Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

When the first movable-type printed page came out, Zhu Guoxiang was also watching.

Instead of cheering and celebrating, the father and son set up the drip and watched how long it took for the ink to dry.

Ju Ming also conducted experiments on the ink formula, mainly testing its inkability.

Then I discovered that there was no need to experiment at all.

Just replace the tung oil, sesame oil or animal fat in traditional ink with linseed oil.

In addition, some turpentine must be added.

The iodine value of castor oil is 80-88, the iodine value of sesame oil is 103-108, and the iodine value of tung oil is 157-170.

As for flaxseed oil, the iodine value can reach over 175. It has excellent drying performance, can quickly thicken in the air, and can also form elastic oil on the metal surface.

As for turpentine, its function is to make the ink evaporate evenly, prevent the ink from forming skin, and improve the leveling of the ink.

The reason why it takes several months to make ink is to allow it to evaporate excess water and allow various substances to combine more closely. When Ju Ming did the experiment, he directly baked and heated it, mainly to test the inkability, so there was no need to worry about it. Other properties of ink.

Zhu Guoxiang touched it with his fingers and found that the ink was not completely dry yet: "According to the drip scale, it has been five minutes. It is estimated that it will be completely dry in seven or eight minutes. If you want to speed up, you can also add desiccant."

"Let's take it slow in the future, it's already working." Ju Ming said.

Zhu Guoxiang added: "Naturally placed ink has a better effect than rapid baking, and the printed ink is more uniform."

Huang Ai stood nearby, listening to the conversation between father and son. He seemed to understand, but he seemed not to understand. Does "five or six minutes" refer to time?

Huang Ai suddenly made a suggestion: "Why don't you try using dark ink?"

"You can give it a try." Zhu Ming nodded.

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "What is deep ink?"

Ju Ming said: "The ink sticks for writing calligraphy and the ink for printing books are mostly made of pine smoke ink. The Imperial College library also uses a kind of dark ink, which was invented by Shen Kuo using petroleum smoke. The printing quality is better than Pine ink is better.”

"Oil?" Zhu Guoxiang was a little surprised.

Ju Ming smiled and said: "It's the oil you understand."

Zhu Guoxiang sighed: "Shen Kuo is very powerful."

Shen Kuo had always wanted to improve movable type printing, and even the entire set of methods left by Bi Sheng fell into the hands of Shen Kuo's brothers and nephews, and slowly spread through the Shen brothers.

There is a very big problem with movable type printing.

After long-term use, wooden movable type is not only easy to deform, but also wears out quickly.

If metal movable type is used, the inkability is not good. Whether it is beautiful or not is another matter. If there are too many strokes, it will be difficult to identify and it will look like a dark mess. Sometimes, the printing is missing strokes. Readers open the book and need to guess at certain places.

Five hundred copies of "The Analects of Confucius" were printed in one day and bound into books by craftsmen.

Ju Ming said to Huang Ai: "Come to the palace with me tomorrow to meet the saint, and take these hundreds of books with you."

Huang Ai was startled, then ecstatically said: "Thank you Zhukusi!"

Huang Ai is a technical officer and is also written as a skill officer.

Astronomers, medical officers, painters, musicians, calligraphers, and ordnance makers were all classified as technical officers.

Their salaries are extremely low and it is difficult to support their families. They have to rely on rewards or corruption to survive. Moreover, promotion is very difficult. Civilian officers are promoted every three years, military attachés are promoted every five years, and technical officers are promoted every ten years. Often they are only promoted to the rank of honor, but not to the rank or assignment.

After Zhu Ming learned about Huang Ai's salary, he turned a blind eye to his corruption.

As long as you don't get too greedy, Ju Ming can accept it, even acquiesce and condone it. If you can't even support your family, why do you have a job?

Huang Ai humbly sent the Zhu family and his son out.

Of course he does not belong to any faction. The technical officer is too lowly to be qualified to join the traitor party.

The Imperial Library is indeed very lucrative, but all the previous directors were officials from Beijing. All the money in the small treasury was taken away by officials from the Beijing court. Huang Ai could only receive some kickbacks in private, and these kickbacks had to be shared with other officials.

Huang Ai's salary plus gray income is only twenty or thirty dollars a month, barely reaching the level of well-off society in Tokyo.

"This guy is good," Ju Ming said, sitting in the carriage. "Although he received various kickbacks, he completed the work with high quality and quantity, and he knew how to distribute some of the dirty money to his subordinates. The engraver I recruited from outside did not deduct a penny from his salary. .”

Zhu Guoxiang couldn't help complaining: "It's really a bad era. If you are not greedy, you are a good official."

Ju Ming said: "The movable type printing technology has been improved, but it is a pity that I don't know how to improve the papermaking technology. I am tired of using toilet chips to scrape my buttocks, and I miss toilet paper so much. If I continue like this, sooner or later I will get hemorrhoids."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Catchery paper is also affordable. I heard that many powerful people use straw paper."

"Even Cai Jing only dares to wipe his butt quietly with paper," Zhu Ming lamented. "If Mr. Cai dares to publicly say that he wipes his butt with paper, I will respect him as a man."

