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

Chapter 4 The Originator of Writers
Wang Jingui's wife, Mrs. Zhang, had been busy cooking all afternoon. After several people entered the house, she served wine and rice, which was quite sumptuous. Chicken, fish, duck and meat were piled all over the spring terrace.

Deng Zhimo waved his hand and said with a smile:
"I just came here to have a simple meal, why should I be so particular?"

Wang Jingui said: "Master Deng is a big shot in Shuangfeng Hall, and Master Yu respects him as a distinguished guest. This small table is not a courtesy. Master Deng is willing to use it to give us face."

Wang Wenlong was stunned when he heard this. Shuangfeng Hall, isn't this the bookshop of Jia Yu Xiangdou, the great scholar in the late Ming Dynasty?
Then he suddenly remembered who Deng Zhimo was.

Deng Zhimo, courtesy name Jingnan and Zhuxi Sanren, was an important popular novelist in the Ming Dynasty and the author of "The Story of the Iron Tree", "The Story of the Cursed Dates" and "The Story of the Flying Sword".

Wang Wenlong had read this man's works in his previous life. It must be said that the quality of Deng Zhimo's novels in Wang Wenlong's memory was extremely rough, but it did not diminish his status in the history of literature at all, because the greatness of this man's writing was the quantity.

In addition to writing novels, Deng Zhimo also compiled a large number of books, from collections of sketches to collections of jokes, from poetry collections to music scores, from life encyclopedias to writing guides. He even compiled a book that is the originator of travel guides for later generations - an introduction to the world's roads. The journey book "One Grip of Kunyu".

According to later research, the reason why this person wrote so many books with different themes and complicated contents actually reflects that the commercialization of book publishing was already very high at this time.

Deng Zhimo had been cooperating with Jianyang Bookstore at this time for a long time, and he would write whatever books the bookshop needed.

To put it simply, these are the first business writers in history.

All future writers who take orders for coding must respect him as their ancestor.

Wang Wenlong didn't expect that Wang Jingui would introduce him to such a historical celebrity, and he immediately paid attention to him.

After a few conversations, Wang Wenlong realized that Deng Zhimo had a wide range of interests, especially his pursuit of fresh knowledge.

Wang Wenlong is a good person, so he naturally deliberately chooses topics that the other party is interested in to chat with him. He only uses a few words to bring the two of them closer, and he is quickly introduced as a confidant by Deng Zhimo.

Deng Zhimo asked while eating the food: "My little friend's accent sounds like he is a local stranger?"

Wang Wenlong said: "I was born in Nanyang. I lived with my parents in the outer vassal since I was a child. Since both my parents have gone, I returned to the Ming Dynasty on the orders of my parents."

Deng Zhimo was really interested when he heard this and asked: "I wonder which countries in Southeast Asia my little friend has been to. Is the customs there similar to those written in "The Three Treasures Eunuchs Sailed to the West"?"

Wang Wenlong thought for a while and then remembered what Deng Zhimo was talking about, and then he wanted to laugh.

"The Three Treasures Eunuch's Voyage to the West" is a long novel about gods and demons written by Luo Maodeng published in the 25th year of Wanli. It is based on Zheng He's voyage to the West. However, the whole story does not describe any navigation journey at all. The main content is that Zheng He went to the West to obtain Bifeng. The story of the elders and Master Zhang slaying demons along the way.

In the story, Emperor Yongle is the reincarnation of God Xuantian, and Zheng He is the reincarnation of the toad spirit. The purpose of his voyages to the West is to hunt for treasures. There are gods and Buddhas all over the sky to help him along the way. The historical story of Zheng He's voyages to the West is directly written as a replica of Journey to the West. The overall content is quite nonsense.

Although Deng Zhimo is a scholar, for Ming scholars these days, overseas countries are just like the legendary Western Heaven, with only vague and distant impressions, but they actually regard the things in the novel as reality.

Wang Wenlong shook his head and said with a smile: "That's just what a novelist said. In fact, Western countries are just like the Ming Dynasty. They have farmers, soldiers, and craftsmen, and there are no gods, Buddhas, or spirits."

Deng Zhimo nodded and thought, but was even more interested.

Wang Jingui watched from the side and noticed that Wang Wenlong was very clever with words.

He was originally worried that Wang Wenlong might offend someone when he talked to Deng Zhimo at a young age, but he soon realized that he was completely over-worried.

He simply asked Wang Wenlong to spend more time communicating with Deng Zhimo. After eating, Wang Jingui asked Zhang to make tea for the two of them. Then he found an excuse to go to the kitchen with his wife, children and grandchildren to clean up, leaving a place for the two of them to chat. .

Deng Zhimo told a lot of details about the operation of Jianyang Study Room at this time, and then kept asking about Western customs.

Wang Wenlong was naturally telling nonsense.

Although the details must be very different in different eras, Wang Wenlong knew that Deng Zhimo had no chance to confirm it, so he was not afraid of blowing the whistle and made a sensational statement.

