Did China make money by writing novels in ancient times? What is the relevant publishing mechanism?

Solve the problem first. The ancient novels mentioned in the title should be between Ming and Qing Dynasties. Novels in the Ming Dynasty were mature, and calligraphy events in the Qing Dynasty were mostly inherited by the previous dynasties. Therefore, this answer most pertinently introduces the novels and authors of the Ming Dynasty. Secondly, whether the author can get rich by writing and what is the publishing mechanism, so the answer will not involve literary evaluation, but only from the perspective of marketing.

The Ming Dynasty is a peak period of China's book engraving, including official engraving, private engraving and Fang engraving. Official engraving is a book published by the official publishing agency of the imperial court, except for the engraving workshops run by imperial academy, Taiyuan, Jingchang and the extremely boring imperial clan captaincy. Private book engraving is a private investment to invite engravers to engrave books, which is mostly one-off, such as printing works for their teachers and fathers. It is the square engraving that really determines the temperament of the printing industry in Ming Dynasty. Fang Fang is a book published by a bookstore, whose status is similar to that of the current book publishing company.

It is said that capitalism sprouted in the Ming Dynasty, taking the textile industry as an example. In fact, the bookstore is also an excellent example. Bookstores in the Ming Dynasty were very prosperous, especially Suzhou and Hangzhou in the south of the Yangtze River, which was originally a gathering place for industry and commerce. The citizen class was initially formed, with many literati and scholars, prosperous culture and even the printing industry developed. In some big cities in the south of the Yangtze River, there is a special bookstore on a street, where booksellers are called Zuoshang and booksellers go door to door. There are regular book fairs, book carts and book boats, and the logistics is very developed. Woodblock printing workshops are also lined up, and big booksellers often have their own back-end workshops and front-end sales outlets, with one-stop production and sales.

The loveliest thing about these booksellers in the Ming Dynasty is that they did not regard books as sacred things with a straight face, but as a commodity. Since they are commodities, as businessmen, they have to rack their brains to maximize benefits and minimize costs, so their thinking is very active and objectively promotes technological progress. For example, in order to attract buyers, they promoted the emergence of color printing, promoted the progress of printmaking art, and initially gave birth to advertising and copyright awareness; For example, in order to save costs, booksellers in Jiajing period asked craftsmen to use straight fonts when carving, so as to improve the carving speed. This is the so-called artisan style, which is the origin of later Song typefaces. After the Song Dynasty came out, the shaping efficiency increased greatly and the production cost decreased all the way. Take the Collected Works of Mr. Yu published during Jiajing period as an example. Eighty-three boards were carved by a * * *, with two pages up and down, and one * * * carved 161 pages. The sculptor got twenty-four taels of silver. In terms of the number of words, at that time, Jiguting was about five cents per hundred words, and three cents was engraved with one hundred words. When it's really cheap.

Books were quite expensive at that time. During the Wanli period, Yuxian carved a new note on Selected Readings of Tang Poems by Mr. Li Yuaner in Juyutang, which consists of seven volumes, each with one or two articles. And "The Unified Records of Daming" is more expensive, with three taels of silver each. Other books are relatively cheap, but they are worth at least a few dollars. Compared with the price provided by Wanli Miscellaneous Notes, one or two ounces of silver can buy more than 300 kilograms of rice and more than 80 kilograms of good pork. At that time, selling books was a profiteering industry.

Booksellers have very smooth sales channels, advanced sales concepts, very low manufacturing costs and rich profits, so what do they still lack?

Similar to the situation faced by booksellers now, there is a lack of good manuscripts.

In the Ming dynasty, booksellers printed everything, such as subsets of ancient books, medical books, agricultural books, Buddhist scriptures and so on. Contemporary poetry excerpts and even college entrance examination compositions are published in large quantities every year. However, they soon discovered that the common people in the Ming Dynasty, especially those in cities-the so-called initially formed citizen class and street culture-loved reading all kinds of popular novels. The best sellers in bookstores are always bestsellers such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin. Jin Ying, a poet in A Qing, wrote that "the motto is couplets": "It is better to sell ancient books than to sell current language, and to print current language than to print novels", which is the secret of booksellers' management. Kang Youwei also has a poem to prove it: "I visited the Shanghai Examination Bookstore, which book sold more, and the classics and history were not as good as stereotyped writing, so stereotyped writing had to write novels."

