Datang Nongsheng

Chapter 294 The Industry Opened up for the Yu Family
In the past few days when Li Shimin was on tour, the public opinion of Chang'an people mainly revolved around two things.

One is the program on the stage of Wangjiang Tower. Dongzhu’s appearance frequency in Wangjiang Tower is very high. There will be three or four performances a day. The few prairie songs she brought are now the favorite songs of the people in Chang’an. Two lines of popular pop songs, everyone's recognition of this prairie girl is very high, which can be regarded as a preliminary opening of the situation.

The second is that Yuan Tiangang couldn't bear the pressure, and he confided to the family members Sun Xiangfu's Weinan New City investment plan. According to Yuan Tiangang's description, in the future, the shareholders of Wangjiang Tower headed by Sun Zhengming and some new dignitaries They will raise more than [-] million yuan to build this industrial-oriented new city, which may cover the entire area of ​​Weinan.

At that time, many large-scale workshops will be built in this city, many of which are new industries that Datang has never had before, and Sun Zhengming will invest unlimited additional funds in these industries.

This news immediately excited the children of the aristocratic family. Many people found a reason to send New Year gifts to Sun Xiangfu's house, and Sun Xiangfu who returned to Chang'an immediately hid to give New Year gifts. Everyone came to share a piece of the pie, and he cheated, mainly from five surnames and seven families.

When entering the Yu's house, the first thing Sun Xiangfu saw was his father-in-law Yu Chang's resentful eyes. Wangjiang Tower is such a profitable business, it's fine if Sun Xiangfu didn't recruit the Yu family, after all, Sun Xiangfu planned this at the time At that time, I had just met Yu Xiuer.

However, the Weinan New City matter did not involve the Yu family, which is a bit meaningless. You must know that this investment plan, in addition to making profits, is also a great thing to follow the emperor's footsteps and promote the country's development!
The Yu family is in Guanzhong, so it can be regarded as a second- and third-rate family. The family background is stronger than the upstarts like Qin Qiong. There are many people in the family who are educated and become officials. Xiangfu added trouble, but apart from providing Wangjiang Tower offline and providing some agricultural products, they did not take much advantage in Sun Xiangfu's series of developments.

After some greetings, Sun Xiangfu was invited by Yu Chang to serve tea in the study, Mr. Yu Shinan was also there, and Yu Xiu'er went to the back hall to meet his mother.

After a while, when the tea was ready, there were only the three of them left in the study. Before Yu Chang could speak, Sun Xiangfu took the lead in placing several exquisitely crafted boxes in front of Yu Shinan's desk.

"What is this?" Yu Shinan took a wooden box, looked at Sun Xiangfu and asked.

"These are presbyopic glasses. Since I don't know Grandpa's prescription, my son-in-law asked his subordinates to make a few more pairs. Grandpa can try them on. Use the one that fits the most clearly."

"degree?"

Sun Xiangfu and Yu Shinan couldn't explain the word clearly, so they opened the boxes, and inside the box lay a picture frame made of rosewood, inlaid with glasses of different thicknesses. Sun Xiangfu opened one of them, and the lens holder On Yu Shinan's nose, there are two hooks that are hung on his ears. There is also a thin gold chain on Yu Shinan's neck above the hooks to prevent the glasses from falling off.

"Hey, it's clear. My eyes can see clearly. This crystal mirror is really amazing..." After the mirror came to Yu Shinan's eyes, he immediately felt the changes in the things in front of him, and let out a burst of exclamation road.

"Hehe, don't worry, Grandpa, try on the other pairs as well, and use the one that is clearest."

Different degrees of presbyopia require different lens thicknesses. Sun Xiangfu smiled and took out several other pairs of glasses for Yu Shinan to try on one by one. Finally, he chose a pair of presbyopia glasses that were most suitable for Yu Shinan. The rest of the glasses were put away in the box.

"Why, is the son-in-law going to take back the annual gift that was sent to my house?"

"Of course not, of course not. Please keep the remaining few glasses, my father-in-law. This item is extremely expensive, so you can't show it to others at will."

Sun Xiangfu felt that Yu Chang's mood was wrong early in the morning. At this moment, with a flattering smile, he placed the glasses in the box in front of Yu Chang.

He didn't need Sun Xiangfu's teaching, so Yu Chang picked up one of them and tried it on. However, he is not yet 40 years old and has no presbyopia at all. Putting these glasses on his face makes him feel that the whole world is blurred Sun Xiangfu had to explain the use of the glasses to him with a smile.

"Well, although this thing can only relieve the eye problems of the elderly, it is also very rare."

Yu Chang, who was wearing glasses uselessly, had a look of disappointment on his face, but then he remembered what he was going to tell Sun Xiangfu today, and said, "My son-in-law, you have so many skilled craftsmen under you, why don't you build some property, with Our own cooperative operation is only cheaper for those outsiders?"

Sun Xiangfu heard the words, so he said in embarrassment, "It's not that I haven't thought about it, but I really can't. If all the interests of the world are taken by us, I'm afraid it's not a good thing, but a way to bring disaster."

Hearing this, Yu Shinan nodded in relief, looked at Yu Chang and said, "It's useless for you to be an elder, and you haven't seen it clearly. Benefits are not a good thing. Throughout the ages, there have been many talented and rough people because they didn't handle this thing well. And it ended up miserable, as long as we have enough money for the Yu family."

"What my father taught me is that my son is a fool."

