Splitting characters is a basic skill in calligraphy practice since the beginning. Now Su Ze is teaching Lin Liangjun the method of splitting characters at the School of Health.
Splitting characters means to take apart characters. To make movable type, you must first count the various radicals.
The left side of a word is called a radical, and the right side is called a side. Counting the frequency of occurrence of radicals in a book is to make mathematical statistics when making movable type, and to make a corresponding proportion of movable type.
According to history textbooks, movable type printing had already appeared in the Song Dynasty, but in fact it was still not used on a large scale until the Ming Dynasty.
The reason is also very simple. The first movable type was clay type, that is, movable type fired from clay. The shortcomings of this kind of movable type are obvious, that is, it is easy to break, and the time cost of firing clay type is too high. It would be good if you can burn out dozens of usable movable type.
The lead type used by Su Ze was only promoted in Jiangnan during the Chongzhen period of the late Ming Dynasty. However, lead type also has problems, that is, it is easy to wear and deform during printing, and it will become blurred after a period of use.
Movable type printing, which is closest to modern people's imagination, is made of copper.
However, copper is a material for casting money. You can know how expensive it is to use copper to make movable type. Therefore, in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, some of the better quality movable type books were basically printed with official copper movable type.
But Su Ze doesn't care!
No matter how clear the handwriting on the movable lead type is, it must be clearer than the engraving printing on Hai Rui's tabloid!
Really good engraving printing naturally has clear handwriting, and official engraving books can be said to have clear handwriting and exquisite binding.
But how good can the quality of a tabloid's engraving be? For something that will be published once every half month, it is enough to just lightly engrave it. Hai Rui's tabloid had blurry handwriting and many typos, but the readers didn't care!
This thing is not a treasured book, it’s almost enough if you can see it clearly!
Competitors are tabloids printed with movable lead type. Another advantage of using movable lead type is that it is produced quickly!
In fact, the quality of block printing is no worse than that of movable type printing. Block printing can also print patterns, and the typesetting is more flexible. The plates laid out by some skilled engraving masters are as rich in pictures and text as later newspapers.
The advantage of movable type printing is not at all in the quality of printing! But speed!
A four-page tabloid requires four engraving masters to work together for several days. If a mistake is made, it must be redone. After the engraving is completed, if any typos are found, they cannot be changed casually.
However, it only takes a skilled printer an hour to arrange a layout of movable type, and the type can be changed at any time after being typed.
This greatly reduces the time for printing and typesetting. Su Ze can publish one Fuzhou tabloid every two issues a week!
There are fewer engraving masters, and there is no need for an engraving for each page, so the only printing cost left is ink and paper.
The paper does not need to be very good. The paper used by the Fuzhou Prefecture tabloid is also the lowest yellowed old paper. This stuff is cheap and can be bought in bookstores in the city.
Ink is the troublesome part. Printing ink is different from writing ink. It needs to be mixed with turpentine obtained from linseed oil and pine resin. After mixing it with carbon black, it can be made into a product that will not bloom and dries quickly. of ink.
Linseed oil was not easy to deal with, but Su Ze had another idea.
The ink needs to dry quickly and not smudge easily, so maybe tung oil can be used?
Changningwei is a sea guard, and the imperial court also transports tung oil to Changningwei every year. Moreover, there are also a large number of tung oil trees planted on the mountain behind where Su Ze crossed the cliff.
Tung trees are widely planted in the southeastern region. When Su Ze first traveled through, he saw the tung flowers blooming all over the mountains.
Children like Lin Liangjun would also go to the mountains to pick up tung tree fruits to squeeze oil when the tung trees bear fruit.
If tung oil can be used and rosin is not a rare thing, printing ink should be able to be made.
The four of them worked all night, picking out all the words from the tabloid they borrowed from Hai Rui. Su Ze counted the frequency of each radical and made a list of commonly used words.
The reason why he wanted to dismantle this tabloid instead of the Four Books and Five Classics was because Su Ze printed this tabloid to spread it among the people. Nowadays, literati advocate that literature should be close to life, and the words and sentences should be easy to understand.
Naturally, it was impossible for Su Ze to dismantle such a high-level Confucian classics document as the Four Books and Five Classics. Naturally, what he wanted to dismantle was a colloquial tabloid.
When it was time to answer questions in class the next day, Hai Rui looked at the four people with dark circles under their eyes and thought they had done something bad by staying up late.
While yawning, everyone asked Hai Rui their accumulated questions, and Hai Rui answered them all.
Next, Hai Rui asked a four-book question, asking four people to answer it in a simulated county test.
When the four people answered, Hai Rui watched from behind and graded their answers.