Luo Guanzhong and Shi Naian were born at different times. Although they wrote good books, they didn't catch up with the good times of the market, and the ancients didn't have copyright awareness. The Water Margin of the Three Kingdoms has been printed again and again by major booksellers, and there are countless versions, but it has not made any big profits. These bestsellers have been published again and again since the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. Some booksellers even complained that there were dozens of books published in the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin, and many people published books in the market. After a long time, the market is saturated and the people are inevitably bored. They need booksellers to launch new products, and there is a new demand in the market.

Booksellers will naturally be tempted to see this huge benefit and decide to make this market bigger and deeper. At that time, the situation was: "The old species of Song and Yuan Dynasties were also found out, and the people in the company saw that they were quite clever in the world, so they decided to balance them with other good ones."

Write something new? No problem, but the author must be talented and knowledgeable. In ancient times, the literacy rate was low, and educated people had to look for it from literati. However, the literati atmosphere at that time regarded novels as a way out, unwilling to write, and those who were willing to write did not dare to reveal their names.

By Jiajing, the shortage of manuscripts and the desire for new books reached their peak. Booksellers racked their brains and finally came up with a particularly wonderful way.

This wonderful road was conceived by Yang Yongquan, the owner of Innocent Hall in Jianyang Bookstore, Fujian.

At that time, Jianyang, Fujian was the most famous book engraving center in Southeast China, which was called Fujian engraving. The biggest feature of Jianyang booksellers is to take the low-end market. Their books are of average quality, but they are cheap and large in quantity. Although their reputation is not as good as that of Suzhou and Hangzhou, their market share is still quite high. The merchants in Jianyang Bookstore are flexible and extremely sensitive to the market, and they can think of any ideas.

Yang Yongquan was printing a book named Zhongjinglu, which recorded the deeds of Yue Fei. After printing the revised draft, he suddenly had a tingle in his brain:

"Record in Beijing" is a history book and meaningless, but what if it is written as a novel like the Three Kingdoms? How awesome is the popular romance of Grandpa Yue!

With this in mind, Yang Yongquan went to see his relative Xiong, who is also a bookseller and the boss of the faithful Orthodox Church. Yang Yongquan said, I'm not good at it, but you read a lot, so it's no problem to write it. We can't find anyone to write a manuscript, so we have to start our own business! What the bear heard was right. He rolled up his sleeves, and immediately came up with a sentence "The Romance of the Great Song Dynasty". In the preface, Xiong modestly said, "Although Gu Xi is not as good as Ban Ma, he can also make great use of his talents." In fact, he is very complacent.

Bear can read, but he really has no talent for writing. Luo Guanzhong is seven solid and three virtual, he is ten solid and not empty, that is, he told the history books in vernacular, but he was reluctant to delete them. He threw in Yue Fei's memorial, inscriptions, speeches and letters, and the literary effect was terrible. The bear himself felt too bored. With a change of heart, he inserted a story of Lu Yu and Guan Sheng in the Biography of Yue Fei, and proudly added a note that this Guan Sheng was a Liangshan hero who once conquered Fang La, and promoted himself by the water margin.

Although the book was poorly written, the sales at that time were still amazing. There are seven versions that can be found now, that is to say, at least seven publishing houses have reprinted them, and even one is an official version. In other words, Jiajing has leisure to practice Buddhism and let the factory carve it into a royal book to enjoy.

Xiong Damu became famous in World War I and his morale was greatly boosted. He "translated" three popular novels in one breath, namely, The Popular Romance of Tang Shuzhi, The Biography of North and South Song Zhi and The Biography of Han Shu Zhi, which all sold well.

