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

Yang Yi admired Neo-Confucianism very much and believed that the Four Books and Five Classics were the best in the world. However, Wang Wenlong actually denounced "Guwenshangshu" as a forgery in his book, which had already attacked Yang Yi's bottom line.

After being sulky for a long time, Yang Yi was determined to find out the errors and omissions in Wang Wenlong's book, so he picked up the book that was thrown on the ground and continued reading.

Then as he read, he gradually stopped talking. At this time, Yang Yi had not yet formed his own research methods, and was still in the learning stage of absorbing outside ideas. He still adopted an attitude of being able to absorb and learn from all Confucian research. However, after the initial resistance to Wang Wenlong's research methods, , but gradually the more he looked at it, the more it made sense.

This man could worship Qian Qianyi as his teacher, and he still had a certain understanding of Confucianism. By the time he had finished reading half of the entire "Shangshu Ancient Texts", Yang Yi had already admired Wang Wenlong.

He could quarrel with Gu Menglin for several days over a Confucian theory, and he had a strong desire to express himself. At this time, he felt a lot of insights after reading "Shangshu Ancient Texts". Yang Yi couldn't help but excitedly wanted to study Wang Wenlong's research. Promote the method to more people.

He has become Wang Wenlong's disciple in his heart.

But at this time, there are really only a few scholars like Yang Yi who can accept new research methods with an open mind.

Many Confucian scholars spent their entire lives studying the Four Books and Five Classics, and some even specialized in the "Old Classics" and spent most of their lives on these twenty-five texts. Wang Wenlong suddenly said that these texts were forgeries, and more people reacted by directly criticizing them. Defend.

Wang Wenlong's new book instantly aroused criticism.

"Shangshu Ancient Texts and Evidence" cannot be without problems. You must look for it and you can find many logically questionable points in it.

Qian Yiyi, the leader of the Donglin Party, directly wrote an article to attack: "I recently read Wang Jianyang's book "Shangshu Ancient Prose". The content of this book is exquisite, but the research method has a big fallacy: For example, Wang Jianyang believes in the book 'The title of the ancient text annotated by Zheng Kangcheng is different from the name of the "Guwen Shangshu" circulated in this world', taking this as a doubt..."

"However, this is just a matter of the number and title of the text. It is possible that the name of a text has changed over thousands of years, or that some texts have been lost. How can this be a method to falsify ancient texts?"

"Such falsified books are actually a trend of doubting the past and identifying falsifications since the Tang Dynasty. It has become more and more fierce through the Song and Yuan Dynasties and up to the present day. People with a little knowledge boast to each other about their ability to identify falsifications, thinking that they have overthrown the previous generations. Studying in the dynasty and being unparalleled in the world, this kind of thing has happened throughout the ages, and one or two sons are obsessed with it, they are just seeking fame and insulting others!"

Qian Yiben was well-targeted. Many people's attacks on the new "Shangshu Ancient Texts" have risen to the level of personal attacks on Wang Wenlong. They scolded him as if he was a villain who was seeking fame and reputation and actually used it for his own selfish interests. Writings written by saints are slandered as forgeries.

Wang Wenlong knew that this book would cause trouble, so after throwing out a shock bomb, he stopped talking from beginning to end and just let the public opinion field make trouble on its own.

On the contrary, young literati represented by Yang Yi felt that Wang Wenlong's research methods were reasonable and took the initiative to defend Wang Wenlong. They made great comments in newspapers and quarreled with those who attacked Wang Wenlong.

A debate arose in an instant.

Result:

First of all, "Shang Shu Ancient Wen Shu Zheng" quickly expanded its popularity and was sold directly to Jiangnan. Customers from Fujian, Jiangxi, Beizhili, Shandong, and Sichuan came to buy it, and Wang Wenlong became famous;

Secondly, many literati had the habit of subscribing to newspapers in order to watch the scolding wars. In addition to reading the scolding wars, they also read other content. As a result, more people discovered the novelty of newspapers. The newspaper industry throughout Jiangnan has experienced an increase in sales;

In the end, the young scholars represented by Yang Yi were sprayed with blood in the process of defending Wang Wenlong. However, the more they were scolded, the more they were aroused to be more aggressive. They spontaneously began to study "Shang Shu Ancient Prose and Comprehensive Evidence" and the contents in it. Rich in textual criticism knowledge, and amidst the scolding, he was determined to carry forward this knowledge.

Yang Yi was very capable of fighting and took pleasure in scolding and fighting every day. He even opened a newspaper in Changshu and published articles at a loss to attack those who attacked Wang Wenlong. He already had money and was idle.

It was impossible to withdraw even a cent of money. After he was demoted and became a civilian, he concentrated on studying the Six Classics. He even named his study room "Liu Jing Tang". He had spent half his life studying the classics and meanings. I wrote several hundred words of articles just on the word "self-denial". The Four Books and Five Classics were picked out word by word. After reading it, I naturally felt that every word in the Four Books and Five Classics was the most important thing in the world. Become Qian Ben’s faith.

The more a group of young scholars represented by Yang Yi attacked Qian Yiyi of the Four Books and Five Classics, the angrier they became. They exchanged insults with Yang Yi and others, directly accusing each other of disrespecting Confucianism.

The ability of Yang Yi and others to provoke a fight was too strong. It was because Wang Wenlong remained silent during the debate that gradually the firepower was attracted by Yang Yi and others. In the end, Qian Yiben actually had a good impression of Wang Wenlong and felt that Wang Wenlong It's just an academic discussion. Compared to others, Wang Wenlong's attitude towards Confucian classics can be considered respectful.

