.

Wang Zongyao introduced them:
"The Four Books are The Analects, Mencius, The Great Learning, and The Doctrine of the Mean. Generally speaking, you can study any of them. But true scholars will study The Great Learning first, then The Analects, then Mencius, and finally The Doctrine of the Mean."

"The six classics of the Ming Dynasty are also different from the ancient six classics. There is no "Book of Music", but there is "Xunzi"."

Su Tong was surprised and asked, "Is Xunzi also a scripture? It is rare in Dali. I only know about Xunzi from other books."

Wang Zongyao said, "That's fine. You can take the test on whichever of the other five classics you know, since the court will only test one of them. But you have to study the Great Learning carefully, because the order of some of its chapters and sentences is different from what you have learned before."

"Why is it different?" asked Schrohamming.

Wang Zongyao bowed to the northeast and said, "That was revised by the emperor himself, including the annotations in the Great Learning. They were all written by the holy emperor. Not only the Great Learning, but also five of the Four Books and Six Classics, the emperor made more or less suggestions when the annotations were recompiled in the Ming Dynasty. The current emperor of the Ming Dynasty, even if we put aside his status as an emperor, deserves the title of the great master of Confucianism."

Everyone was quite shocked when they heard this.

Zhu Ming's identity as the "Grand Master of Confucianism" was quite exaggerated. He used the emperor's power to revise the content of the imperial examination, so that scholars across the country studied according to the requirements for the past 20 years.

As more people studied it, mainstream academic thought naturally moved closer to Zhu Ming.

If it were someone who was not the emperor, it would be difficult to achieve this.

Even Zhu Xi's knowledge did not become mainstream in the Southern Song Dynasty, and I don't know how much he exchanged saliva with his peers.

In the end, although Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism became the official school of thought, it had become a castrated and deformed version of the Ming Dynasty. In particular, the "Complete Collection of the Five Classics" was edited in a perfunctory manner by Zhu Yuanzhang, and it could even be said to be misleading. By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, not many people used this set of legal textbooks, and students took up the Tang Dynasty's "Five Classics Zhengyi" as a textbook.

At this moment, the Dali scholars in the bookstore each bought a set of the Four Books textbooks and "Elementary Mathematics", and then chose a classic book they were good at.

Wang Zongyao was very happy to see this. It turned out that if you want to make money, you have to take risks. Now he can do a unique business in Dali City.

Unfortunately, the cost of transporting books from Sichuan is too high, so I have to print books myself in the future to survive.

The content of the Four Books and Six Classics has become stable and has not been revised in the past ten years, so the textbooks are all printed using woodblock printing. Firstly, the printing quality is higher, and secondly, it is also cost-saving. A set of woodblocks can even be used repeatedly as a family heirloom.

Books with large circulation, especially textbooks and Buddhist scriptures, are basically printed by woodblock printing. Although the initial cost is high, it will reduce the cost in the long run.

There are also engraving craftsmen in Dali, and Wang Zongyao already has mature ideas.

He knew very well that the government would crack down on Dali's esoteric Buddhism and Theravada Buddhism, and might even ban temples. The craftsmen who used to carve Buddhist scriptures for temples might have fewer job opportunities in the future, so they could hire some at very low prices. After the exam was over, Wang Zongyao planned to hand over the bookstore to his confidants and take his employees back to his hometown in Chengdu.

While a new batch of books was being shipped, I asked my father to get some more low-interest loans. The Ming Dynasty's treasure notes were easy to carry, and Yunnan would definitely open a Baoquan branch, and then I would hire craftsmen to carve the textbooks.

When I had enough funds in the future, I would carve movable type and set up a printing factory, and pirate and reprint various novels, play scripts, collections of essays, and the like.

The imperial court is about to promote education in Yunnan, so there will be no worries about sales if we print and sell books here!

At present, only prefectural schools are open. In the next few years, state schools, county schools, and primary schools will be established one after another. When the trend of imperial examinations takes shape, community schools and village schools will also appear in cities and towns, and then more people will buy books.

As the number of literate people increases, the sales of books such as novels and collections of essays will also increase.

Of course, there will be more competitors opening bookstores and printing houses, so you have to take advantage of the opportunity to establish your brand.

"What are these?" suddenly a scholar asked.

Wang Zongyao turned his head and smiled, "The top two rows are novels, and the middle row is drama scripts. I only ship one set of each novel and drama script here, and once they are sold, they are gone, so they have to be shipped again from Sichuan. This kind of books do not use woodblocks, but are all printed with movable type, so we need to have our own movable type library, and it is impossible to copy them in Yunnan in the short term. So, they are very expensive."

Really expensive!
Wang Zongyao dared to sell an official edition of "Journey to the West" for fifty strings of cash in Dali City, directly selling the novel as a luxury item.

Yunnan has no movable type library, so Journey to the West cannot be printed locally. Neighboring Guizhou has no movable type library either, and Guangxi only has one in the provincial capital, so it is better to ship it from Sichuan.

It’s so expensive, will anyone buy it?

It really does.

The people of Dali originally believed in Buddhism. The scholars heard that this was the story of Master Xuanzang's journey to the West to seek Buddhist scriptures, and after reading the first two chapters they were attracted by the novel plot, so they actually discussed about pooling money to buy a set together.

