The big debate, which was originally scheduled to begin in early November, was postponed to 15 November because Shen Yu wanted to invite Liu Zongzhou from Shaoxing to Beijing; as the debate date approached, the government and the opposition scholars were looking forward to these three debates more and more, and the new trends in the bookstores and bookstores in Beijing reflected this situation -- Xu Guangqi cooperated with Matteo Ricci and Xiong Sanba in his early years to translate and publish "Geometric Originals," "Taixi Water Method," and "Jian Pingyi Shuo," as well as Li Zhizao and Western priests co-translated "Yuanrong Compares Righteousness" and "The First Letter of Heaven" These kinds of books translated from Western studies into Chinese have been placed in the bookstore for more than ten years, and few people have cared about them, and these books have been printed in small quantities, each of which is only a few hundred copies, all of which were used by Xu Guangqi, Li Zhizao, and missionaries to give away, and very few of them are sold in the bookstores, and in just over a month since it was decided to hold a big debate, the only few hundred copies of "Geometric Originals" and "Taixi Water Law" left in the bookstores were quickly sold out, and they were all purchased by officials from the DPRK and China, because the big debate was about to begin, and many officials wanted to go to observe. So you have to know a little bit about the knowledge of Westerners, so you can search for such books everywhere, and the scholars in Beijing heard that the officials rushed to buy Taixi books, of course, they had to follow the trend, but there was nowhere to buy them, so there was a bookstore to ask the engravers to work overtime overnight to print the engravings, anyway, there is no copyright protection now, anyone can engrave, but this will be twenty days later at the earliest, but at this time, it was reported that there was a newly opened bookstore on the side of the Dengshi Street in Chongwenmen with a large number of Western books for sale - as early as the Wanli Emperor agreed to hold a big debate, Zhang Yuan expected that the books on Western studies would sell well, so he wrote to Fan Wenruo in Suzhou and Yang Shixiang in Qingpu on the one hand, sending them the books "Geometric Original" and "Taixi Water Law", asking them to organize the engraving workers to engrave and publish them as soon as possible, and each volume printed 3,000 copies can still be sold. Yang Shixiang and they received the letter at the end of September and early October, and then organized engraving printing, and the book would come out in early November at the earliest, which was the right time to sell in Jiangnan, because the big debate was held in mid-November, but those books were to be shipped to Yanjing after the year, and obviously they couldn't compete for the bookstores in Beijing that rushed to print - so in late September, Zhang Yuan and Xu Guangqi found the small bookstore that engraved "Geometric Original", "Taixi Water Law", and "Jian Pingyi Said", and the small bookstore was outside the Xuanwu Gate. The original boss has passed away, and now it is his distant nephew who is taking over the bookstore, named Yuan Chaonian, a child in Wanping County, less than thirty years old, a little decadent, the bookstore business is not good, now only print some stove Wang Ye statue and Buddhism and Taoism to persuade the good scriptures to mix around, are ready to change their careers to sell tea eggs, this said Yuan Chaonian is in front of the door to expose lice, but I saw two gentry people to ask the "Geometric Original" of the year The engraving of the three books is still there?

Yuan Chaonian no longer recognized Xu Guangqi, and replied: "My uncle piled up all the old engravings in the south warehouse, I don't know if the engravings of the three kinds of books mentioned by the two are not?" "Immediately opened the door to check, fortunately, the engravings of these three kinds of books were preserved, six volumes of "Geometric Originals", six volumes of "Taixi Water Law" and one volume of "Jian Pingyi Said", a total of thirteen volumes of more than 1,000 engravings, except for a small number of carved plates that are rotten and peeled off, most of the engravings can still be used.

Zhang Yuan immediately paid 500 taels of silver, paid 300 taels first, and asked Yuan Chaonian to immediately recruit engravers to make up for the decayed engravings, and to print these three kinds of books before the fifth day of the 11th month, and to print 500 copies per volume, because he was afraid that the old engravings would not be able to bear them, and the 400 taels of silver were even the engraving fees, paper costs, and printing fees, and Zhang Yuan would send someone to fetch them after the books were printed. In just one month, he was able to make a net profit of more than 100 taels, which was a windfall, and he immediately agreed to it.

Zhang Yuan advised: "The paper should be made of bamboo paper from Jiangxi Lead Mountain, the decayed engraving must be replaced, and the engraver must invite experienced craftsmen, and the new font should not be too different from the old font." ”

Yuan Chaonian said: "The writer of the year is below, and the craftsmen who carved this book are still there, just live on the street behind, father and son, I will ask them to make up the edition." ”

Zhang Yuan said: "That's very good. Immediately, he left thirteen volumes and a post, with an address and name, and asked Yuan Chaonian to send it there after it was printed.

