Chapter 1695 Presenting the Engraving Plate to Promote Literature
The envoy also brought Liu Bei's order to call Shen Long back to Chengdu to discuss major issues. Shen Long's strategic vision had already gained the trust of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang. After Cao Cao's death, the north would inevitably change. He listened to his opinion; Shen Long did not refuse, now Jianwei County's salt industry is on the right track, Wang Lian is already familiar with the work, and he only needs to act according to the strategy he has formulated to continuously provide wealth for Shuzhong.
So he asked Wang Lian to take over his position temporarily, and promised that after returning to Chengdu, he would ask Liu Bei to make him the prefect of Jian, the captain of Siyan, and the supervisor of the salt industry in central Shu, and then returned to Chengdu with the envoy.
"Zifeng went to Jianwei for only a few months, and let Jianwei's salt production more than double. It is really a country's talent, and it is far behind!" Zhuge Liang praised him as soon as they met, and he was confident that if he was allowed to go Being the prefect may also increase the production of salt, but there is no way to do it as well as Shen Long.
Especially the technology of purifying table salt, as well as the strategy of grading and selling table salt at different prices, Zhuge Liang will definitely not know; However, he is not very familiar with the luxurious enjoyment of the rich and powerful families.
Nowadays, the top snow salt and bamboo salt produced in central Sichuan are very popular among the aristocratic families in the north and Soochow. Although the sales of these top salts are less than one-hundredth of ordinary snow salt, the profit is not at all. Low; moreover, this kind of table salt has small portion, high value, and is easy to carry. It is very convenient to avoid the salt industry control in the North and Soochow. Child tax can be said to be of great benefit.
Moreover, after improving the silk reeling and textile machines according to the method given by Shen Long, the production of Shu brocade in central Shu also increased greatly, and the originally tense economy in central Shu gradually became more relaxed. According to Zhuge Liang's plan, after enough food was saved, Then the Northern Expedition can be launched, and when the time comes to attack from Jingzhou and Qishan, the Cao bandits will be defeated.
"This is a gift I brought back from Jianwei, please take a look at it!" Shen Long took out a thick stack of paper and handed it to Zhuge Liang. Zhuge Liang took a look and saw that the paper was as white as snow and as tough as cotton. It is full of words, it is pitch black and shiny, and it looks clearer than the words written on the silk script.
"The bamboo slips are too bulky, and the silk books are too expensive. In the past, Caihou's papermaking skills were great for thousands of years. Unfortunately, Caihou's paper still has various deficiencies. Therefore, scholars in the world still use bamboo slips and silk books. Now that officials have slightly improved Caihou's paper, scholars You don’t have to worry about the bulky bamboo slips and expensive silk books anymore,” Shen Long said.
In fact, there was Baqiao paper as early as Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, but Baqiao paper was too thin and dull in color, so it was not suitable for writing paper; in the period of Emperor Hanhe, Cai Lun improved papermaking technology and greatly reduced the price of paper , but like all new things, Caihou paper also had various problems at the beginning of its birth, so it has not been completely accepted by the majority of scholars.
It is only a hundred years since Cai Lun's death, and there are still various problems in papermaking. Shen Long directly took out a more mature papermaking technique in the future, and produced higher-quality paper, which can definitely meet the needs of scholars. Shuzhong provided a steady stream of financial resources.
Zhuge Liang took the brush and wrote a few words on the paper, carefully observed the smearing of the ink on the paper, then got up and gave a deep bow, "When Liang was young, he suffered from bamboo slips and silk books. All scholars in the world have thanked Zifeng!"
Shen Long also got up to return the gift, and then took out another good thing, which was a wooden board carved from catalpa, on which was engraved "The Analects of Confucius-Xueer Pian No. 1" in Yangwen: The Master said: "Learn while learning, and learn from time to time. Isn’t it easy to say? Is it a pleasure to have friends coming from afar? People don’t know but don’t feel stunned. Isn’t it a gentleman..."
"What do you mean?" Zhuge Liang didn't understand.
"Look, Prime Minister!" Shen Long dipped a brush in the ink first,
Finely brush a layer of ink on the carved wooden board, then cover the board with white paper, and take a clean brush to gently brush evenly on the back of the paper, and finally peel the paper off the engraving. A piece of "The Analects of Confucius - Xue Er Pian No. 1" was clearly printed on paper.
"Ah!" Seeing this scene, Zhuge Liang was stunned on the spot as if struck by lightning. After waking up, he quickly grabbed the paper in Shen Long's hand and examined it carefully. He suddenly found that the words on it were completely correct, and Nothing is wrong.
"Can Liang try it?" After obtaining Shen Long's consent, Zhuge Liang also tried to brush ink on the engraving with a brush, then covered the white paper and brushed it evenly with a clean brush. Finally, he lifted the white paper and took a closer look. , there is also no omission.
"If there are more than a hundred pieces of wood like this, plus a few skilled craftsmen, wouldn't it be possible to produce hundreds of "The Analects of Confucius" in a day?" Zhuge Liang understood the benefits of printing, "Haha, from now on, scholars will be more You don’t have to worry about having no books to read! I’ll thank Zifeng again on behalf of all the scholars in the world!” After saying that, he bowed deeply again.
In this day and age, books are monopolized by aristocratic families, and it is difficult for ordinary people to find a book to read; in the past, Cai Yong was ordered by the emperor to finalize the six classics of Confucian classics. After the book was completed, Cai Yong wrote it himself The tablet was engraved on the stele, and it stood outside the gate of Taixue. Since then, scholars from all over the world have gathered outside Taixue in order to read the real Six Classics.
However, the stele cannot be moved, and these stone scriptures can only be seen outside the gate of Taixue in the whole world. Scholars from other places want to read the Six Classics, unless their family has inheritance, or they can only go outside the gate of Taixue in Chang'an.
Scholars usually can only ask others to borrow books to copy, and the cost of such a book is too high; but with engraving and printing, it is different, so the cost of printing books is greatly reduced, and the price of a new book may Only one tenth of the previous one, so the number of people who are so qualified to study will be greatly reduced.
Block printing originated in the early Tang Dynasty and flourished in the middle of the Tang Dynasty. This coincided with the time when the aristocratic family withdrew from the stage of history. This is certainly due to the credit of Huang Chao's "walking all over the sky street", but the root cause is the development of printing. The extravagant hope of the aristocratic family to monopolize knowledge was completely bankrupt.
Shen Long didn't want to wait until the world was unified, and the power would still be in the hands of the aristocratic families, but now that knowledge is monopolized in the hands of the aristocratic families, it would be unrealistic to rashly implement the imperial examination system, so he took out printing in advance, and waited for the scholars' approval. When the scale is getting bigger and bigger, it may be possible to use the imperial examination to select talents.