prosperous age

"Master, this is Wuyi tea that was just delivered to your residence."

I must say, the tea at your residence is truly fragrant; the aroma comes out as soon as it's brewed, making this little one's mouth water.

Wei Guangde sat behind his desk, not intending to look at the memorials beside him today. He planned to finish reading the back of the Bible before dealing with official business.

It must be said that the addition of three cabinet ministers greatly reduced the workload of Wei Guangde and his colleagues, and their burden was indeed lightened considerably.

Previously, one person had to process dozens of memorials a day; now that number has been halved.

Using the Grand Secretary's privilege, he didn't actually need to express his opinion; he just had Lu Bu and the Zhongshu (Secretariat) who distributed the memorials inform him, and the number of memorials they found on this side decreased by about ten.

Up to now, Wei Guangde only reads about twenty memorials a day, and that's considered his daily task complete.

Anyway, the Central Secretariat will pick out the important things and put them on his side, while the unimportant things to kill time will be given to others.

If any fish manages to slip through the net, they will appear before him before San Yaqian.

However, Wei Guangde's gaze did not fall on the books on the desk, but was fixed on the teacup.

He certainly knew what kind of tea it was; the aroma was indeed enticing, and the taste was absolutely exquisite.

To be honest, Wei Guangde only got to drink this tea a couple of days ago, and he went to great lengths to prepare it.

"Hmm, this tea doesn't count as Wuyi tea."

Wei Guangde just smiled faintly, then picked up his teacup, took a deep breath of the tea aroma, and put it back.

"But when the tea was delivered, they said it was tea specially picked from Wuyi Mountain."

"I'm surprised," Lu Bu said.

When he heard the tea deliveryman from the Wei residence say it was new tea from Wuyi Mountain, he assumed it was new tea from the Imperial Tea Garden by the Jiuxi River. Little did he know, this tea was specially ordered by Wei Guangde.

For ordinary people, even those from the gentry class, it was simply a matter of buying tea from tea shops.

At worst, we can ask the shopkeeper to help us find some good tea.

Those with wealthy families might search for top-quality tea throughout the province, but they would never travel to other provinces just to buy good tea.

However, these were naturally no problem for Wei Guangde.

Now, whatever tea Wei Guangde wants to drink, the local officials will absolutely rush to help him find it and then send it to the capital by express courier.

Sending tribute tea to the imperial palace was a mission, but finding tea for Wei Guangde was an act of currying favor and ensuring a smooth career path.

As for Wuyi tea, it is naturally tea produced in Wuyi Mountain.

Wuyi Rock Tea is a traditional famous tea, an oolong tea with the characteristics of rocky aroma and floral fragrance. It is produced in the Wuyi Mountains area of ​​northern Fujian, known as "the most beautiful in Southeast China". The tea trees grow in the crevices of rocks. Wuyi Rock Tea has the fragrance of green tea and the mellowness of black tea, and is the best of Chinese oolong tea.

Of course, Fujian didn't just send Wuyi tea; they also sent bags of Anxi Tieguanyin and Yongtai green tea to the Wei family.

Even the newly emerging Lapsang Souchong tea has seen a significant amount transported to the Wei family residence in Beijing.

The gifts Wei Guangde received were enough to not only drink himself, but also to open a tea shop, and the variety was absolutely complete.

Apart from the designated tribute teas, all the famous teas produced in China are available.

However, Wei Guangde also posed a problem for the Fujian side, saying that he had heard of a tea called "Da Hong Pao" among Wuyi tea, but he did not see it in the tea leaves that were sent.

In fact, this shows that Wei Guangde was ignorant. Da Hong Pao tea is indeed very famous, and because of its low production, it is hard to find and sell at a high price in the market.

However, the discovery of Da Hong Pao was quite recent, only about a century ago.

During the Ming Dynasty, Wei Guangde wanted to drink Da Hong Pao tea. Wasn't that ridiculous?

The tea trees on Jiulongke were actually never found by anyone due to the terrain.

Of course, it may have been picked by tea farmers by chance, but although there was a custom of collecting tribute tea in the local area during the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, it was all labeled as Wuyi rock tea.

The name "Da Hong Pao" comes from the three characters "Da Hong Pao" carved on a cliff next to the tea tree. It is said that the carving was done by a monk from Tianxin Temple in 1927.

It was from this point onward that these mother trees of the Da Hong Pao variety were truly identified.

As for the teas that resemble Da Hong Pao recorded in travelogues from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, it is impossible to distinguish them because these travelogues and survey materials do not provide details about the specific location of these Da Hong Pao teas, the temples or tea shops to which they belong, whether they are the same type or different varieties with the same name, whether the characteristics of the tea trees are consistent, and their quality.

