Hu Ai tremblingly landed on the square table. Only after he sat down did Lu Yao, Su Shi and others dare to sit down.
What Hu Ai is holding is "The Practical Application of Punctuation Marks" that Lu Yao sold before.
Seeing Lu Yao's respectful look, Hu Ai couldn't help but nod. The young man knew etiquette very well.
Hu Ai opened "The Practical Use of Punctuation Marks" and after reading a few pages, she couldn't help but exclaimed: "Lu Yao, your book is so well written! When a student from the Imperial College presented this book to me today, I
I didn’t take it seriously until I finished my official duties and looked at it carefully, then I realized that there is a lot of detail in it.”
"The punctuation marks you mentioned may seem simple, only a few symbols, but they contain great truths. Since Cangjie created writing, there have been thousands of them since the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties.
Years ago, no one could think of breaking down a sentence into paragraphs and then using symbols to express the tone of the sentence."
"If it can be popularized, it will be a blessing for all literati."
Lu Yao felt a little shy being praised by such a big shot.
He discovered the punctuation marks when he was reading. Every time he opened the book to read, he felt something was wrong. After taking a closer look, he realized that the punctuation marks were missing.
Sure enough, after he tried to use symbols to segment these sentences, he found it much easier to read, and even memorized it faster. In order to make reading less strenuous in the future, he decided to promote punctuation marks.
He didn't expect that Hu Ai would be attracted to come. If he had the support of Hu Ai, an imperial scholar who spoke directly, he believed that punctuation marks would soon become popular in the Song Dynasty.
Su Shi echoed from the side: "Someone has read the book "Punctuation Marks" and particularly admires its usage. For example, there is an example in the book, "You can do it without rice, noodles, chickens, ducks, or money." This sentence made several people think
It can have many meanings."
"If you use punctuation marks to break up the sentence, you can completely express the author's meaning when he wrote this sentence. In the example, this sentence is interpreted with two punctuation positions, such as 'If there is no rice, noodles will be fine. If there is no chicken, duck will be fine. No.'"
"Silver, money is OK." and "It's OK without rice and noodles, it's OK without chickens and ducks, it's OK without silver money." After being segmented separately, they have two completely different meanings. If the author wants to mean the second meaning,
But it is very common for people to interpret it as the first meaning. If it is used as a punctuation mark, this problem will not exist."
Hu Ai stroked her white beard and nodded and said, "Yes, I don't know how you came up with such a useful method, Lu Yao."
Lu Yao must have copied it from later generations, but he still made up a suitable reason in front of Hu Ai, "When I read the words of the sage, I understood several meanings in one sentence. At that time, I was wondering if there was any way to determine the sentence.
The meaning of it prevents people from misunderstanding the saint’s true thoughts at that time. After thinking about it for days and nights, I finally created the punctuation mark.”
"Although you, Mr. Lu, are still young, your achievements in learning are comparable to those of Cangjie in making Chinese characters. However, you are already familiar with this method. When I return to Taixue, I will teach this method to them immediately."
Lu Yao stood up and bowed to Hu Ai, "Master Hu is so righteous, which is a blessing for the scholars of the Song Dynasty."
Hu Ai smiled and said: "The Song Dynasty is blessed to have people like you, Lu Yao. I am just passing on the methods you created. If your achievements are not as good as yours, your words really embarrass me."
Lu Yao shook his head and said: "No matter how good my method is, if no one appreciates it, it is worthless. Just like a thousand-mile horse and a Bole. A thousand-mile horse always exists but a Bole does not always exist. It is precisely because of the emergence of Bole like Hu Fuzi that punctuation can be achieved."
If the symbol is truly used, you should be treated as a gift from me."
"Young people can talk. Since you said so, I will happily accept it. However, when I teach it, I will say that this is the method created by you, Lu Yao. If this method can be widely spread in the Song Dynasty, Lu Yao
There is hope that your name will go down in history."
The cheerful appearance put a smile on everyone's face.
Su Shi then said: "Master Hu, Lu Erlang's achievements don't stop there. Do you know the price of the book in your hand?"
Hu Ai really had not thought about the price of this book, and the students who bought it did not mention it to him.
It was only after Su Shi mentioned it that he noticed that the paper quality of the book was excellent.
The papermaking technology of the Northern Song Dynasty was quite cumbersome, with as many as a dozen steps.
Starting from the selection of materials, you need good bark and ivy.
Then it needs to be cooked, soaked, peeled, and dried in the sun. Then it needs to be washed, picked, and pulped.
This is not the final result yet.
A series of operations such as water preparation, glue preparation, paper extraction, and baking are required before the paper can be manufactured.
Not to mention the complexity of the process, if one step goes wrong, all efforts will be wasted.
Making paper like this requires a lot of labor and is certainly worth a lot of money.
However, Luyao papermaking only requires four steps: cooking the clinker, fermenting it, and finally bleaching it, salvaging it, and drying it, so there is no waste.
The cost of this technique will definitely be much cheaper than before.
Hu Ai's palm gently brushed the paper surface, feeling that it was delicate and smooth without any roughness.
And the paper is white.
