Chapter 46: Books

This issue also became a monthly topic at the Yuanlaoyuan meetings. No matter how many times Ma Jia implemented the “Ma Jia Rules of Procedure,” intermarriage with natives and the ensuing issues of children’s inheritance rights, native rights, education, and so on, became enduring old topics. Not only were the views of various parties opposed, but they were also diametrically opposed.

“Is that so—” Xun Suji began to consider. Other things didn’t matter, but if he were to be listed as an “alternative” just for marrying a native woman, it would not be worth the loss.

“You should think about it carefully. To be honest, there’s no hurry. Besides, don’t you have a secretary?” Mo Xiao’an said. “I don’t think you’re in a hurry. The Yuanlaoyuan is about to hold a plenary session. You can submit a proposal on this matter, and then everyone can argue about it in the Yuanlaoyuan. There will definitely be a conclusion in the end.”

“What if the conclusion is that it’s not allowed?” Xun Suji was a little worried. He had already grown fond of Liu Meilan.

“I think most people will definitely be willing,” Mo Xiao’an said. “Why? Put yourself in their shoes. Would everyone hinder themselves from marrying a beautiful girl as a wife?”

No matter how much everyone said they were not very interested in native women, a girl from a landlord family was certainly more attractive than a girl from an ordinary poor family. There was also a sense of satisfaction in terms of face.

“I thought after the ‘maid revolution,’ these things were up to everyone’s discretion.” Xun Suji expressed his dissatisfaction upon hearing that marriage still had to be discussed in the Yuanlaoyuan.

Mo Xiao’an smiled. “I think it’s better for the Yuanlaoyuan to discuss it. Then no one will have anything to say in the future.” He probably felt that this was not quite appropriate and coughed. “Let’s get back to the point. Let’s talk about new export products.”

“For export products, we still have to focus on cheap and bulk,” Zhou Dongtian said. “Most of Lingao’s industrial products now have no economies of scale, and it’s difficult to impact the market with price.”

Without the impact of price, relying only on “curious tricks and clever skills” would ultimately only become a new kind of luxury item. This could be seen from the results of their various industrial products sold to the mainland. In the end, only needles and paper could be exported in large quantities and form a consumer market. These two, precisely because of their low price and large quantity, completely overturned the old market structure.

“What commodity did capitalism use in its initial stage to destroy the small-peasant economy?” Xun Suji racked his brains, trying to remember the political economy courses he had taken. “Was it textiles? A large number of machine-made cloths destroyed handmade cloths…”

“Is this valuable to us? Songjiang cloth is already cheap enough. Besides, even if we immediately set up a mechanized textile factory, it would take a long time to reach the level of dumping, right? And there’s also the problem of cotton,” Mo Xiao’an said. “The Executive Committee’s intention now is to form an export scale in a short period of time.”

“I have something that can be effective in a short time,” Zhou Dongtian said. “Books. I proposed this last time. The price of books in this era is too high. There is a lot of room for price reduction, and the market demand is also very large.”

“What’s the literacy rate of the natives? Thirty percent would be remarkable, right?”

“I don’t know about that, but the scholars in ancient times seemed to regard buying and collecting books as a major event, which shows that books are very rare. The market potential is huge,” Zhou Dongtian said. “Last year, I helped Little Xiong print some books to give to the county’s instructor. That old fellow treasured them like jewels. Later, I got some books for the Jasmine Pavilion as a library, and Liu Dalin was extremely grateful.”

The library of the Jasmine Pavilion had less than three hundred books in total, which was not even at the level of a street library in modern times. But in ancient times, this was a great cultural wealth.

“But I never have time to do it—I have too many part-time tasks. This time, I’m determined to get the movable type printing factory done. But Old Mo, you have to help me deal with the people in the machinery factory. To set up a movable type printing factory, we need a whole set of equipment. And also the Planning Committee, the resources consumed here are very significant.”

“Didn’t you already have a printing factory? You printed a lot of textbooks and books. What about the Lingao newspaper? I don’t think it’s made by hand-carving steel plates.”

