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

Chapter 43
As a historian, Xu Xueju knows very well what kind of skill it takes to write such a history book.

When he first read it, he wanted to learn how to write this book, but as he read it, he was amazed. He found that he could not write such a book with his own ability.

What gained him even more was the content of this book.

"So this is the relationship between the Portuguese and the Dutch?" Xu Xueju sighed.

In the past two years, more and more red-haired people have come to Fujian. Some want to preach, some want to open commercial ports, and some have vowed to engage in trade in the Ming Dynasty. The officialdom of the Ming Dynasty has The relationship between them is confusing.

It was often the Dutch who killed people on the coast. The Ming Dynasty could not find the criminals, so they arrested the Portuguese for questioning and talked about the affairs of the foreign vassals. Now these Fujian officials are having a headache.

After reading this book, Xu Xueju finally got a rough idea of ​​the history of Europe, and then started to think about it.

Originally, he had the impression that the red-haired people in foreign vassals were vulgar and unknown people. After reading this book, he realized that there were also many smart people among them. In the past, when Fujian officials interacted with them, they often thought that these foreigners were stupid and stupid. It is easy to be deceived by these people.

"This is truly a must-read book for Fujian officials."

The author of this book is not only familiar with Western things, but also a great historian. As a feudal official, Xu Xueju did not participate in the increasingly fierce party struggles at this time, and he had no grudges about using people around eunuchs.

He thought for a while, but he came up with the idea of ​​recruiting the author of this book, Wang Jianyang, into the shogunate.

At the same time, Deqing County, Huzhou Prefecture.

Fang Congzhe read the book and couldn't help shouting, "Joao II is truly a wise king!"

Fang Congzhe was a Jinshi in the 11th year of Wanli. He had become the left minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs a few years ago. It was just because Tian Yi, the eunuch Bingbi, the eunuch of the ceremonial department, wanted to let his nephew, who was a eunuch, become an official through the back door. Fang Congzhe refused, so he was threatened by Tian Yi.

Fang Congzhe resigned in anger and stayed at home.

Fang Congzhe is from Huzhou, Zhejiang, but his birthplace is in the capital. He came across the serialized version of "History of Portugal" when he returned to his hometown in Huzhou this year. He was shocked at first glance, so he went to the market to collect it. All the contents in the series can be read over and over again at home.

Fang Congzhe was highly regarded by Ye Xianggao, the later Donglin boss, but he himself was originally from Zhejiang and was a member of the Zhejiang Party.

The reason why Wanli took action on taxation was because private commercial activities were already very frequent at this time. Before the Wanli Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty had almost no formal taxes on merchants. Faced with such a large tax source, who wouldn't be greedy?

There was a tax war in Wanli, but the various political parties had different attitudes towards this.

The important sponsors of the soon-to-be-formed Donglin Party are businessmen from Tongzhou and factory owners in southern Jiangsu. In addition, several big bosses have already left office at this time. Their main job is to preach and give lectures. Naturally, they can sit back and talk without pain. They can strongly oppose it. When it comes to taxes and mining taxes, they also claim to be absolutely clean in publicity.

The Zhejiang Party, on the other hand, still holds the positions of several high-ranking officials in the imperial court and has to actually do things. For its own actions, the Zhejiang Party adopts an ambiguous attitude towards collecting commercial taxes. It does not dare to say that it wants to collect it, but it also secretly wants to collect it.

Therefore, he was often ridiculed by scholars for competing with the people for profit.

What Xu Xueju learned from "History of Portugal" was the history of European countries and their current policies, while Fang Congzhe focused on the rise of Portugal.

The Portuguese king colonized Morocco to solve the crisis after the founding of the country, and further prospered the country by fighting for African ports. When the country was once again in turmoil, a group of navigators discovered the Cape of Good Hope and the Indian route, and the rolling wealth they brought once again made the Kingdom of Portugal Continue the glory.

Portugal's economy is called mercantilism, which believes that the foundation of a country lies in its wealth, and the foundation of wealth lies in entities such as gold and silver that will not depreciate. People believe that if there is enough gold and silver in hand, the country will surely prosper.Therefore, all the goals of the king of a country are to seek more gold and silver. To this end, he even delegates power to encourage merchants to go out and explore.

Fang Congzhe's heart was surging when he saw it. As an official of the Zhejiang Party, he had been troubled by the country's lack of finance and taxation when he was in office. From the development process of Portugal, he seemed to have found a way to make the country strong.

After thinking for a long time, he unfolded the manuscript and wrote to Shen Yiguan, the leader of the Zhejiang Party who was far away in the capital: "Although Portugal is a small country, its development process is indeed remarkable. After reading this book, I feel that if I study it carefully, I may not be able to become a successful businessman." The way to a rich country.”

At the end of the letter, he also attached a copy of "History of Portugal" and asked his family to take the package to the capital overnight.

On the carriage from Zhangzhou to Fuzhou, Li Guoxian was also flipping through the "History of Portugal" written by Wang Wenlong.

She didn't like to read this kind of history book, but because of Wang Wenlong's name, she took one with her before going to Fuzhou.

At first glance, Li Guoxian found that the content of this book was not as boring as he imagined, but rather very interesting.

For Li Guoxian, the most attractive thing about "History of Portugal" is the various heroes and legendary stories in it.

Those sailing adventurers explored the sea frontier, met various native people with different customs, saw magnificent and mysterious sights, and even sailed westward to test whether the earth was round, and they never regretted it until their death.

This extremely heroic behavior made Li Guoxian, who was born in a maritime merchant family, very appreciative.

Even the most heroic sea masters under Li Dan were just a group of adventurers who sacrificed their lives for profit. Li Guoxian never thought that navigation could be so romantic.

She clutched the history of Portugal to her chest and thought: Brother Wang was able to bring these captains and merchants to life, it must be because he is also such an ambitious and good man.

There are a thousand different ways of appreciating the history of Portugal in the eyes of a thousand people, but without exception, the emergence of this book was indeed a novel thing for the people of the Ming Dynasty at this time.

Xiong Qingbo's method of printing in separate volumes also played a role in fueling the flames. For Uncle Jianyang and Ma Shake, people at this time always thought that the large works of Jianyang that were not famous were not very exquisite prints, and no one was willing to buy them. The magazine-like booklets printed by Xiong Qingbo had a large audience at this time because they were cheap.

With the publication of "Chengdetang Essays", Wang Wenlong's History of Portugal has quietly become popular. Many readers who bought separate volumes were very interested in this work and then went to buy the collection.

Among the reading groups at this time, there were also a large number of gentry and merchants who had just mastered writing. What they saw in the history of Portugal was the huge profits that the emerging overseas trade could bring.

After seeing the history of Portugal, many children of landlords realized how profitable business was, and they began to think of doing business.

And there are many sea owners, big and small, who have seen the stories of Portuguese navigators, and they all yearn to be like them and become rich suddenly through their own hard work and adventure, and even become among the nobility.

Regardless, the history book has already caused a stir.

Because Xiong Qingbo's book engraving ability could not keep up, some copy shops even hung up this book and copied it day and night. The book even spread to Shandong and Hebei, where the first half of the History of Portugal could be sold for five taels of silver because it was out of stock. The price was high, and book engraving workshops in Zhejiang, Jiangxi and other places also quickly began to reproduce.

Wang Wenlong's name finally spread throughout the world.

(End of this chapter)