Of these four students, the ones Hai Rui values most are naturally Su Zebu and Chen Chaoyuan who have been studying for the longest time and have solid basic skills. However, his eight-legged essay is too narrow and his understanding of the classics is not deep. It would be okay if it were a more common topic. , once the exam questions are tricky, Chen Chaoyuan may not pass the exam.
Xiong Yue thinks outside the box. In addition to the Four Books and Five Classics, he has also read other books, but he can never grasp the boundaries. The eight-legged essay he writes is too pursuit of novelty. Once he meets the traditional marking officer, he will definitely be dismissed.
Lin Qingcai is considered the most solid among the three. He solves problems well and has a solid grasp of the eight-part pattern.
After all, the Marquis Lin family is also a big family. Although Lin Qingcai is a side branch, he still has some family background.
Looking at Su Ze's article again, Hai Rui couldn't see through this student at all.
It is said that words are like people, but in fact, writing is even more like people.
For example, Hai Rui's articles are cold and capable. He doesn't like to use fancy words and discusses the issues directly.
Chen Shanchang of Yanping Academy had a gorgeous writing style and liked to show off allusions. He belonged to the same splendid Chinese style as Yang Shen, the contemporary Wen Zong.
Mr. Tuohu, who was invited by Chief Chen Shan, writes plainly, and his simple words are full of rhythm. At first glance, he is a famous folk artist.
But Su Ze’s article is different.
Su Ze has a calm personality and comes from a poor family, but there is no aura of common people in his articles, and his writing style can be said to be majestic.
Hai Rui can also explain this. He has determined that Su Ze's father is a great scholar in China, and Su Ze must have a family background.
But when it comes to the confrontation between the posterior and lower limbs, Su Ze's article cannot find any faults at all. Whether it is the pronunciation or the use of allusions, it is all smooth and completely written for the imperial examination.
Hai Rui couldn't figure it out. When discussing academics with Su Ze, he kept making all kinds of weird and strange remarks, and often made shocking remarks.
Hai Rui was most worried about Su Ze writing these arguments during the imperial examination, but after seeing Su Ze's stereotyped writing, Hai Rui felt relieved.
Su Ze’s article is so solid!
His eight-part essay was as stable as the model essay, especially the main idea of the essay completely complied with the requirements of the imperial examination. No marking officer could find any problems!
If we talk about shortcomings, Su Ze's handwriting is still a bit poor.
Seeing Su Ze's Si Shuyi paper, Hai Rui thought that Su Ze would have no problem taking part in the provincial examination for this part.
Hai Rui sighed, if Su Ze had mastered the Five Classics earlier, he might be able to pass the county exam next year.
After everyone finished answering, Hai Rui reviewed the four people's papers one by one, then took out Su Ze's test paper and explained it to the other three as a model essay.
[Classroom Q&A, Imperial Examination Skill Experience +10, Lv4, 261/400]
[Simulated county examination, imperial examination skill experience +20, Lv4, 281/400]
The imperial examination skill points have increased by another 30 points. Sure enough, there are people who are tutoring me. The imperial examination skills are increasing very fast!
After Hai Rui finished his lecture and hurriedly went to deal with the county school affairs, Su Ze asked Chen Chaoyuan:
"Brother Chen, if I want to hire a craftsman who can engrave woodblocks, how can I find one?"
Chen Chaoyuan looked at Su Ze doubtfully, did Su Ze want to print a book?
Yanping Mansion is close to Jianyang, the publishing center of the Ming Dynasty, so there are naturally many craftsmen who are good at engraving.
There are two bookshops in the county that engrave and print their own books.
Chen Chaoyuan said tactfully: "Brother Su, the prices of books in our Yanping Mansion are not expensive, and the competition is fierce. You, Changning Wei, can't make much money doing this business."
Su Ze smiled and said: "Brother Chen, I don't want to print books, I just want to find a craftsman who can engrave."
Whether it was engraving radicals on movable type or typesetting and printing, Su Ze didn't know how to do it. It was better to hire a craftsman to do it more reliably.
Su Ze is not worried about the leakage of technology. Movable type printing technology has already appeared. The technical principles are not worth mentioning. What is important is the proportion of the lead mold formula for casting movable type and the formula of printing ink.
Moreover, there is not enough content to support a tabloid. Su Ze is not worried about printers competing with him.
Chen Chaoyuan knew that Su Ze was very opinionated, so he said: "Actually, there was a disaster in Jianyang last year, and there were many victims who fled outside the city. In the afternoon, I will accompany you to the dental market outside the city and pick out a craftsman who can print books. Just get off it.”
Su Ze asked curiously: "Is there a tooth market outside the city?"
