prosperous age

Chapter 458 Chapter 457
Hearing that Chen Ju actually thought of the "Yongle Dadian" in his hand because of the reprint of "Sanitary Easy and Simple Prescriptions", Emperor Jiajing was a little happy.

In fact, he has long wanted to engrave the "Yongle Dadian", but he also knows that this matter is quite troublesome, as an emperor, he can't just say it out of his mouth.

"Yongle Dadian" has a catalog of 60 volumes, with a total of 22937 volumes and 11095 volumes.

There are tens of thousands of books, how many pages are there in each book?

Every page needs a block, and I can do the math, I'm afraid I have to prepare a million blocks.

As far as this project is concerned, not to mention the time and effort, and the cost of paper and ink used for engraving, it is not a small sum.

When it comes to printing books, the first thing that Emperor Jiajing thought of was the engraving printing that is currently on the market instead of movable type printing.

In fact, although there was movable type printing in the Ming Dynasty, movable type printing could not replace woodblock printing.

First of all, movable type printing is not perfect at the technical level.

Although movable type printing is a technology more advanced than woodblock printing, it does not mean that it is advanced from the moment it is invented, and can immediately replace the widely used and popular woodblock printing.

In the Song Dynasty when movable type printing was invented, engraving printing books had reached a high level of perfection, but in the Ming Dynasty, not only the quantity was prosperous, but also the engraving technology and printing quality had reached a very high level.

As a new thing, movable type printing still needs to be perfected and developed in terms of technology.

First, typography with movable type will cause irregular and skewed line spacing, and even errors such as horizontal and inverted single characters.

Second, the sizes of the characters printed on the movable type plates are different, and the strokes are uneven in thickness.

Third, book printing with movable type is likely to cause uneven ink color on the printing paper.

Movable type also has a service life. Whether it is wood type or clay type, it will be damaged after repeated use. Even metal type cannot be spared, but it will take longer than other types, but the cost is far higher than others.

However, in use, metal movable type is not easy to get ink, which will affect the printing effect.

In fact, the customary force of traditional culture also affects the dissemination and popularization of movable type printing technology. Since the invention of woodblock printing, printed matter has not only been used as a reading object and a medium for disseminating knowledge, but also as a work of art and a medium for disseminating calligraphy art. carrier.

Literati and bibliophiles often evaluate printed materials based on the above-mentioned standards, and the function of engraving and printing can hardly be replaced by movable type.

Engraving is to write the upper version of the manuscript, and the strokes, hooks, vertical strokes, and right strokes between the upper and lower characters sometimes cross each other, and the strokes correspond to each other, so that the lines are neat and the font structure is beautiful.

From the perspective of artistic aesthetics, it is difficult for movable type to surpass engraving.

Moreover, the special form of Chinese characters is another reason for delaying the promotion of movable type printing. The promotion and use of movable type printing technology is quite slow, and it has not had an epoch-making impact. It cannot be said that it has nothing to do with the Chinese character system.

It took five or six hundred years for movable type printing to be gradually popularized and used in China, but it took only four or fifty years for it to be extremely widely used in Europe.

This is because the Chinese character block system used by the Chinese has a huge amount of information and a large number. To meet the needs of typesetting, a set of movable type must have at least tens of thousands of movable type, and some even need to engrave 10,000+ movable type.

With such a large quantity, the production process is quite complicated.

However, for the phonetic writing system used by Europeans, it is very convenient to complete the typesetting work only by making movable type with dozens of letters and characters.

The difference between thousands of movable types and dozens of movable types is two orders of magnitude. This gap makes the information transmission speed of Chinese characters as the carrier much lower than that of pinyin characters, which objectively delays the development of movable type printing. Promotion and popularization.

Finally, movable type printing also encountered obstacles in the practical application of technology.

Chinese science and technology is more focused on experience and practicality. After the invention of woodblock printing, the printing industry has developed rapidly. Since the Song Dynasty, it has developed into three major engravings, namely official engraving, family engraving, and workshop engraving.

Even now, this is the main thing.

Most of the folk bookstores still use block printing, even the bookstores printed with movable type mostly use wooden fonts, but this also leads to poor printing effect.

The Nei Ting Jing Factory has a set of copper fonts with excellent printing effect, but if you want to engrave "Yongle Dadian" with that set of copper fonts, you will know that it will be impossible. It's so simple, not to mention that the set of fonts was purchased only after emptying out the savings of the inner court at that time.