Papermaking developed first in the Song Dynasty and again in the mid-Ming Dynasty.

It would be a fool's errand to talk about paper prices aside from commodity prices, but it can be calculated using purchasing power.

The wages of low-level workers in the Ming Dynasty were all used to buy paper of the same quality, which could be purchased eight times as much as in the Song Dynasty and thirty times as much as in the Tang Dynasty.

Precisely because paper was cheap in the Ming Dynasty, people could use paper to wipe their butts, so long novels came out in large numbers.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "The rapid advancement of papermaking must be due to the use of chemical means. When we go to visit, maybe we can add acid and alkali chemicals to improve it."

"Let's talk about it," Ju Ming asked, "what's going on with your polyploid breeding?"

Zhu Guoxiang said: "It's not clear yet, we have to take our time."

In the past few months, Zhu Guoxiang had not been idle, begging for a piece of land from Song Huizong.

Improved varieties are mainly cultivated through hybridization and chemical mutagenesis, and the experimental subjects are vegetables, flowers and trees.

Vegetables have a short growing season and can see results quickly.

As for the flowers and trees, they are all catering to the emperor, such as polyploid peonies and so on.

But peonies generally take five years from sowing to flowering. It took too long. Zhu Guoxiang was afraid that the emperor would not be able to wait, so he is currently focusing on polyploid peony.

Ju Ming suddenly thought of something: "Can the seeds of polyploid plants be reproduced normally?"

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Odd-numbered polyploidy cannot reproduce, even-numbered polyploidy is possible. Especially allopolyploidy, such as traditional wheat, is a naturally formed allohexaploid plant. Artificially induced polyploidy plants, Many genetic traits are unstable and need to be screened from generation to generation.”

The carriage passed by a neighbor's house, and brother and sister Zheng Hong and Zheng Yuanyi were waving goodbye.

"Erlang, come up!" Zhu Ming waved.

Fatty Zheng immediately paid the taxi fare and took his sister to the Zhu family carriage.

Ju Ming asked: "Who were those two people just now?"

Zheng Hong said: "The new neighbor, whose surname is Hu, bought the house next door."

"Isn't it expensive?" Zhu Ming said.

"The house is much smaller than yours, but it also costs 80,000 yuan," Zheng Hong gossiped. "This family has three Jinshi and one Yinguan, all serving as officials in the capital. What is the name of Hu Su, the founder of Anding County? His descendants, there are also female relatives in his family, and I get along very well with my young mother, and we went to see a variety show together today."

Founding Marquis is a title, not a founding noble.

The title system of the Song Dynasty was as chaotic as the official system. It would be difficult to explain it in a paper, and a whole book would have to be written.

It is difficult for princes to be hereditary, let alone dukes and marquises.

For example, Hu Su's grandson Hu Yixiu was not able to inherit the title, but Enyin became the general supervisor.

Hu Yixiu's brother and nephew, three of them passed the Jinshi examination, and all of them were transferred back to the capital this year to take up posts. So the four uncles and nephews pooled their money together to buy a mansion and became neighbors with the Zhu family and his son.

Zheng Yuanyi said: "The Hu family's sister is very talented and learned. She hit it off with me and made an appointment to go to Xiangguo Temple at the end of the month."

"It's good to have playmates, but I'm afraid I'll be bored at home all day." Zhu Ming said with a smile.

Fatty Zheng couldn't care less about Shu. He stayed in Tokyo and didn't want to leave. Anyway, he could eat and drink at Zhu's house.

As for Zheng Yuanyi, she is still young and Zhu Ming plans to have sex after a while. In ancient times, there were no contraceptive measures. If a girl became pregnant, it would be very easy for her to have dystocia.

All the way back home, Zheng Yuanyi kept chattering, and Fatty Zheng also added details about what he had played today.

Zheng Hong said: "The Hu family is really rich. Over the past few decades, they have produced nearly ten Jinshi. The family is still doing business in Changzhou. I heard that I live in Dalang's house. They are rushing to pay for the treat. I am embarrassed to eat for nothing. Drink for free.”

Zhu Guoxiang warned: "If someone treats you, you can eat or drink. Never accept gifts, let alone agree to help."

Zheng Hong chuckled: "Don't worry, Mr. Zhu, I'm not that stupid. In ten days and a half, it's time for me to go back to Yangzhou. Although Tokyo is good, it's not as good as home."

Zhu Guoxiang praised: "Erlang is as wise as he is foolish. He is a man who can be trusted with great things."

"Xiangong Zhu is so complimentary, I'm just a little clever." Zheng Hong said happily.

The next day.

The father and son first took a carriage to the Imperial Academy library, took Huang Aihe's five hundred copies of "The Analects of Confucius", and headed to the palace to meet Song Huizong.

This year's battle is even bigger.

The outer city wall is being demolished and built, and construction of Mingtang, Genyue, Tianzhang Pavilion... many palaces, gardens, and palaces are starting at the same time, and countless building materials are shipped to Tokyo every month.

However, those homeless people actually found jobs and worked on construction sites. Although I can't make much money, I can still eat enough.

Song Huizong took the third elixir and was currently meditating.