It can be seen how hungry the readers in the market were at that time.

Since ancient times, Xiong's success has ignited the ambition of Jianyang booksellers. These booksellers personally rolled up their sleeves and began to change history and write articles. For a time, they were like a crucian carp crossing the river. There used to be a saying that a billion booksellers wrote 900 million and another 100 million were posting-of course, the quality was extremely worrying.

During the Wanli period, in this tide of inferior antiques, there appeared a peerless strong man, Jianyang Bookstore. His surname was Yu and his name was Xiang Dou.

Yu Xiangdou, whose real name is Shuangfengtang and Santaiguan, calls himself a native of Santaishan. This man's life experience is unknown, but he is a giant who can't avoid studying the publication of the Ming Dynasty.

He had an elder named Yu, who also devoted himself to this creative tide and wrote a book called Legend of the Kingdom, which was about the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period and sold well. After Yu Xiangdou took over the bookstore business, he personally wrote a book, Biography of the Twelve Dynasties before, from Pangu to Shang and Zhou Dynasties. At the back of this book, Yu Xiangdou put a page advertisement saying: "By the time the King of Wu attacked Zhou, the world was already there, and it was clearly spread to all countries, and gentlemen from all directions bought it at a glance." Then I reprinted The Legend of the Kingdom. When readers buy the front of the World Gazette, they naturally have to buy the biography of the World Gazette. The two books promoted each other and made a fortune.

After receiving the benefits, Yu Xiangdou successively launched two new publications in Beijing: Biography of Clouds in Beijing and Biography of Five Overlords and Seven Chivalrous Men in the Spring and Autumn Period.

Biography of the Holographic Image of the Kingdom of China, Biography of Ming Taizu's Newly Engraved Wu Ming Shi Ying, Biography of the Holographic Mirror in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Biography of the Eastern and Western Jin Dynasties, etc. , almost to make history again.

In the twenty years of Wanli, a magical book was born, named The Journey to the West. Everyone in the market is crazy. I have never read such a novel. The plot is interesting and the writing is excellent. It is a master among literati, which is different from the original. Yu Xiangdou took a look and struck the table: "He sells well and we can sell well. Follow the trend! " ! "

But someone has to write it and follow suit, right? No problem, I, Yu Xiangdou, am also a scholar! I also wrote novels!

So, marketing guru, who had vision and no moral integrity, went into battle in person, and soon published a book about Zhenwu Emperor's Travel Notes in the North, and then a book about Huaguang's Travel Notes in the South, all written by himself, with crude words. He also bought Travel Notes to the East about the Eight Immortals from Wu Yuantai, stole the copyright of The Journey to the West, compiled a four travel notes with different characteristics in the southeast and northwest, and sold them in the market. Readers have long heard of the name Journey to the West, and heard that three more films have been published. They were so happy that they paid immediately.

In the 22nd year of Wanli, an Yu, a writer, and Geng published a case-solving novel, entitled "A Hundred Cases". Yu Xiangdou saw that it had become a bestseller and struck the table: "Chase!" But time is tight and the task is urgent, and no one can write it. What should I do? Yu Xiangdou struck the table: "copy", and then asked someone to move the files of the punishments department and the local government office, just to piece together a biography of an extraordinary judge who was clean and honest in Imperial Ming Dynasty. This case-solving book is wonderful, listing more than 100 cases, half of which are horrible and the other half have no stories at all.

Judgments and complaints were thrown there ... but at that time, case-solving novels were popular, and readers accepted them. They bought them happily and sold them well.

After him, a group of unresponsive booksellers seized this theme, and at one time, strange cases and case-solving were flying all over the sky, and the market was full of such things. But there are so many materials in Daming's case that no one will make up new ones, so these people copy from each other, which makes the quality of such books worse. In the end, even the government couldn't stand it, and a ban said to be quiet.

All these can be seen from the acting style of Phyllanthus emblica: keep up with market trends and use marketing means to stimulate sales. It has nothing to do with product quality and ethics-this is a standard marketing genius.

