The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

Chapter 1 Returning Guests from the West
In the early spring of the 27th year of Wanli, Masa Village, Jianyang County, Fujian Province.

The Masha River flows slowly, and many wooden houses are built along both sides of the stream. There are bamboo poles outside the wooden houses, and stacks of book pages are hung on the bamboo poles like clothes. Many people are entering the wooden houses. Going in and out, you can still hear the sounds of paper making and knocking out stereotypes. The smell of firewood and the fragrance of ink float on the river. Merchants on the ship place packages of packed books in the cabin.

Jianyang, a small town in northern Fujian that was not well-known in later generations, has been the largest book production base in the country since the Song Dynasty. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the books produced by Masa Village in Jianyang County in a year were comparable to those in several other provinces. quantity.

In a house that could only be described as neat, Wang Wenlong had a document in front of him and was carefully transcribing it onto a small piece of paper.

He held a brush in his hand, and with each stroke, standard Song fonts appeared on the paper as if they were printed out. It was pleasing to the eye to read horizontally and vertically.

Wang Jingui, who was walking by, looked at Wang Wenlong's beautiful handwriting and nodded with satisfaction: "Thanks to your help, we can take over all the printing work this time."

Wang Wenlong smiled and said: "Uncle, don't worry, I will hurry up and I will definitely not delay your old man's business."

Wang Jingui smiled with satisfaction: "That's good, that's good. Don't overwork yourself."

As he said this, Wang Wenlong felt depressed while copying.

Cheng Wen's ink scrolls are excellent essays for scholars in this era to take the imperial examination, and the so-called xuanjia are those famous imperial examination experts who collected the imperial examination essays together and commented on their merits.

This kind of guide book for the imperial examination is one of the most popular types of books on the market in this era.

And this Wang Xuanjia was also a popular imperial examination teacher on the market at this time. Every time he printed the anthology, it was sold out, so he was very urgent with the rigid urging.

But for Wang Wenlong, this was really a chore. Wang Wenlong was dizzy after copying the clumsy eight-legged essay, and the comments that Wang Xuanjia wrote were extremely literate. Wang Wenlong felt like vomiting.

In a rigid manuscript, if one word is wrong, a whole page must be rewritten. Wang Wenlong is afraid of making mistakes, so he can only go so fast if he has to work hard.

Fortunately, my uncle Wang Jingui didn't dare to rush me.

Wang Jingui is a woodblock worker in Masha Village. Although he is very skilled in carving, because he can only carve but not write, he cannot take over the board-making work every time there is no copy of the manuscript in the bookshop.

It was definitely an unexpected surprise for him to suddenly have a nephew who could copy stereotypes. What more could he ask for?

Wang Jingui said: "Don't blame me for hurrying. This matter really can't be slowed down. Let's get these pages of manuscript out to him first. We can earn more than two taels of silver just for the engraving fee."

He looked at the beautiful Song fonts written by Wang Wenlong and sighed: "It's a pity. Your parents taught you to read and write since you were a child. Why didn't they teach you the knowledge of classics and meanings? As a smart young man like you, if you had read the Four Books and the Five Classics since you were a child, you would have passed the exam. Eight-parted Gu, our Wang family may never be able to produce a master."

He said: "That's all. Next month I will introduce you to Mr. Wang's bookstore as a proofreader. If you are a young man who can write and do calculations, you will definitely have a good career. When the time comes, I will get you married and start a family. It also fulfills one of your parents’ wishes.”

Listening to Wang Jingui's sigh, Wang Wenlong smiled bitterly in his heart. How could he learn eight-part essay when he was born in that era?If you want to learn, there is no place to teach.

Wang Wenlong was not born in this time and space. He was originally a 25-year-old young man in later generations. He graduated from ancient literature and worked in the new media industry.

Relying on the knowledge from his professional background and the interpersonal communication skills he developed in society as an orphan since he was a child, Wang Wenlong opened a history-oriented self-media account when he was still in college and gained millions of followers.

Wang Wenlong already had his own company before he traveled through time, and he was doing well in cultural creation, advertising, and live streaming.

Who would have thought that God would let him open his eyes and appear in Jianyang County in the 27th year of Wanli after one night as a young model in a club.

When Wang Wenlong learned about it, everyone was dumbfounded.As a graduate majoring in ancient literature, he has a very detailed understanding of the history of the Ming Dynasty.

