Speaking of Lin'an's handicraft industry, we must not ignore the publishing and printing industry related to culture and art. ↗

The Song Dynasty court had a relatively relaxed attitude towards writing, and basically had no interest in it. It was not that there was no such thing as the free and democratic emperor of Mi in later generations also had taboos. It was not that no one was unlucky because of writing articles. It was not that later generations had a hundred flowers bloomed, hundreds of schools of thought contend, and they could speak without saying anything. When those who spoke were innocent, some people suffered because of their poor words.

There were two more famous "**" in the history of the Song Dynasty. One was the "Wutai Poetry Case". The protagonist was Su Dongpo. Because he offended the new party in power at that time, he was arrested and questioned by the Censorate. In the end... of course he was not killed. He became a tragic envoy of the Huangzhou Tuanjian - this was a false title, which was specially used for demoted civil officials, so that they could have a place to receive a salary so as not to starve to death.

The second largest "**" is the "Falling Plum Poem Case". The person involved was named Liu Kezhuang. Because a poem "Falling Plum" implicitly ridiculed the Southern Song Dynasty court and was unlucky and was idle for ten years. However, now he has turned over and has already come out to become an official, with a much larger official rank than Chen Dexing.

Moreover, there were not many people involved in the two major names in the Song Dynasty, and no one was found guilty of possessing Su Dongpo's poems or Liu Kezhuang's poems. In general, the Song Dynasty had relatively loose management of text publishing, and there was a clear red line - there were clear standards for what books could not be published publicly. In this case, the business of printing and engraving naturally became a huge industry.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, the center of the printing and publishing industry was in the Pengqiao area in the middle section of Lin'an Yu Street. Along the Yu Street, there were bookstores with a large scale in later generations. The names were all X-Tele Hall, which were very elegant. Of course, there were no beards at the door, and only some scholars dressed in stalls to sell characters, paintings, and stamps. There were a lot of old and young people. Some people knew it was an old business at a glance, and they shouted enthusiastically. There were many customers in front of the stall. Some looked shy and didn't know how to do business. The front of the stall was a little cold.

"There are scholars here, and most of the deserted stalls are arranged by juren from Lin'an Competition..." The little princess Zhao Lin'er is still dressed as a scholar, but the bun on her head turns into a Confucian scarf, and she looks like a cute little scholar. She seems to have forgotten the embarrassment of yesterday, and is smiling and telling Chen Dexing the story of not knowing where to wholesale.

In fact, Chen Dexing knew what she said. He grew up in Lin'an in this life! Lin'an has a three-year competition. The winter of the year before the competition, juren from all over the world came one after another, and lived until February to participate in the spring examination. The March examination results were released. High school students also had to participate in the palace examination in April. After passing the palace examination, they would be a good man who would call the name outside Donghua Gate. This process has been added up for several months. If these scholars who were taking the exam have a poor family business, they would have to find some way to make money in Lin'an. After all, Lin'an's living expenses are very high and everything is expensive. If they still have to have a relationship with Shilin, they would not be able to deal with it without dozens or hundreds of coins of copper.

However, most of the juren in this era were poor and poor, far from being as noble as those of the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty.

Because the "fame" of the Ming and Qing dynasties started with scholars. As long as they were won by scholars, they were superior to others, and they could be exempted from taxes and labor. As for the juren, they were even more amazing. They could be friends with scholars, colluded with clerks, and controlled the countryside, and they were like local tyrants!

In the Song Dynasty, scholars were just the people below, and they did not have the fame and honor granted by the court, and there was no preferential treatment. Juren was qualified to take the imperial examination, and it was a one-time job. After the exam, they would be called outside Donghuamen. From then on, they became the parents of the people of the Song Dynasty. If they failed the exam, they would be the one who was too big... If they failed the exam, they would be poor and too big. If they were not from a wealthy family, they would fail the imperial examination several times, and they would often exhaust their family property and be poor.

The so-called romantic scholars belonged to a very small number of wealthy scholars in the Song Dynasty. Scholars of Chen Dexing's biological father and elder brother were not very romantic. Most scholars from poor families, such as those who set up stalls on the Imperial Street in Lin'an, had no idea about their food, clothing, housing and transportation...

However, it is precisely because most of the scholars in the Song Dynasty were not romantic that the economy of the Song Dynasty could be more prosperous than that of the Ming and Qing dynasties! The millions of scholars in the Song Dynasty had no fame and no privileges to enjoy, so they could not become a class that was not engaged in production. In the Song Dynasty, only official households had certain tax exemptions and service privileges, and the number of official households was limited after all, and the number of civil and military officials in the entire Song Dynasty was only tens of thousands of people. The proportion of nearly 100 million people was only a few thousand, and they were considered officials' relatives, with hundreds of thousands of people reaching the sky.

Therefore, most scholars have no conditions to ignore the affairs outside the window and only read the books of sages. They must participate in production and operation, and must bear taxes and corvee service. The extremely prosperous industry and commerce of the Song Dynasty was actually related to the large number of scholars who belonged to the elite class of society who participated in production and operation after being frustrated in the imperial examination. They did not have the conditions to become parasitic classes, and could only use their wisdom and financial resources to production and operation!

Qu Huajie, who set up a water mirror stall outside a bookstore called Shicaitang in Lin'an Pengqiao, is such a frustrated scholar. He has already reached his position. When he was a young man, he was a farmer and climbed the emperor's hall to the imperial examination dream long ago shattered by the cruel reality. After losing his reputation in Lin'an twice, Qu Huajie, who had lost his wealth, had to face the reality. Under the introduction of a friend, he became a craftsman who polished the water mirror and placed it in Lin'an Pengqiao.

The stall started to make glasses, and later married the master's daughter home and took over the stall. Because of his outstanding skills, fair prices, and he had participated in two exams, he could chat with customers (mostly civil officials). With the care of these officials, the clerks and gangsters in Lin'an naturally did not dare to bully him. The business was very good, his life was comfortable, and he became a happy little fat man all day long.

Although these days are New Year's Day, Qu Huajie, who is known as Shui Jingqu, did not rest at home, and still went out early to set up a stall outside the Shui Caitang Bookstore in Pengqiao. This year is the year of the Spring Examination Competition, and there are tens of thousands of students gathered in Lin'an, many of whom want to buy Shui Jing. Of course, there are more shoppers who buy glasses.

However, glasses in this era are not cheap. They are all carefully polished with high-quality crystals. Each pair is worth more than a dozen coins of copper! Those who can bear the burden are relatively wealthy men and officials, so this business is not in a long queue.

At this moment, although it was already noon, there were no customers in front of Boss Qu’s stall, and he didn’t shout and shout, but just lowered his head and focused on polishing a piece of crystal. Suddenly, a soft and glutinous female voice rang out.

"Fatty, is it Shui Jingqu?"

Qu Huajie raised his eyes and saw a grown man standing in front of him with a small and delicate little Confucian scholar. The one who spoke was the little Confucian scholar.

"Brother, do you want to buy a water mirror?" Qu Huajie put down his work and asked with a smile.
Chapter completed!