Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 284 Longzhong vs.

Lin Hai's request was quite reasonable. As the financial sponsor, he certainly had the right to ask Zhang Pu to explain his plans in order to decide whether to invest in him.

However, unlike the investors who listened to the business plan reports in later generations, Lin Hai's main purpose was not to judge whether the project was reliable. After all, he was a wise guy and knew that Zhang Pu would definitely be able to build a nationwide unified literary society.

Lin Hai's main purpose was to find out how the Yingshe in Nanzhili became the nationwide Fushe. He couldn't just ignore this process, otherwise he would not be able to control Zhang Pu in the future. After all, he could only hide behind the scenes and control it.

"Brother Deng Wan, today's literary societies are mainly reading societies. Scholars join these societies mostly to exchange ideas and understand trends. The ultimate goal is to win the first prize in the imperial examination and pass the imperial examination. Therefore, if we want to unify the literary societies in the world, the most important thing is to lead the election trend, so that scholars from all over the world can flock to it..."

"The political trends in the election can also affect the examiners' preferences in grading papers. If the scholars in the society are immersed in this trend for a long time, it will be easier for them to seek fame. And if the scholars in the society succeed in the imperial examinations, they will further attract scholars who have not yet joined, and even directly merge other literary societies into it..."

Zhang Pu pointed out that the biggest driving force for the development of literary societies was the imperial examination. Whoever could lead the world in selecting contemporary essays could form a large-scale reading society.

He went on to say, "As Brother Deng Wan said, Yingshe has already laid a solid foundation in unifying literary societies throughout the world. Our Zhou Jiesheng is known as one of the three great masters in the world along with the Ai family in Jiangyou and the Song family in Laiyang. In recent years, my and Yang Weidu's selections have also been well received and ranked among the famous masters. Therefore, I believe that the time is ripe for Yingshe to merge with other literary societies..."

Lin Hai nodded when he heard this. He remembered that Fushe should have been founded in the second year of Chongzhen, which was at most two years from now.

Today, Yingshe is only a local literary society in Nanzhili, but when Fushe was founded, almost all the well-known reading societies in the country were included, except for those with obvious ties to the eunuch party. Two years alone was too short for lobbying and organizing, so Lin Hai dared to say that Yingshe already had a solid foundation.

However, it was not until he listened to Zhang Pu's words that Lin Hai finally understood what this foundation was. In fact, it lay in the achievements of Zhou Zhong, Zhang Pu, Yang Tingshu and others in selecting arts and writing.

Thinking of how Zhang Pu had escaped poverty and become well-off, Lin Hai interrupted and asked, "Tianru, did you print and sell the collection of contemporary essays you selected?"

Zhang Pu shook his head and said, "Each family sells manuscripts to booksellers. Zhou Jiesheng's manuscripts can usually be sold for thousands of gold."

"So expensive?" Lin Hai was a little surprised. If the bookseller was willing to pay several thousand taels of royalties, he would definitely make more money. In comparison, he could hardly get any royalties for his "Dream of Red Mansions". The bookseller was already giving you face by being willing to publish and sell it.

Judging from this situation, if there was a best-selling book ranking list in the Ming Dynasty, the top few would definitely be collections of contemporary essays selected by famous politicians.

This matter seemed to be able to be combined with the newspaper. Lin Hai still needed to think about how to combine it. He gestured to Zhang Pu and said, "Tianru, go on."

"In addition to the Ying Society, the largest literary societies in the world today are the Yuzhang Society in Jiangyou and the Wulin Reading Society in Liangzhe. In addition, the Laiyang Yi Society is also quite famous...

"The person in charge of Yuzhang Society is named Ai Nanying, one of the three great politician I just mentioned. Jiangxi is also a land of fertile culture, so Yuzhang Society is also quite influential. I think it will be difficult to persuade Yuzhang Society to merge with Ying Society..." "As for Wulin Reading Society, the person in charge is Yan Du, also known as Zi'an. Although Yan Zi'an is well-known, he is not a famous politician. The reason why Wulin Reading Society can have the momentum it has today is mainly because its predecessor, Xiaozhu Society, was founded 30 years ago, and Zhejiang is also a place with rich cultural heritage, so it has a great influence..."

