Mythical Three Kingdoms

”Hiss~” Lub Su took a deep breath in shock, directly startled by the identical handwriting of these two books, as well as the content of this book which contained over ten thousand words, ”How much did this cost?”

”The more you produce, the cheaper the average cost. If we talk about just those two books in your hands, it’s probably not going to be much cheaper than a unique copy,” Chen Xi said, rolling her eyes.

”Then it cannot be popularized,” Lub Su sighed.

”But if you print a few thousand copies, it will be much cheaper than a letter,” Chen Xi said nonchalantly.

”Eh, there are still typos in here, why didn’t you correct them?” Lub Su, looking at the ”fan” character, clearly noted it had an extra stroke, and he hadn’t yet grasped what Chen Xi was saying, or more so, it hadn’t entered his brain.

”It’s too much trouble, if it’s wrong, it’s wrong,” Chen Xi said, rolling her eyes, ”That’s the downside of quick production. Plus, the craftsmen who make these don’t know how to read, so they can only do it this way. Besides, if one or two words are wrong, let it be, we must be tolerant and understanding. This is much better than a letter anyway.”

Chen Xi’s notion of tolerance and understanding was solely because the illiterate craftsmen could only carve by reversing what he had written. Moreover, since a whole page was carved at once, if there was a mistake, everything had to be recarved. So, unless it wasn’t a key word and there was no more than one mistake per edition, Chen Xi would turn a blind eye.

As for movable type printing, Chen Xi admitted he simply did not have the capability. There were issues with craftsman skills, materials, and himself; problems were everywhere – so how to proceed? It would then be better to stick with block printing. After all, society was making progress. If stone carving didn’t work, then wood carving; if wood carving failed, then hollowed metal and stone. Such techniques were effortlessly mastered by Huaxia during the Shang Dynasty, absolutely no pressure.

”That’s also true, even copying can have errors and omissions,” Lub Su nodded, ”However, the handwriting and the errors being uniform could easily let people spot the problem.”

”Let them notice then. Since ancient times, which user of seals has not known about this? But who has the means to do such things?” Chen Xi said unconcernedly with a smile. China had been playing with seals for thousands of years—how could they not know the situation? It was acceptable that due to a lack of technology, movable type printing was not feasible. However, if even block printing was unattainable, wouldn’t that be a joke?

In plain terms, if someone could produce widely accessible paper during the Shang Dynasty, it would take only a few days for block printing to emerge. You could say it was practically instinctive.

”Can you control the source?” Lub Su furrowed his brows, ”If you can, using this as an introductory book might be feasible. By doing so, you would likely achieve what you mentioned about mass-producing civil officials. Since ancient times, numerous scholars with a thirst for learning have had no books to read. Countless talents have thus faded into obscurity, immeasurable in number. But now, you’re giving them a chance, and they will surely repay you. With this in ten years, just ten years, even if Lord Xuande were to fight the world alone, victory wouldn’t be guaranteed.”

”But I can’t act on this now,” Chen Xi said with a wry smile, ”I don’t want to stand against the noble clans at this moment. If I really started distributing books, it would only drive the noble clans to fight us to the death. Wisdom and land will never decline. Even if one day land yields, no value, no country would dare to let go of it; that would merely create a castle in the sky. As for wisdom, it’s even more so the foundation of the family and the state.”

”What will you do then?” Lub Su understood this point; his previous comments were just a test to see if Chen Xi had been blindsided by the prospect of immense achievements. To his relief, even with such a tremendous opportunity in front of him, Chen Xi still maintained the rationality of a sage.

”Sell them, a hundred gold per book. After all, this is a book of ten thousand words. Even at the price of bamboo slips, it’s worth a daughter’s ransom. Plus with the portability and rarity, a hundred gold for a book isn’t expensive, right?” Chen Xi said casually.

”The field of making money, ah, this is truly the field of making money. And in this era where knowledge is more valuable than life and wealth is regarded as worthless as dirt, as long as you dare to sell, no matter how much, the great houses can consume endlessly. They have always only feared a shortage of knowledge, not once have they willingly sold their own.”

