Daily Life In Qin Dynasty - Chapter 176

   Chapter 176 Communication, Printing

   Early the next morning.

   Gai Nie left Mo Jun’s residence.

  Where… I don’t know.

at the same time.

  As “Journey to the West” gradually flowed into the Seven Kingdoms under the sales of countless merchants, an invisible storm quickly swept through all schools of thought.

  ······

   Qi State, Songhai.

  Little Sage Village.

  Fu Nian rode a fast horse, and after traveling day and night, finally came back in the first time.

  As friends of Mr. Mo, Fu Nian and Six Fingers Heixia got “Journey to the West” and “paper” about a day earlier than others.

   And both of them also got a little ‘insider’ news from Mr. Mo.

   After returning to Xiaoshengxian Village.

  Fu Nian took the package and went straight to the back mountain, and found his uncle, Xunzi, who is also the current head of Xiaoshengxianzhuang.

   “Uncle Master.”

   “It’s Fu Nian! You’re back, what can you expect from this trip…”

  Xunzi in the small courtyard on the back mountain was studying the chess record. After hearing Fu Nian’s voice, he didn’t raise his head.

   But this raising of the head made Xunzi stunned for an instant, and he didn’t even notice that a chess piece he had just picked up fell from his fingertips.

   “You… who are you?”

   “Master, please stop joking.” Fu Nian said helplessly.

  This uncle is good at everything, but sometimes he has the mentality of an old urchin. When is this now? Is it time to joke?

  Xunzi: “…”

   Am I kidding?

  Seeing that Fu Nian has undergone such a big change in less than a year since he left, this really made Xunzi, who is ‘old and frail’, a bit helpless.

   “Master, please take a look at this first.”

  Seeing that Xunzi was in a daze, Fu Nian had no choice but to get straight to the point, and took out a copy of “Journey to the West” and a stack of blank papers from his package and handed them to Xunzi.

   Xunzi first took the white paper and glanced at it, and it was this glance that instantly made Xunzi realize that something was wrong.

   And when Xunzi took “Journey to the West” again and opened it for a glance, Xunzi’s eyes changed suddenly.

   “This thing… Where did you get it?”

   “The student traveled to Hanzhong on this trip to study, and worked as a teacher in the mansion of Sheng Ping Jun for a period of time. This thing was invented by Sheng Ping Jun.” Fu Nian said respectfully.

   “Mr. Shengping!”

   Xunzi narrowed his deep eyes slightly. Although Xunzi is old and has not been out of the mountain for a long time, it is naturally impossible that he has not even heard of the name “Shengping Jun”.

   It’s just that most of Mo Jun’s reputation spread to Qi State was related to his achievements in food, but now Mo Jun suddenly created such a sacred article of literature and Taoism as ‘white paper’, which really surprised Xunzi a little.

   “What is the price of this item?”

“Before the student left, this book hadn’t been sold to the public yet. However, the student had heard a word from Mr. Shengping that this mythical novel called “Journey to the West” only sold for about 150 bucks a copy. And this kind of ‘blank paper’, you can buy five sheets for a lot of money.”

   “The price of this item is so low?”

   Xunzi’s squinted eyes suddenly opened, and he looked at Fu Nian in surprise.

  As the head of the contemporary Xiaoshengxianzhuang, Xunzi has used bamboo slips countless times in his life, and because of this, he can clearly judge the advantages of this kind of “white paper” compared with “bamboo slips” without even getting started.

  Good things are more expensive, which is a matter of course.

  Xunzi originally thought that the price of this kind of ‘blank paper’ would be very high, so he was only slightly surprised, but not too shocked.

  However, when Fu Nian reported the price of this ‘white paper’, Xunzi couldn’t sit still.

   “Yes, and this is only the selling price. The cost of this ‘blank paper’, based on what I have learned about that Shengping Jun during this period, may be much lower than we imagined.”

   Fu Nian said in a low voice.

   At this moment, even Xunzi realized the seriousness of the matter. The low cost means mass production, and the more things produced, the wider the scope of dissemination.

   “In addition, uncle, can you take a look at the difference between these two books?”

   As he spoke, Fu Nian took out a new copy of “Journey to the West” from the package and handed it to Xunzi. Xunzi spread out the two volumes in front of him and took a closer look.

   It turned out that the two books were completely consistent, and every word was exactly the same.

   Xunzi’s deep eyes suddenly shrank.

“this······”

   “According to Mr. Shengping, this technology seems to be called ‘printing’. I have seen with my own eyes that the printing factory opened by Mr. Shengping in Hanzhong printed 100,000 books in just half a month.”

   When it came to this, even Fu Nian himself felt a little unbelievable.

   One hundred thousand volumes.

  What is this concept?

  To put it bluntly, in the entire world today, the seven countries and hundreds of schools add up, and there are probably no more than 100,000 books in all collections.

  After the shock, Fu Nian felt a deep fear and horror. After all, in this era, the idea that knowledge is difficult to spread, and even more difficult to popularize, has been imprinted in almost everyone’s mind.

  Even Fu Nian himself, has always thought so in the past.

   This is not just a monopoly of nobles.

   More importantly, the hard conditions are not up to standard.

  At first, Fu Nian thought that it would be scary enough for Mr. Mo to invent a cheap and convenient way to carry text.

  However, when Mr. Mo showed Fu Nian the efficiency of [printing], Fu Nian deeply felt what is called ‘terror’.

  This can no longer be regarded as changing the literary environment of the current era.

Precisely.

   should be ‘destroy’.

When I first saw Mo Jun showing the effect of [Printing Technique] and [White Paper], the two people who were present at the time, Fu Nian and Liuzhi Heixia, had vaguely seen it. Mo Jun, with an arrogant and unreasonable attitude, Completely destroy the whole world, the picture of the existing literary environment.

   This will be a turmoil that will affect the whole world and all schools of thought.

But at the same time.

   This is also an opportunity.

  If someone can seize this opportunity, they may be able to instantly make the entire sect flourish.

   It was precisely because of such a scene that Six Fingers Heixia and Fu Nian ran on [Qin Ping Avenue] regardless of their image.

   As representatives of Mohism and Confucianism, the two of them must seize the day Mo Jun gave them to seize a chance in the ensuing turmoil.

at this point.

  Fu Nian could see it, and Xunzi could see it too.

  So after a moment of contemplation, Xunzi said slowly, “What request does he have?”

  ······

  (end of this chapter)