"The exact opposite of Wulin Reading Club is Laiyang Yi Club. This literary club is almost completely controlled by the Changqing Song family of Laiyang. The Song family is also one of the three great scholars in the world. In recent years, the children of the family have been successively admitted to the imperial examinations, so the club has a high reputation. However, Laiyang is located in the remote Shandong Province, far away from the most prosperous cultural and educational areas of Jiangzuo and Jiangyou, so its momentum cannot be compared with Ying Club, Yuzhang Club and Wulin Reading Club..."

Zhang Pu first gave Lin Hai a brief introduction to the current major and famous societies, and then began to talk about his own plan: "Therefore, we must unify the literary societies in the world based on Ying Society. The first thing is to win over Wulin Reading Society to strengthen its momentum. Secondly, we must unite with Changqing Song of Laiyang to suppress Ai Nanying of Yuzhang Society in the election and remove him from the list of the three major electors. As long as the above two points can be achieved, unifying the literary societies in the world will be a piece of cake."

"What a great Zhang Tianru!" Lin Hai laughed after listening to it. "In my opinion, this argument is quite similar to Zhuge Liang's Longzhong Plan."

"Brother Deng Wan, thank you for your compliment." Zhang Pu said modestly, "How dare I compare myself with Zhuge Wuhou?"

Zhang Pu naturally cannot be compared with Zhuge Liang. After all, the latter's goal was to unify the world. But in terms of unifying the world's literary society, the strategic plan he put forward is indeed comparable to the Longzhong Plan.

In fact, the later Fushe did develop according to this strategic plan.

Zhang Pu first became friends with Yan Du, and the two of them praised each other's business, each using their own reputation to raise the other's value. Later, taking advantage of the fact that scholars in Liangzhe were eager to discuss current affairs with the bigwigs of Yingshe, he persuaded Yan Du to merge with Wulin Reading Club.

Then, when Ai Nanying and Zhou Zhong were fighting, Zhang Pu and Zhang Cai invited Song Mei of Changqing Song family to judge, which virtually raised the status of Song family among the three major political families. Song Mei naturally favored Yingshe. Song Jicheng, who presided over Laiyang Yishe, was Song Mei's uncle, so he returned the favor and led Yishe to join the later Fushe.

Ai Nanying was so angry that he went to Jiangnan twice to debate with Yingshe. Zhou Zhong was unwilling to pay attention to him, so Zhang Pu asked Chen Zilong, who was his good friend, to go with him to challenge him. Chen Zilong was young and hot-tempered, and he beat Ai Nanying in the second debate.

After that, Ai Nanying started to attack people instead of things, and made personal attacks on Zhou Zhong, Zhang Pu, Chen Zilong and others in his correspondence. So Zhang Pu wrote a letter to Song Mei, and Jiangnan Yingshe and Laiyang Yishe both announced that they would break off relations with Ai Nanying.

It happened that Zhang Caizhong was appointed as the magistrate of Linchuan County after passing the imperial examination. Zhang Pu wrote another letter to his sworn brother, asking him to use his position to win over the leaders of Yuzhang Society such as Chen Jita, Zhang Shichun, and Luo Wanzao in order to isolate Ai Nanying.

Zhang Cai was an honest man, and at first he wrote to Ai Nanying to try to mediate. But by then Ai Nanying had gone mad, and in his reply he directly compared himself to Zhou and Confucius, and called Zhang Pu a thief.

Now even the leaders of Yuzhang Society, such as Chen, Zhang, and Luo, could not stand it anymore, and Ai Nanying became completely alone.

In fact, Ai Nanying was a man of great integrity. After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, he fought against the Qing Dynasty in Jiangxi at the age of over 60. After the fall of Jiangxi, he went to Fujian to join Emperor Longwu. After his death, he left a will that his coffin should be hung on a tree and not be buried in the soil of the Qing Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)