Chapter 26: CH 26

Within a few days after Zhang mama’s departure, Shopkeeper Ji brought Li Jinbao and an engraving artisan called Zhang Da, requesting an audience with Cui Xie in the front courtyard. They reported that they had successfully dyed the paper, dark red, pink, light green, light blue and apricot yellow in addition to several other colors. The paper was further printed with decorative borders and they invited Cui Xie to play around with these new products.

嬷嬷(mā mā): while it is pronounced mama, it refers to old female servants, and is used similarly to pozi

The paper size was similar to regular A4-sized paper, but slightly longer and thinner. Out of the stack of papers, one paper among them had one side undyed and was left a pure white color, while the other half had a printed decorated border of vermillion flowers and plants surrounding the margins. The depicted patterns were especially delicate and slender, and it could be clearly seen that the craftsmanship was quite good. A printed frame parted the paper into six rows of grids and at the paper’s borders, there were also natural vestiges of water splotches, revealing an elegant aura. On the lower left corner, there was the printed trademark symbol of their Zhirong Study.

If one were to compare this paper with the notebooks and stationery used by modern students, it would be considered crude. But holding it in his hand, the paper felt glossy and comfortable to the touch. Looking at the simple and unadorned, yet gentle color scheme in addition to the perfectly straight and evenly printed border, Cui Xie felt that this paper was very delicate and elegant.

—At least there were grids printed on the paper. Comparing this paper to the ordinary bamboo and cotton paper he used to practice calligraphy these past couple of days, he would have had to draw his own gridlines in order to ensure that his calligraphy would be straight and even. 

And as for the unsatisfactory parts, weren’t they just waiting for this transmigrator to correct them?

He tried to write a few characters on the paper, and sure enough, it was appropriately absorbent and was not too water-repellent. Not only was it better to use than normal paper, but the written characters appeared more rounded and beautiful. If he had started using this paper and became accustomed to such quality in the beginning, then he was afraid that it would not have been easy to write with other kinds of paper in the future, right?

Anyways, Cui Xie could not help but to write a few more lines, writing a few sentences from the paragraph starting with ‘Zi Xia asked what filial piety was’ from memory.

The two artisans stared at him nervously and Shopkeeper Ji was even more nervous as his heartbeat skipped incessantly. He waited until Cui Xie finally lifted his brush and he choked in a breath, asking in a low voice, “Does the Young Master think this paper will be eye-catching enough to others?”

Li Jinbao rubbed his hands together and smiled: “This was a rush job, and isn’t considered the most exquisite, there are still parts that can be improved. If Young Master wants to make it more pleasing to look at, mica pigment powder can be added and the produced paper will have a shiny, vivid luster.”

Zhang Da remained silent, both hands roaming around restlessly in his robe’s sleeves. He simply lowered his head, not daring to speak.

Cui Xie shook his head, and drew a few fully-shelled or half-peeled chestnuts on the corner of the paper. These past few days, he had only snacked on chestnuts and he had drawn a lot of sketches based on them. Now, he could draw the sketch without needing the real life objects in front of him. Lin Jinbao was watching on the side, and seeing Cui Xie suddenly draw some tiny sketches that seemed so real that he could squeeze them out of the paper, he could not help but admire, “It turns out that Young Master can draw quite a good painting.”

Cui Xie smiled faintly, “I have learned painting before and can draw a few strokes. I want to know, are you able to print this kind of pattern using different shades of colors?”

Shopkeeper Ji’s gaped and his mouth half-opened, not daring to say no, but he also couldn’t really say the word ‘yes’, thus he was ambiguously perfunctory.

Li Jinbao was a little anxious, glancing at Cui Xie like a child who did not know anything and said with a strong grin, “How can this be printed? When the plate is carved, the areas where the ink is applied on the template is uniform, so you can only print it in one shade. How is it possible to print different types of shades using the same template?”

Cui Xie laughed and asked him back, “Why is it not possible? After engraving the woodblock, some areas will be painted darker and other areas will be painted lighter.”

Lin Jinbao was long accustomed to thistrain of thought and explained, “How could it be that easy, Young Master is too naive, we have worked in this business for a long time…”

Suddenly Zhang Da, suddenly pulled at Lin Jinbao, advancing forwards and his fingertips traced the outline and various shadows of the simple chestnut painting a few times. He then said in a low voice, “It will not be easy to print it all at once like Young Master desires, but it is possible to first use diluted ink to print the areas with shadows and then use a brush to draw the painting’s outline and contours.”

