After pondering in the room all night, Li Yuanjia selected the book to be printed.
What Li Yuanjia wanted to print most was, of course, The Analects of Confucius.
It’s not that the Analects of Confucius was very important to readers of the Tang Dynasty, it’s just that this book is famous enough in history!
But he also knew that it was unrealistic, because the number of words in "The Analects of Confucius" exceeds 10,000. Even if the repeated Chinese characters are not taken into account, the whole book has more than 1,300 words, which is simply not what Li Zhong and the others can print now.
.
To put it bluntly, if you want to use movable type to print "The Analects of Confucius", you will be able to do it for another two years.
So the final choice was a book with very few words called "University".
The total number of words in the book is just over two thousand... Don't think that this number is very small. Considering the paper size of ancient books and the technology of Tang Dynasty engraving, one page only contains dozens of words. Even if it is two thousand words in a volume,
At least dozens of pages!
In order to reduce the difficulty, the metal movable type produced by Li Zhong and others is not too small.
In other words, on a normal book-sized paper, there are only six or seven crosses printed on one page. If you want to print "The University", you will need at least twenty pieces of paper.
This number should be just right.
Moreover, for a book with more than 2,000 words, even if Li Zhong and others have not created some words, the number will definitely be much less than that of "The Analects of Confucius", and it will not take too long to make it now.
Don’t forget, King Han is a real bookworm!
Over the years, Li Yuanjia has continued to collect various books. His collection has already exceeded 10,000 volumes. And he is also a man with a golden finger. Although this golden finger is a bit tragic, he has the ability to remember everything in this life. In his previous life,
The memory is still fading, but at this time, the golden finger is finally useful.
After much deliberation, "University" was the most suitable.
only……
Even if he chose "The University", he didn't just find a book and print it directly. Li Yuanjia was not so reckless.
The "Great Learning" written during the Tang Dynasty is also part of the "Book of Rites".
In fact, before the Western Han Dynasty, Confucianism was just folk thought, but Dong Zhongshu raised it to the level of the state. From then on, Confucianism embarked on the road of becoming official science and Chinese culture. Zheng Jing of the Eastern Han Dynasty compiled and annotated the "Book of Rites" and made it
It became popular in the world and became one of the important books.
As for the separation of "Great Learning" from "Book of Rites", we have to wait until the Song Dynasty. "Book of Rites" is divided into "Great Learning" and "The Doctrine of the Mean", and then together with "The Analects" and "Mencius" form the Four Books, while "Book of Rites" is divided into "Great Learning" and "The Doctrine of the Mean".
"Great Learning" is the first of the Four Books, and has since become an official subject of the imperial examination...
Therefore, it is not easy to extract "The Great Learning" from the "Book of Rites" and print it separately.
and……
"This kind of Confucian classic is not written by Hu Yin!"
After getting up and washing up the next day, Li Yuanjia, who was still thinking about this matter, sighed: "It seems that I can only wait until I return to Chang'an City to visit the old man in person..."
Ancient literati were not easy to mess with.
Although there are only a few people who can afford to buy finished books these days, most of them just borrow a book to read, but often the books they dare to print are not simple versions. If there are no contemporary masters standing behind you, you
If you dare to print it, someone will definitely dare to scold you!
Books like "Mathematics" that no one reads are certainly not included here.
Therefore, even if he planned to print a copy of "The University" with movable type, Li Yuanjia would not dare to just find a copy on the market and start with it. He had to find an authoritative version.
And in Chang'an City of the Tang Dynasty in the thirteenth year of Zhenguan, who else is a more suitable candidate than that old man?
Kong Yingda, a great Confucian of the time, one of the eighteen bachelors, and the thirty-first grandson of Confucius, if Kong Yingda said that he was second in terms of interpretation and understanding of "The Great Learning", I am afraid that no one in the Tang Dynasty would dare to claim to be first.
.
But just thinking about that old-fashioned and stubborn old man gave Li Yuanjia a headache...
But again, facing Kong Yingda was a headache after returning to Chang'an. But now, something gave Li Yuanjia an even bigger headache.
"call……"
After staring blankly at the wooden sculpture in front of him for a long time, Li Yuanjia's brows twitched a few times and he asked helplessly: "Are you sure you have understood what I said and what cuteness means?"
As he spoke, Li Yuanjia took the wooden sculpture in his hand and shook it: "Or do you think such a... ahem, such a woman is cute?"
"Gudong!"
"Your Majesty, forgive me!"
Of the two carpenters, one swallowed hard and the other fell to the ground in excitement.
"Okay, get up!"
Frowning, Li Yuanjia said rather irritably: "Don't kneel down in front of me. I'll be annoyed just by looking at you! Also, I'm just not satisfied with what you made. It's not that you don't do it carefully. I'm sorry.
What's the crime?"
"...Yes, Your Majesty."
Looking at the two silent carpenters, Li Yuanjia rolled his eyes and was truly speechless.
In fact, there are too many people like the two carpenters in front of him. Li Yuanjia really has nothing to worry about. After all, the status difference between them is really too big. In front of them, the layers of halo around Li Yuanjia are like
There are huge mountains that can make many people breathless just by standing still.
After getting used to it, Li Yuanjia would be a little depressed at best.
What really annoyed him was what the two carpenters had made, two statues of little girls that they thought were very cute, and a fat puppet that looked like it weighed at least two hundred pounds, with fancy makeup on its face.
How cute is it?
Li Yuanjia knew that there was a difference in aesthetics between himself and the people of the Tang Dynasty, but wasn't the difference too big?
Anyway, seeing the confused looks on the faces of the two carpenters, Li Yuanjia became very annoyed, so he simply waved his hands and said: "Forget it, you go back to build those houses first, and slow down the puppet work for a while...I will give you one in two days."
Just follow the pattern and make it for me!"
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
"Get down!"
After waving the two carpenters out, Li Yuanjia stared at the two fat puppets on the table for a long time, and suddenly looked at the maid waiting beside him: "Chun Yan, do you think these two puppets look good?"
"Ah? Uh..."
After being stunned for a moment, Chunyan tilted her head and took a few glances, nodded hesitantly and said, "Your Majesty, I think it looks pretty good!"
"..."
Seeing this girl's coquettish expression, Li Yuanjia rolled his eyes, knowing that his question was in vain.
His appearance naturally did not scare Chun Yan, who had been with him for many years. The girl stared at the puppet for a while and couldn't help but ask: "Your Majesty, what kind of game are you going to play?"
Glancing at her, Li Yuanjia curled his lips and a trace of nostalgia flashed in his eyes: "A game that can be played by many people is called Monopoly..."