Rampage through the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 219 Zhang De sells books
Seeing Zheng Xuan's hesitant expression, Zhang De knew that Zheng Xuan might not lend him the book.In fact, Zhang De can also understand, after all, in this age, it is not easy to get a book, and literati want to read, mainly by borrowing, and if they really want to collect it, they can borrow and find some.

If it is some precious books, even if you want to borrow and copy them, I am afraid that collectors will not lend them to you. After all, books are too precious in this era!

Zhang De was not surprised. Instead, he clapped his hands, and the servants then brought up a large box.

Zheng Xuan frowned, and said displeasedly: "Master Taiwei, what do you mean, I, Zheng Xuan, enlighten people who are greedy for wealth and property, it is too contemptuous of my lord to do this!" Zheng Xuan waved his hands and was about to leave.

Seeing that Zheng Xuan had misunderstood him, Zhang De immediately said: "Sir, you misunderstood, these are not gold and silver property!" He went to open the box himself, and there were books neatly placed inside.

Zheng Xuan turned his head and saw that there were books inside. Zheng Xuan's face immediately softened. It turned out that what Zhang De brought was books.

A box of books is quite a lot in Zheng Xuan's view.Since then, there are very few books in this era, and secondly, these books are all paper books.This is much higher quality than those bamboo slips.

It is recorded that Sima Qian's "Historical Records" was recorded on bamboo slips at that time. A set of historical records needs a cart to carry, but if it is recorded on paper, it is only a dozen thick and can be held with one hand.If this whole box of books were replaced with bamboo slips, I don't know how many carts it would take to pull them.

Zheng Xuan took a copy casually, it turned out to be a copy of "The Analects of Confucius". Zheng Xuan has studied this "The Analects of Confucius" countless times, and it can be said that he has memorized it backwards. Zheng Xuan flipped through it casually, and found nothing special. This "The Analects of Confucius".

Zheng Xuan picked up the second book, which turned out to be "The Analects of Confucius", followed by the third, fourth... a whole box, and it was all "The Analects of Confucius"!
Zheng Xuan was stunned. To be honest, it was the first time Zheng Xuan saw so many copies of "The Analects of Confucius". That was a whole box of "The Analects of Confucius".
It's just why Zhang De copied so many "The Analects"!Even if Zhang De wants to learn the ways of Confucius and Mencius, there is no need to get so many "The Analects of Confucius"!
Seeing Zheng Xuan's puzzled expression, Zhang De smiled and said, "Sir, can you see the difference in this Analects?"

How could "The Analects of Confucius" be different? I have been studying this thing all my life!Suddenly, Zheng Xuan was surprised to find that these "Analects of Confucius" were all the same, no matter the font, font shape, size, or even two identical characters, they were all carved out of the same mold.

That's all for one book, but for the whole box, every word is like this, Zheng Xuan was really shocked!

"Sir, I just invented a printing technique. This book is made by printing technique, and it can produce thousands of copies per day!" Zhang De explained.

Nissan thousand volumes!Although this is only Zhang De's current output, it is enough to shock Zheng Xuan.Zheng Xuan has studied a book of Confucian classics, and there are only a few hundred disciples under his command, and even the largest academy in Beihai like the Sixth Art Academy has only more than a hundred disciples.

Zheng Xuan wanted to spread Confucian classics, but the popularization of books has always been an obstacle. Zheng Xuan keenly saw how much change this "printing technique" could bring to the great man. Scholars will double it several times!
……

Ten days later, Zhang De came to Zheng Xuan's mansion again, this time he still brought a big box, but inside was Zhang De's just printed "The Analects of Confucius Zheng Zhu", that is, "The Analects of Confucius" annotated by Zheng Xuan.

On that day, all the well-known Confucian scholars in Beihai City gathered at Zheng Xuan's residence, including Guan Ning from the Sixth Academy of Art.For a whole afternoon, these great Confucian scholars in Beihai City were all concentrated in Zhengxuan Mansion.

Immediately afterwards, everyone hurried back to their mansion, rummaged through boxes and cabinets to find the works they had obtained, and came to Zhengxuan's mansion.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Beihai City had always been a gathering place for great Confucian scholars. Compared with the great Confucian scholars in Luoyang Chang'an, the great Confucian scholars who stayed in Beihai City were all people who really wanted to study Confucian classics. Many people belonged to the kind who did not value fame and fortune , so this inadvertent move immediately aroused the idea of ​​Beihai scholars.

Moreover, Lord Taiwei is also in Zhengxuan Mansion this time, could it be that Lord Taiwei is doing something big again!

……

Three days later, the news spread that Lord Taiwei was going to sell books, and what he was selling was Zheng Xuan's new work "The Analects of Confucius Zheng Zhu", which immediately caused a sensation among everyone.These days, books are all copied, and very few people sell them, not to mention books like "The Analects of Confucius Zheng Zhu". Allow.Some even brought large sums of money just to be able to buy "The Analects of Confucius Zheng Zhu".

But to everyone's surprise, this time Zhang De sold thousands of copies, which made every literati present happily buy a copy and take it home.

Immediately afterwards, other books, such as the Four Books and Five Classics, began to be sold, and the works of other great Confucians also began to be sold accordingly.

For a while, Mi's shop, the only "agent" of Zhang De's book sales, became the most desirable place for scholars. Then, a large number of books appeared in Mi's shop in Xuzhou.Because of this, Mi's family became famous, especially in the hearts of scholars, the status of Mi's shop has improved a lot, and other businesses have also improved a lot.

And the ones who benefit the most are those from poor families, like those from aristocratic families. Of course, they have a lot of collections of Confucian classics, but children from poor families are not as wealthy as those from aristocratic families. It is often good to have a book to read , There is no ability to look for some isolated classics.And Zhang De didn't plan to make much money from the books, basically the books were sold at a low price, so for a while, scholars all over the world were grateful to Zhang De.

……

"What a Zhang De, really amazing! This trick is wonderful!" Tian Feng couldn't help admiring while holding a copy of "The Analects of Confucius Zheng Zhu" bought from Qingzhou.

Strictly speaking, Tian Feng can't be regarded as a Confucianist. On the contrary, Tian Feng prefers the legalist way.However, Tian Feng still ordered people to bring some classics "published" by Zhang De from Beihai.

Yuan Shao felt a little displeased when Tian Feng praised Zhang De, and asked: "Military division, it's just a broken book, what's the fuss about!"

"Master, after careful investigation, Zhang De invented a printing technique, and this book can produce thousands of copies every day!" Tian Feng said.

Yuan Shao snorted disdainfully: "What's the matter, Zhang De sells so cheaply, even if he sells ten thousand copies, he can't make any money!"

Seeing that Yuan Shao still didn't understand what he meant, Tian Feng put down the "Zheng Zhu Analects" in his hand, and said: "My lord, please listen to me slowly explaining the mystery of this matter..."

(End of this chapter)