The situation in the study was quite peculiar. One old and one young, using various arrangement methods to shuffle six or seven seals around, dipping them in vermilion ink pad and scribbling on white paper. This situation persisted for a full incense stick’s worth of time before the old man finally asked Yun Ye: “Do you think it’s feasible?”

“Naturally it’s feasible. I don’t know why those people insist on carving characters on wooden blocks. Can’t they think of carving characters on lead blocks, or on clay? I favor clay. As long as they’re carved, just put them in a kiln and fire them. The *Shuowen Jiezi* dictionary has only about nine thousand characters. Two craftsmen could carve these characters in a month. We’ll carve seven or eight complete sets of all the characters, and for commonly used characters, carve a hundred or so of each. If you want to carve regular script, carve regular script. If you want to carve cursive script, carve cursive script. Whether people like Lady Wei’s style or Wang Youjun’s style, we just spend a bit of money to carve them.”

The old man was as delighted as a child, waving his hands and saying: “From now on we won’t carve printing blocks anymore. One set of characters can be used countless times over and over. We just need to rearrange the characters. Ha ha, what’s there to fight over? As long as there are craftsmen, printing however many books is just a matter of time. All exclusive editions—those old scoundrels fighting with you for exclusive publishing will be shamed to death.”

Very unused to the Tang people’s habit of sitting and traveling, the old man didn’t even eat and urged Yun Ye to go to the academy to find Master Yuanzhang to carve characters on clay. Using Master Yuanzhang as a craftsman—only this old gentleman could do such a thing.

Impatient with riding the ox cart, he directly boarded the Yun family’s most comfortable carriage, leaving the old servant behind. The anxious old servant called out loudly, asking the old master to wait.

As soon as the old man entered the academy, he immediately stirred it into chaos. Whether in class or not, everyone ran out to pay respects to the old man.

“Those who should teach, go teach. Those who should write articles, go write articles. Li Gang, Yuanzhang stay. That Lishi also stays. I heard you can mold clay figures—first go prepare twenty jin of potter’s clay for me.”

Without a word, Lishi asked clearly about the requirements, then went to prepare the clay. Li Gang, wearing a bitter expression and just about to come forward to pay respects, was scolded by the old man: “At such a young age, why are you so rigid? These years all your food has gone to the dogs’ bellies. As soon as printing books is mentioned, you only know how to play slippery and make excuses, can’t even think of a good idea, making this old man swallow his pride to ask a child. I’ll deal with you later.”

Li Gang lifted his snow-white beard, completely unable to understand why he had become a young person. However, these words coming from Yan Zhitui’s mouth didn’t seem wrong either. As for the reason for being scolded, he had already figured it out.

He raised his hand and smacked the back of Yun Ye’s head. Yesterday he himself refused to come along as collateral damage, provoking this young fellow’s petty temperament. Who knows what method he used to trick the old man into happiness and bring him to the academy to plague himself.

Yun Ye covered his neck and said aggrievedly to Li Gang: “Yesterday I wanted to tell you about a new book printing method. You didn’t listen and just left. Now how has it become my fault?”

Li Gang looked at the old man who was talking with Master Yuanzhang and said in a low voice: “I received the old man’s anger. In my humiliated rage, naturally I need to find a venting bucket. Do you think Yuanzhang is suitable, or are you suitable?”

Since the old man had stepped forward, naturally there was no need for Yun Ye to speak further. Thinking that the old man hadn’t eaten yet, he could only go to the kitchen to make him some soft food.

Carved-stem rice would be very good—soft and glutinous, quite nice. A plate of tofu boxes, a pigeon stewed with ginseng, and a small plate of shepherd’s purse mixed as salad. This was originally prepared for the old man today anyway. Liu Jinbao had rushed the materials over on a fast horse, including the already-stewed pigeon.

Lishi’s speed was very fast. People with martial arts skills were efficient at everything. A large block of prepared potter’s clay was moved over. He had also conveniently made a small wooden mold. As long as the clay was stuffed full and then opened, it would be a proper rectangular block.

Li Gang and Yuanzhang finally understood the old man’s original intention for wanting clay. Master Lishi was a great expert at playing with clay. Feeling the potter’s clay was somewhat soft, he immediately re-prepared it. Several old men competed to work in front of Yan Zhitui, as if they had truly become young people.

Yun Ye brought the food over. The old man was unwilling to leave the office. He sat in the chair waiting for Master Yuanzhang to carve a few characters and take them to the kiln to fire, to see if they could succeed. Without seeing it with his own eyes, he couldn’t feel at ease. This was merit for ten thousand generations.

Li Gang took the food tray from Yun Ye’s hands and carried it over to the old man, saying softly: “Your health mustn’t be neglected. I dare not speak of other things, but that young fellow’s culinary skills are truly exceptional. You should first eat some food, rest a while. Leave other matters to this junior.”

The old man looked at Li Gang very distrustfully, but was tempted by the food on the tray. He reluctantly agreed to Li Gang’s suggestion. After washing his hands, he ate alone. Yun Ye waited on him from the side, picking up tofu boxes for the old man into a small bowl. The tofu boxes were wrapped with minced meat inside, the outer skin slightly yellowed. Yun Ye had lightly pan-fried them in oil, then steamed them in a steamer to remove the harsh heat—most suitable for elderly consumption.

