Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Wang Zongyao was born in the Wang family of Chengdu, and was of the same clan as Wang Gui, the former prime minister of the Song Dynasty. In terms of seniority, he was a nephew of Qin Hui and his wife.

More than ten years ago, the Wang family of Chengdu was forcibly dismantled.

Wang Zongyao's family did not get much land, but got the Wang family's bookstore business. He failed the imperial examinations for three consecutive times, and his qualification as a juren expired and was invalidated. He had to take the juren exam again, and he was depressed and simply went home to learn how to do business.

But he was just a concubine's son, and he had no share in inheriting the family business. At most, he could become a professional manager of the family business.

This time he discussed with his father and brothers and took some books and funds to Dali. Within ten years, he would return the capital with interest to the family, and the newly opened Dali industry would belong to him, but the family property in Chengdu would have nothing to do with him in the future.

What Meizhou woodblock?

It was all a cover.

The books he brought were all printed in Chengdu, and they were inferior products of slightly lower quality.

Su Tong picked up a copy of the Analects and flipped through it. He felt that it was no more exquisite than the books in Dali, and couldn't help asking: "Is this really a fine product from Meizhou?"

Wang Zongyao smiled and said: "It was shipped from Meizhou. The three Su brothers, who were famous all over the world, often bought books in my store."

When the "Three Su brothers" sign was displayed, these Dali scholars immediately stood in awe, as if the textbooks in their hands had become more beautiful out of thin air.

"What are the entrance examination standards for the prefectural school?"

"I'll post it here, and you can take your time to read it. In fact, it is similar to the imperial examinations in various provinces, and only the Four Books, Six Classics and mathematics are tested. The Four Books and mathematics are required, and one of the Six Classics is selected as the main classic."

"Which math book is tested for mathematics?"

"The Ministry of Rites has compiled three types of mathematics: elementary, intermediate and advanced. The government-run primary schools and county schools study "Elementary Mathematics". The government-run state and prefectural schools require "Intermediate Mathematics" and elect "Advanced Mathematics". Only the Imperial College requires "Advanced Mathematics", so once you graduate from the Imperial College, you can have the status of a juren."

"Is the book in my hand "Elementary Mathematics"? "

"Yes. Just go back and flip through it. Although it is a required test, you haven't studied it carefully after all. This time, the Dali Prefecture School will first determine the number of students, and according to the test results Students are admitted based on their performance. You don't need to learn all the elementary mathematics, you just need to do better than others. "

"But you still have to study hard, right?"

"Yes. I was a juren before, and I know elementary mathematics like the back of my hand. I plan to open a temporary private school to teach mathematics in the near future. Of course, the tuition is quite expensive, and those who are interested can sign up. "

"Sir, you are a juren in the Ming Dynasty?"

"This is my admission ticket (admission ticket) for the imperial examination. It is stamped by the Ministry of Rites, and I dare not forge it."

"How is the tuition calculated?"

"There are more than 50 days before the entrance examination for the prefectural school. I will only accept 30 students, and the tuition for each student is 15 guan, and I will teach until the day before the exam."

"So expensive?"

"You don't have to come to study."

As long as you can afford the money, you'd be a fool not to come to study. After all, the number of places for admission to the prefectural school is limited, and the more math problems you get right, the more hope you have of being admitted.

The scholars didn't bring enough money with them, but they all signed up with Wang Zongyao. They only needed to pay a deposit to reserve a spot, and they could officially join the math cram school if they paid the tuition within three days.

If they didn't come to make up the tuition within three days, the deposit would not be refunded.

These scholars were able to go to Dong Mingshou's house and stop the soldiers from arresting people. They must be from a local big family. They could afford the mere fifteen strings of cash, and they all paid the deposit with Wang Zongyao.

Then, they began to read the Four Books and Six Classics.

The Dali Kingdom did not have the concept of the Four Books and Six Classics, and "The Great Learning" and "The Doctrine of the Mean" were not separate books.

Wang Zongyao introduced them:

"The Four Books are The Analects, Mencius, The Great Learning, and The Doctrine of the Mean. Generally speaking, you can learn any of them. But true scholars first learn The Great Learning, then The Analects, then Mencius, and finally The Doctrine of the Mean."

"And the Six Classics of the Ming Dynasty are also different from the Six Classics of the ancient times. There is no Book of Music, but Xunzi."

Su Tong was surprised and said, "Is Xunzi also a classic? This is rare in Dali. I only know about Xunzi from other books."

Wang Zongyao said, "It doesn't matter. For the other five classics, you can take the exam on whichever one you know. Anyway, the court only tests one of them. The Great Learning must be studied carefully. The order of some of its chapters and sentences is different from what you learned before."

"Why is it different?" Shi Luohanming asked.

