Chapter 458 457 Deputy General

Emperor Jiajing was somewhat delighted to hear that Chen Ju actually thought of the Yongle Encyclopedia in his hand because of the reprint of the Health Easy Prescriptions.

In fact, he had long thought of printing the Yongle Encyclopedia, but he also knew that this matter was quite troublesome, and as an emperor, he could not just say it out loud.

The Yongle Encyclopedia has 60 volumes in the catalog, a total of 22,937 volumes, and 11,095 volumes.

Tens of thousands of books, how many pages are there in each volume?

Each page requires a plate, and you can calculate it yourself. I am afraid that you will need to prepare millions of plates.

This project alone is a big deal. Not only is it time-consuming and labor-intensive, but the cost of paper and ink used for printing is also not a small amount.

Speaking of printing books, the first thing that Emperor Jiajing thought of was naturally the woodblock printing currently in use on the market, rather than 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 technically imperfect.

Although movable type printing is a more advanced technology than woodblock printing, it does not mean that it has been advanced since the moment of its invention and can immediately replace the widely used and popular woodblock printing.

In the Song Dynasty when movable type printing was invented, books printed by woodblock printing had reached a highly perfect state. By the Ming Dynasty, not only did it flourish in quantity, but it also reached a high level in woodblock technology and printing quality.

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

First, movable type typesetting will cause uneven spacing and skewness of typesetting lines, and even errors such as horizontal and inverted single words.

Second, the size of the characters printed by the movable type is different, and the strokes are uneven.

Third, movable type printing can easily cause uneven ink color on the printing paper.

Movable type molds also have a service life. Whether it is wooden movable type or clay movable type, it will inevitably be damaged after repeated use. Even metal movable type is not immune. It just takes a little longer than other movable type, but the cost is far better than others.

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

In fact, the customary power of traditional culture also affects the spread and popularization of movable type printing technology. Since the invention of woodblock printing, printed materials have not only been used as a reading object and a medium for spreading knowledge, but also as a work of art and a carrier for spreading calligraphy art.

The evaluation of printed materials by literati and book collectors often starts from the above standards, and this function of woodblock printing is difficult to replace by movable type.

Woodblock is the writing of the upper version. The left, right, right and left strokes between the upper and lower characters are sometimes crossed, and the strokes correspond to each other, so that the arrangement is neat and the font structure is beautiful.

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

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 produced epoch-making influences. 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 promoted and used in China, but it took only four or five decades to be 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 of movable type. 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 carve hundreds of thousands of movable type.

With such a large number, the production project is quite complicated.

However, for the phonetic writing system used by Europeans, only dozens of movable type letters and characters need to be made to complete the typesetting work very conveniently.

There is a difference of two orders of magnitude between thousands of movable type and dozens of movable type. This gap makes the information transmission speed with Chinese characters as the carrier much lower than that with phonetic characters as the carrier, which objectively delays the promotion and popularization of movable type printing.

Finally, movable type printing has also encountered obstacles in the application and practice of process 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 book engraving bodies, namely official engraving, family engraving, and workshop engraving.

Even now, it is still the main one.

Most private bookshops still use woodblock printing. Even bookshops that use movable type printing mostly use wooden type molds, but this also leads to poor printing results.

The Imperial Court Scripture Factory does have a set of copper type molds, which have excellent printing results. However, if you want to print the Yongle Encyclopedia with that set of copper type molds, you know it is impossible. It is not as simple as discarding a few sets of such copper type molds, not to mention that the set of molds was purchased with the savings of the Imperial Court at that time.

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

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

In this way, in order to pursue profits and reduce costs, bookshops were unwilling to abandon the original traditional woodblock technology and try to adopt the new technology of movable type printing.

Therefore, in practical application, movable type printing encountered subjective obstacles from book dealers.

Even though Emperor Jiajing only took a few glances at it and then issued the decision to print the book "Healthy and Simple Prescriptions", this is also because this book is only a hundred pages, and large-scale printing must be woodblock printing, that is, hundreds of woodblocks are enough, which is still within the range that the court can afford.

However, Chen Ju's printing of "Yongle Encyclopedia" is completely different. The silver money required may not be enough to cover it.

So, don't think that printing books is a very simple thing because there are movable type printing in ancient times. In fact, the cost is quite high.

Therefore, Emperor Jiajing rejected Chen Ju's proposal in his heart at the first time. Even if he had this intention, he was not able to do it after all.

Just kidding, millions of silver, this is the silver and money income of the Ming Dynasty for several years. In order to print a set of books, Emperor Jiajing could not do such a thing.

The expression on Emperor Jiajing's face changed from joy at the beginning to gloomy at the end. Although he didn't say anything, whether it was Chen Ju, Huang Jin, or Gao Zhong, they could see that the emperor actually wanted to do this.

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

Just as the atmosphere in the hall gradually cooled down, Gao Zhong spoke first: "Your Majesty, speaking of the "Yongle Encyclopedia", there is only one copy left in the palace, and there is indeed a risk of leakage. However, if you want to print books, it will cost a lot of money. Why not... let the inner study copy a copy and keep it separately."

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

In fact, many scholars like to collect books that are hand-copied. They believe that written articles are alive, and they don't like printing, even if they are books printed by woodblock printing.

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

"Yes, Your Majesty, what Gao Zhong said makes sense."

With Gao Zhong taking the lead, Huang Jin also said: "In fact, not only those guys in the inner study can help copy books, but also the Hanlin Academy and the Imperial College in the court can participate.

The Yongle Encyclopedia is too vast and vast. If more people are involved, the copying work can be completed faster."

Chen Ju blinked when he heard it. If you copy a book, can't it still be kept in the inner court?