The representative work of Phyllanthus emblica in the field of marketing does not stop there. For example, he attaches great importance to book illustrations. Every book is like a cartoon with pictures on it and words on the bottom. Although Yu's seal engraver is not as good as Suzhou and Hangzhou's sculptor, many paintings can't stand scrutiny, so they are easy to read and readers are willing to buy them. Yu Xiangdou also worked hard on the details of the book. Most of the books he printed are titled as "new edition", "new edition", "new edition", "new publication" and "new periodical". He mixed old books with illegal goods and sold them as new books. Yu Xiangdou published The New Edition of Beijing Romance: Biography of the Three Kingdoms, and added a flower story to it. The Water Margin can't escape his eyes, and a new edition of The Water Margin and tian hu, Wang Qing and Loyalty has been published. You can tell what he did by his name. The suffixes of book titles often end with "criticism" and "comment on the forest". This is because Yu Xiangdou created a barrage style and criticized some old books with comments. The reader reads his comments beside the book, which is equivalent to buying an audio track of the director's comments. In this way, we can not only borrow the east wind of famous books, but also earn more money for readers, so as not to be said to be old books and new prints, which contain original content and stimulate readers to buy them.

Others, such as page advertisements, card advertisements and the preface, repeatedly remind readers to pay attention to the purchase of Shuangfengtang brand, etc., all of which are the pioneering works of Yuxiangdou. Later, this guy was narcissistic, and every time he published a book, he would add a page of his self-portrait at the back, titled "A photo of a person in Santaishan". Although he is narcissistic, his brand influence cannot be ignored.

Although Yu Xiangdou's personality is limited, he still has a good principle, that is, only loyalty is allowed, and pornography is not allowed. Most of his books are historical romance or Machamp's confusion, but on the whole, the three views are quite correct, and loyalty, sincerity and shame will not be neglected. Shuangfengtang has such a large circulation, but there are almost no pornographic books. Jiajing and Wanli love letters are flooding, and the sales volume is so good that Yu Xiangdou has never touched them.

I lived to be 76 years old, and before I died, I carved a book "Five Minutes of Reasoning, Detailed Argument Compilation, Three Easy-to-understand Shu Tong Original Works", which was really endless and published more than one book.

That's beside the point

In short, based on Jianyang booksellers, Xiong and Yu Xiangdou are giants, and booksellers have found an original way in the case of short supply of manuscripts. But because their standards are too low, this road can only achieve temporary results, and the stamina is insufficient. Readers began to read novelty, but soon realized that its quality was too poor and asked for some good books.

So we went back to the original problem: literati refused to write, and booksellers couldn't write well.

Fortunately, the court helped a lot at this time. First, the road to the imperial examination is getting harder and harder. It is better to make money than to become a talent, which makes many scholars incompetent and has to find another way out; Second, economic development, writing and commerce are no longer things that lose people, and the links between scholars and businessmen are getting closer and closer. It is common to make money first and then use literature to make money. Some people commented on the situation at that time: "The scholar in ancient times was a scholar, and only the son of Shang can be a scholar in later generations. Great changes have taken place since the Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties. Most people in the world are unemployed ... "

So in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the literati finally put down their posture and were willing to write for money. Great talents like Tang Yin, Wen Huiming and Xu Wei can make a living by selling paintings and writing inscriptions and epitaphs for others. Those who are frustrated in their official career and have no good reputation, like Wu Cheng'en, can only "make a living by selling articles". This business is to write articles for booksellers, which is called "polishing".