“That’s printed by a high-speed mimeograph,” Zhou Dongtian smiled. “Some of it is also lithographed.”

“A mimeograph? That’s impossible. The textbooks and newspapers you printed… are all very exquisitely printed, just like those from a regular printing factory.”

Zhou Dongtian shook his finger. “Printing, you don’t understand.” He explained that what he had was a commercial high-speed mimeograph, not the simple equipment that everyone imagined, where you hand-carve a steel plate and a wax paper, then apply ink and print by hand, producing something that is both blurry and easy to fade—that thing was also called a mimeograph, but it was a different matter from the equipment he had.

“The equipment we make ourselves cannot be compared with this high-speed mimeograph in terms of printing effect,” he said. “But modern equipment can’t escape the problem of lifespan. Although I brought a lot of spare parts, it will eventually be finished if we keep using it like this—there are too many things to print. So this time, I propose that we must set up a new printing factory.”

“I strongly support it!”

“Support is one thing, but this matter is not that easy to handle,” Zhou Dongtian explained. The printing factory needed to manufacture special equipment, as well as a large amount of metals such as lead, copper, and steel. It also required many workers—and the workers had to be specially trained.

“It will probably take three to four months for the printing factory to form production capacity.”

“It’s still a bit long.” Mo Xiao’an had thought this was something that could be done in a flash.

“It’s fast enough,” Zhou Dongtian said. “This is on the basis that we have a complete industrial system and material support. If we had transmigrated with nothing, it would have taken us at least two or three years.”

“I’ll write the report right away!” Mo Xiao’an said excitedly. “I wonder if there are typesetters in Guangzhou.”

“There should be. Although movable type printing in China has never been common, it still exists in some low-end applications. The gazettes in Guangzhou are set with movable type—to be honest, they’re quite bad. No wonder many foreigners don’t admit that the Chinese invented movable type printing. They’re not on the same level at all.”

“The foreign devils also don’t admit that we invented gunpowder.”

“Gunpowder was invented by the Chinese. That’s the mainstream view now. Except for a very small number of historians with a white supremacist tendency who still insist it was invented by Bacon. But as for the concept of printing, to be honest, it’s a bit embarrassing. The technology of modern printing basically has nothing to do with China. If there is any, it should be that the concept of woodblock printing and the use of movable type were invented by the Chinese,” Zhou Dongtian said. “Let’s not worry about that. Let’s first talk about what books to print. To do movable type printing, we have to make movable type first, and the amount of movable type needed is very large. I need to have a basic concept.”

“I just don’t know what books will sell well,” Mo Xiao’an thought for a moment. “The Four Books and Five Classics and other Confucian classics should be the best sellers, right?”

Xun Suji said, “They are definitely the best sellers, but the competition must also be fierce. Too many people are printing them.”

“Competition is the best—we can just dump them at low prices…” Zhou Dongtian said. “Once we achieve scale, our books will have a cost advantage that traditional woodblock printing simply cannot compare to.”

“Actually, it’s better to print Journey to the West, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Water Margin. These three books were all written and published in the Ming Dynasty and are sure to sell well. As for the version, we can use the electronic manuscript of the People’s Literature Publishing House edition as the base. The People’s Literature Publishing House edition has been carefully proofread, has few typos, and will definitely be a sensation when printed.” The late Ming was a period of active publishing. There were many kinds of books, and recreational books began to account for the bulk of booksellers’ publishing and sales.

“Dream of the Red Chamber should also be popular,” Mo Xiao’an said. “And it’s not taboo. Anyway, there’s no dynasty to be found.”

“Let’s forget about Dream of the Red Chamber. Otherwise, many people will come to claim authorship. Everyone will want to have their name on it,” Zhou Dongtian said. “Last time I printed a Collected Commentaries on the Thirteen Classics by Qing Scholars, several people wanted to be the author and become a contemporary great Confucian.”

“This is blatant plagiarism.”

