It's April of the fourth year of Renshou, and it's mid-spring in Guanzhong. The grass is long and green, and patches of green crops cover this vast and fertile wilderness. Just when everyone in the world was focusing on farming, a piece of movable type printing related to scholars spread from Daxing City, causing a sensation among the people, and quickly spread to the Central Plains like growing wings.
The principle of movable type printing is actually very simple, one point is enough to make it clear. The printing technique used today is commonly known as block printing. This type of block printing uses a carving knife to carve protruding reverse characters on a piece of wood, and then ink is printed on the paper. If you want to print a new book, the wood needs to be carved from scratch. If an error is made in engraving, it will have to be engraved again, and the labor cost can be imagined to be high. Movable type printing is to divide a piece of carving into hundreds of independent wooden characters, stone characters, pottery characters, lead characters, and iron characters. When needed, these single characters are combined into modules to print books. After printing, they can be separated into the following parts. For single use, there is no need to waste time, effort and money to print the engraving template again and again. Even if the typeface is broken during the printing process, only a single supplement is needed. This not only saves time, but also saves money. As long as the words are placed according to the radical word detection method, it is very convenient to pick up the words.
As the so-called laymen watch the excitement, to ordinary people, movable type printing is just what others say. They don't know how much change this thing will bring to their own children and grandchildren, and they don't know the impact it will have on the world.
But experts can see the clue. In fact, since Cai Lun made paper, there have been countless varieties of paper with different advantages and disadvantages. The most expensive paper is rice paper, followed by hard yellow paper, and then rough bamboo paper and thin straw paper. , Bamboo paper and straw paper have shortcomings such as poor color and water permeability, but they are cheap to make and sell at a low price. Although they are not good for writing, they are fine if they are printed with mud and oil. The reason why these two types of paper are not used for printing is, The main reason is that the labor-intensive carved boards also have a service life, and people are reluctant to use them on bamboo paper and straw paper, which are not easy to preserve. But now that movable type has come out, there is naturally no expensive cost of carved boards. If you use movable type printing If books are printed on bamboo paper and straw paper, the price of books will definitely drop further. This means that not only poor families, but also ordinary people can afford to pay for books. A family of five in the Sui Dynasty had no problem at all in sending a student to a free official school.
So don't look at this "small" improvement, but when it comes to far-reaching influence, it is more powerful than Yang Ji's defeat of Bujia Khan's hundreds of thousands of troops. Because of this incident, it had a profound impact on tens of millions of people in the Sui Dynasty. All have a huge impact.
At the same time, it also means that as this technology spreads all over the world, knowledge and culture are no longer the exclusive preserve of aristocratic families. It means that ordinary people also have the opportunity to become unattainable scholars in their eyes. Some people are still confused about this news, but Many shrewd businessmen sensed the opportunity and began to purchase cheap bamboo paper and straw paper in large quantities and make typefaces, hoping to print books as soon as possible and make a fortune from it.
"It's hard to imagine that printing can be done like this." In the palace, Yang Jian took several seals and printed them on a piece of paper, then mixed them up and printed them again in random order, and said to Yang Guang with a wry smile: "This is probably the case with movable type printing. Although the initial project of making movable type is larger, a type template can be used repeatedly. Once the printing craftsmen are familiar with the sequence of the type templates, the printing speed will be increased a hundred or a thousand times than before. However, we work every day I used a seal, but I just didn’t expect it.”
Yang Jian was born in a noble family and had the status of an emperor. Naturally, he knew the benefits of movable type printing to the world, the court, and the emperor. However, it was a devastating blow to the noble families.
"Yes!" Yang Guang said excitedly: "This method has been known to the whole city, and the aristocratic families can't stop it even if they want. There may not be any great Confucian scholars in a short time, but the number of literate common people has increased sharply. When these people grow up, the court's dependence on the aristocratic families will definitely decrease. Hey, I don't know who came up with this method. If I know who it is, I will definitely reward him heavily. Even a hundred thousand taels is too low. .”
