amaotonovel Chapter 1103 Discussion on Promoting Education
Chapter 1103 Discussion on Promoting Education
Chapter 1103 Discussion on Promoting Education
Just as Liu Sanwu and others were ordered to leave Beijing and the capital began to prepare for the second special examination to recruit teachers to go north, the city of Xi'an was in a thriving state.
The opening of the night school caused a stir among the workers in Xi'an. These workers never thought that they would have the opportunity to learn to read and write while working in the factory.
After all, the perception of literacy in this era is still looked up to. Being able to read and write is equal to being capable, and being able to read and write can help you pass the imperial examination and become an official... Even if you can't become an official, people who can read will never go hungry wherever they go: even if they just write letters for others or even sell calligraphy, it is enough to support their families.
Therefore, the workers were very enthusiastic about this night school.
Even if they felt that they could not learn such profound knowledge, they still tried their best to squeeze their children in. Study! What a great opportunity!
The Emperor Emeritus sympathizes with us and shows that we are blind, and sets up a school for us who are working so hard. This is such a great favor!
If there is someone in the family who can read and write, maybe someone will become an official in the future... Even if not, they can still work in the factory as a literate master craftsman, and their treatment will be much better than those who cannot read or write!
Their wishes are actually very simple. They just want to live a better life. If their ancestral graves are smoking, perhaps they can rise to the top and become an official family... It's just because of such snobbish expectations.
"Xiong Ying, you have to remember this. There's nothing wrong with taking advantage of the situation."
“Even if people’s wisdom is truly awakened in the future, and everyone can read and write, and everyone can read books…how many people will truly understand the great principles of the world?”
“Many people, in fact, still don’t know righteousness, and still don’t know etiquette. Many people are still greedy, still petty, and still selfish... But as long as there are a few hundred or a few thousand more people who understand righteousness, more people will stand up for the righteousness of this world, and this world will naturally get better and better.” Zhu Su said.
Today, Zhu Xiongying came to Zhu Su to ask him to answer some of his doubts. As the crown prince, Zhu Xiongying naturally had his own staff.
Most of these Confucian scholars in the Prince's Mansion were learned people. Most of them were used to teach Confucianism to the Prince Zhu Xiongying and answer his questions at any time. Some of them still believed in the principle of "people can be made to follow, but not to know", and they were deeply opposed to the idea of Lao Zhu and Zhu Su opening a night school in Xi'an.
It takes time to enlighten the people. They secretly influenced Zhu Xiongying, hoping to make him the prince who would reject the plan to enlighten the people. Of course, Zhu Xiongying would not be deceived by them, and he immediately told Zhu the matter.
Zhu Yuanzhang's methods were much more cruel than Zhu Biao's. Those Confucian scholars who had tried to influence Zhu Yuanzhang and his eldest grandson with their tongues were now exiled with their entire families and sent to the remote northern border to be taken over by the Xu family.
Zhu Xiongying acted decisively, much like his ancestors. But after all, he was still young, so he listened to the view of the Confucian scholars that "these people only want wealth and fame, and it is meaningless for the court to spend national funds to teach them to study."
Apart from his grandfather Zhu Yuanzhang, he has always been closest to Zhu Su, and Zhu Su is known as a great Confucian scholar who founded a new school of thought, so he came over to ask.
"Besides, 'I just want to be rich and powerful', how many scholars in the world don't want to be rich and powerful? You are going to be an emperor in the future, so you must not be fooled by the righteous appearance of those scholars."
"The Song Dynasty emperors wrote in their poems to encourage learning, 'Books contain a golden house, books contain a thousand bushels of grain, books contain a beautiful woman'."
"If scholars don't study for these things, why would the emperor encourage them to study so much?"
Zhu Xiongying lowered his head and thought for a while, then raised his head and said, "Uncle Wu, if this is the case, then is there no one in the world who truly studies for the country and the people?"
Zhu Su was silent for a moment, and then said: "Yes, if such people can always keep their original aspirations in mind, they will often become part of the backbone of China..."
"But as a manager, we cannot generalize like this. What we need is the result. Their starting point has nothing to do with us. What we need is for more capable people to emerge in China, whether they are motivated by money or justice."