In fact, eunuchs like them have had experience in the inner study in their early years, so they naturally know what the role of books is. If books cannot be widely disseminated, what is the use?

There are poor scholars in the folk who help others copy books, but their purpose of copying books is only to make money, and the main purpose is to practice calligraphy.

The requirements for writing are quite high when taking the imperial examination. Many poor scholars have no money to buy pens and ink, so they often find a job copying books in bookstores.

By copying books to earn the cost of pens and ink, you can also make some pocket money, and the most important thing is to practice calligraphy.

But the one who was speaking now was Gao Zhong, his godfather. Although Chen Ju felt that copying a copy of the Yongle Encyclopedia would not have much practical effect except for an extra layer of insurance, he was too insignificant to say anything.

"Inner Study, Hanlin Academy, Imperial College"

Emperor Jiajing murmured.

Yes, he was tempted.

Printing the Yongle Encyclopedia was unrealistic, but if someone copied it, the cost would not be small, the cost of paper and ink alone would not be small, and the final binding work would also require a large number of people, but it would be much cheaper than Chen Ju's unreliable printing.

He liked the book Yongle Encyclopedia and even thought about putting it in his mausoleum after his death, but if there was only one set in the palace, it would be impossible anyway.

In fact, after practicing for decades, although Huang Jin and Yan Song said he was a "living immortal" from time to time, Emperor Jiajing was not so easy to fool. He knew whether he had succeeded in his practice.

Printing books takes a long time, and it is not advisable to invest too much. Copying books will also take a long time. Even if a lot of manpower is really invested in it, it will be a waste of time.

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

Although he said so, Emperor Jiajing actually made up his mind in his heart. When he has time, he will ask Yan Song, Xu Jie and others to come to discuss and see what the court thinks about it.

The news that Emperor Jiajing wanted to re-engraved the Health and Easy Prescriptions Book submitted by the former Minister of Rites Hu Yi quickly spread throughout the court and the public, and there were many different opinions in the court.

In fact, during the years that Emperor Jiajing was in power, he ordered the engraving of many books, but most of those books were Taoist classics, while this time it was a medical book.

Some people naturally thought of the emperor's previous serious illness, so they thought it might be related to this. Of course, some people disagreed. In their opinion, engraving medical books is not as good as engraving the words of saints, which is a waste.

But no matter what, there was no word of opposition in the court.

As the end of the year approaches, officials are more concerned about salaries and annual gifts, which are related to whether each family can have a prosperous year.

The court was running smoothly under the leadership of Yan Song and other cabinet ministers. In the last few days before the New Year, Emperor Jiajing still issued an order that the emperor would not attend the New Year's Day meeting.

For this decree, no matter in the court or in Prince Yu's Mansion, everyone was used to it.

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

"Dong Yiyuan?"

Wei Guangde took the letter and was still a little puzzled.

In the past two years, although Jizhen has always been threatened by Altan's tribe, it has never succeeded under Jizhen's strict defense.

Although the border fortress of Jizhen often encountered surprise attacks by the Tartars, most of them were tentative attacks, without any major warnings and no opportunities for combat, so Dong Yiyuan is still a guerrilla general in the Jizhen army.

Opening the envelope and pulling out the letter, Wei Guangde was curious about why Dong Yiyuan wrote to him at this time.

Don't be surprised, in fact, just a few days ago, Dong Yiyuan sent someone to send a greeting letter and a New Year gift, which made Wei Guangde really hard to understand. Why is it popular to send double gifts during the festival this year?

At a glance, Wei Guangde understood a little.

This letter was actually not mainly about himself, but his brother Dong Yikui.

Wei Guangde had never met Dong Yikui, but he also knew that Dong Yiyuan had such a brother, who had the same official position as Ma Fang before.

However, after the battle of Baoan Prefecture, he was well-known to Emperor Jiajing, and Ma Fang was indeed good at fighting and had impressive military achievements. Although he had both wins and losses in the battles between Xuanfu West Road and Altan's tribe, he was promoted to the position of Dudu Tongzhi and Xuanfu General.

Dong Yikui's military achievements were naturally inferior to Ma Fang's. He had always served as the Lieutenant General of Xuanfu East Road, and his rank was only the Commander Tongzhi.

Perhaps Dong Yikui said something to his younger brother in the daily correspondence between the two brothers, especially before the end of the year, he might send someone to send a letter to Dong Yiyuan and send some New Year gifts, so Dong Yiyuan sent this letter to himself at this time.

Speaking of which, this matter is actually related to the former Xuanfu General Li Xian and Xuanfu Governor Chi Fengxiang.

Afterwards, Li Xian was transferred back to the Five Military Dudufu to serve, and was promoted to the position of General by Ma Fang, and the court has not yet arranged the position of Deputy General.

This naturally caught the attention of Dong Yikui, who had sufficient experience.

However, to reach the level of general and deputy general, he could not get it by just talking to the governor of Xuanfu or even the governor of Xuanda. He needed someone in the capital to help him.

Dong Yikui was completely in the dark in the capital, so he naturally thought of the nobleman in the capital mentioned by his younger brother.

Wei Guangde, when he was in Xuanfu commanding the battle of Bao'an Prefecture, Dong Yikui was unlucky and could not get to know him, but he also heard colleagues mention this person.

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

In addition to Ma Fang's military exploits, it was naturally inseparable from the fact that someone in the capital took 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 person from Prince Yu's Mansion.

Naturally, choosing to recommend Ma Fang when the official position was vacant was also to show goodwill to Prince Yu's Mansion.

Wei Guangde naturally knew all this, so although he did not specifically work for Ma Fang's promotion, he still thanked the Minister of War for his support on behalf of Ma Fang many times during official gatherings.

"Deputy General?"

Wei Guangde frowned slightly. Dong Yiyuan asked for an official position for his brother.