This kind of paper can be sold at a sky-high price in Bianliang.
Who doesn’t want to use a piece of paper as white and as smooth as a mirror to write his poems?
Hu Ai pondered for a while and said: "This book must be more expensive than ordinary books. The price is estimated to be six to seven hundred yuan."
This is Hu Ai's very conservative statement. Even if he sells two or three pieces of paper to print books on such good paper, he feels that it is not expensive at all and is worth every penny.
Su Shi saw with his own eyes that Lu Yao's paper factory could easily produce sheets of white paper as if by magic.
The factory could produce more paper in an hour than what originally took ten days to produce. Su Shi would never have believed it if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes.
Su Shi imitated Lu Yao and pointed out two fingers and said with a smile: "Master Hu guessed wrong, this book only sells for 20 renminbi. Not only this book, but also the Analects of Confucius, the Four Books and Five Classics such as Doctrine of the Mean only sell for 20 renminbi."
.”
Hu Ai was stunned at this time. He was sure that he heard correctly. Su Shi did indeed say twenty coins, but how could it be twenty coins on such paper.
Hu Ai's first thought was definitely not that the paper was cheap, but that Lu Yao would bear the cost himself and sell the books at a low price. An old man like him, who had experienced countless trials and hardships, was moved by this.
He looked at Lu Yao with tears in his eyes and asked: "Lu Yao, you really sell your books at such a low price. In fact, we literati know how good you are, Lu Yao, and we must not scatter all our wealth because of this. Your
I have received the favor on behalf of all the scholars. You should quickly restore the books to their original prices. I am asking some Tai students to buy the books you are selling so that you can make up for some of your losses."
Lu Yao held Hu Ai's hand and comforted him: "Mr. Hu, please don't do this. Not only did I not lose money, but I also made a lot of money."
"How can you make money? If you only sell it for twenty coins, how can you make any profit?" Hu Ai still didn't believe what Lu Yao said.
Lu Yao had no choice but to order someone to go to the bookstore across the street to get a pound of blank paper.
Hu Ai looked at the snow-white paper and couldn't take her eyes away from it anymore.
He was usually frugal and only used some yellow paper of poor quality to write on. Having so much white paper in front of him was something he had never thought about in his life.
Lu Yao said in his ear: "This kind of paper is not the best in my paper mill. It can produce thousands of kilograms every day. Even if I cover the paper for all the literati in Bianliang, there will still be some leftover."
.”
"So much?" Hu Ai couldn't help but exclaimed. This was completely beyond his imagination. He knew the difficulty of papermaking better than many people. He once saw the complete process of papermaking with his own eyes, and he could produce hundreds of kilograms of paper in a day.
It is not easy to make blank paper. Thousands of kilograms of paper can be made in one day. This is a completely magical method.
"That's not all. I have improved the current papermaking process to make it simpler, less expensive, and lower cost. The price of a pound of paper in front of you is only a hundred dollars."
After hearing the price of a hundred wen, Hu Ai couldn't control her emotions. She excitedly held Lu Yao's shoulders and said, "What Mr. Lu said is true. Such a good piece of white paper really costs a hundred wen per catty."
Lu Yao nodded and said: "It's absolutely true, I would never dare to deceive senior with such a thing."
Hu Ai clenched her palms tightly, and the palms of her hands turned red when she tapped them on the table. She didn't realize it, "A hundred coins per catty, everyone can use the paper at such a cheap price, and the price of the book is only twenty coins."
, everyone can read books..."
After talking to himself for a while, Master Hu suddenly stood up and gave Lu Yao a gift reserved only for literati.
Seeing such a great gift from Hu Ai, who was as big a figure in the literary world as Beidou, he would never dare to accept this gift.
If word gets out in the future, he will definitely be scolded by the literati.
"Master Lu, don't hide, you deserve this great gift." Hu Ai said loudly, his aura was no longer that of a frail old man, but now he looked like a real literary figure.
Su Shi advised from the side: "Lu Erlang, your printing and papermaking methods are indeed worthy of a great gift."
Lu Yao was so anxious that he jumped a little: "Zizhan, how could you harm me like this?"
As soon as Su Shi said these words, he could no longer hide. If he continued to hide, he would not give Hu Ai face, and he would be scolded when he went out.
Lu Yao straightened his back and accepted Hu Ai's salute. When Hu Ai stood up, he bowed and helped him up. This was a great gesture.
Lu Yao smiled and said: "Everyone knows that Master Hu was fond of books, and he has many unique copies at home. How about I take out the best paper from the factory and give it to you to copy the unique copies?"
This condition was something Hu Ai couldn't refuse. He had always been prepared to pass on these unique copies to future generations. He had always believed in using good paper for good books, but good paper was very expensive, and just thinking about the money he spent made him
Headache.
The white paper Lu Yao is bringing out now is better than the best white paper on the market. What would a better white paper look like?
It's best to use it to copy original copies.
Hu Ai struggled for a moment and nodded and said: "Master Lu is interested. After sending the blank paper, I will send you a batch of transcripts of these books."
Lu Yao smiled, what a great feeling! If you collect these books, you will definitely be able to sell them for a lot of money in the future.