"Li Bai wrote in his poem, 'I was born with talents that must be put to good use.' If you become an emperor, do you have to use perfect people and saints to govern the country? A saint appears only once every few hundred or thousand years. As a leader, regardless of whether the people below are perfect or not, making the best use of them is the true way of an emperor."
Zhu Xiongying thought for a while, and finally nodded with clear eyes. Zhu Su smiled and said, "Of course, when we enlighten the people this time, we must also put virtue before talent. People with both virtue and talent, with virtue before talent, will do their best for this country and the world."
"While we are enlightening the people, we can continue to introduce fresh blood into Confucianism and eliminate some of the harsh diseases that Confucianism has developed to this day. For example... although Confucianism has always emphasized moral principles and seems to put the emperor and father in the most important position, in fact, Confucian scholars care more about the inheritance of master and apprentice, and pay more attention to gratitude. The result is the formation of a bunch of cliques, who are fighting each other happily because of their own sectarian views and the distinction between the old and the new. The family, the country, and the world are just tools for internal fighting."
"This time, according to my father's idea, a lot of warriors were sent here. I think this is a good opportunity... We can extract the historical part and compile it into a textbook. Then these warriors will be responsible for preaching to these students from the people..."
"Studying history can correct people's minds, open their wisdom, distinguish right from wrong, and we must return the cultivation of morality to the court. In education, we must promote loyalty, loyalty to the emperor and father, loyalty to the Ming Dynasty, and loyalty to the people. We must severely criticize sectarianism and prevent teachers, students and disciples from forming groups. We must truly make this policy of opening up people's wisdom face the world and cultivate talents for China!"
"Haha, well said!" From outside, it was Old Zhu who came in. I don't know how long he had been squatting in the corner eavesdropping.
When Zhu Xiongying and Zhu Su saw him coming in, they stood up and saluted to greet him. Old Zhu waved his hand and said, "We are all family, no need to be polite." Then he turned to Zhu Xiongying and said, "You have doubts in your heart, and you know to ask your fifth uncle. This is very good. I am very relieved."
"My grandson's thoughts are too immature. Fortunately, my royal grandfather and fifth uncle give me advice from time to time." Zhu Xiongying is very humble.
Old Zhu nodded, and was even more satisfied with this good grandson. Then he turned to Zhu Su and said, "In Yingtian, the imperial examination for northern scholars has already begun."
"The examiner this time is Ru Hong... This old fox is smart and will surely be able to appease those scholars."
"Yeah." Zhu Su nodded, and sat down with Zhu Xiongying, accompanying Old Zhu on both sides.
"The scholars' resentment has been resolved, but... there are other tricky things." said Old Zhu.
"This time, we promoted the enlightenment of the people by taking advantage of the conflict between the scholars in the north and south, and with the help of your eldest brother, we were able to eliminate those who wanted to stand idly by and even discriminate against the north and south in the court."
"But this matter will definitely have repercussions in the future. Your elder brother has screened the officials in the court, but there are definitely still tens of thousands of Confucian scholars who oppose this matter."
"Just like those bastards around our eldest grandson... they are even considered officials. There must be more bastards without official status, and I'm afraid we can't control them all."
"In the future, if these people instigate their own disciples to oppose the disciples from these schools and academies, I'm afraid that our Ming Dynasty will be caught in a new round of party struggles... What are you going to do?" Old Zhu looked at Zhu Su.
Party strife... can be said to be one of the issues that Zhu Yuanzhang is most worried about the future of Ming Dynasty. The Donglin Party, which controlled Ming Dynasty and instigated party strife in later generations, originated from the folk Donglin Academy.
If this is the case in just one academy, then if the Confucian scholars of the Ming Dynasty were really divided into two factions, the folk and official schools, and they hated each other, then factional struggles in the Ming Dynasty would probably be inevitable in the future.
"Father, don't worry. Who said these schools have anything to do with Confucian scholars?" Zhu Su said.
"We set up the school to promote the Chinese learning style. But there is a big difference between promoting the learning style and promoting Confucianism."
"Learning is not limited to Confucianism. Our academy is not intended to train everyone to become Confucian disciples who spend their whole lives studying the classics."
"The colleges we set up are divided into two departments. I will temporarily call them elementary schools and universities."
