The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

Chapter 20 "The Rise of the Portuguese Empire"

Gao Yin: "What is a Spaniard?"

Faced with his doubts, Wang Wenlong could only answer as best he could, "To talk about my father-in-law, the Spaniards are a type of Franconian."

Gao Yin: "Aren't the Franji people in Macau?"

Wang Wenlong: "Macau is made up of Portuguese people, and it is two different countries from Spain."

Gao Yin: "Oh, Franji is the name of people from several countries? Is there any difference in language and appearance between the Portuguese and Spanish in Macau?"

Wang Wenlong felt that it was already a bit difficult, so he answered bravely: "There are differences. The customs and pronunciations of the two countries are quite different."

But Gao Yin's problem is not over yet

"How come we can go to Luzon from Tianzhu?"

"Can we also go to Luzon from Portugal and Spain? How can they get to Tianzhu?"

"I heard that there is a big food overseas. Is that where those people with teeth come from?"

Wang Wenlong: ...I suddenly felt so tired.

After spending a long time, Wang Wenlong discovered that this guy had no geographical concept of Southeast Asia at all. He couldn't even distinguish the southeast, northwest, and northwest of various countries in the world. It was all in vain.

It is sad to think about it. At this time, the Western world has entered the Age of Discovery. Portugal and Spain have risen one after another, and the Netherlands is about to catch up.

The Ming Dynasty is right above Southeast Asia, but most Ming people have no concept of overseas trade in their minds. They can't explain geography, let alone understand what a colonial economy is.

Gao Yin asked for a while but couldn't understand, and gradually lost interest. Finally, he waved his hand and asked Wang Wenlong to stop talking and continue listening to the play.

After accompanying Gao Yin back to the room after watching the play, Wang Wenlong closed the door, spread out the manuscript paper, and thought about what book he should write next.

Now that I have decided not to write a novel for my next book but to seek fame.

The best way for literati in this era to become famous when writing books was to compile various philosophical books. Works like "Burning Books" by Li Zhi, as long as Wang Wenlong dared to write them, he would definitely be able to gain fame.

But the price is that it easily causes political risks.

The right to interpret Confucian classics is undoubtedly the most sensitive matter among literati in this era. Wang Wenlong does not even have the reputation of being a scholar. If he steps on a thunderbolt, he will definitely be doomed.

This doesn't work.

The next best option is to compile some well-referenced classics.

For example, "Wanli Yehuobian" which writes about current affairs and anecdotes, and "Congzhai Xunyu" which writes about various philosophies of life. Such books can show the author's breadth of knowledge. The disadvantage is that the sales of such books cost the author's reputation. .

Just like the world's richest man in later generations wrote a book "My Way to Success" that sold out of stock, but now Wang Wenlong is a novel author who has just become famous for a few months. He writes a book "My Way to Success"... Who will buy it? ah……

Science and technology books, such as Xu Guangqi's "Agricultural Policy Encyclopedia", "Euclidean Geometry", etc. can also be written, but there are fewer readers for these books. Generally, official printing agencies undertake the printing work for the convenience of the world, and publishers consider Basically, you won't touch it if you can't make a profit.

Since I am not famous enough, I can only step on the hot spots.

Now, the biggest commercial hotspot in Fujian and Zhejiang is of course navigation trade.

A book suddenly came to Wang Wenlong's mind - "An Examination of East and West".This book was published more than ten years later, and it clearly tells the stories, history and customs of almost all the places visited by Ming trade routes east and west of Borneo.

Historically, all official book-engraving workshops in Fujian and Jiangsu have printed this book, which shows that there is a huge demand for this type of book in the market.

If Wang Wenlong writes a local directory according to the framework of this book, it will definitely make him famous once it is published.

But this idea disappeared as soon as it arose.

Even if he wanted to write it, he didn't dare to write it now.

Two of the three authors of "The Examination of East and West" are famous people in Donglin.

Therefore, many of the historical contents selected throughout the book are related to the political needs of the Donglin Party.

Not to mention other things, the reason why many of Gao Yin's evil deeds are known to everyone is because there is a special chapter "Taiwan Kao" in "East and West Yang Kao", which lists all the evil things Gao Yin did.

Moreover, this book contains many imperial edicts, seals and inscriptions on foreign relations in the Ming Dynasty. Without official endorsement, Wang Wenlong was simply seeking death by copying this thing himself.

"Hey, what kind of work should I create so that I can catch the heat of ocean trade again without getting myself into trouble?"

After thinking for a long time, Wang Wenlong suddenly remembered that what he and Gao Yin had wasted the most talking about when explaining the situation in the West was about the Franconians and the colonies.

If the Ming Dynasty people still had some idea of ​​Southeast Asian place names such as Luzon and Borneo, then it can be said that the Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch people in Europe basically only had some illusions.

Yes, why should I write about the Ming Dynasty and Southeast Asia?
After arriving in this era, I saw a series of problems, whether it was commercial taxation, ocean smuggling or lack of silver. Which one of them could be solved by the Ming Dynasty behind closed doors?

At this time, the Ming Dynasty was in the Age of Discovery and had been deeply involved in international trade. Many problems were global. Many people were thinking of ways to solve these problems, but few people in this huge world knew what was happening in the world. Variety.

Since I now have the status of a Western visitor and want to gain a famous name, I might as well write a popular science book on the world history of the Age of Discovery, and also open the eyes of the people of the Ming Dynasty in this era!
In the past, he had always limited the content of the books he copied to the works of the Ming and Qing dynasties, but he had never thought of this idea. Now that his mind opened up, he immediately had inspiration.

Wang Wenlong thought for a while and finally wrote a name on the manuscript paper that he had never thought of before - "Conquistadors: The Rise of the Portuguese Empire"!
Works by British historian Roger Crowley.

In his previous life, Wang Wenlong was very fond of the historian's famous work "Mediterranean Trilogy". It took Wang Wenlong more than half a year to read the three magnificent epics.

Later, Wang Wenlong read a series of Roger Crowley's works because of this, and he knew that the book "The Conqueror: The Rise of the Portuguese Empire" was absolutely top-notch.

Roger Crowley did not write history in a rigid way of describing and commenting. This historian had a strong writing style, and the historical works he wrote were more like writing epic literature, allowing historical figures to follow each other in the background of the times. Each epic and tragic historical story is staged on the stage.

Reading his books is not only reading historical research works, but also reading wonderful novels!
Of course, many of the contents in the book also require trade-offs.

First of all, the name must be changed. Calling the small country Portugal "the Conqueror" is simply a joke in this era. What status does it place the great country of tomorrow?

For another example, there are a large number of chapters in the original book explaining that the purpose of the Portuguese's early opening of routes was to spread Catholicism, and there are also various popular sciences about Catholic history. These descriptions are completely centered on Christian civilization, and it would definitely be written according to the content of the original text. He was not tolerated by the Ming gentry who respected Confucianism.

But the basic framework does not need to be changed.

It is now the 27th year of Wanli, 1599 AD, and Portugal's heyday ended in 1580. Due to the inheritance relationship between royal in-laws, Portugal's land is now occupied by Spain, and the colonies are also being attacked by the Dutch and Spanish.

Therefore, the main events in this history book have occurred for at least several decades, and Wang Wenlong can directly transfer most of the content from the book for use.

(End of this chapter)