After Yuan Chaonian sent away the old and young two official gentry, he came back and looked at the bookpost, which said "Zhang Yuan, a Shaoxing man on the north side of Li Ge Old Hutong", Yuan Chaonian was stunned for a long time, he knew that Dashi Yongfang, Li Ge Lao Hutong, and Taifusi Street were all official settlements, and this Zhang Yuan was not the champion of the current department, and he also rushed to Chang'an Street to see the excitement, the champion who rode the big white horse, isn't it the young scholar of Fangcai, no wonder he is so arrogant, he doesn't need to protect people, Directly left three hundred taels of silver - Zhuang Yuanlang's errand, Yuan Chaonian did not dare to slack off, handed over the silver to the Hun family to collect, that is, went to the back street to find the family surnamed Jiang carver, prepaid two taels of silver, the next morning, Jiang surnamed carver father and son three went to the bookstore warehouse here, and Yuan Chaonian together to check those engravings, the decay of all the pick out, about one-tenth can not be used, the bookstore also has some ready-made engraving with jujube wood boards, Yuan Chaonian immediately wrote the edition, Jiang surnamed the carving father and son immediately started, first put the single-volume "Jian Pingyi Said" The missing engraving is filled, and then the "Geometric Original" and the first volume of the "Taixi Water Law" are missing, and at the same time of engraving and making plates, Yuan Chaonian went to purchase paper and printing ink, and did not dare to use shoddy, real lead mountain bamboo paper and pine smoke ink, to October 30, the first batch of nine volumes totaling 4,500 books have been printed, Yuan Chaonian hired a carriage to send this pile of books to Li Ge Lao Hutong, and when asked, it was really Zhang Zhuangyuan's apartment - this is just the time of Xiu Mu said, Zhang Yuan was reading in the courtyard, and heard that the book was delivered, When he came out of the outer courtyard, the book was quite well printed, and he immediately handed over the unpaid two hundred taels of silver to Yuan Chaonian, and asked him to print the next two thousand books as soon as possible and send them, and Yuan Chaonian agreed repeatedly.

Zhang Yuan took a few books into the inner courtyard, Wang Wei was talking about poetry and painting with Jinglan in the west wing, Jinglan and Wang Wei were very talkative, Jinghui didn't like Wang Wei very much, she talked and played with Xiaoaunt and Xiaohong in the little aunt's room, the two sisters were in Li Ge Lao Hutong for three days, a few days ago, Shang Ran also took them to Haidian and Black Dragon Pond outside the West City to play, Jinghui was very happy - Zhang Yuan entered Wang Wei's room, saw Wang Wei and Jinglan were reading a book of poems together, and said with a smile: "Two talented women, excuse me-"

Wang Wei got up and saluted, and asked with a smile: "What's the matter?" ”

Zhang Yuan said that Wang Wei would carve two small rectangular seals, one of which was engraved with "three coins of silver for each part", and the other was engraved with "one or two or six coins of silver for each part" -- Wang Weineng was good at poetry and painting and could also cure seals, so he immediately took out the carving knife and boxwood, and asked: "Why is the price of books so different?" ”

Zhang Yuan said: ""Jian Pingyi Said" is a single-volume book, priced at three yuan, while "Geometric Original" and "Taixi Water Law" are both six-volume books, which are not sold in separate volumes, and if you want to buy the entire six-volume, the price is one or two or six yuan is preferential. ”

Wang Wei asked: "Dare to ask what is the cost of Xianggong books?" ”

Zhang Yuan said: "The price is three, and the benefit is two-will Xiuwei slander me Wang Wei for marrying a businessman." ”

"How can it be, Xianggong is a good way to make money."

Wang Wei smiled and ruled the seal, these two seals are very simple, it doesn't take half an hour to engrave them, Zhang Yuan took two seals and a box of Zhu copy seal clay to the outer courtyard and instructed Wuling to cover the 4,500 books, remember not to cover the mix, Ming said that it will be sent to the Hanshe Bookstore on Dengshi Street to sell - just five days ago, Zhang Ruoxi sent 1,800 taels of silver to Wang Wei by the Minxin Bureau, and Wang Wei went to buy the shop that Laifu and Uncle Yao had been looking for for a long time in the Dengshi Street in Chongwenmen, and this shop was actually a small courtyard. It covers an area of more than half an acre, there are also three facades, two inside and outside, the house in the capital is expensive, the shop that Wang Wei bought in Hangzhou last year covers an area of more than one acre, and only costs 480 taels of silver, and the house on Dengshi Street is only half the size of the Shengmei firm in Hangzhou, but the original owner wants to tattoo 800 taels of silver, Wang Wei sighed that the house price in the inner city is really amazing, Zhang Yuan didn't think it was so expensive, the house in the second ring of Yanjing, and has an indefinite ownership - the shop of the Yanjing branch of the Shengmei firm has been found, But now the North Canal has been frozen and cannot be navigated, Zhang Ruoxi wants to send cloth and silk to Beijing to wait for the spring of next year, Zhang Yuan asked Wang Wei to sell books to Hanshe Bookstore on the left of the three storefronts on the street of the shop, which is managed by Wuling, this shop has been slightly renovated, hung up the sign of Hanshe Bookstore, and hired two locals to be bookstore guys, which opened for business on the first day of November, and sold books such as "Jiao's Pen Ride", "Yu Shi Mingyan" 20 volumes, "Warning World Words" 10 volumes, and "Five Miscellaneous Tales" 2 volumes. Books on Western studies include one volume of Aesop's Fables, one volume of Jian Pingyi's Sayings, four volumes of Geometric Originals, and four volumes of Taixi Water Law -- on the fifth day of November, Yuan Chaonian also sent the last two volumes of "Geometric Originals" and "Taixi Water Law", and the reputation of the Hanshe Book Company gradually spread, and soon scholars and officials who could not buy books everywhere heard the news, and in just three days, 600 books totaling 2,600 copies were sold, and Wuling was so busy that he couldn't close his mouth with joy -- Zhang Yuan was very pleased. The current situation of the gentry vying for the purchase of Western classics can be considered that his strategy of promoting practical learning has been more than half successful, and those books are mainly not read, as long as someone reads them, they will naturally be affected, so that his future path will be better, there will be more like-minded people, and this can also earn silver, it is really a number of birds with one stone, and it is wonderful -- on the eighth day of the first month of November, Shen Yu, Xu Ruke, Liu Zongzhou, and Master Lianchi arrived in the capital, and the great debate began.

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(To be continued)