"This person may have realized that he could not afford the bounty, and was worried that he would become a second trouble, so he chose to make it public instead of asking for the reward in a big way."
In fact, Yang Jian not only knew that movable type printing was invented by Yang Ji, but also knew that he had made new paper with quality comparable to Xuanzhang and price comparable to bamboo paper, but he was not prepared to say it. Just because the interest groups touched by these two things are so huge, even if the family's monopoly on knowledge can be broken, if people know that it is Yang Ji's handiwork, I am afraid that the emperor may not be able to keep it, so Yang Jian, for the sake of Yang Ji, even Yang Guang didn't say anything.
When Yang Guang heard this, he nodded silently and asked, "But I don't know how Aye plans to deal with this matter?"
Yang Jian said slowly: "The aristocratic family dominated the officialdom of the Sui Dynasty. Although various factions fought endlessly for their interests, the movable type printing technology has touched the overall interests of the aristocratic family. If it is promoted along the trend, all the aristocratic families in the world will jump out to oppose it and alienate us. "
Yang Guang frowned and said, "You can't just do nothing, right?"
"The front cannot be promoted, but we can promote it in a commercial way." Yang Jian said: "In the name of printing secretaries to save books, let the craftsmen make more fonts. After printing the book collection, send a trustworthy person with some copies and Printing and selling the fonts in various places can, on the one hand, bypass the officialdom, and on the other hand, it can also add some wealth to the royal family.”
"This move can really shake the foundation of the family!" Yang Guang exclaimed: "Aye's move..."
poison!
Yang Guang didn't say that word in the end, but the meaning was very obvious. Yang Jian's move was not just to shake up the foundation of the family, but more importantly, he never appeared in front of the stage, but as the driving force behind the scenes, he put these things in place. Promote it all over the world.
On the surface, it seemed a bit cowardly, but this move completely pitted the merchants against the aristocratic families, allowing the merchants to bear the backlash of the aristocratic families, while Yang Jian gained substantial benefits from it.
The most important thing is that when movable type printing first appeared, all the aristocratic families would print books and sell them for money, even though they knew it could not be banned, in an attempt to make a fortune. Besides, everyone is like this, and it will only make the promotion of cheap books even more difficult. quick.
It would be better if the aristocratic families demanded banning business, punishing businessmen, and imposing heavy taxes on businessmen!
Just because the aristocratic families are the largest businessmen in the world, if their taxes can be collected, they will only be higher than the land rent.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
In the residence of Duke Gao Jiong of Qi, Gao Jiong, dressed in sapphire blue uniform, was sitting in the pavilion in the garden, opposite his visiting friend Yu Wenbi.
In the past, Gao Jiong stood with Yang Yong from the perspective of Yi Chu, but was eventually dismissed by Yang Jian on the grounds of pursuing "shameful diplomacy" and was left with only the title of Duke of Qi. However, Yu Wenbi was rising in the court. Now, Gao Jiong was appointed as the director of the Liangzhou Prefecture, but Yu Wenbi was pulled by He Ruobi to support him, and was beaten to the end, even if he didn't have a meritorious position, it was really an unpredictable life.
There was a wooden table in the pavilion. There were several exquisite pastries and dishes on the table. The small stove under the wooden table was warming a pot of wine. The maids and servants were driven away far away. Gao Yan took good care of the time. Throw the shredded ginger in the saucer into the pot, and then cover the wine pot again.
"What does Gao Gong think of this movable type printing technology?" The two were close friends, so Yu Wenbi got straight to the point and didn't go around any detours.
Gao Qiao raised his eyelids and said calmly: "This is a good thing that is beneficial to the world! I don't have any opinion."