Wang Wenlong knew that although society was generally peaceful now, the 27th year of Wanli had already reached the end of the Ming Dynasty.More than ten years later, Nurhaci will defeat the Ming army in the Northeast during the Battle of Sarhu. Within the Ming Dynasty, the party struggles between the Donglin Party and the Lott Party, Wei Zhongxian's dominance, and refugee uprisings will all be staged one after another.

Fortunately, Wang Wenlong suffered a lot as an orphan in his previous life, and he accepted the reality after scolding the world.

How the Ming Dynasty will develop in the future is still too far away from him. As a physical traveler, the first thing he has to solve is his own identity problem.

Wang Wenlong was from Jianyang in his previous life. Because his parents died when he was young, he read and reread the family genealogy when he was very young. He used the genealogy to find help from relatives and ate hundreds of meals until he was old enough to study.

Wang Wenlong is extremely familiar with the genealogy of the Wang family in Jianyang.

Wang Wenlong remembered that there was an ancestor in his family tree who went to the West with Zheng He during the Yongle period, but did not come back to recognize his ancestors for hundreds of years. Naturally, he could not be recognized by pretending to be their identity.

Wang Wenlong made up his mind to sell all the valuable things he had on him first.

Since the opening of Longqing, Fujian locals have been very receptive to foreign goods because they are adjacent to Yuegang. Lighters, cigarettes and other items were actually pawned for 15 taels of silver in a pawn shop under Wang Wenlong's nonsense.

After leaving the pawnshop, Wang Wenlong first bought a pig's head as a gift for the head of the Wang family, and then bought three sacrifices and wine gifts for the ancestral temple in his hometown. He hired people to play music and beat them to deliver them to his home. As soon as Wang Wenlong entered the ancestral temple, he knelt down and cried. .

Wang Wenlong really wanted to cry. He had a hard enough life in his last life. He finally got some grades but was sent to the Ming Dynasty again.His ancestors really didn't bless him much.

After attracting the attention of the whole family, Wang Wenlong said that his ancestors went to the West with Zheng He. Before his parents died, they asked him to return to his hometown in Jianyang to recognize his ancestors and return to the clan. Only then did he pay homage to his parents, pawned his property, sold his property, and returned on a sea ship. Fujian.

Wang Wenlong talked with everyone and found out that Wang Jingui, an engraver, was the head of the Wang family at this time, and the rest were worse than Wang Jingui. They were just people selling cold fruits and making silver stoves in the market. Wang Wenlong's words were sincere. The performance easily moved the whole family.

The follow-up was simple. Wang Jingui first received a big pig's head from Wang Wenlong and liked it very much. In a few words, Wang Wenlong returned to the Wang family's genealogy.

As a well-known craftsman in Masa Town, Wang Jingui is responsible for the township contracts of the twelve capitals in the county. He is a small representative of Jianyang's carving craftsmanship.

He took the initiative to set up a matchmaking process, and Wang Wenlong spent another five taels of silver to register in the county in just three days.

And then Wang Jingui was even more happy to find that Wang Wenlong could actually read and write.

These days, although most engraving craftsmen are very skilled, they do not know how to write. This can be seen from the very poor printing errors in many Ming Dynasty Masha engraving editions.

So although it was a pity to learn that Wang Wenlong did not know the Four Books and Five Classics and could not take the imperial examination to become a scholar, Wang Jingui was quite surprised that Wang Wenlong had beautiful calligraphy.I quickly asked him if he could write in Song-style characters.

Wang Wenlong's beautiful calligraphy is due to Wang Wenlong's university tutor who liked it. Wang Wenlong practiced it specially in order to make friends with the old man. After mastering many regular scripts, it is naturally not difficult to imitate the ingenious Song style characters.

So Wang Jingui took Wang Wenlong with him to take over the business of engraving ink scrolls.

After spending a long time, Wang Wenlong finally copied the ten-page ink scroll of the submission and handed it to Wang Jingui to be typed. When Wang Jingui left, Wang Wenlong spread out another piece of paper.

He thought for a while and wrote down several book titles on the paper, such as "A Dream of Red Mansions", "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio", "The Scholars" and "Official Affairs".

Wang Wenlong was not willing to be a proofreading master all his life. He spent this time learning about this era in detail. At the beginning, Wang Wenlong had various ideas about changing the era, but after thinking about it, he found that all he could do now seemed to be doing A copywriter.

(End of this chapter)