Woodblock printing has a long history and mature technology. There are a large number of craftsmen specializing in woodblock printing, and the division of labor is relatively small, which has formed a professional pattern.

However, the circulation of books in ancient my country was not very large, and the market demand was small, because reading was actually a very expensive thing no matter in that era, and private demand determined that the number of most books printed would not be large.

In this way, in order to pursue profits and reduce costs, bookstores are unwilling to abandon the original traditional engraving process and try to adopt the new technology of movable type printing.

Therefore, in practice, movable type printing encountered subjective obstacles from book operators.

Regardless of the fact that Emperor Jiajing made the decision to print the book "Health and Simple Prescriptions" after just a few glances, this is also because the book is only a hundred pages, and large-scale printing must be woodblock printing, that is, hundreds of woodblocks That's enough, and it's still within the range that the court can bear.

However, the printing of "Yongle Dadian" that Chen Ju talked about was not the case at all. The money needed was probably several million taels, which might not be enough.

Therefore, don’t think that there was movable type printing in ancient times. It seems that printing a book is a very simple matter, but it is actually quite expensive.

Therefore, Emperor Jiajing immediately rejected Chen Ju's proposal in his heart. Even though he had already wanted to, he was unable to do it after all.

Just kidding, several million silver, this is the money income of the Ming Dynasty for several years, so much money was spent to print a set of books, Emperor Jiajing could not do such a thing.

The expression on Emperor Jiajing's face went from joy at the beginning to bleakness at the end. Although he didn't speak, whether it was Chen Ju, Huang Jin, or Gao Zhong, they could tell that the emperor actually had the intention to do this.

Chen Ju didn't know what to say next, but Huang Jin and Gao Zhong had a plan.

When the atmosphere in the palace gradually cooled down, Gao Zhong said first: "My lord, speaking of it, there is only one copy of the "Yongle Canon" left in the palace. It requires a huge amount of money, so why not have the inner study make a copy and keep it separately."

Yes, "Yongle Dadian" cannot be printed, but it can be copied in the most primitive way, that is, copying books.

In fact, the books that many scholars like to collect most are the hand-transcribed versions. They think that the written articles are alive, and they don't like printed books, even if they are engraved books.

Although, they do not deny that printed books cost less and are more conducive to the promotion and inheritance of knowledge.

"Yes, my lord, what Gao Zhong said makes sense."

After Gao Zhong started, Huang Jin also continued: "Actually, not only the boys in the inner study can help copy books, but also the Imperial Academy and the Imperial College can participate.

The books of "Yongle Dadian" are too extensive and vast. If more people are involved, the transcription work can be completed faster. "

Chen Ju blinked his eyes when he heard the words, and copied a book, so it can only be kept in the inner court?
In fact, eunuchs like them had experience in the inner study in their early years, so they naturally knew the function of books. If books can't be widely spread, what's the use?

The folks have poor talents who will help others copy books, but their purpose of copying books is only secondary to making money, and their main purpose is to practice calligraphy.

Participating in the imperial examination required high requirements for writing. Many poor scholars had no money to buy pens and ink, so they often found a job of copying books in bookstores.

Earn pen and ink fees by copying books, and by the way, some pocket money, and the most important thing is to practice calligraphy.

But now it was Gao Zhong who was talking, his godfather. Although Chen Ju felt that transcribing a copy of "Yongle Dadian" was not of much practical use other than an extra insurance, and he didn't dare to say anything more.

"Inner Study Room, Imperial Academy, Imperial College"

Emperor Jiajing murmured.

Yes, he was moved.

It is unrealistic to print "Yongle Dadian", but if someone copies it, although the cost will not be small, the cost of paper and ink alone will not be small, and the final binding and other tasks will also require a lot of manpower, but it is relatively old. Now that unreliable printing is much cheaper.

He likes the book "Yongle Dadian", and even thought of putting it in the mausoleum to be buried with him after his death, but if there is only one set in the palace, it is impossible anyway.

In fact, after decades of cultivation, although Huang Jin and Yan Song called him a "living god" for fun, Emperor Jiajing was so easily fooled.

It takes a long time to print a book, and it is not advisable to invest too much, and the work of copying the book will not be short. Even if a lot of manpower is really invested in it, it is time-consuming.

"Okay, let's stop here, let me think about it."

Even though he said so, Emperor Jiajing actually made up his mind in his heart. When he had time, he called Yan Song and Xu Jie over to discuss and see what the court thought about it.

