Zhao Jun turned his head and said with a sudden smile, "Brother Song!"
Song Cai left a few of his scholar friends and walked towards this side. The Imperial City Guards were about to stop him, but Zhao Jun waved his hand to signal him to come over.
“I didn’t expect it to be Brother Hanlong!”
Song Cai was extremely excited, but she suppressed her joy and tried to remain calm. She stepped forward and bowed, saying, "Brother, what brings you to Shuxiangfang? I'm very familiar with this place."
"Yes, there are some things. Since Brother Song is here, why don't we go for a walk together?"
Zhao Jun greeted with a smile.
"Then let's go for a walk together."
Song Cai suppressed her joy and turned to the group of scholars, saying, "Brother Wang, Brother Li, Brother Sun, I met an old friend. I'll walk with him first and come back to see you later."
"Okay, go ahead. We're going to Baihua Tower later, so come directly over then."
The person on the other end also replied.
Song Cai suddenly said to Zhao Jun with an embarrassed look on her face: "What Baihua Tower? I don't even know what that place is. Does Brother Zhao know?"
"I don't know either. Let's go and see together next time."
Zhao Jun smiled.
He naturally knew about Baihualou, which was a brothel located on Beixie Street, not far from Shuxiangfang.
It seems that the scholars in Bianliang lived a happy life.
After saying that, Zhao Jun walked into the bookstore.
The area of the bookstore is probably more than 100 square meters, with more than ten bookshelves, on which a large number of books are neatly stacked.
A smell mixed with paper pulp, ink and incense hit me in the face.
The shopkeeper had noticed a lot of people gathered at the door a long time ago. As a businessman, he knew at a glance that a big customer had arrived.
Maybe this big customer didn't buy much, but he must be of noble status.
After all, which son of a noble family would go out with so many bodyguards?
I’m afraid even my husband’s son isn’t so extravagant.
"Brother Zhao, are you here to buy books at Shuxiangfang today? If so, you've met the right person."
Song Cai followed Zhao Jun into the bookstore and listed the best books on the market. "Han Dashi's annotations to Xunzi, Kong Dashi's annotations to the Analects, Gai Dashi's annotations to the Spring and Autumn Annals, and Lu Dashi's annotations to the Book of Rites are the best annotations on the market. If you like other miscellaneous books, there are also Taiping Guangji, Taiping Yulan, and Yiwen Leiju."
He mentioned more than 20 popular books on the market in one breath. The imperial examination in the Song Dynasty required proficiency in the Seven Classics. There were many annotations on the Seven Classics by great Confucian scholars, but there were also differences in the level of great Confucian scholars. Therefore, the recognized great Confucian scholars included Han Yu, Kong Yingda, Gai Wenda, Lu Deming and the like, and the books annotated by them were in great demand on the market.
There were also many other miscellaneous books, such as the ones he mentioned, which collected all kinds of things on the market. Others included history books, works of various schools of thought, poetry collections, contemporary essays, political analysis, and collections of prose and songs, which were collectively called "Classics, History, and Miscellaneous Works" at the time.
"certainly."
After Song Cai mentioned some mainstream books, she suddenly smiled and said, "If Brother Hanlong likes storybooks, we have them here too."
He said meaningfully, "Everything."
In fact, it already existed in the Song Dynasty. With the popularization of vernacular Chinese, vernacular novels appeared, and there were tens or even millions of them.
Many people think that ancient times were all written in classical Chinese. In fact, classical Chinese is only written language, while spoken language is mainly vernacular Chinese.
In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, vernacular Chinese was already spoken among the people, and by the Song Dynasty, vernacular Chinese had become basically popular.
Even in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the way people spoke was not much different from that of later generations.
If a modern Beijinger returns to the city of Beijing during the Ming and Qing dynasties, his authentic Beijing accent will surely make him regarded as a local Beijinger.
Although the vernacular writing in the Song Dynasty is slightly different from that in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the differences are not that great.
As the market developed and prospered, vernacular novels naturally became popular and greatly enriched the lives of the people in Bianliang.
Zhao Jun was puzzled when he heard Song Cai's words, "What do you mean by having everything?"
"That's it."
Song Cai made faces and her expression gradually became vulgar.
Upon hearing this, Zhao Jun immediately sternly refused, "Brother Song, what are you talking about? I'm not that kind of person. I, Zhao, read the Spring and Autumn Annals! If I came across something like that, I would definitely criticize it harshly!"
Song Cai changed her expression and nodded repeatedly, saying, "That's right, that's right. What I meant was that I should take some of these books to Brother Zhao's house and let him criticize them!"
"That's best."
Zhao Jun nodded and looked around.
The boss came over and said to Song Cai with a smile, "This gentleman is very knowledgeable. Our Yuanjing Bookstore has the most books in the whole Shuxiangfang. We have all kinds of books."
Then he turned to Zhao Jun and said, "What kind of books does this young master want to buy? As long as you can give us a general idea, our shop will surely be able to meet any of your requirements."
He addressed Song Cai as "Sir" and Zhao Jun as "Young Master", which was a way of treating people differently and recognizing that Zhao Jun was not an ordinary person.
Song Cai was not annoyed. She pointed to the inner room and said familiarly, "I'm thinking of buying some storybooks to read. The owner will take me to have a look later."
"Yes, yes, yes."
The shopkeeper nodded repeatedly.
Zhao Jun said, "I heard that your Yuanjing Bookstore has a printing house?"
The shopkeeper's eyes suddenly shone with gold. "Yes, yes, yes. Sir, do you want to publish a collection of poems or write an article?"
This is a big deal.
If ancient people wanted to publish their works, they would not submit them to publishing houses, but would find a printing factory at their own expense.
Printing was quite difficult at that time. If one wanted to publish one's own collection of poems or articles, the printing factory had to carve the woodblocks themselves, which was extremely expensive.
A complete set of woodblock printing often costs tens or even hundreds of strings of cash. If there are many characters, such as tens or even millions of characters, the cost can be thousands of strings of cash. Therefore, publishing poetry collections can make more money than simply selling books. No matter how many books others print, they are all sold at the price of the woodblock printing.
Therefore, the shopkeeper was naturally very happy to meet such a big customer.
But what he didn't expect was that Zhao Jun said, "Well, I want to buy an existing printing house and print it myself. I heard that you wanted to sell the printing house, so I came to ask."
The shopkeeper opened his mouth wide at that moment.
I thought he was a big customer, but I didn't expect him to be so rich that he wanted to buy a printing factory directly.
He advised: "If you want to print your own collection of poems and articles, there is no need to buy a printing house. Just send us the sample paper and we will help you carve it."
"You don't understand. There will be too many things to make in the future. It will be more convenient to buy a printing house."
Zhao Jun asked, "Aren't you selling it to others?"
The shopkeeper thought for a moment and said, "This is indeed the boss's order, but I still need to ask him for the specific details."
"Go and call your boss."
"yes."
The shopkeeper knew that this was an important guest just by looking at the bodyguard outside, so he did not dare to neglect him. He ordered the shop assistants to entertain him well and then hurried out.
(End of this chapter)
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