Wang Zongyao bowed to the northeast: "It was revised by the emperor himself, including the annotations in the Great Learning, all of which were written by the holy emperor. Not only the Great Learning, but also five of the Four Books and Six Classics, when the emperor recompiled the annotations in the Ming Dynasty, the emperor made more or less suggestions. The current emperor of the Ming Dynasty, even if he puts aside his status as an emperor, deserves the title of the great master of Confucianism."

Everyone was quite shocked when they heard this.

Zhu Ming's identity as the "great master of Confucianism" was quite exaggerated. He used the power of the emperor to revise the content of the imperial examination, so that scholars across the country had to study according to the requirements in the past 20 years.

As more people studied, the mainstream academic thought naturally moved closer to Zhu Ming.

It would be difficult for someone who was not an emperor to achieve this.

Even Zhu Xi's knowledge did not become mainstream in the Southern Song Dynasty, and I don't know how much he spat with his peers.

In the end, although Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism became an official school, it had become a castrated and deformed version of the Ming Dynasty. Especially the "Complete Collection of Five Classics" was urged by Zhu Yuanzhang, and the editing was so perfunctory that it could even be said to be misleading. By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, not many people were using this set of statutory textbooks, and students began to pick up the Tang Dynasty's "Five Classics of Justice" as their textbooks.

At this moment, the Dali scholars in the bookstore were buying a set of four textbooks and "Elementary Mathematics", and then selected a scripture that they were good at.

Wang Zongyao was very happy to see it. Sure enough, if he wanted to make money, he had to take risks. Now he could run his own business in Dali City.

Unfortunately, the cost of transporting books from Sichuan is too high. In the future, we will have to print books ourselves in order to last.

The content of the textbooks of the Four Books and Six Classics has become stable and has not been revised in the past ten years. Therefore, the textbooks are all printed with engravings. Firstly, the printing quality is high, and secondly, it saves costs. A set of engravings can even be used repeatedly as family heirlooms.

Books with a large circulation, especially textbooks and Buddhist scriptures, are basically printed with engravings. Although the initial cost is high, the cost will be reduced in the long run.

There are also engraving craftsmen here in Dali, and Wang Zongyao already has mature ideas.

He knew very well that the government would crack down on Dali Esoteric Buddhism and Theravada Buddhism, and might even ban temples. The craftsmen who used to carve Buddhist scriptures and engraving blocks for temples may have sharply reduced job opportunities in the future, so some can be hired at extremely low prices.

After the exam is over, Wang Zongyao plans to hand over the bookstore to his confidants and take his assistant back to his hometown in Chengdu.

While shipping a new batch of books, I asked my father to get some low-interest loans. The Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes are easy to carry. Yunnan will definitely open a Baoquan branch, and then ask craftsmen to engrave teaching materials.

When funds are abundant in the future, they can engrave movable type and set up a printing factory to pirate and reproduce various novels, plays, anthologies, and the like.

The imperial court is about to launch a large-scale religious education in Yunnan, so there is no need to worry about the sales volume of books printed and sold here!

Currently, only government schools are opened. In the next few years, state schools, county schools, and primary schools will also be opened one after another. When the trend of imperial examinations takes shape, social studies and village studies will also appear in urban and rural areas, and more people will buy books by then.

As the number of literate people increases, sales of books such as novels and anthologies will also increase.

Of course, there will also be more competitors to open bookstores and printing plants, and you have to take advantage of the opportunity to build your own brand.

"What are these?" Suddenly a scholar asked.

Wang Zongyao turned around and looked at it, and immediately laughed and said: "The top two rows are novels, and the middle row is playbooks. I only ship one set of each novel and playbook. Once it is sold out, it will be gone. I have to ship it again from Sichuan." Come. These kinds of books do not require engraving. They are all printed with movable type and must have their own movable type library. It is impossible to copy them in Yunnan in the short term. "

Really expensive!

Wang Zongyao dared to sell a set of the official version of "Journey to the West" for fifty guan in Dali City, directly selling the novel as a luxury product.

Just because there is no movable type library in Yunnan, "Journey to the West" cannot be printed locally. There is none in neighboring Guizhou, and in Guangxi it is only available in the provincial capital, so why not transport it from Sichuan?

It’s so expensive, will anyone buy it?

There really is.

Dali originally believed in Buddhism. The scholars heard that it was the story of Master Xuanzang's Buddhist scriptures. After reading the first two chapters, they were attracted by the novel plot and actually discussed buying a set together.

Since photocopying is no longer possible in the short term, let’s hire someone to copy the book.

It’s okay to copy the book yourself, but it’s time to practice calligraphy.

Su Tong spent money to buy a copy of "Arabian Nights". He went home to study the Four Books and Six Classics, which was boring, and he was quickly attracted by the novel.

Su Tong didn't forget that a familiar scholar was killed, but he didn't want to think about it.