“I think we should not print the works of later generations for the time being. Let’s first print the works of the Ming Dynasty and before. Some works compiled and arranged by Qing scholars can also be printed. For example, Three Hundred Tang Poems, Complete Tang Poems, and the like.”

“You guys are too uncreative!” Xun Suji was not very interested in this and suddenly had a good idea. “I don’t think we need to print anything else. Let’s first print a few thousand copies of pornographic magazines or something. Japanese or Hong Kong ones. We can also print some with white and black girls, and we can sell them to Europe in the future…” He swallowed. “If you think the scale is too large, let’s just print photo albums of Japanese actresses. Even a photo album without pubic hair would make the gentry of the Great Ming’s noses bleed.”

He became more and more convinced that his idea was amazing. “The council members must have a huge reserve of this kind of thing. Besides, we have digital cameras, computers, and professional staff who know Photoshop. We can totally make our own magazine like Penthouse. Isn’t this era fond of women with small feet? Let’s just start a magazine called Lotus Steps, specializing in close-up photos of various small-footed models…”

Mo Xiao’an was still laughing at first, but when he heard about starting a magazine about women with small feet, he couldn’t help but frown. “That’s too disgusting. I want to puke just hearing about it. You might as well do black stockings! Why cater to this bad custom? We are supposed to be revolutionizing society. Besides, ancient society was very feudal and conservative. How big of a market will you have for this?”

“The market is not a problem. You know, most of the classic erotic novels were from the Ming Dynasty—which shows that there was a great demand for this kind of consumption at that time. Little Xun, your idea is very good—it just has a fatal problem,” Zhou Dongtian said. “The technology, paper, and ink for printing color pictures are all things we can’t handle. Right now, I can use a scanner and a laser/inkjet printer to copy a few copies for you. But not in large quantities.”

Xun Suji was a little disappointed. Suddenly, his eyes lit up. “How about H-manga? It only needs lines to express it! Black and white lines, a skilled carver can make a woodblock, right? Japanese H-manga should be more in line with the aesthetic taste of the Chinese people. American comics are too rough, and they draw foreign devils and foreign girls. The Ming people should not be interested.”

He continued to talk about his plan for publishing H-manga, with the same enthusiasm as when he was talking about H-magazines. “As for the selection of materials, I think general-oriented ones are fine—the art style should be more aesthetic. As for tentacles, non-human, BDSM, etc., the taste is probably too heavy, and the people of the Great Ming may not be interested.”

“Not necessarily. There are some perverted things in Jin Ping Mei. I think BDSM should also have a market, as long as it’s soft,” Mo Xiao’an was also drawn into the conversation. “Actually, BL H-manga should have a huge market.”

“Are there many fujoshi in the Great Ming?”

“NO, I heard that pederasty is common in this era, and they generally like beautiful young men who look like women. The uke in BL H-manga are drawn more feminine than women, which will definitely cater to the tastes of the rich people of the Great Ming.”

“How do you know so much about BL?” Zhou Dongtian suddenly asked.

“Um, um, well, I’ve dated a fujoshi before…” Mo Xiao’an quickly defended his innocence, insisting that he had no orientation problems.

“Publishing manga is of course possible, but it’s very troublesome,” Zhou Dongtian did not press further. “Actually, there is a simpler way. Lithography is fine. This depends on the speed at which we can train plate-making workers. It can only be considered for the long term.”

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This proposal to establish a movable type printing factory and mass-produce books, after being reported to the Planning Committee, did not attract much attention from the industrial department—for the industrial department, this was just a matter of manufacturing a few simple machines, not much of a difficulty. Instead, it attracted the dual attention of the Great Library and the cultural department.

The focus of their attention was, of course, the types of books to be printed. Of course, their concern was not just as simple as “authorship.”

Benefiting from cheap paper and printing costs, once Lingao’s books were published on a large scale and flowed into the market, it would inevitably form a cultural wave of impact no less than that of the Gutenberg printing press in medieval Europe. Not only would various books in the traditional ideological field be popularized on a large scale, but various practical books and literary works would also enter thousands of households.