The news that Emperor Jiajing wanted to re-engrave the Fang Shu of the Sanitary Bamboo by the former minister of rites, Hu Wei, quickly spread throughout the court and the public, and there were different opinions on this in the court.

In fact, during the years of Emperor Jiajing's reign, there were not a few books ordered to be engraved, but most of those books were Taoist classics, but this time they were medical books.

Some people naturally thought of the reason why the emperor was seriously ill before, so they thought it might be related to it. Of course, some people disagreed. In their opinion, engraving medical books is not as good as engraving the words of sages, which is pure waste.

But no matter what, there was not a word of objection in the court.

As the end of the year approaches, all officials are more concerned about salary and annual gift, which is related to whether each family can have a good year.

The imperial court was running smoothly under the leadership of Yan Song and other cabinet ministers. In the last few days of the year, Emperor Jiajing still decreed that the emperor will not be in the imperial court at Zhengdan.

For this decree, no matter whether it is the court or the people in Yuwang's mansion, they are not surprised.

On this day, when Wei Guangde returned home from Prince Yu's Mansion, he received a letter from Jizhen from Zhang Ji.

"Dong Yiyuan?"

Wei Guangde received the letter, still a little puzzled.

In the past two years, although Jizhen has always been threatened by Alda, under the strict defense of Jizhen, it has never succeeded.

Although the border fort of Jizhen was often attacked by Tartars, most of them were tentative attacks, and there were no major warning signs and no chance of fighting. Therefore, Dong Yiyuan is still a guerrilla general in the army of Jizhen.

Opening the envelope and taking out the letter paper, Wei Guangde wondered what Dong Yiyuan was writing to himself at this time.

Don't be surprised, in fact, only a few days ago, Dong Yiyuan sent someone to send a letter of greeting and an annual gift, which made Wei Guangde really hard to understand. Why is it popular to send double copies during this year's festival?

At a glance, Wei Guangde understood a little bit.

In fact, the letter this time is not mainly about himself, but about his brother Dong Yikui.

Wei Guangde has never met Dong Yikui, but he also knows that Dong Yiyuan has such an elder brother, who used to be in the same position as Ma Fang.

However, after experiencing the first battle in Baoanzhou, he was registered with Emperor Jiajing, and Ma Fang was indeed able to fight, and he had a good record. After hard work along the way, he has been promoted to the governor and general officer, and the general officer of the Xuanfu.

However, Dong Yikui's record is naturally much inferior to Ma Fang's. He has been serving as a general in Xuanfu East Road, and his rank is only a commanding officer.

Perhaps it was because Dong Yikui said something to his younger brother in the daily correspondence between the two brothers, especially before the New Year's Eve, he might send someone to deliver a letter to Dong Yiyuan, along with some New Year's gifts, so Dong Yiyuan sent himself this letter at this time letter.

Speaking of it, in fact, this matter is still related to Li Xian, the former general officer of the Xuan Mansion, and Chi Fengxiang, the governor of the Xuan Mansion.

Afterwards, Li Xian was transferred back to the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies, and Ma Fang was promoted to the position of Chief Military Officer, but the court has not yet arranged for the post of Deputy Chief Soldier.

This, of course, made Dong Yikui, who had enough qualifications, notice it.

However, at the level of chief soldier and deputy chief soldier, it is not something he can get by walking around with the governor of the Xuanfu, or even the governor of Xuanda. He needs someone in the capital to help others talk about the matter.

Dong Yikui's eyes darkened in the capital, and he naturally thought of the nobles in Beijing that his younger brother said.

Wei Guangde, when he commanded the Battle of Baoan Prefecture in Xuanfu, Dong Yikui was unlucky and didn't get to know him, but he was mentioned by his colleagues.

More importantly, Ma Fang, who was entrusted with an important task by Wei Guangde in this battle, made great achievements in the following time, which made the generals of the Xuanfu jealous.

In this, apart from Ma Fang's military exploits, it is of course inseparable from someone in the capital to take care of him.

In fact, in the eyes of the senior officials of the Ministry of War, Ma Fang was not only a person favored by Emperor Jiajing, but also a member of Prince Yu's Mansion.

Naturally, choosing to recommend Ma Fang when he vacated his official position was also to show his favor to Prince Yu's Mansion.

Naturally, Wei Guangde knew about this, so although he didn't go around specifically for Ma Fang's promotion, he still thanked the Ministry of War for his support and support many times on Ma Fang's behalf during official gatherings.

"Deputy commander?"

Wei Guangde frowned slightly, Dong Yiyuan begged for an official position for his elder brother
(End of this chapter)