"Where is Zhi'er?" Liu Jing woke up in the morning and found his wife hanging clothes in the yard, but the others were missing.
"Don't look at what time it is now. You should go to school at six in the morning." Mrs. Liu rolled her eyes at her husband, poured out the washing water, and said: "There is breakfast in the kitchen. You can eat it by yourself. I have to go out for a meal."
trip."
"Didn't I tell you that you can't go to school anymore? Why didn't you listen?" Liu Jing was a little annoyed, but Mrs. Liu ignored him, wiped her hands, took off her scarf and was about to go out. He hurriedly asked: "You
Where are you going again?”
"Go out to find a job. If I don't go out to earn money to support my family, will I have to rely on other people's support for the rest of my life? They have saved our lives and taken us in, and they have done their best. We can't spend our lives in vain. Mrs. Zhao told me yesterday
As I said, she has an embroidery workshop that is short of manpower, so I’ll go over and see if it’s suitable.”
"Don't always keep a straight face at home, no one owes you money." When Mrs. Liu said this, she seemed to have remembered something, and added: "I went to see the bulletin board yesterday, and now someone is looking for a carver.
, you go and have a look. It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to work for others, but you still have to work, and people don’t raise useless people for nothing.”
Being scolded by his wife, Liu Jing's old face turned blue and white, but he could not refute. In fact, he also saw that the whole family except himself had integrated into the life of Beiping City. If they were forced to wander around,
That's not impossible, but it's too unkind to let the whole family suffer the hardship of running around for the sake of one's so-called reputation; if he abandons his family and leaves alone, he can't be so cruel, after all, blood is thicker than blood.
water.
Since it is impossible to leave, there is only one way to go, which is to integrate into the life of Shuntian Mansion. In the past, Liu Jing had status and status, so he naturally did not have to worry about his livelihood. However, it is different from the past. The power of the Liu family is gone.
If you don’t want to eat the food that comes your way, you have to earn money to support yourself.
Although a scholar is useless, Liu Jing still has one skill besides being able to read, and that is engraving letters and seals. Of course, in the past, he was just doing these skills with a knife and pen for fun, but he didn't expect that he would now rely on it to make a living.
, Liu Jing couldn't help but laugh a little while feeling melancholy.
After some ideological struggle, Liu Jing finally dressed up and went out. There was no way, the situation was better than the others. If he wanted to live a good life, he had to find a job, otherwise he would be seen to be supported by his wife.
His old face was completely lost.
Following the instructions on the recruitment notice, Liu Jing soon arrived in front of a compound with a big sign of "Chinese Publishing House". The gatekeeper heard that he was here to apply for a job, and asked him to register his name before giving him a job.
A number plate let him in.
There were dozens of people standing in the yard, both young and old. It seemed that the competition was fierce. After all, the monthly salary for this job was five taels of silver and one stone of rice. It was almost as good as the iron smelting workers, and the work was not tiring. At nine o'clock in the morning,
Recruitment officially began. Several staff members set up several long tables and asked the applicants to sit next to them. Then each person was given a piece of white wax paper and a stylus, and asked them to carve "Hundred Family Surnames" on the wax paper.
.
Liu Jing had never seen this kind of paper. He looked left and right and couldn't figure out what the paper was made of or what the purpose of engraving on it was. However, people around him began to engrave, so he had no choice but to imitate.
Carving was done with a knife. It was obviously much easier to carve words on wax paper than to carve a seal. Soon someone finished the work, engraved the name on the back, handed it in, and then waited for the result.
Workers were being recruited in the yard, and Wan Lei was leisurely sipping tea in the hall. Tie Xuan, who was sitting beside him, looked out through the glass window and saw Liu Jing, who was ten years older than him, at a glance. He couldn't help being a little stunned and busy.
He said to Wan Lei: "Xiannephew, who do you think is here?"
"Haha, everything is under control, and the people who are supposed to come will still come." Wan Lei said with a smile without looking outside.
"Don't we go out and meet him?" Tie Xuan asked.
"Why are you meeting him? Jade cannot be used unless it is polished. This old jade has too many edges and corners and needs to be polished carefully." Wan Lei touched his beard, changed the subject, and asked: "We probably have some in Shuntian Mansion.