……

A group of people were arguing and arguing, but Wang Wenlong didn't care at all. He was still busy with the revision of his "Suzhou Xundao".

Suzhou, the government prison.

Ge Cheng sat at the table, looked at the gift money that was handed to him, and then looked at Wang Wenlong with a smile on his face and asked: "Assistant Guozi? Your Excellency is so noble, I really don't know what Ge Cheng can do to help you." Wang Wenlong smiled and said: "What do you call a little assistant coach? I have long heard of Brother Ge's reputation and admire him very much. In the future, Brother Ge will call his younger brother Jianyang."

Now that the preparations for the "Suzhou Xunbao" were almost complete, Wang Wenlong came to the prison specifically to ask Ge Cheng for help in setting up a reporter station.

It was difficult to find reporters in Suzhou in this era, as information exchange among the people was not smooth, and people were still acquaintances. In the past, the Xun Bao in Fuzhou only reported business news and market rumors. It would be good to find some people who are well-versed in the news as reporters, but Now that Wang Wenlong plans to run a serious current affairs newspaper, he must find people who can go deep into all walks of life to establish the news network of "Suzhou Xun Bao".

In today's Suzhou, if you want to have such a figure, you must contact the guild.

Guilds in various industries in the Ming Dynasty were still very relevant. Wang Wenlong's uncle Wang Jingui was working as a carver in Jianyang. He had to join the "township guild" to make a living. People who did the same job would go to a new place. To practice medicine, you have to go to the local guild to visit the dock.

These days, if you just randomly start a business somewhere without any acquaintance, you will be directly approached by the local branch of the Bank of China, and you can drive people away and smash up the store.

There was no one to recommend him, so it was too difficult for "Suzhou Xunbao" to go to guilds from all walks of life to say hello, so Wang Wenlong came directly to Ge Cheng after being introduced by someone.

Ge Cheng, a worker in the Suzhou silk weaving industry, was the leader of the Suzhou Weavers Guild.

Considering that the main industry of half of Suzhou is silk weaving, you can imagine how powerful Ge Cheng is.

Ge Cheng has a chivalrous heart. Three years ago, the eunuch Sun Long was sent to Suzhou by Emperor Wanli to collect taxes. He set up private tax cards and harassed the local area. The Suzhou Weavers Guild organized a "call break" to resist. Most of the city's weavers He didn't even go to work, forcing the Suzhou prefect to confront Sun Long.

Later, Sun Long set up a cash checkpoint at Kuangmen Gate and levied heavy taxes on the people entering and leaving the city gate. This went too far. On the sixth day of June in the 29th year of Wanli, Ge Cheng led the Suzhou weavers to the Xuanmiao Temple outside Kuangmen Gate to sit down. , Ge Cheng "held a banana leaf fan in his hand, and thousands of people responded to his call." "Thousands of people stepped forward, and tens of thousands of people lined up to watch." Ge Cheng's men maintained strict discipline wherever they went, broke through the banknotes, and ignored others. They killed several local gentry who had taken refuge with Sun Long, and frightened Sun Long into fleeing to Hangzhou.

Afterwards, Ge Cheng let the weavers resume work and took the lead in taking responsibility for the crime. When Ge Cheng was imprisoned, tens of thousands of people in Suzhou cried and sent him off, and the scholars called him "General Ge".

Because Ge Cheng's reputation in Suzhou was too great, officials did not dare to sentence him, so he was kept in prison. In addition, no one in the prison dared to ask him to do hard work. He was only given some jobs of guarding prisoners, and he was promoted one by one. They all want to pass it on to the next official for punishment. In the end, he will be imprisoned like this for more than ten years, and he will be in his fifties or sixties when he is released from prison.

After a few words of greeting, Wang Wenlong took the initiative to explain his purpose: "Brother Ge, I opened a "Suzhou Xun Bao" in Suzhou. I want to report current events for people to discuss, but I am suffering from the lack of channels to know about things in Suzhou. I hope to get Brother Ge's help. Build reporter stations in all walks of life in Suzhou."

Ge Cheng was a little defensive when he heard this: "Aren't you going to put spies in all walks of life in Suzhou?"

Wang Wenlong said: "Although the Suzhou Xunbao has shares owned by Fujian officials, it is not a government-run business. It just wants Suzhou citizens to have channels to understand current affairs. Nowadays, people with broken words in Suzhou's current affairs often don't know how the people live. The voices of ordinary poor people are not reflected in the literate big shots. Wouldn't it be a good thing to have such a channel?"

Wang Wenlong said and handed over the "Suzhou Xunbao".

Ge Cheng had been in prison for three years. He was not doing nothing. In the past, Ge Cheng could not read even two Chinese characters, but during this time he had learned some basic writing. When he took the newspaper and read it, Ge Cheng asked in surprise: "The Case of Di Gong was originally serialized in your Xunbao?"

Seeing Ge Cheng's delighted expression, Wang Wenlong laughed and said, "The Case of Di Gong is my humble work."

"Oops! So you are the owner of the Hidden Sword Tower? You're being negligent, you're being negligent."

Ge Cheng liked "The Case of Di Gong" very much. On the one hand, he was very novel about the detective story, and on the other hand, he admired the clever and honest Di Renjie in it.

After hearing this, he stood up and bowed his hands to Wang Wenlong in salute. Wang Wenlong even said he didn't dare.

Wang Wenlong said: "My newspaper now distributes nearly a thousand copies in each issue in Suzhou. It can be found on the desks of high-ranking families and has a certain reputation in the entire Jiangnan. If Brother Ge is willing to help, in the future the Suzhou Silk Weaving Industry Guild will If anything needs to be published in the newspaper, we will give it priority and consider it." (End of Chapter)