My life skills in Daming Liver

Splitting characters is the basic skill of practicing calligraphy from the beginning. Now Su Ze is teaching Lin Liangjun the method of splitting characters in Wei Xue.

To split characters is to disassemble characters. To make movable type, the first thing is to count all kinds of radicals.

The left side of the character is called the side, and the right side is called the side. To count the frequency of the side in a book is to make mathematical statistics when making movable type, and to make a corresponding proportion of movable type.

In history textbooks, movable type printing appeared in the Song Dynasty, but in fact it was not used on a large scale until the Ming Dynasty.

The reason is also very simple. At the beginning, the movable type was made of clay, that is, the movable type made of mud. The disadvantage of this kind of movable type is obvious, that is, it is easy to break, and the time and cost of clay movable type firing are too high. It would be nice to be able to burn dozens of usable movable type.

The movable lead type used by Su Ze was not popularized in Jiangnan until the Chongzhen period at the end of the Ming Dynasty. However, the movable lead type also has problems, that is, the movable lead type is easy to wear and deform during printing, and it will become blurred after a period of use.

The movable type printing that is closest to modern people's imagination, the movable type is made of copper.

However, copper is the material for casting money, so we can know how expensive it is to make movable type with copper. Therefore, some books printed with movable type with better quality in the middle and late Qing Dynasty were basically printed with official copper type.

But Su Ze doesn't care!

No matter how unclear the handwriting of the movable type is, it must be clearer than the block printing on Hai Rui's tabloid!

The really good engraving printing is naturally clear, and the official engraving books can be said to have clear writing and exquisite binding.

But how good is the engraving quality of a tabloid? For things that are about to be published every two weeks, just lightly engrave them. Hai Rui's tabloid is illegible and has many typos, but readers don't care!

This thing is not a treasured book, it can be seen clearly!

The tabloids printed with movable lead type compete with this kind of tabloid, and another advantage of using movable lead type is that the production speed is fast!

In fact, the quality of woodblock printing is not inferior to that of movable type printing. Woodblock printing can also print patterns, and typesetting is more flexible. Some well-crafted woodblock craftsmen's layouts are as rich in pictures and texts as newspapers in later generations.

The advantage of movable type printing is not in printing quality at all! But speed!

A four-page tabloid requires four engraving masters to work together for a few days. If there is a mistake, it must be redone.

But for a skilled printer, it only takes one hour to type a layout, and the movable type can be changed at any time after typesetting.

This greatly reduces the time for printing and typesetting. Su Ze can publish one Fuzhou government tabloid twice a month!

The number of engraving masters is reduced, and there is no need for an engraving for each page, so the printing cost is only ink and paper.

The paper does not need to be very good paper. The paper of the Fuzhou government tabloid is also the lowest grade of yellowed old paper. This thing is cheap and can be bought in bookstores in the city.

Ink is the more troublesome place. The ink used for printing is different from the ink used for writing. It needs to be mixed with linseed oil and pine resin to obtain turpentine. ink.

Linseed oil is not easy to deal with, but Su Ze has another idea.

The ink needs to dry quickly and not easy to smudge, so maybe tung oil can be used?

Changningwei is a sea guard, and the imperial court will deliver tung oil to Changningwei every year, and a large number of tung trees are also planted on the back mountain where Su Ze crossed the cliff.

Tung trees were originally widely planted in the southeast region. When Su Ze first traveled across the country, he had seen the splendor of tung trees blooming all over the mountains.

And children like Lin Liangjun will also go to the mountains to pick up tung tree fruits to squeeze oil when the tung trees bear fruit.

If tung oil can be used, and turpentine is not a rare thing, it should be able to fiddle with printing ink.

The four of them worked all night, ripping out all the words in the tabloid borrowed from Hai Rui. Su Ze counted the frequency of each radical and made a list of commonly used words.

The reason why this tabloid was dismantled and not the Four Books and Five Classics was because Su Ze printed this tabloid for the purpose of disseminating among the people. Nowadays, literati advocate that literature should be close to life, and the words and sentences are also easy to understand.

It is naturally impossible for Su Ze to dismantle such high-level Confucian classics as the Four Books and Five Classics, and the colloquial tabloids are naturally to be dismantled.

When it was time to answer questions in class the next day, Hai Rui looked at the four with dark circles under their eyes and thought they did something bad by staying up late.

While yawning, everyone still asked Hai Rui questions they had accumulated, and Hai Rui answered them one by one.

Next, Hai Rui came up with a question about the meaning of the Four Books, and asked the four of them to answer the mock county test.