The next day, a friend hurriedly came to report: "The government has posted a notice that only five temples within a radius of thirty miles inside and outside Dali City are allowed to remain, and the rest will be banned. Four of these five temples have been converted into Zen temples. , the remaining one is a Tantric temple, and none of the Theravada temples are allowed to remain!”

Su Tong was shocked when he heard this, and asked hurriedly: "What will happen to the monks in the banned temple?"

The friend said: "After being forced to return to the secular world, those who are willing to farm will be divided into fields for cultivation with the Han immigrants. Those who are unwilling to farm will find their own way out. I heard that some eminent monks were summoned to Kunming, and the officials sent them to Luoyang for an audience. Emperor."

"How could the monks be willing?" Su Tong said.

The friend asked back: "Have you forgotten what happened yesterday? They dared to kill even scholars, so how could they be polite to monks? When I came over, soldiers and horses inside and outside the city were already mobilizing, and they directly led the troops to destroy the temple. If they encounter monks If they resist, many more people will be killed. If the monks incite the people, I'm afraid those who lead the troops will also suppress them."

Su Tong was so frightened that he sat back and said, "These have nothing to do with us. We should just study and prepare for the exam."

"How can it have nothing to do with us?" said the friend. "The government has also posted a notice stating that all books with Sanskrit characters must be handed over to the government within sixty days, and no one is allowed to keep them privately. If found to be true, the imperial examinations for myself and my family for three generations will be cancelled." Those who hold official positions will be dismissed immediately, and those who serve as officials will also be dismissed. Only temples reserved by the government are allowed to collect Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures, but private possession of Sanskrit Confucian scriptures is not allowed."

Su Tong hurriedly looked for his collection of books and found those with Sanskrit in them. He put them all in a box and planned to hand them over to the government another day.

He didn't want to die, and he also looked forward to taking the imperial examination and becoming an official. Naturally, he had to cooperate with the government honestly.

"Are you really going to hand it over?" the friend asked.

Su Tong was surprised: "Do you want to hide it privately?"

The friend said: "Of course I am willing to hand over the Confucian classics with Sanskrit annotations. But it is not a big deal to keep the Sanskrit Buddhist classics collected by the elders at home. I also have a palm leaf sutra at home, which I spent a lot of effort to get. Even if I am willing to give it up, my grandmother will not be willing to give it up."

Su Tong reminded: "You have a palm leaf sutra at home, and many people in the city know about it. What if someone reports it? You can hide other things, but you must not hide the palm leaf sutra!"

The friend's face changed when he heard it, and he ran home without saying a word.

In fact, the Sanskrit books confiscated by the Yunnan government this time will not be burned all at once.

Even various versions of the Confucian classics with Sanskrit annotations will be kept in one copy and sent to the Hanlin Academy in Luoyang for research.

In the end, scholars who are proficient in Sanskrit will compile it and give it to envoys from various Indian countries who come to the Ming Dynasty for exchanges as gifts. First, it saves face in diplomacy, and second, it takes the opportunity to export Confucianism to India - this kind of export is certainly only in a small range, and it is impossible to shake Brahmanism, but it is ultimately a spread of ideology.

As for the Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures, although they are restricted in Yunnan, it doesn't matter outside Yunnan. They can be occasionally rewarded to monks in various places, or handed over to the Monk Records Office for research, which has certain Buddhist research value.

In addition, these books can also be used as auxiliary materials and used as appropriate when compiling history books for the Dali Kingdom.

However, all plaques and inscriptions in Yunnan with Sanskrit must be destroyed.

Even tombstones are not spared!

The purpose is to not allow any Sanskrit to exist in the public eye.

If someone in the folks privately keeps Sanskrit books, the government cannot check them door to door unless they are reported. But it is easy to check in public places and it is easier to enforce.

This kind of thing is very easy for civil servants to do, and a set of procedures have been formed.

At first, the Jin Dynasty was destroyed and the Jin Dynasty's writing was banned. Then the Western Xia was destroyed and the Western Xia writing was banned.

Then in Anxi Protectorate, the use of Uighur and Turkic scripts was gradually reduced. The degree of sinicization there was not high, and there were too few people who knew Chinese characters. Directly banning them would cause unnecessary trouble. For example, the local clerks in charge of affairs would become illiterate. Tax collection became a mess!

Now banning Sanskrit in Yunnan is just to reproduce the template again, so that Chinese characters can become the mainstream in the border areas again.

Even if the Ming Dynasty created by Zhu Ming collapses in the future, these border areas will still be Chinese land. Because the people here use Chinese characters, and they can speak Chinese after long-term integration. What else is it if not Chinese land?

Even Zhu Kang, who went to Champa to establish the Southern Yu Kingdom, was gradually promoting Chinese character education and trying every means to attract more Han immigrants.

(I went to Nanjing to watch Daolang's concert. I finally got the ticket. I may not update tomorrow. I'll take a day off.)