"We can try to set up a more extensive primary school in every school, just to enlighten the people and teach them reading, writing, common sense and arithmetic. In this way, the teaching resources that our Ming Dynasty needs to invest will be greatly reduced."
"In teaching, we can integrate all the basic principles and perspectives that we want the people to know into the teaching materials through the setting of teaching materials."
"Teacher Song is already leading people to compile these textbooks... The students who graduate from these elementary schools can read and write, and at the same time, they know some basic principles. They have a high vision and are not blind... But they are not Confucians either."
"After finishing elementary school, these people will have a foundation of literacy, which is enough to promote the progress of many aspects of our Ming Dynasty. After that, we will set up middle schools, and the teaching in middle schools will be more detailed: in addition to Confucianism, things such as the study of things, economics, maritime affairs, medicine, astronomy, military operations, and even farming can be studied."
"In the early years of my new school, I proposed that 'special people should be assigned to special tasks', so that professionals can do professional tasks and laymen can no longer instruct professionals... However, the problem of my Ming Dynasty now is that there are too many laymen and only one or two experts. Almost all tasks are left to the civil servants who study Confucianism."
"An official who has read the Analects of Confucius is asked by the imperial court to control floods... Can he do it? No. He doesn't have the ability!"
"Occasionally, a few officials who were in charge of flood control summed up some experience in flood control, but they often lost this experience after leaving office or passing away. No one paid attention to it! Even if some of the important experiences were written down and passed down in books, not many people in later generations would read and learn from them."
"Therefore, the court should not only train Confucian scholars to serve as officials, but also cultivate talents in all aspects. China has passed down various knowledge and experience for thousands of years, not just Confucianism. We must use this school system to protect and pass it on."
"If knowledge in every field is passed down, we will have capable people to use when facing various situations in the future. Why do those corrupt scholars oppose such a school?"
"They only think that agriculture, medicine, engineering, commerce... these minor subjects have been allowed to enter the mainstream and become the main content of the school. It's a disgrace to society!"
"I won't admit that they are Confucianists, so I won't have any intention of confronting them. Even if I do, that's fine. In a special setting, Confucianists will naturally confront them."
"And their disciples... can they still compete with those who specialize in water control? We are not on the same track, so we don't need to pay attention to them."
Old Zhu nodded. It was indeed true. His eyes lit up slightly. What Zhu Su said was actually just a very rough framework, but even if it was just a framework, it was refreshing enough.
"Special people for special purposes... It's time for the Ming Dynasty to take this path. We can't make the same mistake as the Song Dynasty, where all things were handed over to scholars and the country was messed up in the end." said Old Zhu.
"Biaoer and I are planning to reform the Hanlin system so that the best people from all walks of life can become Hanlin in the court. This is our idea." He explained to Zhu Xiongying.
The "Hanlin" after the reform should be positioned similarly to the "experts" of later generations. Zhu Xiongying nodded to show that he understood, and Old Zhu nodded with satisfaction.
However, the mainstream trend in the world is still to study Confucianism and become an official. If we want to guide the people to pay attention to other knowledge and industries, we still need gradual guidance.
At present, the main focus is on opening primary schools for enlightenment... The human resources that the Ming Dynasty can use to promote specialized education are actually not much, and there is no spare energy to be too ambitious.
As for the opposition voices among the scholars, they could temporarily use the reputation of great Confucian scholars such as Song Lian to suppress them. Anyway, the opponents in the court had been dealt with all at once. The other stale Confucian scholars in the opposition would only be clowns for a short time.
Zhu and Zhu Su discussed some details about promoting education, and then talked about the things they had done in Xi'an. Zhu Su suddenly remembered something and asked Zhu, "Father has been staying in Xi'an for several months. Could it be that he has already decided to move the capital here?"
One of the purposes of Zhu Yuanzhang's northern tour was to find a suitable place for the Ming Dynasty to move its capital. He had been busy for so long in Xi'an trying to enlighten the people that he almost forgot about this matter.
"Xi'an... has many factories and the people live in peace." Old Zhu sat on a chair and stroked his graying beard. "But I think it's not particularly suitable to move the capital."
"Let's wait and see... In a few days, we will set out for Shuntian, how about that?"
(End of this chapter)