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

Chapter 2 The flourishing age of novels
Having been in this era for many days, Wang Wenlong found that although he had a lot of knowledge about ancient history and even some history of technological development, he was still a little at a loss in this era.

It is easy to say that we are going to make scientific and technological inventions to change the world, but firstly we have no capital, and secondly we only have a rough understanding of many technologies.

Of course he knew the principle of a steam engine, but he had never seen it with his own eyes. Wang Wenlong felt that if he wanted to really build a commercial steam engine, he still didn't know how many experiments it would take, and he couldn't afford it just by burning money.

The same goes for other technological inventions.

There is little hope of taking the imperial examination and becoming an official to change the current situation.

Although the ancient imperial examination only tested a few books, Wang Wenlong had read the ancient eight-legged essay, and he knew that so many scholars had long been stuck in the imperial examination because of their hard work.

Don't look down on scholars.

Only a dozen people in a county are admitted to the scholar examination every year, which is equivalent to the previous life when only the top dozen were selected for the college entrance examination in each county. Wang Wenlong does not think that he is so talented that he can start learning to write eight-legged essays in his 20s and study this way for many years. scholar.

If it were so easy to take the scholar examination, a supervisor with a scholar's degree would not be worth more than 200 taels of silver.

Even if you can't pass the exam to become a scholar, if you want to be promoted to a scholar step by step, or even become an official to change the times, the probability of success is infinitely close to zero.

As for joining the army... Wang Wenlong could only smile bitterly when he thought about it.

He is just an ordinary young man from later generations. Although his nutritional conditions are better than those of people at this time, so he is taller, but he does not believe that he can be invincible on the battlefield just by relying on his physical advantages and a little understanding of history.

If he joins the army now, he will most likely be assigned to the coast or North Korea to fight Japanese pirates, or to Guizhou to fight Yang Yinglong. No matter which way he chooses, he will die among tens of thousands of soldiers without knowing how.

Wang Wenlong admitted that he was not a very noble person. Of course he had simple national sentiments, but if this matter was too difficult to accomplish, he would not be willing to risk his life for an almost zero chance.

Wang Wenlong knew that what he needed most now was to make money first and change his situation.

He analyzed his abilities and found that in addition to being familiar with history, he had read a large number of ancient literary works, and his writing skills were also quite good.

Thinking about it this way, the path of copying books is the most suitable for him.

Thinking about it this way, the Wanli era he was living in at this time was also the best era for writing novels.

In the middle and early Ming Dynasty, the restrictions on novels and essays were quite strict. During the Zhu Yuanzhang period, it was stipulated that opera singers could only sing about gods, righteous husbands, chaste wives, filial sons and virtuous grandchildren, etc. All so-called scripts and novels that blasphemed the emperors and sages were banned.

In this way, no novels such as "Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin" can escape.

During the Yongle period, the ban was strengthened. "However, those who dare to collect, recite, print and sell lyrics, music, music, and dramas that are blasphemous to the emperor and sages and are not allowed to be published by the law firm will be sent to the judicial department for investigation."

"But after these lyrics and music are released, they will be given a five-day limit before they are burnt. Anyone who dares to collect them will be killed by his whole family."

Therefore, as in many time-travel novels, those who traveled to the middle and early Ming Dynasty and dared to copy the novels and sell them for money are basically the author's imagination. The first large-scale publication of "Three Kingdoms" would have to wait until the Jiajing period, and it was only after the Secretary Li Supervisor was the first to publish it publicly. Only then did the people dare to continue engraving it, and they also had to write it as "the script of the Supervisor of Ceremonies" to shirk political responsibility.

For nearly 200 years before this, novels from the early Ming Dynasty such as "Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin" were basically circulated in the form of manuscripts.

By this time, in the late Wanli period, literature had developed for several decades after the Jiajing Dynasty loosened restrictions, and the ban on novels in the early Ming Dynasty had been basically abolished.

The development of printing technology has also reduced the cost of printing books, and ordinary people can afford books. People cannot understand Confucius' articles, but the demand for novels is rapidly expanding.

There has been a situation in the market where bookstore owners want to "sell more and sell more quickly", so "selling ancient books is not as good as selling contemporary texts, and selling contemporary texts is not as good as selling novels."Wang Wenlong has no psychological burden on copying books. He came from nothing in his previous life. In his philosophy, he can do anything to survive. Without this idea, he would have starved to death in his previous life.