”Since ancient times, when scholars were in need of money and came across a good book, there have been countless instances of Huaxia people trading land, estates, and even books for it. As long as you have books to sell, one could choose from land, money and grain, servants, singers at will—this is the truly solid currency.”

”However, since the Spring and Autumn period, no one has ever heard of selling books; naturally, there were no bookstores. Most were given as gifts; selling them would somehow be seen as damaging to public morals, according to the claims of ancient scholars...”

”A hundred gold pieces?” Lub Su glanced briefly over it. This small script of just over a hundred characters, printed on a single page, takes the number of 99 as the bottom count. It doesn’t seem to have been faked saying that it conveys ten thousand words. Hence, he nodded and said, ”Had I encountered this book earlier, I would have been willing to exchange a thousand gold for it. I imagine others would feel the same. Zichuan, your pricing is fair, and it benefits us scholars as well.”

”Alright, from now on, books like these with ninety-nine pages will be sold for a thousand gold as Zijing suggested. The count of ninety-nine pages represents unity and the flaw in the Way of Heaven. And implying that we’re only taking money for the last page is like asking for travel expenses,” Chen Xi explained emotionlessly, and in the process, tagged Lub Su with a subscription to this book. If anyone later felt that it was way too expensive, they could go and discuss it with Lub Su.

”This method is indeed excellent, but I feel guilty for accepting such a generous gift without contributing any effort...” Lub Su, true to his character as a virtuous gentleman, felt that he merely made a suggestion, yet ended up accepting such an extravagant gift which seemed excessively advantageous to him.

”It’s nothing. If you’re interested, you can write something, and I’ll print it out for you as well,” Chen Xi said casually, tacking on another grand prize for Lub Su.

”If that’s the case, I accept with gratitude. However, I must decline your offer to write and express ideas in a book, Suzhi’s talent may not be up to the task,” said Lub Su with a wry smile. Nevertheless, the gleam in his eyes barely concealed his eagerness to try.

Well, Chen Xi silently chuckled, feeling over the moon. He knew that in this era, absolutely no one could resist the ultimate goal of authorship and expressing ideas. Even if they declined, they couldn’t let go inside. It didn’t matter who wrote the book; as long as it was produced and disseminated, someone would read it.

In this era, those who dared to write books and express ideas were essentially the Great Confucian Scholars of their time and could be said to be renowned across the land. Then, publishing a book essentially signified an intent to reach the peak of achievement.

But the sad part was that these great scholars’ works were meant for transcription, and the copies were very limited. It was impossible for each person to have a copy. Therefore, publishing a book was a difficult task. Not to mention capability, first you need to be able to distribute copies. The Great Confucian Scholars had a group of disciples to transcribe their works, do you? They often spent more than a decade editing and cutting, worrying about the trouble others would have when transcribing, trying to keep it as simple as possible.

Chen Xi’s unthinking printing was a much better option, promising book publication as simply as printing. If a thousand copies weren’t enough, he would start with ten thousand. Not even Zhao Yun could resist.

One day, when Chen Xi was bored, he suggested to Zhao Yun to write down his experiences with managing farming estates. When he had time, Chen Xi would compile it into a book. In the future, others could follow the steps laid out. Zhao Yun was so excited he hardly knew where to put his hands and feet.

Instantly, Chen Xi understood what it meant for a noted scholar to author a book and express ideas in this era. This was the divine technique to entice eminent officials. He simply didn’t believe that if he blocked the Xun Family’s doorstep with ten thousand words worth of various books and offered to publish a book for Xun Shuang, they wouldn’t give in.

PS: In the Han Dynasty, twenty taels made one gold piece, and one twenty-fourth of a tael was a zhu. Therefore, one gold piece equals 24 zhu multiplied by 20 taels, making 480 zhu. A copper coin was five zhu, which means one gold piece should be 96 five-zhu coins. If anyone finds issue with this, they can refer to ”Records of the Grand Historian: Treatise on the Balanced Standard.” I just want to clarify that my price is not expensive...