It was finally here.

Cui Xie let out a few surprised ‘Oh’s’and then pretended to remark casually: “How long would it take to trace like this? It is too troublesome.”

The three nodded, thinking that Cui Xie would withdraw this unreasonable request. Cui Xie beamed and with the characteristics distinct to an amateur, he acted as if he just thought of something. He casually threw it out to avoid giving off the manner that what he was about to say was a premeditated suggestion, “Then just engrave one with the outlines on it and print it that way, or just divide the engraving woodblocks according to the different shades and colors and then paint each separate printing block with their respective colors. Once all the blocks are colored with paint, why don’t we just assemble it all together and print it all at once? I don’t think this matter is too difficult.”

Zhang Da’s mouth opened and closed, and he whispered, “Well, that engraving method would be easy. I can engrave one or two editions easily, but it will not be easy to align the various pieces accurately. What should be done if it is printed incorrectly?”

In their workshop, there was no such technique or technology and Cui Xie did not know how to operate the workshop’s on-site tools and equipment. The chemistry textbook had not been that detailed, but the idea of using a technique of color printing using several overlaid images and this train of thought had been already smoothly thrown out. Were they really going to be stuck when they had already arrived at this step?

Cui Xie patted Zhang Da’s shoulder and encouraged, “I know I am but a layman, and the ideas I come up with are like a heavenly steed, soaring across the skies, but since Shopkeeper Ji has brought you here today, it must be because you are our bookstore’s number one artisan. Just give it a try for me, you do not have to engrave chestnuts, just engrave what you are good at. It doesn’t have to be printed in black and white, use a few bright colors to avoid having to separate the colors too meticulously. Let’s take it slowly and slowly experiment.”

like a heavenly steed, soaring across the skies (idiom): bold and imaginative

Zhang Da lowered his head and thought for a while. He then suddenly raised his head and looked at Cui Xie, boldly stating, “ Since Young Master thinks so highly of me, I will be sure to thoroughly research this matter. But these few days, I need to carve and engrave some new objects, and will not be able to engrave wood blocks for the bookstore at the moment, hoping that the Young Master…”

“Naturally, I will compensate you for your woodblock engravings, regardless of their quality. If you produce any good ones, there will be a bonus—if another artisan successfully finishes it first, I will also give him a bonus. Besides the engraving artisans, but in addition to the painters and color mixers….I have allocated fifty taels of silver for this. Whoever comes up with a way to print out colored pictures, I will prepare a large bonus for them.”

At this moment, all three people’s pupils simultaneously dilated and they swallowed, hating that they could not just throw their faces into Cui Xie’s silver bag immediately. Shopkeeper Ji gritted his teeth and fiercely stamped his feet, “This undeserving one was forgiven by the Young Master for my serious sins. If others dare to deceive and don’t carry out this task well, the Heavens will not tolerate me either! Don’t worry Young Master, once I go back, I will definitely urge those artisans to print what you want as soon as possible!”

Cui Xie observed their earnest faces, smiled and said, “I hope that is the case. I will be waiting for your good news.”

These techniques had originally been developed by literi and craftsmen of the Ming dynasty during the Tianqi and Chongzhen reigns and it wasn’t considered to be advanced technology. Although such techniques had not appeared before, as long as the proper path was exposed and the window paper layer* was broken, one should not fear that these workers would be unable to figure it out.

Tianqi reign-16th Ming Dynasty Emperor 

Chongzhen reign-17th and the Last Ming Dynasty Emperor

Our protagonist is currently under the Chenghua reign or the 9th Ming Emperor

Breaking the layer of the paper window is equivalent to a light bulb going off in someone’s head (referring to someone getting hit with an ingenious idea, revelation or insight)

As long as he could overcome the technical and logistical difficulties, he possessed a hard drive full of each country’s…films, the enticing women and beautiful scenery translated into a painting, he did not fear that later on when printing the books, that he could not find suitable pictures to match with them.

These techniques would be left to the workers to overcome and solve. He considered this as taking off a load off his mind and now he could study with the Teacher at ease for the time being.

When he had truly memorized the Four Chapters and annotations, when he read a poem, with just one glance, he could figure out the metric and rhyming scheme. After memorizing another book of poetry, he instructed Cui Yuan and Pengyan to pack up the six ceremonial rites for pursuing discipleship and to follow him to Teacher Lin’s residence to officially beseech an apprenticeship.