So booksellers began to look around for scholars, or buy manuscripts from them, or write themes. Although the literati thought it was a small road, their family was poor and their career was not bright. As long as they can make money, what is writing? From Jiajing and Wanli, literati began to quietly intervene in novel creation. For example, Tian Xuzhai carved inscriptions on ancient and modern novels, clearly indicating the source of the manuscript: "This Zhai buys 20 kinds of ancient and modern celebrity romances 120, and one third is the first time." That is, booksellers collect some manuscripts from literati and edit and publish them. Ling Mengchu made this relationship more clear in the introduction of Two Instances of Surprise: "Those who have taken the same road will get angry and say,' What a surprise!'" "Is a book jia survey, because it is from catalpa. Therefore, if you make a series of notes, you will get forty kinds. " It can be seen that booksellers were seriously short of manuscripts at that time and had to send people to find famous artists to "investigate". Superwriters like Feng Menglong will also be invited to do the questions. His ancient and modern novels are "rich in ancient and modern novels at home." At the invitation of Jia people, there are forty kinds of people who can benefit from it, and it is only a "temporary", which is obviously a draft.

However, Feng and Ling are both famous artists. Ling Mengchu opened a bookstore at home, so the treatment was excellent. They are at the top of the pyramid. By the way, there is also a famous Wang Shizhen. Wang Shizhen was the first of the seven sons of Ming Dynasty, and also a great writer. However, his treatment in the publishing industry is almost the same as that in Weibo, and he is the first vest in history. No matter what book, as long as the author is in doubt, some people say that it may have been written by Wang Shizhen. For example, in Jin Ping Mei, it is said that he deliberately wrote it to avenge Yan Shifan, and also stuck poison between the pages. Yan Shifan was fascinated. He twisted the pages by dipping his fingers in saliva, and then died of poisoning. Other folk stories are even more absurd. After his death, Jiajing heard that Jin Ping Mei was yellow and violent, so he invited Wang to see it. Wang Shizhen was afraid that the emperor would be poisoned, so he rushed to offer another book overnight, namely "Romance of Gods"-who did you say Wang Shizhen provoked? ...

What I said earlier is a famous artist. Secondary authors are booksellers who buy out manuscripts at one time. A particularly interesting story told by Lin Yueting was quoted in Notes on Returning to the Field, saying that there was once a scholar whose eldest daughter spent all her money when she got married. What if the second daughter says she's married! The scholar said I would find a way! Then I went home and flipped through the books. I read in the Book of History that "only if you have God can I give it to you". I patted my head and said yes! It took several months to write a novel as a dowry for my daughter. The second son-in-law showed the manuscript to the bookseller, praised it greatly, and bought it at a high price, so the dowry problem was solved. The scholar's name is Xu, and this book is called Romance of Gods.

Who do you think "Romance of the Gods" offended? ...

Who is the author of The Love of Gods? Whether this story is true or not cannot be verified. However, it is obvious that scholars can write novels and sell them for money, and they sell a lot.

A similar situation also existed in Yuan Mei in Qing Dynasty. Before he died, he wrote a will and said to his son, "I have written a preface all my life, and there are thirty volumes of essays about the garden." I was thinking about Fu Zi, but my illness suddenly came, so I stopped. I will spare no effort for you, and I will make a profit. " It's a similar situation. It can be seen that if you have a new manuscript in your hand, you can sell it to a bookseller to make a sum of money.

Better booksellers will also raise a group of full-time writers themselves, which will be cheaper. For example, there was a fantasy writer named Deng Zhimo in the Ming Dynasty, who was very talented, and he gave the nickname "Two-legged bookcase". Because of poverty, Deng Zhimo lives in Jianyang, Fujian, and works as a teacher at Yu Xiangdou's house. In fact, he was imprisoned, half a writer and half an editor. Yu Xiangdou gave him the task of writing ghost novels and learning Journey to the West, so he wrote a series of fantasy novel, such as Lv Chunyang's Flying Sword, Xu Jingyang's Twisted Cycas, Cursed Jujube, and compiled dictionaries such as The Story of Huangmei Bai Mei, which sold well. But all his interests were taken away by his publisher, Yu Xiangdou, so that he could barely make ends meet. In a letter to a friend, Deng Zhimo cried and said, "I am poor and worried about writing books and carving insects, but I can't hide the famous mountains, just for pear blossoms and dates." "Lizao refers to pear wood and jujube wood, which are the two most commonly used materials for carving, indicating the version. Deng Zhimo felt that these skills of carving insects he wrote could not get into the hall and hide from the famous mountains, but he was so poor that he had to write them. " My brother is poor now and has several acres of barren land. He knew that he was burned in the hot sun, crops withered, like Meishan grass in Sichuan, and his family was crying. "

Such a young author was strangled by the publishing house. Publishers can write whatever they want, or the whole family will starve to death. And now some people's situation ... er, almost.

