In less than a month, the national sales of "Those Ming Dynasty Things" had already surpassed 300,000 copies. Among this year's new books by new authors, Li Chenchan's book was undoubtedly one of the best, with few books able to match its sales.
Moreover, many other bestsellers were mostly pure novels or professional books, but Li Chenchan's book took a unique approach to writing history!
The key was that these histories were profound, yet people began to gradually understand the last Han Chinese dynasty in a relaxed and humorous tone. The rise of the Ming Dynasty, from a commoner to the ruler of China, Zhu Chongba, to the equally ruthless Zhu Di... These originally dull and tedious histories, under Li Chenchan's pen, seemed like trivial matters happening right next to them. Reading it did not feel particularly tasteless; instead, it was as engaging as a tightly plotted novel, leaving readers eager to know what happened next.
However, there were also voices of opposition!
"Those Ming Dynasty Things" ultimately drew the dissatisfaction of some people.
The first to criticize was Zhao Zhongyang, the chief editor of Rongcheng Literature and Art Publishing House. Zhao Zhongyang was a seasoned veteran with a good reputation in the industry. Initially, when "Those Ming Dynasty Things" slipped past him, he thought he had made the right decision. However, after the book was published by Rongcheng Baihua Publishing House, it immediately caused a storm!
This storm was intense. The book that Zhao Zhongyang had directly rejected, deeming it as a crowd-pleaser, suddenly became the best-selling book among all new books in Rongcheng. Across the entire Chinese Empire, the sales of "Those Ming Dynasty Things" were also astonishing. In the bestseller list for new books by new authors, it could definitely rank in the top three nationally. Not only that, the book received widespread praise. On Douchuang, "Those Ming Dynasty Things" maintained an extremely high score of 8.7, ranking first among recent new books by new authors, tied with another book. Moreover, the number of book reviews for "Those Ming Dynasty Things" was continuously increasing.
Zhao Zhongyang's face was in tatters!
Initially, when Nie Yuan highly recommended this manuscript, Zhao Zhongyang rudely rejected it and labeled the book as a crowd-pleaser, believing that a high school student could not possibly understand history and should not use such an attitude to judge history. However, after "Those Ming Dynasty Things" became a huge hit...
All of Zhao Zhongyang's evaluations of the book were shattered!
At his age, Zhao Zhongyang, who valued his reputation above all, wanted to maintain his dignity no matter how much effort it took. After "Those Ming Dynasty Things," he always felt that many people were pointing fingers at him behind his back, which was extremely annoying!
He barely maintained his composure, putting on a stern face and refusing to admit his mistake, instead being overly critical. Finally, he publicly expressed his views on "Those Ming Dynasty Things."
"‘Those Ming Dynasty Things’ is just one person's opinion. A young and inexperienced author, believing that he understands history, starts writing about ‘those things.’ But history is profound and has its unique charm. How can it just be ‘those things’? In my view, ‘Those Ming Dynasty Things’ is not a rigorous historical work; it carries the author's personal views and preferences, and some details are handled subjectively. The historical image is not the same as historical truth and should not be taken as historical fact..."
Zhao Zhongyang originally posted this long post on his Weibo (referred to as Weibo, but the characters were censored). He had only about 5,000 followers, but this attack on "Those Ming Dynasty Things" immediately drew widespread comments. Soon, negative reviews about "Those Ming Dynasty Things" quickly occupied a position on the trending topics list.
Soon, with Zhao Zhongyang leading the way, a second negative review emerged... This negative review came from an old-generation writer, historian, and poetry researcher, Lu Gao, who publicly posted a negative review on his Weibo:
"‘Those Ming Dynasty Things’ is not a history textbook, and the author is still young, with a strong personal style. Some of the historical views presented are not very rigorous. This book is only suitable as a leisure read for adults with a certain understanding of history, not for the general public, especially young people. Due to its dramatic elements, readers may be misled, and some of the book's less rigorous views may cause readers to form vague judgments about history."
These two posts sparked a wave of negative reviews about "Those Ming Dynasty Things"... and these negative reviews were mostly from seasoned historians, writers, and poetry scholars.
Shi Chuanfeng immediately became nervous!
This book indeed brought strong controversy. So far, many people standing up also made others change their views on "Those Ming Dynasty Things."
Even a well-known ancient poetry and history researcher, Professor Han Fanghao from Tiankai University, directly said: "The popularity of ‘Those Ming Dynasty Things’ is only temporary. I believe people will soon see some shallow things through this book, so the sales of the second part will definitely not repeat the success of the first part!"
... Amidst the many criticisms and insults, Shi Chuanfeng was a bit worried that people might start disliking "Those Ming Dynasty Things" because of these voices.
Those who criticized "Those Ming Dynasty Things" were mostly old scholars who were more accustomed to rigid and serious things. Some of them criticized just for the sake of criticizing. Their own books were left on bookshelves, ignored by everyone, while Li Chenchan, a young upstart, wrote "Those Ming Dynasty Things" and achieved such high sales, which made them very unbalanced.
Han Fanghao was one of them!
However, what made these old scholars and malicious critics spew blood was that after their tirade, Rongcheng Baihua Publishing House publicly announced on Weibo the next day that "Those Ming Dynasty Things" had sold over 70,000 copies in a single day, with total sales reaching 510,000 copies!
Well, these few people actually made the book even more popular!
At the same time, some people immediately began to counterattack Han Fanghao and others. Among those who counterattacked were ordinary readers, but there were also many respected and famous figures.
PS: A new week has arrived! Old Zhong begs for everyone's member clicks, recommendations, and collections. I really need this, thank you all!