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

Chapter 9 Reading
In May, news came from the imperial newspaper from the capital that the emperor sent eunuch Gao Yin to supervise the Yuegang City Shipping Department.

Suddenly, from Zhangzhou to Jianyang, the gentry and wealthy people everywhere were panicked.

Some merchants were afraid of being exploited by Gao Yin, so they simply closed down their business, causing the market to plummet.

At the same time, the irony is that many speculators feel that they have found an opportunity, connect in private, and even start to secretly note which big family has money, preparing to give it to Gao Yin when the time comes, and take people to collect taxes, as a step for promotion.

May [-]th, it is a warm spring this year, and the weather in Fuzhou is already very hot.

Respectable people wearing heavy clothes came to the house early, took off their clothes and rested in the cool air.

Monk Huiming walked into the nunnery carrying a basket of vegetables and rice. When he saw Li Xun who had already finished class, he smiled and said, "It's early to finish school today."

The Guanyin Temple where Huiming was located was a temple built by the merchants in the market. A few years ago, everyone in the market discussed and turned part of the Guanyin Temple into a school, and invited Li Xun to teach the children in the market some writing.

At this time, Li Xun was leaning on the back of his chair and lazily flipping through the students' red drawings. Those pictures looked like dogs crawling, and they seemed to be confusing, and few of them could see it.

He said: "Everyone in the market is afraid of Gao Yin like the god of plague. Nine out of ten shops have already closed down, and students have been called back early. I don't know what Gao Yin will do to us if he really comes to Fujian." What a mess the place has become."

Huiming put the vegetable basket on the ground and opened it, only to find two pieces of fat pork.

These days, monks belong to the service industry. Unless they are determined to practice, most of them do not avoid food and wine. At most, they only eat some fast food on the days when they are chanting sutras and doing monastery for others.

Huiming presides over this Guanyin Temple and receives incense from all directions, and his life is quite comfortable. He is also afraid that his stable life will be broken.

He picked up a chopping board, and while cutting the pork given to him by the priest today, he comforted himself by saying, "Those eunuchs who caused such a big deal by collecting taxes in Shandong now know how to restrain themselves, and they probably won't do anything random. "

"That's all I wish." Li Xun sighed.

It didn't take long for Huiming to finish cutting today's meat, put it on the stove, and steam it with rice.

When he walked out of the kitchen, he saw Li Xun still reading the painting. Huiming was bored. When he went to Li Xun's table, he saw a book called "The Scholars" lying on the table.

Huiming asked: "Whose child's book is this?"

Li Xun raised his head and glanced at the book, and said, "He's not the son of Mr. Zhao of Silver House, but this guy bought a book and actually read it in class. I'm not used to his behavior."

Huiming smiled: "This book is so new, he is rich."

The whole journey from Jianyang to Fuzhou via Jianshui and across the Minjiang River was very convenient, so Jianyang Bookstore's novels were launched in Fuzhou almost at the same time.

There are not many children in Li Xun's school who are interested in studying, but there are quite a few families in this market who have some money. Their children will buy books after they know a few words, which attracts some people to come to the school to sell books. merchants.

But even though the cost of book engraving in Jianyang was low at this time, the price of books was not affordable by ordinary people. A Romance of the Three Kingdoms cost two taels of silver, which was equivalent to two months' salary of an ordinary person.

Only two or three students in the entire private school can afford it.

Even if Li Xun confiscated such valuable things in class, he would still have to return them during the New Year holiday.However, during this time, you can stay in the room and read it yourself.

Huiming took the book and said, "The Scholars is written by Wang Jianyang... but I have never heard of this gentleman's name. The title of the book is also strange. Isn't it about the story of Saint Kong?"

Li Xun said: "I also got it new and haven't turned it over."

Huiming begged, "If there's nothing going on, let me take a look."

"Just take it and look at it."

Huiming turned over the book "The Scholars".Huiming knew a few words, but it was still difficult to read the whole book. He even made a guess at one chapter, but even so, he couldn't help but praise it: "This week I wrote a paragraph that was really good and interesting. It seemed like The people in the novel are all alive.”

After a while, I saw Li Xun coming over to read a book after finishing his homework.

Seeing that he was reading quickly, Huiming simply handed the book to him and begged: "Master, if you read the book, please read a few words to my monk."

Li Xun smiled: "You have to eat the pork with me tonight. Don't fool people with a plate of old vegetables."

Huiming nodded, and Li Xun took the book and started reading with his head shaking.

"The neighbor went all the way to Jidongtou and saw Fan Jin holding a chicken with a straw mark in his hand, pacing around and looking around, looking for someone to buy. The neighbor said: Mr. Fan, go back quickly! Congratulations on your win. The whole room was crowded with people holding a ceremony and announcing the good news. Fan Jindao coaxed him, pretending not to hear, and walked forward with his head lowered. Seeing that the neighbor ignored him, he came up and tried to snatch the chicken from his hand..."

Listening to Li Xun read was much faster than reading by himself. Huiming simply closed his eyes and sat there and listened slowly.Just think of it as hearing Mr. Shu’s comments.

The two of them kept saying that the sky was going to be blackened before Li Xun finished reading:

"I don't know how noisy the crowd is, let's listen to the next chapter's breakdown..."

"No more? How should Tangzhi County handle this matter?"

Thread-bound books are thick and difficult to flip through. Generally, one book has more than 100 pages. After printing, a novel needs to be divided into ten or twenty volumes, and each volume only contains three to four chapters.

The first volume of The Scholars has only been printed up to the fourth chapter, and subsequent chapters are in other volumes.

The story of this novel sounded very fascinating to Huiming. It was more interesting than those stories about generals, ministers and gods. The characters in the novel seemed to be living around them.

But I just saw the most exciting part and the chapter was cut off.

Huiming couldn't help but said: "This... has no beginning or end. It makes me feel like a cat is scratching my head."

Li Xun was also amazed by the content of "The Scholars". Many of the characters and stories in the novel, such as Zhou Jin and Fan Jin, made him see his own shadow, and even felt a little self-pity.

But after all, he regarded himself as a scholar and did not want to show his emotions in front of an uneducated monk like Huiming.

He pretended to be helpless and spread out his hands, saying, "What can I do? I only have this volume in my hand."

Huiming was scratching his head, feeling that he would spend several days thinking about the plot of "The Scholars" next.Li Xun, on the other hand, was wondering if he could find a way to go to Yuan Zhao's house and borrow the remaining volumes to read.

……

"The Scholars" did not cause much response in the market in the first half month of its release, but as the novel gradually spread, it finally aroused people's discussion.

Different from the current popular historical romances and public case romances, the stories told in "The Scholars" are closer to people's lives, and the plot of the book is compact, and the vivid and ironic descriptions of the characters are far ahead of this era. It is very interesting to read. The readers were mesmerized.

Even if you are not a Confucian scholar, you will be surprised by the extremely exaggerated characters in the novel.

Half a month after the release of "The Scholars", word of mouth spread among readers, and its reputation gradually increased.

This time, Shuangfengtang published [-] copies of "The Scholars". The first batch of [-] copies was released. I thought it would take more than half a year to sell them, but I didn't expect that they would be sold out before June.

In June, book boats arrived from Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Fujian. Merchants came to the door to buy the book and asked for Wang Jianyang's "The Scholars" by name.

(End of this chapter)