This is Gao Jiong's true words. Although he comes from the Bohai Gao family, he has always attached great importance to talents from poor families and safeguarding imperial power. In his heart, the interests of the Sui Dynasty are above all else. Because he knows the troubles of the family, he The "big survey" and "registration loss" methods were introduced. However, although these two methods of population census greatly increased the Sui Dynasty's finances, the increase in a large number of household registrations was inevitably accompanied by the decrease of tenants in the wealthy families. Thus weakening the interests of the aristocratic families. Therefore, during Gao Jiong's reign, ministers never stopped slandering and attacking him.
Yu Wenbi opened his mouth and said bitterly: "This technique may be beneficial to the world, poor scholars and common people, but it is useless to the noble families. Didn't Gao Gong think about this?"
"Of course I know! But if the sons of aristocratic families have no worries about food and clothing, and have excellent living and learning conditions, if they can't compete with the poor and ordinary people who are poor and worried about their lives, then what good will such people do to the country? Even if they become officials, so what? Can you survive in a cruel political struggle? Moreover, this technique is already known all over the world. Even if I am against it, what's the use? There is no benefit at all except fighting against the poor men and common people in the world."
At that time, Jixia Academy claimed to attract talents from all over the world. However, King Yanzhao's Golden Platform worshiped generals and recruited countless poor people. In the end, the powerful Qi State was almost destroyed with a devastating force.
Nowadays, although this movable type printing technology is not a golden platform, it is regarded by poor scholars and people all over the world as the hope to change their destiny. This technology is more ruthless than a golden platform or a thousand gold to buy a horse bone.
Anyone who underestimates the opposition force of the poor people and dares to become an enemy of the poor people and the people will die without a complete body.
Gao Jong glanced at Yu Wenbi and softened his tone: "Mr. Yuwen, you and I have known each other for many years. I wonder if you can listen to me?"
Yu Wenbi came here today to seek solutions. When he heard Gao Jiong's article, he quickly said: "Please teach me, Mr. Gao."
Gao Jiong filled a bowl of warm rice wine for each of them and said: "This matter is beneficial to the country. The saint will not allow anyone to destroy it. As for us subjects, it doesn't matter if we fight for it ourselves, but how can we What about fighting against the imperial power? Besides, didn’t Duke Yuwen realize that the times were different?”
Yu Wenbi asked in astonishment: "I wonder what Mr. Gao means by this?"
"From ancient times to the present, education and officialdom have always been in the hands of the aristocratic families. The poor scholars and the common people are just ants who support the aristocratic families. The aristocratic families will live if they want them to live and die if they want them to die. Is there any room for resistance?" Gao Jie sighed: "But it's different now. Movable type printing will inevitably make cheap bamboo paper books and straw paper books spread all over the world. What will be the result of everyone in the world being able to read books? Is everyone literate and everyone able to read?" Knowing how to govern the country, once the examinations of Xiu Cai Ke and Ming Jing Ke follow this trend and are extended to the entire world, the threshold for poor people to become officials will be infinitely lowered. Although aristocratic families rule the world, which family will be born into aristocratic families? The poor people who entered the officialdom went through hardships and continued to operate from generation to generation, which naturally gave birth to countless aristocratic families. When there are too many aristocratic families, the aristocratic families will become less valuable. But this is an irreversible trend. In the face of this general trend, The obedient will prosper and the rebellious will perish! The Gao family is like this, the Yuwen family is like this, and the royal family is no exception."
After carefully considering Gao Jiong's words, Yu Wenbi frowned and asked uncertainly: "Does Duke Gao mean that I should draw a clear line between myself and the major forces?"
"I suggest that you leave and educate the children of the clan with peace of mind. In the future, the official positions in the Great Sui Dynasty will definitely be filled by capable people, and the advantages of the aristocratic families will become less and less, until they are minimal. If the children themselves have nothing He is so powerful that no one can help him.”
Gao Jiong is far-sighted and well aware that the power structure will be completely reshuffled sooner or later due to the movable type printing. If the family members want to continue to be at the top, they must accept this general trend and use their own advantages to make arrangements in advance. Which family dares to compete with Jiucheng If the above population becomes an enemy and dares to offend the interests of more than 90% of the population, the only outcome will be total destruction.
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