In short, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, a large number of literati emerged in the houses of major booksellers, all of whom were down and out. They provide various manuscripts for booksellers and lead a miserable life, living at the bottom of the food chain of publishing industry. Their books are mixed, mostly supernatural and erotic, among which the bohemian is amazing. I have more than 700 second-and third-rate novels in Ming and Qing dynasties, and I opened a few casually. One of them-whose name I forgot-started with a circle of scholars and maids in the boudoir, interspersed before and after, and enjoyed the group.

By the way, in the Qing Dynasty, Li Yu (I personally think so), the first scholar in ancient and modern times, wanted to survive.

Li Yu is also a talented person, writing books and selling them to booksellers. The bookseller said your story was good, but it was too short. Write me ten more stories and I'll give you a small collection. Li Yu can only promise. He soon realized that there would never be a way out, so he made a SWOT analysis of himself and thought that "a skill can make a name for itself, and a farm nursery can be a vendor and everyone can eat." The ancients showed people by skill, which was more important than virtue and nobility in the world, so they were free from poverty and humbleness, and they were not servants because they had many disciples. That is, before today's eyes and ears, with games, songs, tricks, storytelling and other skills, all princes and ministers are afraid of the latter. "

So he gave up the scholar's reserve. I write my own books, print my own books, sell my own books, open my own mustard garden bookstore, direct my own books, be my own screenwriter, and ask Joe and Wang to rehearse. I lived a chic life and became a thorough professional writer. Before the Dream of Red Mansions, Jin Ping Mei, a journey to the West in the Three Kingdoms, was called out of his bookstore.

But as now, Li Yu's position as a writer and bookseller has also encountered his nemesis.

Piracy.

Piracy has existed since ancient times.

Here I recommend all Li Yu's novels, which are extremely talented. You can't believe that they were written by the ancients and are full of modern flavor.

His novels are brilliant and popular, and booksellers in Suzhou and Hangzhou stare at them. First Suzhou, then Hangzhou, then Nanjing. Later, every time he published a book, the bookseller pirated it. If we don't crack down, there will be piracy in the market thousands of miles away. On one occasion, Li Yu went south to Guangdong. On the way, he remembered that the East Wall was crude, and he was afraid of thieves' invasion. He wrote home to remind his family to block the engraving of books published in the east. When he came back, he found that the sculpture had also been stolen. A few days later, the same plate of pirated books appeared in the market ... pirated books came from this incident.

What's more, the unscrupulous bookseller simply found a gunman to write a bad book, saying that it was written by Li Yu, which had a very bad influence. Li Yu was furious and called his son-in-law, Shen, to sue the official and demand rights protection. Li Yu won several prizes in Suzhou. Sun Daotai, a local official, awarded compensation to booksellers and made an announcement. When booksellers attack, the court should maintain stability and roll with the punches. Although Li Yu is full of resentment, she is helpless. He has too many booksellers to sue. To this end, he even moved his family from Hangzhou to Nanjing to facilitate the court.

In his "Casual Mail", he was generous to piracy: "I just concentrate on making new styles and listening to people's effects. However, the genre of note posts made Xi angry and sold himself. If he stopped writing, others were not allowed to turn over the catalpa, which had been warned by Zabu at the beginning. If there are still monopolists, or publish them according to the style, or add or subtract one or two, or slightly change their shape, that is, those who take the merits of others for themselves, eat their benefits, and smear their names, that is, people like Zhongshan Wolf, hope to uphold justice when they sue. As for those who rely on wealth and strength to turn over the book of Li Weng on the lake, I don't know how many people are in Liuhe. How can I feel when I plow for dinner? I swear to fight to the death and notify the relevant parties. The set is the first sound. In short, people are born in heaven and earth, and each has its own heart, that is, they should be born with wisdom. I have never stopped his cleverness. How can he take my livelihood and make him unable to support himself! "

This article denounces piracy, which is not out of date today. I hereby record it all and recommend you to read it carefully.