How many books are there?"
"Although Beiping City was once the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, it is still not as beautiful as Jiangnan. There are not many private book collectors, and after years of war, not many official books have survived." Tie Xuan looked at Wan Lei in confusion.
, and asked: "Why does my wise nephew suddenly ask these questions?"
"I plan to compile a book - "Huadian", which contains all the important classics of the past. In addition, I also plan to select some outstanding ones and compile them into a compilation book of Tang poetry, Song poetry, Yuan music and so on. Of course, Nong Shu counts
We should also organize and compile military books and the like to preserve and pass on the previous culture as much as possible."
"Oh, this is a good thing that benefits the country and the people. I will definitely support it. However, this project is too huge, and we may not have the human and financial resources." Tie Xuan said with worry, he knew that everything
Lei is a person who is generous in everything he does, so he should give appropriate reminders to prevent him from getting too hot-headed.
"This is a long-term plan. Now we are collecting as many books as possible to prepare for future compilation. Of course, we must also pay attention to recruiting and cultivating corresponding talents to prepare for large-scale compilation of books in the future." Wan Lei is not hot-headed.
Now there are only more than 400,000 people in Shuntian Prefecture, and even fewer scholars. It is not the time to compile the canon.
"Well, collecting books now is a way to prepare for a rainy day. In the future, we will send people out to buy ancient books and keep them first, and then compile them into a canon." Seeing that Wan Lei was not hot-headed, but had a plan, Tie Xuan of course also
Full support. After all, compiling books is a practical matter that benefits the present and will benefit the future. Once this is done, he will leave his name forever.
Tie Wan and Tie Xuan were looking at each other indifferently, and the staff in charge of recruitment came in with a stack of wax paper. Wan Lei and Tie Xuan checked it together, mainly to see whether the fonts were neat and whether there were typos and the like. Soon, more than a dozen
The copies were selected, and Wan Lei directed the workers to attach them to a small drum printing press.
After putting ink on the paper, the printers fiddled with it for a while, and the dozen or so copies of the wax paper were printed on several large sheets of paper. Wan Lei took the printing paper and saw that the handwriting was still clear, although some copies had some black spots on them.
However, it does not affect reading. As long as the engraver pays more attention in the future and does not drill unnecessary holes in the wax paper.
"My dear nephew, are these characters too small? Look at the characters with more strokes. The strokes are almost crowded together and cannot be seen clearly." Tie Xuan said with some dissatisfaction.
Hearing what Tie Xuan said, Wan Lei also frowned a little. In fact, the fonts printed with ink cannot be too large, because the wax paper on which the characters are carved is slightly too large, and what is printed is just a lump of ink, which is impossible to read. However.
Once the font size is reduced, some traditional Chinese characters with too many strokes will turn into lumps, which also affects the appearance.
Wan Lei also thought about reducing the fonts from complex to simple, but it is not feasible at the moment, because the Ming Dynasty was dominated by traditional Chinese. If you want to sell the printed books, you have to use traditional Chinese. Of course, the school side
I began to use research to simplify the complex characters, and from now on, simplified Chinese characters will be used internally in Shuntian Mansion.
"These are pretty good. They are in thin gold and look pretty clear and delicate. The ones in small regular script are obviously less effective." Tie Xuan saw that Wan Lei was a little discouraged and stopped pouring cold water on him.
After all, being able to print a book with such good results is already a great improvement.
Wan Lei took a look and found that the block script that was not very effective was written by Liu Jing. He rolled his eyes a few times and said to the staff: "This one failed, the others gathered together and continued the lettering training until
Carve out the best. Tell them that they will also be paid during the training. After the training, they will be assessed again and those who fail will be eliminated."
"My dear nephew, Mr. Liu's calligraphy is also good, why don't you use him?" Tie Xuan asked.
"He is not a talented engraver. I have another appointment." Wan Lei smiled slightly, said something to Tie Xuan, and then played with the relatively simple printing machine with the printer to find out its shortcomings.
be improved.
Striving for excellence is where the spirit of progress lies.