With cheap printing, there was no need for the transmigrators to write any rebellious ideological works—Huang Zongxi’s thought was already enough. There was also no need to repackage modern technology. Rediscovering the buried scientific and technological works of ancient China was enough to trigger a “hundred flowers bloom” in the entire society.

The late Ming was originally a period when social thought was gradually “liberalizing.” The transmigrator group could take this opportunity to add fuel to the fire—to disrupt the Great Ming, or rather, the social thought of traditional society, from the ideological field.

Yu E’shui’s plan also had the intention of compiling and publishing a large number of vernacular pamphlets for propaganda. He had previously compiled the Record of the Usurping Ming’s Atrocities, and was recently compiling the Record of the Zheng Rebel’s Atrocities and the Record of the Liu Bandit’s Atrocities. If these political pamphlets could be distributed in large quantities in Ming society, their effect would be very significant.

In the long run, the various political views of the transmigrator group could all be distributed in the form of pamphlets. Pamphlets could systematically and factually explain theories and events, which was far more effective than spreading simple rumors. And pamphlets could be preserved and circulated for a long time. The effect of one distribution could last for many years.

Ding Ding was even more supportive of this plan. He was no longer satisfied with publishing a few newspapers and internal journals and had begun to intervene in the ideological field. The publishing industry was a fat piece of meat he had long had his eye on. The current publishing industry might only be able to print textbooks, science and technology manuals, or political propaganda pamphlets. But in ten or twenty years, when a new generation of native youth grew up, their demand for books would be an explosive growth.

So he was very enthusiastic about Zhou Dongtian’s plan. He actively advocated for supporting the establishment of a large-scale movable type printing factory at the State Council meeting and requested the establishment of a publishing group under the Ministry of Culture.

But Yu E’shui of the Great Library firmly opposed it. He said that in terms of the variety and quality of book resources, it was most reasonable for the Great Library to be in charge of book publishing. After all, the colleagues in the Great Library were in contact with various books every day, had a deep research on the content and versions of books, and had a natural advantage in selecting topics, adding, deleting, modifying, and proofreading—and they also had some experience. Even if the Ministry of Culture established a publishing house, it would still need the assistance of the Great Library in the business field. Instead of having an extra institution, it would be better to directly entrust the Great Library with publishing.

“As for the publisher’s name, it doesn’t matter. It can be called Sanlian Bookstore or Commercial Press. Anyway, it’s just a name.”

Ding Ding was finally forced to give in—after all, the resources were all at the Great Library. If the other party held a grudge, it would be difficult for him to achieve anything even if he had the title. In the end, he accepted the plan to establish a “Publishing Guidance Group.” This ad hoc body was mainly responsible for the selection of topics for book publishing and the demonstration of modification plans. It was composed of Ding Ding, representing the Ministry of Culture, Yu E’shui, representing the Great Library, and Zhou Dongtian, the director of the printing factory.

With the promotion of all parties, the new publishing and printing institution began to operate. Zhou Dongtian began to establish a new printing enterprise.

Zhou Dongtian’s small printing factory was located in Bairen City. Although it was not large in scale, it enjoyed the same level of treatment as the Lingao Telecom Company, both belonging to the first-level key departments. In the past, it was even located in the Executive Committee compound.

Even now, it occupied a separate courtyard. The main gate was locked all day. Anyone who wanted to enter had to ring the bell first, and then a small opening would appear on the door. Visitors had to show their credentials to enter. The reason for such strict security was not only because this courtyard was filled with most of the transmigrator group’s printing equipment and materials, but also because it was responsible for printing circulation vouchers and various official documents.

Upon entering the courtyard gate, there was a large “No Smoking” sign painted on the screen wall, with black slogans: “No Smoking! No Open Flames!” This place was full of ink and paper. If it caught fire, there would be no time to put it out. The printing house had a specially built water storage tank, a manual water pump, water buckets, and many sandbags. It also had several fire extinguishers removed from the ships. Zhou Dongtian had been thinking about whether he could get better water pumping equipment—fire extinguishers have an expiration date.