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Upon arriving at the academy with gifts in hand, Teacher Lin did not appear to be overjoyed. Instead, he appeared nervous and with a slip of his tongue, he blurted, “Why did you come to study so early?”

It wasn’t early, it was already past August 15th and it was just about to be Confucious’ birthday. If Cui Xie did not enroll in the academy, would he have to wait until the August of the next leap year?

Cui Xie widened his pair of clear and pure eyes, looking at Teacher Lin. Seeing this, Teacher Lin felt uncomfortable, coughing twice and accepting the gifts from Pengyan’s outstretched hands, remarking in a pleasant tone, “Good, I know you are eager to learn, so I will accept you as a disciple starting today.”

After saying this, he guided Cui Xie to worship the Sage in the hall and performed the ceremonial rites of acknowledging a Master. After making an effort and giving him a few words of both admonishment and encouragement, Cui Xie was allowed to enter the academy and was seated in a good position near the window to listen to the lecture.

Cui Xie possessed an adult’s disposition. He was neither hurried or hot-tempered, and he never got tired of studying. When attending class, he would seriously listen to the lesson and no matter how much homework was assigned, they would all be handed in on time. The handwriting was neat and tidy, if one were to search all the schools, it would be hard to find such a model student. But, every time Teacher Lin saw this new disciple of his, he was always internally reminded about Cui Xie’s request for help in compiling a book and he could not help feeling slightly agitated.

When he first accepted Cui Xie as a disciple, the next day, the Shopkeeper of the Zhirong Study came by to invite Teacher Lin to a restaurant for dinner. Additionally, he was directly gifted two bolts of high quality satin and twenty snow white silver embroidered silver ingots. If this matter could not be handled beautifully, this old face of his would make it  hard for him to see his student again.

Agonizing over this matter day and night, Teacher Lin did not have the heart to teach and let the students study by themselves. In his mind, he went through all the scholars in Qian’an county and even the ones working in the Yongping Prefecture who were good at writing novels and he felt that they were all not good enough.

In the end, the northern Zhili province’s writing style was not as good as the Jiangnan* (southern) province.

*Jiangnan was known as a place where talented and gifted people gathered. There was a saying that “the world is talented, half are out of Jiangnan” and means that Jiangnan has outstanding talents. This can be attributed to it being located south of the Yellow River and most of the central governments in past dynasties were located in the north so large scale wars would occur in the northwest and as such Jiangnan was relatively stable and undisturbed. As such, they experienced frequent migrations and the migration of northern gentry to the south gradually caused the rise of Jiangnan as a center of economic and cultural development.

Teacher Lin let out a disappointed and frustrated sigh, returning to his bedroom at night, lighting up the lamp and reading the newly published《Li Changlu Encountering Immortals in the Grottoes》being sold in Jiangnan. He inwardly lamented and sighed that all the talents had crossed the river over to Jiangnan. He suddenly remembered—who said that there were no Jiangnan talents in the north? Wasn’t the capital full of talented scholars from Jiangnan and Jiangbei? Hadn’t many gifted talents from the two capitals and 13 provinces made Beijing their home?

Note: the Ming Dynasty was known for its dual capital system with its two capitals at Nanjing and Beijing (primary capital) and 13 other provinces.

Among these talents, there would always be some who were willing to write a few novels for a bookstore and also conveniently make a name for themselves right?

Teacher Lin roused his spirits and immediately picked up a brush to write to an old friend he got acquainted with when he had gone to the Heavenly (Shuntian) Provincial Fu to take the examinations. Along with this letter, a dozen silver taels and a few good brushes were sent. In addition to this, two baskets of local specialty golden birch-leaved pears and 200 hundred sheets of good papers were sent. On the account of them failing the imperial examinations together and the friendship they had built up over many years, Teacher Lin beseeched his friend to help him find a true talent and compile a good work with excellent content, distinguished and accomplished rhetoric with no vulgar details and an overall good manuscript that could withstand the scrutiny of scholars.

府(fῠ): is a compound, house or mansion. Fu (府) can only be labelled and called as such if it is bestowed as part of a position or inherited in the aristocracy. In this case, it is referring to an administrative governmental division in the Ming Dynasty, a local government office.

The Shuntian Fu was a high-ranking government office with jurisdiction of 24 countries. It had the highest local administrative agency in the capital and was a Superior Third grade, two to three levels higher than a general prefecture office. While a usual official third grade yamen used bronze seals, Shuntian Fu used silver seals.