"There is a kind of wizard in Siam who specializes in collecting the corpses of children to make statues of gods, called Gumantong. The locals think that this kind of imp is mentally immature. As long as they make offerings to it and make the little Gumantong happy, then The little ghost will be like a child, willing to get money for the master or fulfill his wishes. Those who want to get windfall should offer more of these things." Deng Zhimo frowned when he heard this and said: "There must be no decent monks in Siam, otherwise how could it be allowed to happen? Is this kind of evil practice widespread in the world?"

Wang Wenlong shook his head and said with a smile: "The whole country of Siam is very religious in Buddhism. It is even the custom of the country that men must be ordained and become novice monks for a period of time after they are seven years old."

Deng Zhimo clicked his tongue and said in surprise: "This is strange again. Since they believe in Buddhism, how can they do so many mysterious things?"

Wang Wenlong started talking: "Siam is very close to India. India was India in ancient times. The influence of Buddhism is very profound."

Deng Zhimo was quite surprised: "I often hear people say the name Siam, but I didn't know that the Buddhist Kingdom of the West is actually connected to the Siam Kingdom."

Wang Wenlong added: "Not many people in India now believe in Buddhism. Not only the Nalanda Temple where Tang Monk studied has been abandoned, but also the Bodhi tree where Buddha attained nirvana and the Deer Park where he lectured have been submerged in the weeds and are difficult to find. ."

Deng Zhimo is a Buddhist and couldn't help but sigh after hearing this.

He then asked: "Since it is the pure land of Buddhism, why do people in India not believe in Buddhism?"

It was difficult for Wang Wenlong to say in front of a Buddhist like Deng Zhimo that Buddhism was still separated from Hinduism. If he really wanted to talk about the relationship, he had to call Hinduism his ancestor.

He could only vaguely say: "The written and spoken languages ​​in India are not uniform, dynasties are divided and combined, and there is no tradition of setting up historians. The common people regard the epics passed down orally as history. As time goes by, even their own ancient dynasty does not You know, it’s been more than 1000 years since Buddha passed away, but some people actually forget about it.”

He added: "Today, even if you want to find Nalanda Temple, you still need to check the actual location in Master Xuanzang's "Da Tang Western Regions" to know the specific location."

When Deng Zhimo heard this, he immediately felt extremely disappointed with the so-called Buddhist Kingdom of Tianzhu. As a Confucian scholar, he really couldn't worship a country that didn't even have a history.

Later, he developed great respect for Master Xuanzang. He felt that the history that the people of Tianzhu themselves had forgotten was recorded by Master Xuanzang. Even foreigners went to his books to find their own historical monuments. This shows the greatness of Master Xuanzang. .

Deng Zhimo decided to look for "The Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty" and take a good look at it.

It's funny to say that although he is a bookstore author and a writer of novels about gods and demons, Deng Zhimo didn't even know about the existence of the book "Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty" before talking to Wang Wenlong.

As for Wang Wenlong and Deng Zhimo, who could name these book titles casually, they sincerely admired him and felt that Wang Wenlong was well-informed and well-read.

Deng Zhimo loved reading. In addition to making money as a scholar in Jianyang, he was also attracted by the advantage of frequenting bookshops where he could access more books.

But he only relied on a few bookstores to read books, so how could he compare to Wang Wenlong, who was bombarded with information from later generations.

The amount of information that people of later generations have access to is far greater than what people of this generation can compare with.

In ancient times, even the Yongle Dadian and the Sikuquanshu, ancient super-large books, were less than a billion words in size.

In later generations, the collection of books in any university library can easily exceed 50 volumes. Even if each book has only [-] words, the collection of a library can easily exceed the number of words in Yongle Dadian or Sikuquanshu.An ordinary person in later generations would have more reading resources than the royal family at this time.

The problem for future generations is not too little information, but too much information. When you turn on your mobile phone every day, a massive amount of information pours in, and you can’t even read it.

Wang Wenlong, who has experienced the era of knowledge explosion, naturally has a wealth of knowledge in his mind that even Deng Zhimo cannot match. A little conversation can make Deng Zhimo admire him.

Deng Zhimo was impressed and asked, "Brother Wang comes back this time and wants to take the scientific examination?"

Wang Wenlong showed a look of shame on his face: "To be honest with Brother Deng, although my father hired a scholar in the West to open the door for me and let me know some words and read a lot of miscellaneous books, I really don't have the ability to write stereotypes. I begged my uncle to invite Brother Deng to come here today because I actually want to write a novel and I want to ask Brother Deng to help me read it."

Deng Zhimo had already introduced Wang Wenlong as his confidant. Hearing this, he said, "I don't have anything else to do. It turns out I'm just reading. What can I ask for? My dear brother, just bring it."

Wang Wenlong thanked him, went into the room and took out the manuscript of Chapter 1 of "The Scholars". After Deng Zhimo took it, he said that he would read it when he got back.

(End of this chapter)