Looking at the title of the book he wrote on the draft paper, Wang Wenlong began to think about which book he wanted to copy.

In the past few days, Wang Wenlong also went to the market to read some popular novels at that time. By comparing them with the history of Chinese literature in his own memory, Wang Wenlong quickly figured out the era of this time in the history of literature.

The development stage of novels in this era was still quite early, and the content of the novels was very rough.

Popular novels on the market today can be roughly divided into two types: classical Chinese and popular.

The main difference between the two is the language used.

Classical Chinese novels are written in classical Chinese, based on ancient notebook literature such as "Youyang Zazu" and "Shishuo Xinyu". The readers are the scholar class with a little knowledge of ancient writing, which is relatively advanced.

Popular novels were written in the vernacular at that time, such as "Journey to the West", "Water Margin", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", etc. The style was lower, but they could be read by traffickers and people, and their sales were several times that of classical Chinese novels.

Wang Wenlong thought for a while and crossed out the classical Chinese novel "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" first.

Of course, classical Chinese novels can be copied. There are three ready-made books, including "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio", "Zi Buyu", and "Notes from Yuewei Thatched Cottage". These books are all of a very high standard and will definitely become popular if they are written. However, there are also problems It was precisely because of his high level of classical Chinese skills in the three books that Wang Wenlong was afraid that if he copied them rashly and became popular, he would gain a reputation as a celebrity, and his secrets might be exposed when talking to others in the future.

It is normal for a person who can write Wenyan novels to take the imperial examination for his literary talent. Maybe an official will promote him to take the imperial examination because of his literary talent. When the time comes, he will not know all the questions asked in the paper, then it will really happen. Big problem.

It's okay to copy classical Chinese novels, but at least you have to wait until he has established his reputation as a celebrity and no one will question him about his literary talents.

After deciding to copy popular novels, Wang Wenlong turned his attention to several other titles.
Wang Wenlong knew that the four major types of classical novels in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were historical romances, public case romances, novels about gods and demons, and novels about human relationships. After thinking for a while, he added "Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties", "The Complete Biography of Yue Yue", "The Biography of Jigong" and "Journey to the East" on the paper. Waiting for some names.

Wang Wenlong remembers that the revival of novel creation in the Ming Dynasty began with historical novels. By the time of the Jiajing and Longqing dynasties, Ming Dynasty novelists had written about all the divided dynasties in Chinese history, even "The Story of the Suppression of the Japanese Bandits in Qinantang" and "The Emperor's Story". The stories of this dynasty such as "The Legend of the Heroes of the Founding of the Ming Dynasty" were written down to make up the numbers.

Next year, after the Battle of Yang Yinglong in Zhengbo Prefecture, someone will immediately follow up on writing, and within two years, "Zhengbo Zuo Jie Zhuan Popular Romance" will also be released.

This shows that the market for historical novels at this time is really too big.

After some thought, he excluded "The Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties" and "The Complete Biography of Yue Yue" which were historical novels.

At this time, there were at least dozens of novels of the same type, and even if he wrote one more and it was released to the market, there would be no big reaction.

As for public case novels - people like to hear the story of Bao Gong very much at this time. From the Jiajing period to the present, dozens of "Bao Gong's Case" have been compiled. There is nothing to write about. Some bookstore owners even compiled the case files of this dynasty. Just make up the number by printing directly.

Wang Wenlong knew that even if he wrote "The Case of Di Gong" and "The Case of Hai Gong", it would only add more firewood to the already hot public case novel market, and it would probably not be able to create a sensation.

When he saw the novel about gods and demons again, Wang Wenlong thought about it and crossed it out as well.

At this time, "The Romance of the Gods" has been written, and the standard of subsequent classical novels about gods and demons is generally too poor. Comparative masterpieces such as "The Legend of Jigong" and "Journey to the East" cannot reach the level of "Fengshen" and "Journey to the West". If you write it down, you might be able to get it published, but you probably won't get a big name.

After a series of deletions, Wang Wenlong's manuscript was finally left with only the category of human romance novels.

(End of this chapter)