Well, Lao Mo took out the newspaper in the last chapter. I saw many book friends saying that daily newspapers are impossible. Lao Mo would like to explain here. This chapter is free.
When talking about the printing of newspapers in the Ming Dynasty, researchers of journalism history can’t help but coincidentally quote a classic statement by Gu Yanwu, a famous scholar in the Ming Dynasty:
"I secretly think that this compilation can only be based on Di Bao, with rough drafts for future generations. For example, Liu Xun's "Old Tang Book" can be used. I recall that Di Bao did not have movable editions until the eleventh year of Chongzhen.
This was not a written work before..."
Readers, please note that in the 11th year of Chongzhen's reign, Di Bao had adopted movable type printing. So when did non-movable type printing begin?
See page 1332 of "Wanli Dichao": "I started to fall ill yesterday, and suddenly I heard that it was a written biography of the residence. The writing was popular, and I was surprised..."
It can be seen that during the Wanli period, the Ming Dynasty had already produced Dibao with burning and printing (block printing), which may be parallel to the "manuscripts" mentioned by Gu Yanwu, with manuscripts being the mainstay.
So on how many days does the Dibao issue an issue?
Let's first look at "Ming Huidian". Volume 213 says: "Fan Liu Ke received the memorials from each yamen every day, copied them into volumes one by one, and sent them to the cabinet every five days for compilation."
Based on this record, many scholars arbitrarily say that Di Bao (also known as Chao Bao, copy newspaper) publishes one issue every five days. However, according to what the Ming Dynasty opera theorist He Liangjun recorded in "He Shi Yu Lin", "Give things
Judging from information such as "The Chinese Daily Picks Up the Copy in the Liuke Gallery", many scholars have verified that the Di newspaper should be published daily. Even if one issue is published every five days, it shows that the Ming Dynasty had the technical conditions to publish newspapers, let alone that there were
The guide of the time traveler.
How many words can there be in each issue? The content of Di Bao comes from the emperor's memorials. During Wanli's youth and prime years, he answered 20 to 30 pieces every day. If half of the memorials can be made public, according to Su Tongbing, a journalist historian in Taiwan
According to research, each issue of Dibao should be more than 7,000 words.
After talking about Di Bao, let’s talk about the publication of Huang Ming Nanjing Daily in the novel.
According to research from Ming Dynasty documents, novels, operas, scripts, etc., the circulation speed of Di Bao was very slow, which was closely related to the speed of information transmission in ancient times.
It can be seen from the "Ming Huidian" that the Ming Dynasty had strict regulations on the speed of transmitting information. Here is an example:
"Shaanxi Dusi, 2650 miles of land route, 43 stops, limited to 86 days."
In other words, the message sent from Shaanxi Dusi to the capital will take 86 days if there is no rush.
On the other hand, what if we use the Imperial Military and Horse Station? Newspapers have no timeliness at all.
Therefore, the "Huangming Nanjing Daily" set to be published in this book is mainly distributed to the citizens of Nanjing and surrounding cities. It will be exported to other provinces as a cultural product through the book sales network originally laid out by Qingliu Bookstore (Lao Mo has foreshadowed this).
spread.
So how big is the newspaper market in Nanjing?
When the city of Nanjing developed into the Wanli period, industry and commerce were extremely developed. According to later research, its population was at least 1.2 million. Some scholars have estimated it to be about 3 million. Time-related? Lao Mo will not list the sources one by one. You can
Find it online yourself.
The minimum number that Lao Mo obtained from later research? 1.2 million. So what is the literacy rate? The literacy rate of the Ming Dynasty? The most intuitive manifestation is in the vernacular novels. Three of the four famous works appeared in the Ming Dynasty. In addition, there are
The writing and distribution of classics such as "San Yan Er Pai" and "Jin Ping Mei" show that the literate population in the Ming Dynasty could fully support the production of large works.
Secondly? See "History of the Ming Dynasty. Biography of Yang Jizong": "At the beginning of Chenghua, Wang Ao recommended him to promote the prefect of Jiaxing... There was a great development of schools. If the children of the people did not study as scholars at the age of eight, their fathers and brothers would be punished."
What is the legal basis for Yang Jizong's fine? The Ming Dynasty established a large number of private schools and also stipulated the age for admission. "Public children under fifteen years old must enter social schools." This is the court's regulation on universal education.
According to the above and other data, later generations of scholars have verified that the male literacy rate in Nanjing during the Ming Dynasty should have exceeded 45%, and could reach as low as 30% - the female literacy rate was very low? It can be ignored.
Having said this, readers may know: Can a literate population of at least 400,000 people support a daily newspaper published in this city? Not to mention teahouses and government subscriptions - Lao Mo arranged for the protagonist to open the first daily newspaper in Nanjing.
It's not a slap on the head.
Why do you think Lao Mo’s daily report is a bit ridiculous? Everyone has overlooked one point. After the Manchus entered the customs, the killings in the entire south were extremely brutal. You can search for details on your own. Lao Mo doesn’t even want to read this information - these
Massacre is also occasionally seen in "History of the Qing Dynasty". Nurhaci's descendants do not think this is something that needs to be obscured.
After the massacre, the literary inquisition flourished from Shunzhi to Qianlong, and its intensity was unprecedented. Therefore, the entire Chinese nation fell behind in literacy and knowledge, and the emergence of the "numb Chinese" criticized by Lu Xun was not caused by me first.
The people have always been like this, but after hundreds of years of domestication under the butcher's knife, they have become collectively numb and ignorant, and have no sense of new knowledge and new things.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, at least in the south of the Ming Dynasty, the Chinese nation was ready to enter the modern era economically and culturally. Unfortunately, this process was hampered by the Little Glacier climate, the corruption of the Ming government, the shortcomings of the system and mechanisms, etc.
A combination of factors led to the destruction - and this was one of the motivations for Lao Mo to write this book.
To sum up, please have more confidence in the culture of our nation. The legacy of our ancestors has made China proudly lead the world for nearly two thousand years. Only in the past two hundred years has China fallen behind completely. What we have to do is not to blame our ancestors or criticize the people.
Instead, we should do every job at hand and through everyone's efforts, let our great nation return to its original position.
Finally, this explanatory article by Lao Mo is not to start a fight, nor is it to refute. It is just an explanation of the questions raised by everyone, and has no other meaning. Lao Mo always welcomes everyone's comments. No matter what point of view you put forward, Lao Mo can benefit from it.