The father and son could only wait slowly until noon, when they were finally allowed to go over to see the saint.

Song Huizong's face glowed red and he seemed a little excited. He smiled and said to Zhu Guoxiang: "Although the Ganoderma lucidum offered by Mr. is less than 10,000 years old and most of its spiritual energy has dissipated, it is still a sacred object. The elixir is a hundred times stronger than ordinary ones."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "I don't know how to use elixirs. I just want to congratulate the official."

Ju Ming secretly observed, suspecting that this foolish king had taken some stimulants.

Song Huizong asked: "How is your movable type printing going?"

"I'm about to invite the officials to visit me." Zhu Ming turned his head and winked at Huang Ai.

Huang Ai immediately stepped forward, and several eunuchs followed carrying boxes.

When Huizong of the Song Dynasty opened a copy of "The Analects of Confucius", he could see the functions of periods and commas without Ju Ming's explanation. He was surprised and said: "This font is really novel. Although it looks ordinary, it is quite beautiful when printed on the book."

Ju Ming said: "This type of font is suitable for printing. It is clear and understandable without ink blur. I named it 'Ming Ti'."

"Very good," Song Huizong nodded in approval, "Printed with movable type?"

Ju Ming said: "They are all printed with movable type, which is a hundred times more convenient than engraving. Today's movable type is still cast first and then engraved. If the government gives more money, they can make a copper mold and cast the movable type directly without the need for additional engraving. , it can be used with a little polishing.”

Song Huizong said: "Let's carve characters. We can use copper molds to cast movable type until there is an abundance of copper in the future."

Today's Song Dynasty is experiencing a money shortage. Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty also used copper to cast Jiuding. The lack of copper materials caused many money-casting supervisors to stop work.

Song Huizong asked in detail about the movable type printing process and the improvement work made by Ju Ming, and then said happily: "Our Song Dynasty is rich all over the world, the people are happy, and education is flourishing. This movable type printing technology is a reward from heaven, and it will usher in a prosperous era of culture and education. !”

"The officials will obey the destiny, and the Song Dynasty will be prosperous for thousands of years!" The eunuchs next to him flattered him one after another.

Song Huizong laughed loudly: "I promise you to know the state, and you will not break your promise. Bring me the map!"

The eunuch quickly went to get the map of Kantu and bowed before the emperor.

Song Huizong drew a circle on the map: "Don't go too far. Except for the capital, you can choose the rest of the state armies."

Ju Ming originally planned to go to the frontier for training, but the emperor drew a circle with Kaifeng Mansion as the center. After thinking about it carefully, Ju Ming pointed to the north: "I'm going to Xiangzhou."

"Okay," Song Huizong said again, "I will call all the officials on Chang Chaoyi on the first day of the next month. You can choose a lot of movable type, bring ink paper, and let them open their eyes on the spot."

Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty wanted to show his destiny. He straightened the city walls, built Mingtang, cast nine tripods, and renovated etiquette, all in order to show his destiny.

Movable type printing and Italian literature and education also belong to the destiny.

Not only were the officials summoned to watch, but the poet Dasheng was also asked to compose music and lyrics specifically for this purpose.

Song Huizong was still unfinished and said: "This kind of movable type is called Dasheng movable type. This type of ink is called Dasheng ink. Ming-style characters do not need to be changed."

Sheng, bright, prosperous.

The meaning of Dasheng is similar to Fengheng Yuda.

Song Huizong thought of something and suddenly became even more happy: "The hibiscus grafted by Mr. bloomed yesterday. Come with me to enjoy the flowers."

Dean Zhu's current status has become half of the royal gardener.

Hibiscus flowers cannot survive the winter in the north, and Tang Dynasty poetry often mentions that Song Huizong always wanted to plant hibiscus flowers in the palace.

Those that were planted before had no time to bloom and froze to death in the cold winter.

Song Huizong also thought about grafting, but whether it was cutting or grafting, the survival rate of hibiscus was very low.

It was our Dean Zhu who took action and lived directly in the palace for a month, taking care of her carefully every day, and finally managed to support the grafted fusang.

This Hunjun took everyone to enjoy the flowers, and even Huang Ai followed.

After admiring it, Song Huizong sighed again: "I am alive today, but in winter I will freeze to death."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "I can give it a try, maybe I can make the fusang survive the winter."

Song Huizong did not doubt Zhu Guoxiang's skills. He immediately took Zhu Guoxiang's hand and said very affectionately: "If it succeeds, I will make you a marquis!"

Marquis?

Zhu Ming was dumbfounded when he heard this. When he thought about Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty conferring a strange stone as a marquis, it seemed that it was nothing to confer a marquis title on Dean Zhu.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "I don't want to be granted a title of marquis. If I can help Fusang survive the winter, I would like to ask the officials to allow me to return to my hometown to visit my family."

"Just bring them to Tokyo." Song Huizong said.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "My little girl is still young and cannot bear to run around."

Song Huizong nodded and said: "Well, as long as the hibiscus can survive the winter, sir can return to his hometown for a year. It's not that he is not allowed to leave, but that it is indispensable here. There are many exotic flowers and trees that need to be taken care of by sir."