Yan Zhitui’s hands were already shaking badly. Too old—he couldn’t use chopsticks. Yun Ye had specially prepared a spoon for him. With great difficulty putting the small tofu box into his mouth, the old man closed his eyes and savored it carefully. Only after eating did he say: “Truly a delicacy of the mortal world. Unfortunately this old man has only three teeth left, otherwise I would never let go of your other delicacies.”

The carved-stem rice wasn’t much, just a small bowl. After the old man finished eating, he didn’t eat the pigeon meat but slowly drank a bowl of pigeon soup. Feeling his spirits much improved, he looked regretfully at the remaining vegetables and pigeon, saying to Yun Ye: “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Previously this old man most enjoyed shepherd’s purse and liked eating chicken legs. Since my teeth all fell out, I’ve had no connection with these foods—can only eat meat paste and clear porridge. My days are not many. This old man can feel it.”

Only then did Yun Ye understand the reason for the old man’s urgency. It wasn’t because of any merit for ten thousand generations, but just worry that he wouldn’t have the opportunity to see the appearance of movable type printing, so he was unwilling to waste even a single moment.

His entire life he had only thought about spreading Chinese civilization to every Han person. He had also worked hard at this his whole life. Li Gang, Yuanzhang, Lishi, most of the great scholars in the capital had almost all received his teachings. At the moment when his life’s flame was about to extinguish, being able to see such a miraculous technique as movable type printing appear, and moreover to realize it with his own hands—for Yan Zhitui who loved books, loved them to his bones, this was the best comfort.

Master Yuanzhang’s hand paused slightly, then continued carving characters. Right before him was placed a *Shuowen Jiezi* dictionary. He carved very quickly. When the sun shifted west, he had already carved enough characters to typeset the first chapter of the *Analects*.

Yan Zhitui checked each one to see if there were errors. After checking, he personally watched those characters being sent into the academy’s small kiln for firing. This would take two hours.

The old man lay on the reclining chair and fell asleep. After all, today he had been active too long and too much. Yan Zishan and Yan Shigu both came. Hearing Li Gang recount the course of events, Yan Zishan cupped his fists and performed a bow to Yun Ye. As Yan Zhitui’s son, he knew his father didn’t care whether he could live two more days, but only feared living his remaining time without meaning.

The fire in the kiln had already stopped. Now they just needed to wait for the kiln temperature to come down. Otherwise, if the temperature dropped too quickly, it would cause those clay characters to crack. Several people conversed softly in front of the kiln. Regarding the misunderstanding between Yan Zishan and Yun Ye, at this time it dissipated without a trace in a slight smile.

Speaking of characters, Yun Ye naturally wouldn’t let go of Yan Zishan, this great master of writing. He instructed students to go to the academy’s library and bring out two pieces of tortoise shell, to open the eyes of these people who endlessly argued about Xia, Shang, and Zhou history.

Master Jin Zhu had the most research on bronze inscriptions. He kept saying that the earliest writing appeared in the Shang Dynasty, because the evidence in his hands proved this point. He had taken Huang Shu last year and traveled throughout the legendary Yin ruins, but hadn’t discovered new evidence. So he very much doubted the legend of Cangjie creating characters. That was a relatively ignorant era. The counting method was still the most ancient knotted rope record-keeping method. If my family caught a pheasant today, we’d tie a small knot on the rope. If my family caught a wild boar the day before yesterday, we’d tie a large knot on the rope. If the day after tomorrow a group of people captured a deer, we’d also tie a medium-sized knot on the rope.

Tang people who had lived comfortable days too long couldn’t remember past events clearly, let alone ancient people. In short it was a confused account. If the knots weren’t tied well and the deer’s knot was accidentally tied too large, indistinguishable from the wild boar’s, if it was hunted together with the same tribe it was still okay, but if it was hunted together with another tribe, then there was trouble. Unequal division of spoils would lead to war.

The student brought over the tortoise shell and handed it to Yun Ye. Yan Zishan also stopped his debate with Master Jin Zhu to watch the tortoise shell in Yun Ye’s hands, not knowing what he was doing with medicinal materials.

“This thing’s medicinal name is ‘dragon bone.’ This young one believes these are tortoise shells used for divination in ancient times. One day this young one accidentally discovered that the tortoise shells have some strange lines. I had a conjecture—could these lines be the writing of that era?”

Jin Zhu snatched the tortoise shell. Following the patterns on it, he carefully wrote several things resembling characters on the ground. After checking four or five times and confirming there were no errors, he let Yan Zishan and the others come forward to study. Seven or eight people squatted on the ground with heads together looking at these lines. Each of their minds turned over like boiling seas, wanting to find clues from them to verify their own viewpoints.

Yan Zhitui, lying on the chair, had the corners of his mouth turned up, revealing a trace of a smile. Opening his eyes, he said to Yun Ye: “Has the furnace cooled?”

Only then did everyone wake as if from a dream. Master Lishi, wearing gloves, carefully took out those clay characters from the furnace and placed them on the table, waiting for the last residual warmth to dissipate.

Except for two or three clay characters that cracked, the others were all good—clear characters, attractive. What remained was to fix these characters on a frame, find suitable ink. As long as this edition printed successfully, large-scale production could follow.

Except for the old man muttering a few words, saying Yuanzhang’s characters weren’t as vigorous and powerful as in his middle years—these years comfortable living had worn down his will. According to his old gentleman’s saying, only an ascetic monk’s lifestyle was the correct attitude for pursuing scholarship.