"How much will it cost to publish "Compendium of Materia Medica for Famine Relief"?" Yunxi asked.
Seeing that there was a way to publish, Zhu Ji hurriedly said: "If engraving printing is used, it will cost thousands of dollars to carve the book version and hire bookmakers and craftsmen at first. Later, although there is no need to hire engraving craftsmen, many craftsmen will need to work continuously.
How much money does a set of printing cost?"
"So expensive!" Yunxi was a little surprised. There are not many words in "Herbal Medicine for Famine Relief", which is the number of words in two or three books of "The Analects of Confucius". Is the engraving so expensive? The subsequent variable costs are also a bit high. In this era, money is very expensive.
It's very valuable. According to the average price of grain, Zhu Xi's annual salary is only two thousand guan.
But he immediately realized that although there were not many words written in "Herbal Medicine for Saving Famines", each plant was accompanied by a picture, and it was not easy to draw it accurately. Especially this was a life-saving plant, and every detail could not be wrong.
Only a master with superb craftsmanship can do it.
"It is precisely because the official family is expensive that I have to ask the official family for help." Zhu Ru smiled bitterly and said: "If I only have the money for engraving at the beginning, I can always save it, but every time I print a set, I will have to pay for it."
We can’t afford printing with all this money.”
"Uncle Wu, how many sets do you want to print?" Yunxi had to ask.
"I hope that all the people in the country can have one, but I also know that this is impossible, but at least every village has one." Zhu Ru said.
Yunxi didn't know what to say. He gave a copy to every village for free, and even the country had to make steady progress.
"Fifth Uncle, my nephew thinks it's better to do what you can. Fifth Uncle, please give the original copy of "Herbal for Relief from Famine" to your nephew. The nephew will take it to the capital and have 10,000 copies printed with copper movable type by a scripture factory and give it to Fifth Uncle.
As for the future, let’s wait until this book is taken seriously by everyone.” Yunxi thought about it and finally decided.
"Thank you, officials." Zhu Ru said happily.
"We are a family, so there is no need to say thank you. It's just you, Fifth Uncle. If ordinary people get so many prescriptions and know so many wild plants and trees that can survive the famine, they will definitely keep it to themselves and not spread it to the outside world, let alone
I printed it myself and distributed it for free." Yunxi said with emotion.
"I am not a person who makes a living by practicing medicine, so I will not regard these as my lifeblood; what's more, I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty. Of course I have to consider the Ming Dynasty when doing things. The dissemination of such books is good for the Ming Dynasty. Of course I don't
I know how to use my broom to cherish it." Zhu Ju said with a smile.
"It seems that to engage in scientific research, you really need to be from a wealthy family." Yunxi expressed this emotion. In modern times, when there was no rigorous education system like modern times, great scientists were basically from wealthy people or noble families.
; A few started with mathematics and later studied science.
After solving the problem of publishing "Compendium of Materia Medica for Famine Relief", Zhu Zhu was in a good mood and flattered Yunxi even more. Yunxi also put aside other things for the time being and started chatting with him.
"There are many bookstores in Kaifeng now. There are dozens of large and small bookstores, and there are even more bookstores that sell and print books. After all, it is the provincial capital of Henan Province, and the provincial examination is held here every three years. Whenever the provincial examination is held,
At that time, imperial examination essays were in high demand, and any scholar whose family had some spare money would buy the essays that had passed the examination in previous examinations; people also asked them to print them on weekdays. In addition, the Four Books and Five Classics were always easy to sell, so there were so many
The bookstore can also be maintained." Zhu Ju felt that talking about the national economy and people's livelihood was a bit dangerous, so he happened to be talking about the publication of "Herbal for Famine Relief", so he talked about the bookstore and the imperial examination.
"In addition to the essays on the imperial examination, some people's opinions on the imperial examination questions have also been published. Every time during the examination, the officials in the city would talk about whether the questions were good or bad, easy or difficult to answer, and comment on the admissions of a certain article.
There are some minor flaws in the article.”
"Because most of the officials came from the imperial examinations, they also attached great importance to the topics and articles whose opinions were not Chinese-style, and copied them from the yamen for publication."
"There is a class of literati who loves to write poems most. Every time he makes enough poems to print one page, he goes to a bookshop to have them printed, and gives them to his friends to appreciate together. The engravings naturally stay in the bookshop. Although most of the poems are not very good.
, but occasionally there are good ones, and literati will come here to buy them, and the bookshop can make some money. Gao Qi's poems were once very popular, and many bookshops printed and sold them."
"Doesn't the original author care about this? These are his poems. It's not good for the bookstore to sell the poetry collection without his permission." Yunxi said.
"Why should the author care?" Zhu Zhu was a little confused: "My poems are sought after by everyone. There are bookshops willing to print them and some people are willing to buy them. This is a good thing. Why should I care?"
"Huh?" Yunxi was startled, not knowing what he thought of, and said: "The reason why most doctors have obtained folk remedies that others don't know and are unwilling to tell others is because it is not beneficial."
"That's about it. If he is the only one who knows the folk prescription, and patients can only come to him for this kind of disease, he can make more money; if he tells others about the folk prescription, the patients may not necessarily come to him, and he will make less money.
." Zhu Ju didn't know why he suddenly remembered to talk about this untouchable topic, and he didn't speculate, just discussing the matter.
Yunxi thought for a while, sighed softly, and talked about the imperial examination with Zhu Xi again. This time, Zhu Xi didn't dare to say anything unnecessary. He just talked about the previous provincial examination questions, and Yun Xi knew some of them.
I don’t know, so I asked this time.
Just as he was talking, Miaojin smiled and said: "Fifth uncle, fifth aunt, it's getting late. It's already Xu time. Is it time to take a rest?" For the convenience of addressing him, and because Xiyao was not here, Yunxi asked Miao.
Jin calls Zhu Xi and Princess Feng the fifth uncle and fifth aunt, and calls Zhu Youdun and Gong his younger brother, sister, or brother-in-law.
"It's indeed getting late, it's time to rest. Officials, let Youdou take them to have a rest." Zhu Zhu said hurriedly.
"No need, what are you going to give away during these few steps? My nephew can just go back by himself." Yunxi said. Yunzhi also hurriedly said: "There is no need for Sixth Brother to send it off, we can go back by ourselves."
But Zhu Zhu still insisted on letting Zhu Youdun give Yunxi a ride all the way to the entrance of the courtyard.
After returning to her residence, Miaojin settled Yunzhi and was about to go to bed. But when she rolled her eyes, she saw Yunxi sitting on a chair, holding a pen in his right hand and seemed to be writing something. After a while, Yunxi put down his pen.
Standing up, Miaojin hurriedly went over to help him undress. He glanced at the table and saw two words "economics" and "science" written on a piece of paper that she didn't know what they meant. She also saw another piece of paper.
