This old gentleman who reads "The Legend of Ruyijun" has a green robe and a short beard, about fifty years old, with a clear appearance, ten slender and dry fingers, holding a book in one hand and a short beard under his chin with the other, his expression is quite complacent, and he doesn't seem to notice Zheng Xiaoguan who is gathered next to him.

Zheng Guofan stood beside this old gentleman for a long time, and became more and more embarrassed, why? The version of "The Legend of Ruyijun" that the old gentleman watched is still an embroidered version.

What is the embroidered version, that is, there are a large number of exquisite illustrations, because it is outlined with lines and beautifully drawn, so it is called embroidered images, such as the famous Chongzhen version of "Golden Vase Plum" in later generations, there are two hundred illustrations, and there is another kind of illustration less, there are illustrations in front of each chapter back to the table of contents, which is called the full picture plate.

There is also a difference between this embroidered version and the embroidered version, one is the engraved book, that is, the so-called woodblock print in later generations, and there is a hardcover embroidered image, which is hand-painted, most of them are drawn by ordinary girls in coastal areas at home, there are many Ming notes that record a similar situation, saying that people in Ningbo, Suzhou, Wenzhou and other places, the daughter's family sits at the window to depict **, and people are not ashamed of it.

This is a typical market economy in the Ming Dynasty, the Ming people need to press the bottom of the box to do the surname enlightenment, generally when the daughter is married, the mother gives it to the daughter. The thriving novel publishing business requires a large number of illustrations, and these ordinary readers are not willing to draw, while the coastal people are not afraid of painting by their daughters in the family due to the broadening of their horizons due to the Ming Dynasty and overseas trade, not to mention that they can also make money, why not?

The old gentleman is looking at the hardcover embroidery portrait of the Ruyi Jun Biography, to say that the painting is lifelike, but not necessarily, in Zheng Guofan's vision, compared with the illustrations of later generations, it is very bad, most of the characters are out of balance, but the depiction of the work is delicate, it is indeed quite exquisite.

He looked curiously at the side for a while, during the rental bookstore in and out of about seven or eight people, all of them were wearing short shirts, it can be seen that the literacy rate is still quite high at this time, but in the words of the previous Gao Fuzi, recognizing words and reading are two concepts, ordinary people have received a few years of private school enlightenment when they were young, so they have to be called to recognize words, to cultivate and read heirlooms, but there is no fame, can only call themselves coarse and literate, only like Zheng Xiaoguan, can be qualified to be called a reader.

Every person who borrows a book uses a piece of mulberry paper, and the old gentleman will carefully transcribe the bibliography of the book to be borrowed on the paper, and then fold the mulberry paper on his own bookkeeping book, and take a wooden stamp to stamp a chapter, so that his own account book and mulberry paper have half a chapter each, and then put the mulberry paper in the book and hand it to the borrower, Zheng Guofan watched from the side, and said that this is about a library card!

Zheng Guofan is wearing a moon-white Confucian shirt with his hands behind his back and looking around, this moon-white Confucian shirt, it sounds elegant, at first glance, I feel that there is a literati style, but in fact, the so-called moon-white is the cloth of natural color, in other words, the poor can't even afford dyed cloth, wearing a moon-white Confucian shirt, often the best footnote to the word [poor sour].

After the old gentleman sent the last borrowed book away, he frowned when he saw that Zheng Guofan was still looking around, although Zheng Guofan was **, his lips were red and his teeth were white, and he looked like a half-old child, but he was wearing a Confucian shirt tied with a Confucian shirt, although the Confucian shirt was moon white, and he knew that the family was in a bad situation at a glance, but he also brought a small servant, and he didn't seem to treat ordinary people as if he was driving away.

"This petty officer." The old shopkeeper asked, the old shopkeeper called him a petty official, and many people also called Zheng Guofan a petty official of the Zheng family, which was a kind of praise in the Ming Dynasty, which means a beautiful young man, just like Westerners call a child a little angel, and there is a cordial taste in it. Of course, in a few decades, the word will deteriorate and become a term for the same surname love, like the word Miss in the future.

"But you want to sell Shiwen?" The old shopkeeper looked at Zheng Guofanyue's white Confucian shirt, thinking that he was a poor sour, and at this time, renting a bookstore was generally not separate from printing books, that is to say, he rented books, sold books, and printed books, taking the route of a small private workshop.

Shiwen, is the examination paper of the scholar's fame in the examination, when the year of Chenghua, Shen Cheng of Hangzhou General Judgment engraved a Shiwen, re-engraved seven times in three years, making money and making people red, and soon formed a trend, similar to the later generations of "College Entrance Examination Guide" and "College Entrance Examination Question Collection", booksellers have imitated it, and scholars are flocking to it.

Of course, there are a lot of people who oppose it, thinking that this is a shortcut to the south, abandoning the right path of Confucianism, not the right way for scholars, and even making trouble to the court to ask for all the [bookstore printing and engraving texts] to be burned], but it can't stand the needs of the people, who doesn't want their children to read and make a name for themselves? Even if you can't be an official, you can be exempt from taxes and forced labor, as for the right path of Confucianism, how can that thing be sold? How much silver is a pound? How many Yongle Tongbao relationships do you have with our people?

Zheng Guofan didn't understand the meaning of Shiwen for a while, he looked at the old shopkeeper and smiled, and said, "Old man, I want to ask one thing, how much is a word for this article?" ”

The old shopkeeper looked him up and down, twisted his beard, and raised five fingers.

Five pennies a word? Zheng Guofan was surprised and delighted, and then thought, no, if it is really so good, there will not be so many books describing poor scholars in later generations.

He blinked his eyes and tried to stretch out his hand, "A thousand words, five hundred words?" ”

"Hahaha!" The old shopkeeper laughed, "The little husband is really joking." "The tone of the person has changed, and the title of [petty official] is like the marketing lady in the hypermarket in the later generations selling men's cosmetics [handsome guy, this is very good], changing [Xiao Xianggong] is equivalent to the marketing lady finding that the customer seems to have no money and changing her face and saying [Comrade, this is very expensive]

Looking at the disdain on the old shopkeeper's face, Zheng Guofan suddenly understood, yes, I know, I said that the feelings are expensive, I said it! It's really so easy to sell, and Pu Songling won't be so miserable in later generations.

"Fifty words in a thousand words." He said to himself, and then calculated in his heart, I remember reading a paper on the price of prices in the Ming Dynasty that stated that one penny in the Ming Dynasty is about equal to three cents in yuan, and fifty yuan in one thousand words, that is, fifteen yuan in a thousand words.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help frowning,, this is too cheap, brother, I'm not at this price! The price drop has fallen twenty times.

He frowned there, rubbed his face and smiled bitterly, the old gentleman first twitched the corners of his mouth, and seemed to sneer, but in the end, he claimed to be a literati, although he was a businessman and a reading seed, and it was not good to be that Tian Sheweng's face, so he coughed twice and said: "Little Xianggong, what the old man said is that a piece of current literature is five cents." ”

"What?" Zheng Guofan seemed to have been struck by thunder, and the corners of his mouth twitched, "One article? Five pennies? ”

Looking at his expression, the old shopkeeper smiled, "Xiao Xianggong, at this time, the price is two to three yuan for a piece, and I see that Xiao Xianggong is outstanding, so I will offer five yuan." "What he means is, old man, I see that your kid looks good, and he is probably a little talented, so he will reward you with a high price of two pennies.

Lying on the mud horse, Zheng Guofan is angry, brother, I am also a literati, when have I ever sold it at such a low price?