However, Wei Guangde had seen the documentary and remembered that it grew halfway up the mountain, with a stone dam at the mountainside. It should belong to a tea tree belonging to a temple in Wuyi Mountain. So the local officials naturally searched for it among the local temples and actually found it.

However, tea trees are scarce, there are only a few trees, and the annual tea production is only about one pound, so it is really extremely precious.

Knowing the tea was good, Wei Guangde spent a lot of money to buy the tea trees and hired monks from the temple to take care of them at a high price. Now it can be called Wei family tea.

This is the first time he's had it this year.

He loved it so much that he had some sent to his duty room so he could have a sip whenever he had a spare moment.

In later generations, he could only hear of its name but never see the tea, a fate of sighing in vain.

"Alright, you can go now."

Send fewer of these memorials today; the master has other important matters to attend to.

Wei Guangde waved for Lu Bu to leave, and then continued to read the Bible while sipping his tea.

However, the more Wei Guangde looked, the more he frowned, and the more he felt something was wrong.

Isn't the first passage of the Bible "God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light"?

Although he had never actually read the Bible, Wei Guangde remembered that many Western fantasy novels used this passage as the incantation for activating "great prophecy".

Little did he know that the so-called Bible he was reading was not the real Bible at all, but rather a book called "A Brief History of the Lord" written by Michele Ruggieri just last year. Because it was based on stories from the Bible, or rather, history, Matteo Ricci wrote the word "Bible" on the cover of the book, but the title of the book was actually "The True Record of the Lord" written on the first page of the cover.

"The content is too simple."

Wei Guangde had already flipped through quite a few pages and noticed that something was amiss.

The book contains Catholic doctrines presented in the form of stories, which are simpler and easier to understand than Buddhist and Taoist books, making it very conducive to dissemination.

However, the content was still somewhat different from the habits of the people of the Ming Dynasty at that time.

The book divides each month into four weeks according to Christian custom, with fixed religious and cultural activities for each week, giving readers a clear understanding of how believers live their lives.

In the Ming Dynasty, a month was divided into three periods: the first, middle, and last ten days. There was no concept of Sunday; only the new moon and full moon.

The book also introduces the Jesuits, describes the situation of Catholicism in Europe, and the rise of the Jesuits.

Wei Guangde was unsure whether he should show this content to the Wanli Emperor.

I felt I was getting a little sensitive. I quickly flipped through the pages, no longer paying much attention to the content in the middle. Finally, I reached the last chapter, which was titled "A General Overview of Western Customs and Practices, and an Explanation of Why the Preachers Do Not Marry, and an Explanation of the Origin of God's Birth in the West."

Wei Guangde slowed down his flipping through the book and carefully read the contents. It said that the essence of Catholic countries is to obey the Pope. "There is a supreme position, called the Pope of Education, whose sole duty is to continue the teachings of God to the world. Heretical doctrines are not allowed among the nations."

It emphasizes that after Peter, a disciple of Jesus, established the church in the Vatican, it was continuously maintained by every pope, thus establishing not only a spiritual connection with Jesus but also a physical one.

Matteo Ricci considered this to be the unique feature and superiority of the Catholic Church.

"The Catholic Church is really aggressive; it labels other religions as heresy, haha."

Wei Guangde chuckled. If this book were to be presented, its contents would first need to be annotated so that Emperor Wanli could understand its deeper meaning.

After stroking his chin and thinking for a moment, Wei Guangde made a decision: the book should be sent to the Hanlin Academy first, so that those old scholars could study it, annotate it, criticize it, or debate it. In any case, they should first put Confucianism and the ideas in the book to a struggle.

After that, the book was sent to the Qianqing Palace for the emperor to see.

Emperor Wanli was actually curious about Western things, and it wouldn't be right to refuse to let him see them.

However, it cannot be viewed in isolation; it must be mixed with Confucian thought so that Emperor Wanli's thinking would not be biased.

"Reed cloth".

Wei Guangde called out to the door.

"master."

Lu Bu thought Wei Guangde had already finished drafting the memorials and asked him to go in and collect them, but when he came in, he was stunned to find that none of the memorials had been touched.

"Come here, take this book to the Hanlin Academy and give it to the head of the academy. Tell them to study it carefully, find the differences between it and my Confucianism, make annotations, and refute it where necessary."

The final book will be sent to the Qianqing Palace so that they can freely annotate it.

With that, Wei Guangde handed the book to Lu Bu, then added, "Deliver this personally and convey what I just said."

"Yes, sir."

Lu Bu had seen Wei Guangde bring this book before, and now that he had it in his hands, he glanced at it and realized it didn't look like an ancient Chinese book.

After bowing, he left the duty room, exited the cabinet, and ran towards the Hanlin Academy.

