Be a master through ancient times

Not many people knew about the first issue of Education News when it was first published, because it was issued on campus.But when the students go back on the first lunar month and share the newspaper with their families, more people will know about it.

Newspapers are a novelty, and literati can't put them down.If there are elders in the family who study but are not in the school, they are unwilling to put down the newspaper when they pick up the newspaper.Nowadays, people in the streets and alleys, whether they read or not, are discussing this education newspaper.

When someone who knows how to do business heard about this incident, he had a flash of inspiration and found Ti Xuesi.After receiving him, the officials of the Tixue Department felt that the matter was of great importance, so they reported it.After some twists and turns, he finally came to Chu Ci.When Chu Ci first heard that a businessman came to the door, he was still a little puzzled. After all, he was not in the business of Yurong Wan, so could it be that he came through the back door?

He waved his hand to show that he didn't see him, but the official was a little hesitant.Chu Ci didn't hear him retreat for a long time, so he put down his pen, raised his eyes to see his expression, and smiled, "Wang Dianli, what is the origin of this man to make you so difficult? Could it be your relatives and friends?"

Wang Dianli shook his head in embarrassment, and said: "My lord, this person is the shopkeeper of a book store, not a relative or friend of the lower official. It's just that what he asked for is related to the Education News, and the lower official feels...Your Excellency can Listen to it."

After hearing what he said, Chu Ci immediately became interested.He thought that the man came for the matter of Yurong Wan, but he didn't expect that it was for the education newspaper.However, what is the relationship between a shopkeeper of a book store and the Education Newspaper? Could it be that he wants to sell some wholesale?

With such doubts in mind, Chu Ci asked someone to invite the shopkeeper in.The man entered the house in fear, and gave Chu Ci a big gift as soon as he entered the door, so that it was too late for Chu Ci to avoid the ceremony, so he had to call him up immediately.

This person introduced himself as shopkeeper Liu of Xingrong Bookstore in the east of the city. He came here this time to discuss a business with the Department of Education.

Chu Ci asked: "Shopkeeper Liu, I'm afraid you made a mistake. The Tixue Division has no business to discuss right now."

Shopkeeper Liu said: "Chu Tixue, how dare the little old man make fun of you? If there is no real business request, the little old man will definitely not dare to bother you."

"Oh? Then tell me, what kind of business do you want to talk about?"

"The little old man just said it bluntly. I have always heard people say that Chu Tixue has students in his heart and has done a lot of good things to eliminate the bad style of study in our Zhangzhou Prefecture. Our local people are very grateful to you. Just like this time the students You are also the founder of the educational newspaper that has benefited so much, right? If you want to come to the school to print the educational retribution, you will not receive a single penny."

Shopkeeper Liu patted his flattery, and continued: "Little old man is in business, so I will help you to settle the accounts in my spare time. Each newspaper costs at least five yuan for paper and ink alone. Yes. We don’t have too many students in Zhangzhou Prefecture, but there are still more than 30 people. That is to say, every time the Department of Education publishes a newspaper, it has to remove ten taels of silver. If you count labor and each issue I am afraid that the manuscript fee will be at least [-] taels."

Chu Ci was a little surprised. He didn't expect the old man to inquire so clearly. He wouldn't believe it if no one in the Department of Education leaked the secret.But in the end, it's not really a secret. The money is paid in the public account, and anyone who pays attention can know it.

Shopkeeper Liu continued to say: "This is only one installment. I heard that the Tixue Division will issue two installments every month, which is 60 taels of silver. Calculated in a year, it will cost more than 700 taels at least. The Tixue Division's family The cause is great, so it is not difficult to subsidize it, but have you ever thought about getting the money back from other places?"

Chu Ci's heart moved, and he seemed to understand his meaning, "You mean?"

"The little old man came here because he wanted to learn about this business with Chu Ti. The little old man wanted to make a name for his book in the Education Newspaper. The small family has been in the bookstore business for decades, starting from my father. , I have been dealing with literati in Zhangzhou Mansion. In the whole Zhangzhou Mansion, most of the small bookstores buy from Xiaolaoer."

When shopkeeper Liu talked about this, his face was inexplicably proud.After hearing this, Chu Ci realized that he wanted to place an advertisement!But listening to what he said, he is clearly the owner of the largest bookstore in Zhangzhou Prefecture, and he is also a supplier of bookstores in the entire prefecture, so why should he become famous?

……

When it comes to suppliers, I have to mention this bookstore.Generally speaking, every county should have a bookstore, which is equivalent to a modern printing factory, and the books printed in it are the source of goods for surrounding bookshops.It's just that due to historical reasons, several bookstores in the surrounding counties have closed down due to successive years of loss of money, so that the government no longer invests funds. There is only one larger bookstore in the city.

Chu Ci also visited when he first took office. He heard that at most five or six thousand books are produced there a year, most of which are required for the imperial examination of the Four Books and Five Classics, and the rest account for a small proportion.The reason is that either the book was written but the ISBN was not approved, or the ISBN was approved but it was not sold well when it was released, which led to the printing of one or two hundred copies and then no longer publishing them.