Since photocopying is not possible in the short term, just ask someone to copy the book.

You can copy the book yourself and just treat it as practicing calligraphy.

Su Tong paid for a copy of "Arabian Nights". When he went home and studied the Four Books and Six Classics, he was extremely bored, but soon he was attracted to the novel.

Su Tong did not forget that the scholar he was familiar with was killed, but he just didn't want to think about it.

The next day, a friend came running to report the news: "The government has posted a notice that only five temples are allowed to remain within a 30-li radius of Dali City, and all others will be banned. Of these five temples, four will be converted into Zen temples, and the remaining one will be a Tantric temple. As for the Theravada temples, no one will be allowed to remain!"

Su Tong was shocked and asked hurriedly, "What will happen to the monks in the banned temples?"

My friend said, "They were forced to return to secular life. Those who were willing to farm shared the land with the Han immigrants. Those who were unwilling to farm found their own way to make a living. I heard that some eminent monks were summoned to Kunming, and the government sent them to Luoyang to meet the emperor."

"How could the monks be willing?" Su Tong said.

The friend asked, "Have you forgotten what happened yesterday? They dared to kill even scholars, so how could they be polite to monks? When I came here, soldiers were mobilized inside and outside the city to directly ban the temples. If the monks resisted, they would probably kill many more. If the monks incited the people, I'm afraid those who led the troops would suppress the people as well."

Su Tong was so scared that he sat back down: "These have nothing to do with us, so let's study hard and prepare for the exam."

"How can it have nothing to do with us?" said the friend. "The government has also posted a notice that all books with Sanskrit must be handed over to the government within 60 days, and no one is allowed to keep them privately. If found to have such books, the person and three generations of his family will be disqualified from taking the imperial examinations. Officials will be dismissed immediately, and clerks will also be fired. Only temples reserved by the government are allowed to collect Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures, but private collection of Sanskrit Confucian scriptures is not allowed."

Su Tong hurriedly went to look for his collection of books, and found those with Sanskrit in them, so he put them all into a box, intending to hand them over to the government another day.

He didn't want to die, and he also hoped to pass the imperial examination and become an official, so naturally he had to cooperate with the government honestly.

"Are you really handing it over?" asked the friend.

Su Tong was surprised and asked, "Do you want to hide it?"

The friend said, "Of course I am willing to give away the Confucian classics with Sanskrit annotations. But it is not a big deal to keep the Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures collected by my elders. I also have a palm leaf scripture at home, which I spent a lot of effort to get. Even if I am willing to give it up, my grandmother will not be willing to give it up."

Su Tong reminded him, "You have the palm leaf scripture at home. Many people in the city know about it. What if someone reports it? You can hide other things, but you must not hide the palm leaf scripture!"

When the friend heard this, his face changed and he ran home without saying a word.

In fact, the Sanskrit books confiscated by the Yunnan government this time will not be burned all at once.

Even the various versions of the Confucian scriptures with Sanskrit annotations would be kept in one copy and sent to the Hanlin Academy in Luoyang for research.

Finally, scholars proficient in Sanskrit compiled it and sent it as a gift to Indian envoys who came to the Ming Dynasty for exchanges. First, it was a face-saving diplomatic move, and second, it was an opportunity to export Confucianism to India. This export was certainly limited to a small range and could not shake Brahmanism, but it was ultimately a spread of ideology.

As for the Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures, although their dissemination was restricted in Yunnan, it was not a big deal outside Yunnan. They could be occasionally given to eminent monks in various places, or handed over to the Monks' Office for research, which had certain value in Buddhist research.

In addition, these books can also be used as auxiliary materials and adopted as appropriate when compiling history books for the Dali Kingdom.

However, all plaques and inscriptions with Sanskrit in Yunnan must be destroyed.

Even tombstones are not spared!

The purpose is to not allow any Sanskrit in the public view.

If someone privately kept Sanskrit books, the government would not go door to door to check unless they were reported. But it was easier to check in public places and enforce the law.

Civil servants find this kind of thing very easy to do and have already formed a set of procedures.

First, the Jin Dynasty was destroyed and the Jin Dynasty's writing was banned. Then the Western Xia Dynasty was destroyed and the Western Xia writing was banned.

Then, in Anxi Protectorate, the use of Uighur and Turkic characters was gradually reduced. The degree of sinicization there was not high, and too few people knew Chinese characters. A direct ban would cause unnecessary trouble. For example, the local clerks in charge would become illiterate. Tax collection would become a mess!

The ban on Sanskrit in Yunnan today is nothing more than a replica of the template, allowing Chinese characters to become the mainstream again in border areas.

Even if the Ming Dynasty created by Zhu Ming collapsed in the future, these border areas would still be Chinese land. Because the people here use Chinese characters, and they can speak Chinese after a long period of integration. What else could it be but Chinese land?

Even Zhu Kang, who went to Champa to establish the Southern Yu Kingdom, was gradually promoting Chinese character education and trying every means to attract more Han immigrants.

(I went to Nanjing to watch Dao Lang's concert. I finally got the ticket. I may not update tomorrow. I'm taking a day off.)
(End of this chapter)