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

Chapter 142 Get rich and famous
The person in front of me, Wang Wenlong, knew him. His name was Zhang Xie, and he was from Longxi County, Zhangzhou.

Wang Wenlong had interacted with him before when he was working in Gao Yin's house. It was not Wang Wenlong who met him accidentally, but Zhang Xie took the initiative to find him.

Zhang Xie was born into a family of officials. His great-grandfather, uncle and father all passed the Jinshi examination.

However, Zhang Xie's father was dismissed from office at the age of 30.

Zhang Xie himself recorded in his article that his father Zhang Tingbang was "dismissed from office without reason." But in fact, you can understand it if you look at what happened that year.

That was the time when Zhang Juzheng implemented the whipping method in the ninth year of Wanli.Along with the whipping method, there is also the examination method, which will strictly evaluate the performance of officials from various places.

At that time, Zhang Tingbang served as Zhenjiang Coastal Defense Commander, and his subordinate Danyang and Dangtu counties were attacked by pirates. Zhang Tingbang was implicated and was demoted to three levels in a row.

This is obviously a typical example of being caught by Zhang Juzheng.

Zhang Tingbang is an old bureaucracy who encounters a new system and cannot adapt to it, so he can only blame himself for his misfortune.

However, Zhang Tingbang was upset when he was transferred to take charge of border defense miscellaneous duties. He thought about being promoted to this level directly since he was a Jinshi, so he resigned and went home in anger.

Zhang Xie has been familiar with classics and history since he was a child, and his experience of seeing his father being criticized for being "not good at doing things" may be due to his father's education from an early age that it is not easy to be an official. Anyway, the family has money, so he has no interest in being an official.

After Zhang Xie passed the national examination at the age of 21, he did not take the scientific examination again. Instead, he concentrated on writing books at home and opened a poetry club with the same name in Zhangzhou.

He was very interested in history and Zhangzhou's maritime trade. After reading "History of Portugal" written by Wang Wenlong, he took the initiative to find Wang Wenlong.

Zhang Xie and Wang Wenlong had some friendship when they were in Zhangzhou.

Wang Wenlong was also happy to associate with Zhang Xie because he knew that Zhang Xie had left a real masterpiece in the history of later generations-"A Study of Eastern and Western Oceans".

According to the original history, this book could not be written until more than ten years later. It covers the basic situation of transportation, history, geography, economy and ocean routes of overseas trade in the late Ming Dynasty. A must-read on the history of overseas Chinese.

After interacting with Zhang Xie, Wang Wenlong was also sure that Zhang Xie, who wrote this book, was the best person in Fujian at this time to study overseas situations and do business.

He is definitely the best candidate to write and edit the news section of "Xun Bao".

Wang Wenlong asked Zhang Xie, who was already familiar with the editorial department of "Xun Bao", to take Xi Langxian to familiarize himself with the working environment, and then asked Deng Zhimo about the books he had written.

When he asked, he found out that during the time he left Fuzhou, the sales volume of his genuine book "European Regular Script 92 Methods" had exceeded [-] copies.

This was an unimaginable number before the use of wax printing.

Although the profit from Wang Wenlong's manuscript was only more than 300 taels, the wax paper and ink used by Yu Xiangdou were also purchased from Wang Wenlong.

This is also the reason why Wang Wenlong must assign several deputies to Deng Zhimo, because many of Wang Wenlong's businesses are run by Deng Zhimo for him.

At this time, Wang Wenlong's average shareholding in several workshops owned by Wang Wenlong was about 6000%. With the rapid popularity of wax plate ink technology, Wang Wenlong's net worth has exceeded [-] taels.

Deng Zhimo and the Wang family who worked with him were all among the wealthy. Deng Zhimo and Wang Jingui had already purchased properties in Fuzhou, and Wang Pingbao's family had also been brought to Fuzhou.

Wang Wenlong's reputation continued to spread among the people along with the popularity of the books he wrote.

"Enlightenment of Rhythm" written by Wang Wenlong at a recent cultural conference has been very popular among the people of Fujian.The number of words in this book is very small. The original book is published by Xiong Qingbo's Chengdetang. Xiong Qingbo put "Enlightenment of Rhythm", "Principle of Logarithms", "Concise Logarithm Table" and "The Theory of Tianyan" all together into one book. "Mr. Jingguan's Collection of Arts and Sciences" has a nondescript name, but its sales are not bad.

And at this time, Chengdetang had already begun to research more sophisticated wax printing technology.

In the past, even Yu Xiangdou's "European Regular Script 92 Method" was just a simplified version printed with wax plates, because the wax plate printing technology still had flaws. The biggest problem was that it was not wear-resistant, and the paper was easily damaged during transportation. The mimeographed writing rubs onto the adjacent page.

Chengdetang already has a method for transforming this technology, which mainly uses thick paper with a matte surface. However, the printed books are still a bit difficult for people at this time to adapt to.

This time they used wax printing to publish formal books for the first time in "Mr. Jingguan's Collection of Arts and Sciences".

The real sales volume of Wang Wenlong's "Mr. Jingguan's Collection of Literature and Science" is actually reprinted books. Many contents in this collection of literature and science can be separated.

"Rhythm Enlightenment" can teach children about rhythm and learning. "Tianyan Lun" is very popular among readers at this time. "Logarithm Principle" and "Concise Logarithm Table" are of practical application significance.

Reprinted booksellers made the book into three small volumes and sold it cheaply, which was very popular among ordinary people.

Even the trial printing version of Chengdetang has not been sold outside Fujian Province at all, but reprints of "Mr. Jingguan's Collection of Literature and Science" have appeared in Jiangxi and Zhejiang, and they are still unpacked without beginning or end.

This is enough to prove how good the sales are.

Although the book market at this time was not perfect, many related professions had emerged, the most important being reviewers.

The excellent review book can almost be put on the same level as the original book at this time.

Practical little books like Wang Wenlong's are generally unreviewed, but "Mr. Jingguan's Collection of Literature and Science" actually has a review version on the market.

Reviewers unanimously applauded it, especially for "Tianyan Lun", which has four review editions on the market in Fuzhou alone.

At the same time, Wang Wenlong's "European Regular Script 92 Methods" also became popular.

Real calligraphers look down on this kind of introductory work and don't care about research, so when this book was first released, it didn't get much discussion.

But after many people actually used the "European Regular Script 92 Method" to learn regular script, a group of beneficiaries have already appeared.

Those who are diligent will find their way in and find that by practicing according to the "European Regular Script 92 Method", it only takes a month or two to master the basic regular script.

A few months after the book was published, it finally gained word-of-mouth.

However, among Fujian's famous calligraphers, Wang Wenlong's evaluation is not high.

Wang Wenlong's genuine "European Regular Script 92 Methods" is followed by a set of "Jiucheng Palace Liquan Inscriptions" that he personally copied. Although it is wax printing, Wang Wenlong's level can still be seen.

Some calligraphers quite disdainfully said that Wang Wenlong's calligraphy skills were sufficient but his style was insufficient, and that it should not be the standard for calligraphy that requires more advanced people to learn. Some even pointed out various vulgar problems in Wang Wenlong's handwriting.

However, the sales volume of Wang Wenlong's "92 Methods of European Regular Script" has not decreased but increased despite the criticism, mainly because it has received praise from many rural teachers.

(End of this chapter)