When the four of them were answering, Hai Rui watched from behind and graded their answers.

For these four students, Hai Rui's most important thing is naturally not to mention Su Ze. Chen Chaoyuan has been studying the longest and has solid basic skills. However, his stereotyped essays are too narrow and his understanding of the classics is not deep. If it is a relatively common topic, it will be fine. However, once the exam questions were tricky, Chen Chaoyuan might not be able to pass the exam.

Xiong Yue's thinking is out of bounds. He has read other books besides the Four Books and Five Classics, but he can't grasp the boundaries. The stereotyped essays he writes are too curious.

Lin Qingcai is the most solid among the three, he solves the problem quite well, and he also has a solid grasp of the stereotype.

After all, the Marquis Lin's family is also a big family. Although Lin Qingcai is a side branch, he also has some family background.

Looking at Su Ze's article again, Hai Rui couldn't understand this student at all.

It is said that writing is like a person, but in fact, writing is even more like a person.

For example, Hai Rui's articles are cold and capable, and he doesn't like to use flowery rhetoric, and directly discusses issues when he comes up.

Chen Shanchang of Yanping Academy has a gorgeous writing style and likes to show off allusions. He belongs to the same splendid Chinese language as the current Wenzong Yang Shen.

And Mr. Tuohu, who was invited by Mr. Chen Shanzhang, wrote plainly, with simple words and a sense of rhythm. He looked like a famous folk artist.

But Su Ze's article is different.

Su Ze has a calm personality and comes from a poor family, but there is no philistine spirit in the article, and the style of writing can be said to be majestic.

Hai Rui could still explain this. He already believed that Su Ze's father was a famous Confucian in the country, and Su Ze should be the source of his family education.

But in the part of the back-to-back confrontation, Su Ze's essay can't find any flaws. Whether it's the rhyme or the allusion, it's all smooth and stable, and it's a complete imperial examination essay.

Hai Rui couldn't figure it out. When he was talking about academics with Su Ze, he kept making all sorts of anecdotes and strange remarks, and often made surprising words.

What Hai Rui was most worried about was that Su Ze would write these arguments when he was taking the imperial examination, but after seeing Su Ze's stereotyped essays, Hai Rui was relieved again.

Su Ze's article is too stable!

His stereotyped essays are as stable as the model essays, especially the main idea of ​​the essays completely meets the requirements of the imperial examination, and no grader can find any problems!

If we talk about shortcomings, Su Ze's handwriting is still a bit worse.

Seeing Su Ze's four scripture papers, Hai Rui thought that Su Ze would have no problem with this part of the country test.

Hai Rui sighed with emotion. If Su Ze had studied the Five Classics earlier, he might have passed the county examination next year.

After everyone finished answering, Hai Rui commented on the papers of the four people one by one, then took out Su Ze's test paper and explained it to the other three people as a model essay.

[Classroom Q\u0026A, imperial examination skill experience +10, Lv4, 261/400]

[Simulated County Examination, Imperial Skills Experience +20, Lv4, 281/400]

Another 30 points of imperial examination skill points have been added. Sure enough, there are tutors, and the imperial examination skills are increasing fast!

After Hai Rui finished his lecture and hurried to deal with the affairs of the county school, Su Ze asked Chen Chaoyuan:

"Brother Chen, if I want to hire a craftsman who can engrave, how can I find one?"

Chen Chaoyuan looked at Su Ze suspiciously. Does Su Ze want to print a book?

Yanping Mansion is close to Jianyang, the publishing center of the Ming Dynasty, so there are naturally many craftsmen who can engrave.

There are two bookstores in the county that engrave and print books by themselves.

Chen Chaoyuan said euphemistically: "Brother Su, the price of books in our Yanping Mansion is not expensive, and the competition is fierce. You Changningwei can't make much money from this business."

Su Ze smiled and said, "Brother Chen, I don't want to print books, I just want to find a craftsman who can engrave."

Whether it's engraving radicals on movable type or typesetting and printing, Su Ze doesn't know how to do it, so it's better to hire a craftsman to do it reliably.

Su Ze is not worried about technology leaks either. Movable type printing technology has already appeared, and the technical principle is not worth mentioning. The important thing is the formula ratio of the lead mold for casting movable type and the formula of printing ink.

Moreover, there is not enough content, and it cannot support a tabloid. Su Ze is not worried that the printing craftsman will compete with him.

Chen Chaoyuan knew that Su Ze was very assertive, so he said: "Actually, Jianyang was hit by a disaster last year, and there are still many victims outside the city. In the afternoon, I will accompany you to visit Yashi outside the city and pick a craftsman who can print books to buy." That's it."