The Yu family's family education is very strict, even at Yu Chang's age, when being taught by Yu Shinan, he still has to bow down and listen.

After Yu Chang was taught by Yu Shinan, Sun Xiangfu said, "Actually, my son-in-law also thought about it for the Yu family. It is really a scholarly family of the Yu family, so it is not suitable to be contaminated with too many business affairs, but well! In fact, the cultural industry, do it. It can also make a lot of money, my son-in-law has some plans and wants to tell my grandfather and father-in-law!"

"Culture Industry?"

Both Yu Chang and his son looked at Sun Xiangfu. If he could have a profitable property for the Yu family without losing his share, then the Yu family would have no reason to refuse. After all, Sun Xiangfu has created a lot of things Afterwards, the expenses of the Yu family's children also increased. Although they are not unaffordable, everyone wants to live a better life. As a family of literati, who doesn't want to save face!
"Yes, my grandfather has already compiled and annotated the Chinese Pinyin, and promoted it in Mengxue. This is already a great literary contribution, but this alone is not enough. From the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, to the Qin and Han Dynasties , and now in the Tang Dynasty, the style and structure of characters have been changing all the time. Hanyu Pinyin can make it easier and more accurate for Mongolian children to learn Chinese characters, but it can’t make it easier for everyone to use Chinese characters. Therefore, The grandson-in-law wants to ask grandpa to come forward and compile a dictionary, annotate all the characters, and promote a simplified Chinese character that is easier to write."

"Simplified characters?"

When Sun Xiangfu said this, both Yu Shinan and Yu Chang looked at Sun Xiangfu with surprised eyes. They knew the history of writing changes well, and they knew that Sun Xiangfu wanted to bring about a big change to Datang's writing.

"Yes, my son-in-law thinks that our Tang characters still have too many strokes and are too complicated. There are more than a dozen strokes for any character. Not only does writing take up space, it wastes pen, ink and paper, and it is difficult for Meng children to learn. Difficulties are out of date. Since the characters, calligraphy style and structure have been changing from ancient times to the present, why can’t we make a big change in our hands!
Previously, my son-in-law had already talked to His Majesty about the culture and education of our Tang Dynasty, and His Majesty also thought so in his heart. Only the styles that can express or disseminate knowledge more conveniently and accurately are more suitable for our Tang Dynasty. Therefore, my son-in-law has Such a conception. "

When Sun Xiangfu said this, Yu Chang became excited first. He was not as deep as Yu Shinan thought, but he just felt that since it was something the emperor wanted to do, it must be a great achievement for his Yu family to help complete it no matter what. nah!

So he said, "Father, you can do this, and do it with all your strength. If people all over the world learn characters with your annotations, then you will definitely become a generation of Wenzong..."

Although Yu Shinan was a little excited at the moment, his rationality still told him that this matter could not be done by him alone. He had to ask the emperor to find a group of learned men to complete it together. "Shuowen Jiezi" and other works were used as blueprints, but how to explain a word, you can't listen to his family's words. In this matter, as long as his Yu family takes the lead, the credit is already big enough.

As for the simplified characters mentioned by Sun Xiangfu, it is even more something that needs to be considered. Creating fonts is not such a simple matter. idea?"

On the way back, Sun Xiangfu had been thinking about how to implement education in a simple way. Naturally, he had already made some preparations. He took out a few pieces of paper from his sleeve, spread them out on Yu Shinan's desk, and said, "Grandpa, please look."

What was written on the paper were the first [-] characters of the Thousand Characters, one in simplified Chinese and the other in traditional Chinese. Among them, the simplified Chinese version only took about half a page, while the traditional Chinese version was missing The entire page is full, and there is no other reason. Some traditional characters have many strokes, while brush characters have thick strokes. If you want to avoid mistakes and prevent the fonts from sticking together, you must enlarge it. One page, only write [-] characters It feels like the whole surface is covered with ink, while the simplified version is simple, clean, neat and symmetrical.

"Actually, the so-called simplified characters don't mean changing all the characters in our Tang Dynasty. Most of the characters with few strokes don't need to be changed. Only those characters with many strokes are changed, and some radicals and radicals are simplified. If you change it, the whole word will become simpler."

With comparison, you can see the difference. Sun Xiangfu proposed this simplified character, which can indeed make it easier for ordinary people to learn characters, and can save a lot of consumption of pen, ink and paper. This is enough for Yu Shinan to write a memorial to the emperor. .

However, Sun Xiangfu said before that if you want to use these cultural products to make money, can you make money by changing the characters?

Seeing that Yu Shinan did not comment on his modified fonts, but looked at himself with puzzled eyes, Sun Xiangfu explained, "Grandpa is a master of calligraphy. After this dictionary is successfully compiled, I will use your fonts to carve characters and print them. , for sale, if you want to come to all literati in the world, they will buy one for use! In addition, you can also print your copybooks and sell them for copying and learning by those Mongolian children who need to practice calligraphy. Became your student."

As the top calligrapher of this period, who wouldn't want his annotations?His calligraphic fonts, who wouldn't want to learn?If these things are published and sold, the literati of this period will probably buy them for study and collection.

Of course, making a profit is only a matter of chance, raising Yu Shinan's reputation is also a matter of chance, promoting simpler and easy-to-learn characters in Datang, gradually reducing the cost of reading, and quietly The most important thing is to remove the aristocratic family's monopoly on culture.

(End of this chapter)