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

When Ye Zhouze heard Zhang Yaofang's proposal, he looked excited and said, "Why don't we just call this club 'People's Club', and I'll be the first to join."

"That's a good name." Zhang Yaofang nodded.

Tao Yunjia said: "I don't study well enough to join openly."

There are certain political risks in this democratic society. Ye Zhouze and Zhang Yaofang both have backgrounds. As long as things don't cause too much trouble, they are not afraid. However, Tao Yunjia is an official, so he naturally has to do some sensible actions to protect himself.

Wang Wenlong also said: "I also have a wait-and-see attitude."

Although the Democratic Society was inspired by his "On the Nation-State", Wang Wenlong himself did not feel that there was a social foundation to promote the nationalist movement in the past two years.

Moreover, parties formed when a theory first emerges often cannot unite too many people of insight. Nationalism still needs time to accumulate before it can gather strength. Wang Wenlong is not optimistic about the future of the democratic society.

This democratic society will probably split into several factions in the future due to different internal understandings of nationalism. At most, a truly capable party will emerge from the subsequent factions.

At this moment, Wang Wenlong naturally did not want to join the democratic society as the author of "On the Nation and the State".

Ye Zhou nodded, looked at Yuan Wuya and asked, "Where is Brother Yuan?"

Yuan Wuya smiled, raised his glass and sipped wine, and declined politely.

"This is a bit boring..." Ye Zhouze was a little dissatisfied. Seeing that the atmosphere was not right, Feng Menglong quickly changed the subject and asked, "I heard that Brother Zhang went to Guide Mansion this time?"

Zhang Yaofang said: "I went to see Dong Weng and saw the oracle bones they dug out. I really learned a lot."

He turned to look at Wang Wenlong and said: "Guide Mansion has benefited many epigraphers now. Many people are studying Jianyang's "Lecture Notes on Text Dating", thinking that the method in it has a lot of inspiration for the interpretation of oracle bone inscriptions. Many people are studying it. Said, it would be great if Jianyang could do more related research."

Wang Wenlong smiled and said: "I have been planning on doing this for a while."

The situation in the imperial court was treacherous. Wang Wenlong was nestled in Nanjing, so he naturally had to do something. If he had time, he could produce some masterpieces in archeology or archeology. In this era, the related disciplines of epigraphy, exegesis, and archeology were still in the foundation stage. The research content is not as divided as that of later generations.

The study of Confucianism is called "university", while the knowledge that people at that time considered to be the study of minutiae is now collectively called "elementary school".

There are many basic theories and research ideas in primary schools that are interoperable, and this work was only systematically done in large quantities after the Qing Dynasty.

Wang Wenlong had a banquet with everyone for a day. After returning home, he was planning to think about the direction of his next stage of research, when he suddenly learned a piece of news - Si Yue, the Fuxue of the Fourth Prefecture of Su Songchang Town, had banned all his books.

Not only "On the Nation and the State", but also previous books such as "Records of Cure", "The Scholars", "History of Portugal", "Treatise on Heavenly Evolution", etc. were also seized.

When Yuan Wuya came to inform him of the news, Wang Wenlong was stunned for a moment.

Think about it and you will know who is the culprit of this matter. Liu Cheng is the tax inspector and eunuch of the four prefectures in Su Songchang Town. It happened that these four prefectures banned his books.

"Jianyang, what should we do now?" Yuan Wuya looked anxious.

Wang Wenlong was very angry. These books had already passed their best-selling period and had little economic impact on him. However, Liu Cheng was obviously taking action against him. He not only had the profits from these books, but more importantly, He also has a copy of "Suzhou Xundao" in his hand.

Readers from the four prefectures of Su Songchang Town accounted for more than 90% of the readers of "Suzhou Xundao". If Liu Cheng went on to cause trouble against "Suzhou Xundao", his losses would be huge.

He said directly to Yuan Wuya: "Brother Yuan, don't worry, I will return to Suzhou right away."

Liu Cheng did not come forward. Wang Wenlong knew that if the conflict between him and Liu Cheng was made public, local officials would be afraid of offending Liu Cheng and would be less able to help him.