Su Ze asked curiously: "Is there a tooth market outside the city?"

Chen Chaoyuan nodded and said: "Of course there are, but there are only some rough maids and male slaves. The better ones will not be sold in the teeth market."

Renyazi, a human trafficker who specialized in selling slaves during the Tang and Song Dynasties, was called Yashi in the Tang and Song Dynasties where slaves were sold.

The slave trade was even more prosperous in the Yuan Dynasty. The Mongols sold anyone. It is said that outside the capital at that time, there was a slave trading market with tens of thousands of people. Even black slaves could be bought in the market.

At the beginning of the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the slave trade was strictly prohibited, and anyone except the royal family was prohibited from keeping slaves.

At the beginning of the country, this order was still implemented to some extent, but today, a series of methods have been developed to bypass this prohibition.

Some gentry and landlords in the south of the Yangtze River kept as many as a thousand servants in their families.

Chen Chaoyuan said again: "These are refugees with household registration. I will go home and get a red deed. When the time comes, Brother Su will sign the deed and hand it over to the yamen."

It was only then that Su Ze remembered that Chen Chaoyuan was still a part-time litigator, and it would be easy to do things with his help. Su Ze quickly thanked Chen Chaoyuan.

The red deed is a contract in a unified format stamped by the government, which is equivalent to a contract notarized by the government, and this contract has legal effect when a lawsuit is filed.

The contracts signed by the people themselves are called white contracts. If the white contracts start a lawsuit, there will be a lot of wrangling, which is not as credible as the red contracts.

For things like buying and selling slaves and buying and selling land, the Ming Dynasty already had red deeds stamped with official seals, that is, fixed-format contracts.

Chen Chaoyuan asked again: "Brother Su, do you want a long-term lease or naturalization?"

Su Ze asked: "What about long-term rental? What about naturalization?"

Chen Chaoyuan explained: "Long-term lease is a long-term lease of ten or twenty years. Buy it out with money at one go. The advantage is that you don't need to be naturalized, and the slave's labor tax is still borne by him. The disadvantage is that the other party can no longer renew the contract after the long-term lease. .”

"Naturalization is the side registration of your family. The advantage is that after naturalization, the household registration is in the hands of Brother Su, and you will never have the heart of betraying the master, but the disadvantage is that his ostentation will fall on Brother Su. You can only be exempted from military service after you have passed the examination."

Chen Chaoyuan didn't say one more thing, that is, after naturalization, this servant is Su Ze's adopted son, and even if Su Ze hurts him, it can only be regarded as an internal matter of the family, which means that he has the right to kill the servant.

Su Ze could only lament the "strict law" of the Ming Dynasty, and finally decided to go to Yashi outside the city with Chen Chaoyuan to have a look.

When he was outside the city, Su Ze saw the tooth market next to the city gate.

Dirty and messy, if it wasn't for Chen Chaoyuan to guide the way, Su Ze would have thought it was an ordinary slum.

Both Chen Chaoyuan and Su Ze were wearing Confucian shirts, a middle-aged woman covered in makeup immediately rushed up, pulled Chen Chaoyuan and said:

"Masters, there is a high-ranking servant girl here in my servant's house, come and see!"

Chen Chaoyuan pulled Su Ze forward, dodged the Yazi who came up to solicit customers, and after squeezing into the Yashi, Chen Chaoyuan said:

"Don't believe a word of these people's teeth. There are no good maids here. Su Ze is careful about the money on her body. There are many thieves here."

With Su Ze, Chen Chaoyuan came to the depths of Yashi, and found a bad old man with missing teeth.

"Pan Yazi, is there a craftsman who knows how to engrave blocks?"

Seeing Chen Chaoyuan, the toothless old man stood up and flatteringly said, "So it's Mr. Chen! Yes, of course! Just wait a moment, the little old man will bring it to you!"

The entire tooth market was filled with urine and various odors. Chen Chaoyuan said: "This tooth market is like this, but I heard that the tooth market in Fuzhou Prefecture is much cleaner than here, and there are 'Xi Niangzi' for sale."

"What is Xi Niangzi?"

Chen Chaoyuan glanced at Su Ze and said: "Some families in a big city like Quanzhou, Fuzhou, are happy to have a daughter. Since childhood, they have been provided with fine clothes and food, and taught them piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, in order to sell them to wealthy families when they are twelve or fourteen years old." People are concubines."

"There are others like this?"

"If you can live a good life for more than ten years, even if you are a slave or a concubine, it is much better than the people here. Pan Yazi brought someone here. Brother Su, you can choose it yourself."