In fact, the dispute between literati and piracy has a long history. In the Song Dynasty, Zhu Zeng's book On Meng Jingyi was pirated by Zhejiang merchants, and it was reported to the local authorities, which scared the government to immediately issue an announcement prohibiting reprinting, so as not to offend the great scholar. Since then, Zhu's books have been printed and sold by himself, and he has made a lot of profits and has no worries about food and clothing all his life. The descendants of Zhu enjoyed the monopoly right to print and publish Zhu's works, and they all benefited from it until the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

I can't help it Li Yu wrote a novel, so he stole it. Zhu's writing and harmony are all related to ideology. Whoever steals it is really dead. The government of Ming and Qing dynasties supervised this kind of books very strictly, and even the layout and font were not allowed to be changed at will, for fear of making mistakes and misleading children. The situation of these two books is very different.

As for the author of the novel, he can only make a statement and say angry words, hoping to give a little shock to the conscientious pirated booksellers. During the Chongzhen period, there was a book called Dao Yuan Yi Qi. On the top card, a similar statement was written: "If there is a foolish person who alludes to the engraving, he will hear about it. If he borrows his case, he will get my karma." Great boldness of vision, but very helpless tone.

Feng Menglong told a story in Think Tank, saying that the owner of a bookstore was afraid that his book would be stolen, and he went to the yamen to say that someone had pirated it before it was published. The yamen issued sea arrest documents to catch pirates. Other booksellers were frightened out of my wits, so he took the opportunity to go public again and finally got all the copyright-but this is probably just the good wish of the literati.

When it comes to piracy, we have to mention Yu Xiangdou, a talented marketer. This guy didn't blush when he stole it, and he changed his vest. Yu, Yu Tai, Yu Shiteng and Yu are all his vests. He even stole Xiong's biography of the King of Yue in the Great Song Dynasty, re-published it, and changed the author's name to Yu, which was really insane. At that time, people commented, "Fujian Bookstore? Designed for profit, but a good book engraved in various provinces, even if it is engraved, the price is high. "

At that time, the quality of Jianyang Bookstore was not good, and the quality of Jinling block printing was high. Without further ado, Yu Xiangdou added the word "Jing Ben" to all the new books to be published. If you see the names such as Biography of Five Overlords and Seven Chivalrous Men in the Spring and Autumn Period and Biography of Twenty-four Emperors in Beijing, don't be suspicious, it must be pirated.

Although Yu Xiangdou is unambiguous in stealing other people's books, he can't tolerate stealing his own. As mentioned earlier, he stole Wu Cheng'en and made up four travel notes. The two stories of North and South are written by himself, and the quality is inferior. Journey to the East was written by Wu Yingtai, with good quality and best sales. As a result, the book was stolen by Suzhou and Hangzhou booksellers, and Yu Xiangdou was furious. When it was published again, in the preface, he cursed pirates as wave sticks and escaped slaves, shameless! It is said that his portrait is added to each of his books, and it also has the same anti-counterfeiting function as the laser anti-counterfeiting label. As for the effect, only God knows.

Finally, talk about an unrelated person. Yuan Mei, a great scholar in Qing Dynasty, was pirated countless times in his life. There is a poem in Volume 33 of Poems Collected by Kokura Mountain, which says that "Yu Suozi's letters and poems have been translated in three provinces, and the complete works of Cangshan have also been typed by translators"-just looking at the title of the poem can help readers feel the piracy through the ages:

The poem of hippo chef is not true.

Martha, every family in Fanban is new.

Zuo Si regretted writing Sandu Fu.

Scrap is a cheap paper seller.