Chapter 386 Typography and New Fonts
After discussing various official matters with Fei Yi, Fei Yi turned back to the minister's desk and continued working.
Now they hold the same positions that the Prime Minister held in Chengdu before, and the workload is terrifying. Even if Jiang Wan and Fei Yi worked together, the workload would be very large.
After Fei Yi returned to work, Ma Su began to consider the issue of expanding the scope of education.
Ma Su was not so naive as to want everyone to read books during the Three Kingdoms period. This was basically impossible in the feudal era under the productivity, and it went against reality.
Ma Su is not an innocent guy who doesn't understand anything. Ma Su actually understands everything from the beginning. Although Ma Su did not handle many things according to the optimal solution, it was just because he didn't want to, not because he didn't know.
For example, in Longxi County, Ma Di knew that his actions could drive the local nobles crazy. Ma Su clearly knows that he is going to drive you crazy.
However, Ma Di still has some conscience. At least when he knows that what he does will cause countless people to be displaced, he will stop his thoughts of seeking death.
What Ma Su was thinking about at the moment was how to enable the poorer classes to read and understand books.
The poor people here are not the so-called ordinary people, but small landowners. Generally speaking, small landowners who have less land, no knowledge in their families and no senior officials are called poor families.
Of course, some noble families had concubine children who were poor and could also be called poor families.
The number of these people is not small, dozens of times that of the gentry class. They have some financial resources and can support one or two children in the family to study.
As long as Ma Su can reduce the cost of reading and learning, it is logical to expand the scope of education. By then, as long as there are more people who understand economics and strategy, the court will not be influenced by the nobles.
It is never massacre with swords and guns that destroys the nobility, but the expansion of education. As long as the price of education is low enough, even if someone wants to be a noble, he will be eliminated sooner or later.
Thinking of this, Ma Su immediately took action and began to prepare measures to break the situation.
Because Longyou paper has gradually developed, the price of Chengdu paper has been cut in half. However, the issue of copying books and the right to interpret classics are still huge issues plaguing education.
Ma Su already had a way to deal with the interpretation of Confucian classics, but it was obviously impossible to implement it in more than half a year. Ma Di pushed this plan to the back, and it would not be too late to make a decision after taking Chang'an.
Now Ma Su immediately began to consider printing.
To be precise, it was woodblock printing.
Ma Su came to the official military workshop in Chengdu and once again found Pu Yuan, the first master craftsman of the Shu Han Dynasty.
As a result, Pu Yuan, who was in the workshop, saw Ma Di coming, stopped working and turned around and wanted to run away. You must know that last time Ma Su came, but he was forced to work overtime for two months to develop new siege equipment.
However, Pu Yuan, who was in his sixties, did not run far before he was chased back by Ma Di.
"Master Pu, don't run away! I'm not an assassin, so why are you running?" Ma Di caught up with Pu Yuan in one quick step, and pulled the master in a bit of amusement, saying,
"Go away! You're bound to do bad things every time you come here! I'm over sixty, and I won't survive next year if I'm tormented by you for another month or two!" Pu Yuan was so angry at Ma Su's behavior that he glared. However, he was not as strong as Ma Su, so he was dragged back by Ma Su.
"Master Pu, don't be angry. The war last time was tense. There is no need to worry this time." Ma Su still respected this kind of master craftsman.
After Ma Su coaxed him back, Pu Yuan sat down and listened to Ma Su's new idea.
"Do you mean to make a huge seal that can print one page at a time?" Pu Yuan raised his eyebrows and asked after hearing Ma Su's idea.
"Uh... To be precise, there may be more than one." Ma Su glanced at Pu Yuan carefully and saw that he was not angry, so he said,
"I hope to save scholar-officials the time of copying books and reduce the cost of a book."
"After all, these days, if you want to hire someone to transcribe the entire book, it's really a bit troublesome."
"Isn't it troublesome to make this kind of seal?" Pu Yuan glanced at Ma Su, and then suddenly said slowly,
"But it's not difficult to do this. The only troublesome part is the font of the seal. Whether it is official script or seal script, it is more difficult to engrave the seal, and the printed characters are sometimes out of shape."
"But overall it's not a big problem. If you don't care, I can find a few apprentices to weave for you in a while."
"Okay, can you go faster...wait, font?" Ma Su suddenly caught the key words and thought of something quickly.
In ancient China, brush calligraphy was mainly used, and the two most popular ones were official script and small seal script. These are all calligraphy, which is really troublesome to use for woodblock printing.
Although regular script has gradually appeared now, the regular script of the Three Kingdoms was derived from official script, and it is also troublesome to use it for engraving.
So Ma Su thought at this moment that since it was all about reducing the workload, it would be better to directly implement a new official regular script specifically for printing. In this way, the workload of the engraving master has also been reduced, the Chinese character font has been simplified, and the learning difficulty has become much easier.
The plan goes through!
"Don't worry about this. Let me go back and study what kind of font is suitable for printing. Then we will make it."
"Researching fonts? And also using them for printing? General Ma, the Han Dynasty said that privately creating characters and promoting them is a capital crime."
"Ah? Which Chinese law? I'll go find your Majesty and delete it later."
Pu Yuan: "..."
"Ahem, it's just a joke." Ma Su smiled awkwardly and said after a while,
"I'll report it to Your Majesty later. I definitely can't decide this matter privately. I'll ask Your Majesty for approval later. Then I'll ask His Majesty to stipulate that all printing fonts will be in accordance with my design."
"Well...as the Crown Prince and Tutor, I should have this power, right?"
Pu Yuan: "..."
Seeing this bastard pretending to be cool, I don't envy him at all, really...
mdThe evil power!
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After coming out of the workshop, Ma Su immediately went to the palace to ask Liu Chan for approval.
When he saw Ma Su coming to ask for approval, Liu Chan subconsciously planned to stamp it without even looking at it, but Dong Yun saw it and gave him a lesson. So Liu Chan carefully read Ma Su's advice, read it three times from beginning to end, and then solemnly stamped Ma Su's seal...
Therefore, Ma Di quickly obtained the approval of the imperial court and was ordered to lead a group of professors from Taixue to research a good-looking font suitable for stamping. At the same time, Ma Di was approved to be responsible for supervising the engraving and printing matters.
A series of complex processes from beginning to end can be solved in one afternoon!
Ma Su is successful and legal, and can design and publish official printing fonts by himself.