That friend of his was really reliable and in just a month’s time, a set of handwritten manuscripts were sent over.

It was not a costly novel to produce, but a collection of four short stories—they were all stories of scholars in dire straits who chanced upon goddesses, fairies, demons, and ghosts capable of causing the downfall of a city or a state, all stories of marrying a beautiful women gifted with riches and wealth. Although the authors of all four stories were different, the flavor was roughly the same. If one were to read carefully, while the writing style was not resplendent and rich, but it could still be considered pleasing to the eyes and amusing to the heart; the poems could not be said to be delicate and beautiful but they were satisfactory and one could think over and ponder over the subtleties of them.

capable of causing the downfall of a city or a state(idiom): devastatingly beautiful

Teacher Lin read each story carefully and helped to correct a few phrases in the text that were not clear enough. Once he felt that there was nothing else that could be added or revised, his heart that had been dangling on a string finally relaxed and fell.

By this time, it had already gotten quite late in the day and Cui Xie had already returned home. But, he did not want to keep this hot potato for another moment. However, Cui Xie was his student and there was no reason for the teacher to visit his students, so he wrapped the manuscript in oil paper and asked his youngest son to send it to Cui Xie’s Residence and insisted that he was not allowed to peek at the manuscript while on the road.

Fortunately, his son had just turned ten years old and had been forced by his father to study since he was a child. He was not interested in things with words and did not particularly look at these types of undesirable novels. He just threw the package into Cui Xie’s hands and just vaguely said, “My Father’s homework for shixiong”.

shī xiōng. senior male fellow student or apprentice son (older than oneself) of one’s teacher.

Pengyan gave him a few pieces of lotus root powdered osmanthus pastries for the child and he happily ate them and ran away.

Seeing the obvious thickness of the package, Cui Xie’s heart skipped and he understood why Teacher Lin had sent him ‘homework’ even after leaving the academy.

He was eating at the moment and fearing that he would dirty the manuscript, so he washed his hands several times with fragrant pellet soap and ash soap. He dried his hands carefully with a fresh, new cloth towel and then opened the oil paper package and read this masterpiece.

At his side, Pengyang read along with him and he looked very engrossed. From afar, Cui Yuan saw the two of them sharing the book selflessly, breathing carefully and evenly until they finished reading it. After they were done, he could help but ask, “How is it, is the book good to read?”

His purpose in asking this was not because he was interested in reading novels, but rather he wanted to know if the novel would sell well. After all, the residence’s savings were limited and having to raise so many clerks and Shopkeepers, if they started making money early on, this would allow the Young Master to nurture his talents and start preparing for the Imperial examinations earlier.

Cui Xie had no words.

The discrepancy in five hundred years of historical advancement made him unable to appreciate these works from the concept to the actual contents. He only wanted to ridicule this type of diaosi man and overbearing female protagonist. The story of not only being provided for, but also getting oneself a wife as a plus was too unreasonable.

Diao si: chinese slang term often used in a comedic manner that refers to a young male of mediocre appearance and social standing. It has slowly transformed into a descriptor of the ordinary Chinese citizen who faces everyday struggles and hardships

He had no choice but to watch Pengyan’s reaction—the child read as if drunk and stupefied, as if he had read some peerlessly beautiful essays. He also repeatedly chanted the love poems written by the male lead, so as such, Cui Xie concluded that this was probably a good novel.

Drunk and stupefied (idiom): to be intoxicated or obsessed with something

Although the works he had just read could not be compared to the Four Classic Novels of Chinese Literature or Slapping the Table in Amazement (San Yan Er Pai), however there were only a few works written during the Ming and Qing Dynasty that had circulated and lasted until modern times with a large number of readers. He could not demand the same standards from these classical masterpieces and apply it to this level of purely commercial, fast-food produced literature.

Four Classic Novels of Chinese Literature: A Dream of Red Mansions, Romance of Three Kingdoms, Water Margin and Journey to the West.

Slapping the Table in Amazement (San Yan Er Pai): collection of vernacular short stories written by Ling Menchu published in the Ming Dynasty. They consisted of famous legendary short stories about all types of topics like mercantilism, love, marriage, feudalism, superstition, comeuppance, fatalism. It is remarkable for its stunning storylines and its precise and detailed observation of the life and social structures typical of 17th century Chinese aristocracy

Once Cui Xie realized this, he patted the top of Pengyan’s head and said, “I will leave this manuscript to you. Take it back and copy it twice. I will go find the artisans and research how to best print this novel.”

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