At present, except for the imperial examination books used from the enlightenment to the general examination, which are printed every year, the rest of the books need to be approved by the county to be published as volumes and then sold in bookstores around the world.If someone prints a book without a book number in a private printing factory, it is equivalent to a pirated book and can only be circulated privately. Once the number is too large and someone reports it, the government will come and search it.

For this reason, many books have only manuscripts but no engraved copies, which is why there are so many orphan copies.

Some people may think that since they want to publish it, they should approve an ISBN.But is the ISBN so easy to approve?The government is very strict in this aspect, and it is a taboo. Therefore, before publishing, you must pay for a clerk to proofread it. After the proofreading is successful, you can submit it to the queue.With this queue, the days will be unclear. If there is no management, it may not be possible to approve a book number in three to five years.Even if it is done well and the book number is approved, it will still have to wait for the step of engraving in the bookstore.

Engraving requires a person to pick out the contents of the book from movable type and then put it into a wooden frame for typesetting. This process is time-consuming and laborious. If it is not an emergency, the staff of the bookstore will not be in a hurry to get it done.Another money is needed here.

If you are lucky enough to complete all these steps and the book can be released, then you have to worry about how much to print.If you print too much, you can't sell it, and you lose money!If there is less printing, you won't even be able to earn back the money from the top and bottom.It seems that no matter how you calculate it, this printed book is a loss-making business.So except for some people with wealth and reputation, other people generally don't think about it.Of course, some wealthy businessmen only sell scripts to make money, so they will obtain copyrights from scholars at a low price and then publish them in large quantities.The interests after that naturally have nothing to do with the original author.

After Chu Ci learned about this, he realized how much he took advantage of being able to publish the collection of questions that day.If there is no one to help behind the scenes, it would be impossible for him, an ordinary student, to make the collection of questions appear in such a short period of time.

This Zhangzhou prefecture publishes four to five thousand volumes a year. For the students in this prefecture, each student on average only gets two books per year, which is really a little low.So shopkeeper Liu not only bought goods in the bookstore, but also went to other places to purchase some fashionable books.Like the "Ci Hai Ti Ji" issued by Xijiang Province a few years ago, he also secretly purchased a lot back then.

……

Faced with Chu Ci's questioning, shopkeeper Liu said this.

"They used to buy books from the little old man. But in the past two years, with the development of shipping, many books from the bookstores in the south of the Yangtze River have come to Nanfu Province. Like the surrounding Yanzhou Prefecture, because There is a wharf, so it is very convenient. Many of the local students have gone to other places to buy books, which has caused our local bookstore business to plummet."

Chu Ci laughed, it turned out that the business competition was not enough for others to sue.

"Shopkeeper Liu, I can understand your worries, but this business is at your own risk. How can you blame it on foreign bookstores? The reason why students are competing to buy books in other places may be because the prices in other places are lower. The reason for the low price, if you also lower the price appropriately, maybe you can save some students."

Naturally, there is no way to criticize the business of shopping around.When Chu Ci was in modern times, he always only bought the collector's edition when buying books, but this was because he had a good family background, so he was able to pay extra attention to the packaging and feel.At that time, there were other students in their class, and the price of the book with the same content could even be dozens of times lower than that of Chu Ci.But most of the students in ancient times were not rich, so they naturally saved as much as they could, and of course they didn’t buy expensive ones if they were cheap.

Chu Ci originally thought that it would be difficult for shopkeeper Liu to say so.Unexpectedly, when he heard this, he became even more angry.

"I don't know, my lord. In fact, in terms of price, the ones over there are a little more expensive than our local ones. Besides, some books over there are very vaguely printed, and they are clearly leftovers from other places. Read such a Didn’t the book harm my students in Zhangzhou Prefecture? If you don’t believe me, please read this book.” When Shopkeeper Liu talked about this, his face turned red with anger.In addition to being angry that some people compete maliciously, he is also angry that they are deceiving.

Chu Ci took the book that shopkeeper Liu handed over, which was "Zeng Guang Xian Wen".As far as the cover is concerned, it is similar to their local ones.When you turn to the inside page, you can see that this is a book published in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.Looking at the contents inside, Chu Ci couldn't help frowning. The words inside are densely packed, with a lot of ink dots on them, and one or two words will be covered from time to time. For children in the enlightenment period, this book is indeed a bit misleading. up.

But with this book alone, Chu Ci felt that it was not enough to prove anything.Maybe this is the worst book that shopkeeper Liu picked out on purpose, or he made it himself.

"If every book is like this, how can students buy it? Could it be that they can't even tell the good from the bad?" Chu Ci questioned, if the book is expensive and the printing is poor, how can everyone flock to it? Woolen cloth?

Shopkeeper Liu opened his mouth, wanted to say something but swallowed it back, with a look of distress.

"Shopkeeper Liu, if you have something to say, you might as well just say it. It's just you and me here, so there's no need to hide it." Chu Ci realized that it was unusual, and thousands of thoughts flashed through his mind.

Shopkeeper Liu opened his mouth again, and he spoke after a long while: "Chu Tixue, it stands to reason that the little old man should not gossip about people behind their backs, but this matter is so hard to let go! At that time, I also wondered why the students would look far away , So I investigated in many ways. At the beginning, no one told me, they only said that it was voluntary, but later, one of my nephews also went to study, and I realized that this was... actually appointed by the masters!"