Chen Chaoyuan nodded and said: "Of course there are, but they are just rough maids and male slaves. The better ones will not be sold in the tooth market."
Renyazi was a human trafficker who specialized in selling slaves during the Tang and Song Dynasties. The place where slaves were sold during the Tang and Song Dynasties was called Yashi.
The slave trade was even more prosperous in the Yuan Dynasty. The Mongols sold anyone. It is said that outside the capital city at that time, there was a slave trading market with tens of thousands of people, and even black slaves could be purchased in the market.
At the beginning of the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the slave trade was strictly prohibited, and anyone except the royal family was prohibited from keeping slaves.
In the early days of the People's Republic of China, this order was still implemented to a certain extent, but now, a series of methods have been developed to bypass this prohibition.
Some wealthy gentry and landowners in the south of the Yangtze River kept as many as a thousand slaves in their homes.
Chen Chaoyuan added: "These are all refugees with household registration. I will go home and get a red deed. Then Brother Su will just sign the deed and submit it to the Yamen."
Su Ze then remembered that Chen Chaoyuan was also a part-time lawyer. As expected, things would be easier to do with his help. Su Ze quickly thanked Chen Chaoyuan.
A red deed is a contract in a unified format stamped by the government. This is equivalent to a contract notarized by the government. This contract has legal effect when a lawsuit is filed.
A contract signed by the private sector is called a white contract. If a lawsuit is filed against a white contract, a lot of wrangling will be required. It is not as credible as a red contract.
For things like buying and selling slaves and buying and selling land, the Ming Dynasty already had red deeds stamped with official seals, which were contracts in a fixed format. This also shows that the clauses that abolished the slave trade in the early Ming Dynasty had long existed in name only.
Chen Chaoyuan asked again: "Brother Su, do you want a long-term lease or naturalization?"
Su Ze asked: "What about long-term renting? What about naturalization?"
Chen Chaoyuan explained: "Long-term lease is a long-term lease of ten to twenty years, and you can buy it out with money in one go. The advantage is that you don't need to be naturalized, and the slave's labor taxes are still borne by him. The disadvantage is that after the long-term lease, the other party can not renew the contract. .”
"Naturalization means joining your family's side registration. The advantage is that after naturalization, all household registrations will be in the hands of Brother Su, and he will never betray his master. But the disadvantage is that all his fortune and fortune will fall on Brother Su. You can only be exempted from military service when you pass the exam."
One thing Chen Chaoyuan didn't say was that after naturalization, this slave would be Su Ze's adopted son. Even if Su Ze injured him, it would only be regarded as an internal matter within the family, which meant that he had the right of life and death over the slave.
Su Ze could only lament the "strict laws" of the Ming Dynasty, and finally decided to go to the tooth market outside the city with Chen Chaoyuan first.
When they arrived outside the city, Su Ze saw the Yashi leaning against the city gate.
It was dirty and messy. If it weren't for Chen Chaoyuan's guidance, Su Ze would have thought this was an ordinary slum.
Chen Chaoyuan and Su Ze were both wearing Confucian shirts. A middle-aged woman covered with makeup immediately rushed up, pulled Chen Chaoyuan and said:
"Two gentlemen, I have a high-quality servant girl here, come and have a look!"
Chen Chaoyuan pulled Su Ze forward, dodged the people who came to solicit customers, and squeezed into the tooth market before Chen Chaoyuan said:
"Don't believe a word of these people's words. Is there any good maid here? Su Ze should be careful about the money on him. There are many thieves here."
Taking Su Ze with him, Chen Chaoyuan went to the depths of the tooth market and found a bad old man with gaping teeth.
"Pan Yazi, is there a craftsman who can sell it?"
Seeing Chen Chaoyuan, the gap-toothed old man stood up and said flatteringly: "It turns out to be Mr. Chen! Yes, of course there is! Please wait for a moment, and I will bring it to you right now!"
The entire dental market was filled with urine and various stenches. Chen Chaoyuan said: "This dental market is like this, but I heard that the dental market in Fuzhou Prefecture is much cleaner than this one, and there are also 'Xi Niangzi' sold there."
"What is a happy lady?"
Chen Chaoyuan glanced at Su Ze and said: "Some families in big cities like Fuzhou and Quanzhou are happy to have daughters. They have been provided with fine clothes and food since childhood and taught them music, chess, calligraphy and painting, just to wait until they are twelve or fourteen years old to sell them to rich families. I am a concubine.”
"Is there anything else like this?"
"If you can live a good life for more than ten years, even if you are a slave or a concubine, it will be much better than the people here. Pan Yazi has brought people here. Brother Su, you can choose for yourself."
(End of chapter)