Early that morning, the doctor Chang Dan did not go to his medicine shop to sit in the hall as usual. Instead, he asked his son to keep an eye on the shop door, and he hurried to the bookstore in the east of the city.
As soon as I walked halfway, I was stopped by someone: "Brother Chang, where are you going in such a hurry?"
He knew who it was by hearing the voice. He secretly thought something bad, but with a smile on his face he said, "It turns out to be Brother Cheng. Are you preparing to go on a medical visit?"
The person who came was none other than Cheng Hetai, another well-known doctor in Sanyuan County. The so-called colleagues were enemies. Both of them were well-known but their medical skills were not comparable, so the competition was particularly fierce.
Cheng Hetai said with a smile: "Where is it? It's rare for my small shop to have a patient. How can I compare with Brother Chang? How about Brother Chang give me some of your patients?"
Chang Dan said not to be outdone: "Brother Cheng is joking, who doesn't know that your Hetai Tang is the leading medical clinic in Sanyuan County. I was just about to ask Brother Cheng for a meal."
"I don't want much, just give me the old gentleman from the Zhu family. Brother Chang won't be reluctant to part with it, right?"
Cheng Hetai was speechless for a moment and said angrily: "Patients will go to whomever they trust for medical treatment and medicine. How can we treat them like goods and let them go around? It's so disrespectful."
Mr. Zhu is a big benefactor and spends a lot of money in his store every year. How could he let him go? Chang Dan also knew this and said this just to squeeze him out.
In fact, Mr. Zhu's health doesn't have much problem, he is just old and frail. Most of the medicines he prescribes are nourishing medicines. To put it bluntly, the placebo ingredients are more important.
Ordinary people don't understand, how could Chang Dan, who is also a doctor, not understand.
He was afraid that Chang Dan would poke him out, so every time the two sides were trying to compete with each other, he would be defeated as soon as the other party mentioned Mr. Zhu.
In fact, he was not the only one to do this. Many doctors, including Chang Dan, had done it. However, others were not as lucky as him and encountered such a big victim.
However, this matter involves the unspoken rules of the industry. The two parties would not dare to bring it out unless they were mortal enemies, and Chang Dan only took advantage of it.
So seeing that Cheng Hetai was timid, he accepted the offer and said, "Are you going to the bookstore to buy Sun Zhenren's "On Plagues and Insects"?"
Cheng Hetai did not continue to vent his anger, but said in an admiring tone: "Yes, Master Sun is truly an expert, and he is actually willing to teach his medical skills to the world publicly."
Chang Dan said with deep approval: "Master Sun is a highly respected person and he is the person I admire the most. I wish I could listen to his teachings in person."
While they were talking, the two of them arrived at the bookstore. When they looked up, their expressions changed dramatically. They saw that the entrance of the bookstore was crowded with people on the three and outer floors.
They immediately panicked.
According to the gossip, the imperial court only distributed thirty copies of "Treatise on Epidemics and Insects" to Sanyuan County.
Except for those taken away by people with connections through internal channels, there are not many copies distributed below.
Originally they thought they had arrived early enough, but they didn't expect that there were so many people arriving earlier than them.
Although there will definitely be pirated copies and manuscripts in the future, they don’t know when that will happen. As doctors, they all want to see this book as soon as possible.
At this moment, the two of them no longer cared about being polite, and hurriedly pushed forward, shouting while pushing: "You are not doctors, what's the use of grabbing medical books."
Finally, someone couldn't stand the two of them anymore and said, "Who wants to rob you of your medical books? The bookstore has just received a batch of Nine Classics annotated by Hongwenguan. Everyone is here to buy the Nine Classics."
The two of them looked carefully and saw several familiar faces, all of whom were famous scholars in Sanyuan County.
Only then did they realize that they had made a mistake in their haste.
But now that the matter had come to this, they simply became disheartened and said loudly: "That medical book was written by Sun Simiao, Sun Zhenren. There are only a few copies in the entire Sanyuan County. Please let us go in and take a look first. Thank you."
As he spoke, he squeezed in.
The scholars, out of concern for their face, scolded them as "insulting the gentlemen" and had to make way for them.
The two of them didn't care about this at all. They squeezed to the door and shouted: "Shopkeeper Zhou, quickly bring Master Sun's "On Epidemics and Insects", we have all bought it."
Shopkeeper Zhou obviously knew them and said with a smile: "I'm really sorry, you two. I only have the last copy left here. I don't know who to sell it to?"
"Give it to me, I'll pay double." Chang Dan, Cheng Hetai shouted at the same time.
Shopkeeper Zhou shook his head and laughed, and said: "You two are really... I have a suggestion, how about you jointly finance the purchase and make a copy when you get back?"
"..." Both of them were ashamed and embarrassed to argue anymore, so they planned to jointly pay for it.
When asked about the price, they were surprised again and asked, "Why is it so cheap?"
Shopkeeper Zhou said while picking up the book: "Zhenren Sun improved printing technology... thousands of copies can be printed a day, so the price has naturally dropped, and even ordinary people can afford it."
"The sage built a huge printing house in Chang'an, specializing in printing all kinds of books. I heard that the first batch of printed books was the Nine Classics annotated by Hongwenguan."
"The imperial court has decreed that in three years' time, the Ming Dynasty Imperial Examination will be based on Hongwenguan's commentary on the Nine Classics. That's why so many gentlemen come to buy books."
Chang Dan and Cheng Hetai were surprised and said with a little excitement: "In addition to medical skills, Sun Zhenren also knows the science of organs? He is indeed a living god."
Shopkeeper Zhou opened his mouth, but in the end he didn't say the words that came to his lips, he just shook his head.
These two men were doctors, and they had no idea what a huge disturbance the imperial court's move would bring. As a book seller, he was also considered a scholar, so he naturally knew that this move was simply digging into the roots of the gentry.
At this time, some scholars were unwilling and shouted: "Can you hurry up? Don't you see so many people waiting?"
Chang Dan, Cheng and Tai Ke did not dare to offend these scholars, so they quickly paid and left with their books.
After finding a secluded place, the two of them couldn't wait to open the book and start reading.
Sure enough, this book introduces germs, bacteria and trace elements in detail. In order to facilitate everyone's understanding, it also gives some common examples to illustrate.
For example, beriberi and night blindness are caused by a lack of trace elements and can be cured without medicine by eating specific foods.
This complete theory completely shocked the two of them. In fact, they were not the only ones who were shocked, there were also countless doctors.
But after all, medical skills are only a niche, and generally only doctors pay attention to them.
What really shocked the world was the release of Hongwenguan's annotated version of the Nine Classics and the imperial edict issued by the imperial court. Three years later, the Ming Dynasty Classics was based on this version.
The combination of these two things caused an impact like a magnitude 12 earthquake.
Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the real purpose of the imperial court's move was to compete with the gentry for the right to speak.