After the person left, Wei Guangde picked up his teacup and took another sip. It was cold, but since there was no one around, he had no choice but to make do. He then picked up a memorial to read.

I haven't finished my chores for today yet, I can't forget about that.

Meanwhile, on the main street outside Zhengyangmen in the outer city, a platform was gradually taking shape amidst the busy work of a group of workers.

Matteo Ricci, dressed in a scholar's robe, stood in front of the platform, scrutinizing everything. He occasionally whispered a few words to the foreman and gave instructions on how the platform was being built.

He had just come from a nearby warehouse, where the Xu family had hired people to decorate it, and they had also hired a carpenter to carve a "cross" and make wooden benches.

That was where religious ceremonies were held, while this was where he gathered his followers.

"Don't worry, Master Li, I guarantee the platform will be set up for you tomorrow. I've already taken care of things with the Shuntian Prefecture. For the next ten days, no officials will bother with the platform."

If you wish to continue after ten days, you will need to go to the government office again to renew your subscription.

The foreman was the manager of the Xu family, and he was the one who recruited the workers. He spoke to Matteo Ricci at that moment.

"Okay, I'll come back in a bit. I'll wander around for a bit first."

Matteo Ricci was very satisfied with the work attitude of the servants in the Xu household. He smiled and said something before taking his entourage for a stroll down the street.

Since the outer city wall was built, Qianmenwai Street has become one of the most prosperous streets in Beijing. The "Illustrated Map of the Capital's Prosperity" depicts the commercial scene outside Zhengyangmen from the late Jiajing period to the early Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty.

The scene shows a wide variety of shops lining Qianmenwai Street, stretching from Wupailou through Zhengyangmen to Damingmen. Stalls are set up high, crisscrossing the street, selling everything from jewelry and antiques, silk and leather goods, calligraphy and paintings, to clothing, fabrics, knives, scissors, ceramics, paper flowers and toys. Stalls are one after another, and tourists are constantly coming and going, creating a lively scene.

With its bustling crowds and vehicles, this prosperous area naturally became a key focus for the government in cracking down on crimes, resulting in very strict municipal management.

To be honest, it's not easy to set up a stage in this place. Although it's a place for small vendors to set up stalls and do business, setting up a stage takes up too much space.

Although the money collected was more than that from the small stalls, Shuntian Prefecture did not actually want it to be like this, as it somewhat blocked the roads.

Such prosperity naturally held great appeal for Matteo Ricci, who chose this location for his missionary work in Beijing, valuing its massive population.

However, since the preparations are not yet complete, he can relax for a while these next couple of days.

Sure enough, before long, Matteo Ricci was already lingering among melons, fruits, pears, peaches, and various daily necessities.

Many of the things here were things Matteo Ricci had never seen before. The things the Xu family gave him were naturally exquisite, but seeing the various goods sold on the streets truly broadened his horizons.

Compared to the prosperity of Songjiang Prefecture, the capital city was far superior, and even surpassed commercial cities like Rome and Venice by countless streets.

Matteo Ricci wandered around, and there were always a few men following him in turns, secretly recording his every move.

Even the construction of warehouses and platforms has caught the attention of some observant individuals.

They were naturally people sent by various families in the capital, as well as secret agents from the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Despite the Wei family's influence, the Embroidered Uniform Guard still arranged for people to closely monitor the foreigner's every move.

Matteo Ricci's appearance was so outstanding in the capital that he kept going into various shops to check out the goods, which naturally caught the attention of the shopkeepers.

While promoting their products, they inevitably exchange a few words and inquire about his purpose.

A few years ago, the Western delegation that came to the capital shocked the city's business circles. They spent lavishly to purchase all kinds of goods, which caused a temporary shortage of high-end luxury goods in the capital.

Even in the capital, a place teeming with merchants, the reserves of high-end luxury goods are not large, since the sales channels are limited and sales are generally quite fixed.

Some wealthy families would go directly to the places of origin, such as Jiangnan, to purchase goods and bring back some ordinary products to sell in their own shops. So the foreigners' extravagant purchase that time really shocked the capital.

Today, more than two years later, the presence of Yi people has reappeared, which naturally makes it impossible for them not to take it seriously.

"Proselytizing? I've heard of it. It's a religion from the Western barbarians. If you're not a merchant, you don't need to concern yourself with it."

In the afternoon, news of Matteo Ricci's situation had already reached some business owners in the chambers of commerce, coming from the shops below.

Most businessmen choose to ignore it; they're not businessmen, and there won't be much contact with them in the future.

However, for those who saw Matteo Ricci in front of the Wei residence that night and witnessed him enter the residence, this seemed to be an opportunity to get closer to him.

"Find out what this so-called cult they're preaching is all about, and maybe we can go and support them sometime."

A few business owners gave instructions to their subordinates. (End of Chapter)