So he simply pretended not to know that Liu Cheng was behind it, and after returning to Suzhou, he went directly to Si Yue of Heshan Academy.

At this time, the academies were divided into government-run and private-run academies. In the government-run academies, famous officials were invited to serve as teachers, and the government also sent Si Yue to the academies to supervise the operation of the academies. From time to time, the government audits the books sold in the local market and issues bundles of books. These tasks are handed over to local schools.

The current book seizure and review in Suzhou is done by Si Yue from Heshan Academy.

When Wang Wenlong arrived at the entrance of the academy, he was stopped by two gates of the academy.

Of the two disciples, one is over sixty and the other is only in his twenties and thirties.

The young disciple asked: "Are you a student of this college?"

Wang Wenlong didn't wear official uniform when he came to work, just dressed as a Confucian scholar. When he saw someone coming to stop him, he was too lazy to make any noise and waved to Wang Pingbao. Wang Pingbao took out a broken piece of silver and stuffed it into the doorman's hand: "My master wants to go to the academy to find someone. , this means, you two can take it to drink tea."

"How can a place of study be so smelly?" The old man took the money and pushed it back sternly: "Nowadays, there are a few literary traitors who use their skin and property to break into other people's academies and seduce the beautiful young man in the academy. Go, but I don’t dare to let people go at will!”

Wang Wenlong was speechless for a while, thinking that he was looking for primary school students in the academy... But this Heshan Academy is indeed the first-class government-run academy in Suzhou, and the disciples have quite a sense of morality.

Wang Wenlong could only announce himself: "I am Wang Jianyang, the eighth-grade assistant tutor of the Nanjing Imperial College, and I want to talk to Si Yue from your academy."

The young disciple's nostrils were raised in the sky: "The eighth-grade master often walks in my academy, and I have never heard of the principle of entering as soon as you come in. I can only wait here first, and tell me which Siyue I see, I'll help you to find out."

Heshan Academy has such a great reputation that it has trained several Jinshi scholars. Even the disciples of the Academy look down upon the eighth-grade junior officials.

Fortunately, the older disciple had some insight and said, "Could it be Wang Jianyang from Suzhou Xundao?"

"Which one?" asked the young disciple on the side.

The older one said: "Don't you often say that Wang Jianyang's reports are so good that you won't leave the newsstand after hearing them?"

Only then did the young disciple realize what he was doing, and his face suddenly changed, and he said in surprise: "Are you Wang Jianyang, the master of the Hidden Sword Tower?"

Although the young man was a disciple of the academy, his cultural level was not very high. The highest level publication he could read was the Suzhou Xunbao. In his opinion, Wang Wenlong was already the most famous Confucian scholar.

"That's right." Wang Wenlong said.

"I...I don't know if it's Mr. Jianyang," the man stuttered, and then said, "I'm going to help you inquire."

He ran all the way into the academy, found Siyue Zhao Ergu of Heshan Academy in the sacrificial temple, and said: "Gong Jianyang of Suzhou Xunbao came to see the master."

Zhao Ergu continued to write without raising his head, and said rather contemptuously: "As expected, I found him. Let him come in."

The doorman hurriedly ran back and said to Wang Wenlong who was waiting in the concierge: "Mr. Jianyang, Zhao Siyue invites you in."

Zhao Ergu was just a civil servant, but he had been living in the capital before and was a slightly famous calligrapher.

After Emperor Wanli issued an order to expel guests, Zhao Ergu and other mountain people ran out of the capital. Zhao Ergu came to Suzhou and joined Liu Cheng with his beautiful calligraphy. Then Liu Cheng recommended him to Heshan The position of Si Yue in the academy.

He knew in Beijing that Wang Wenlong was protected by the Zhejiang Party, but after the demon book case came out, the Zhejiang Party itself was in turmoil. He thought that Wang Wenlong had already lost his backer.

Zhao Ergu was a person accustomed to being a guest in Beijing, and he frequently participated in the activities of rectifying officials in Beijing. Helping Liu Cheng to rectify Wang Wenlong, an eighth-grade official in Nanjing, was just a small matter to please his master. That’s all.

(End of this chapter)