GBP Chapter 259 All the heroes of the world are now under my control.
Chapter 259 All the heroes of the world are now under my control.
Although county and community schools in the Ming Dynasty also had segmented teaching, and it wasn't just any teacher teaching whichever segment they thought of, no one proposed an age-based grading system like Magistrate Yang did, nor was there a strict rule for enrollment time. The teaching content was basically the same for each school.
Of course, the most crucial point was Magistrate Yang's statement: "If someone fails three times, he will be expelled from the community school and sent home."
What does it mean if a student fails the imperial examination three times and is expelled from the local school?
This means that the Ming Dynasty will soon have a group of scholars who can write and do arithmetic but failed the imperial examinations.
As long as these people aren't too stupid, they should be enough to serve as clerks in the Six Offices.
Therefore, what Magistrate Yang said to Zhu Biao was interpreted as, "The imperial court must set clear rules: what children of a certain age should learn after entering school, and when they should take the imperial examination. Those who pass will continue their studies at the county school, while those who fail will quickly become servants of the imperial court."
Zhu Biao had even considered that, given enough time, many of the students who had passed the preliminary examinations for the title of Xiucai might fail three times in a row, even though these students possessed far more knowledge than the prospective students who came from the local schools.
Thinking further, what if a scholar fails the provincial examination three times and doesn't become a provincial graduate?
Tsk tsk, in just over ten years, at most thirty years, our Ming Dynasty will have so many scholars that we'll be using those who passed the imperial examinations as minor officials.
Will I be able to say, like Emperor Taizong of Tang, "All the heroes of the world are now under my control"?
Zhu Biao became happier the more he thought about it, and immediately smiled and said to Magistrate Yang, "Brother-in-law, your idea is excellent, but I am a bit foolish. I hope you can write a memorial for me."
Write a memorial?
It's nothing to worry about.
Once Zhu Biao obtains the memorial, it's as if Emperor Zhu himself has obtained it, and the officials in the court, especially those in the Ministry of Rites, will have plenty of work to do.
As for the fact that this matter ultimately troubled the officials rather than Zhu Biao... the memorial can be written slowly. Before the memorial is finished, chat with Zhu Biao a few more times and tell him something new every day. He won't be upset.
Having made up his mind, Magistrate Yang smiled and agreed. He then said to Zhu Biao, "Would Your Highness be willing to accompany me to the Confucian Temple and see the students there?"
Zhu Biao had long been curious about the school at the Ningyang County Confucian Temple. Upon hearing this, he stood up and said with a smile, "I'll trouble you, brother-in-law, to take me there with you."
The Confucian Temple at this time was quite different from the one in the first year of the Hongwu reign.
First, a couplet has been added to the main gate of the Confucian Temple. The first line reads "Lotus in the Pond and Osmanthus in the Courtyard" and the second line reads "The Confucian Temple, a Thousand-Year-Old Temple, a Virtuous Name for Ten Thousand Generations".
As for the Confucian Temple in Ningyang County, it is relatively young, probably about nine hundred years away from the millennium, and there are no osmanthus trees in the temple. These are all minor details and not important. What is important is that there must be such a couplet to show that Magistrate Yang attaches great importance to education.
Of course, couplets copied from books are ultimately not quite right, so several large wooden characters in vermilion lacquer were added to the walls on both sides of the Confucian Temple: "Cultivate Virtue and Practice Diligence" on the left and "Seek Truth and Be Pragmatic" on the right.
Zhu Biao stood at the gate of the Confucian Temple, looking at the words "Mingde Duxing" on the left and "Qiuzhen Shiwu" on the right. After a while, he sighed and said, "Brother-in-law, I really want to cut these eight characters off and send them back to the capital to be nailed to the wall of the Imperial College."
Magistrate Yang knew why Zhu Biao had suddenly uttered such a sigh.
In truth, Magistrate Yang was the real culprit who made Zhu Biao utter such a lament.
Because Magistrate Yang submitted a memorial accusing the "excessive preferential treatment of scholars," Emperor Zhu wanted to cancel many of the privileges afforded to scholars. Then, Xu, a student at the Imperial Academy, and some of his classmates wrote a lengthy memorial and posted short essays everywhere, which thoroughly angered Emperor Zhu Chongba. As a result, a total of 5,000 scholars were exiled to Ningyang County to perform forced labor.
Therefore, when Zhu Biao saw the four characters "Seek Truth and Be Pragmatic" on the right wall, he couldn't help but think of the five thousand scholars who had been exiled to do hard labor.
After a while, Zhu Biao continued, "Cultivate virtue and practice diligently. Cultivate virtue, well, one should cultivate virtue first when studying."
Magistrate Yang smiled and led Zhu Biao directly into the Confucian Temple.
As they walked, Magistrate Yang said, “Actually, I’ve also thought about setting a daily study schedule for the students. For example, they can start school at the beginning of Chen Shi (7-9 AM) and finish at the beginning of You Shi (5-7 PM), with half an hour to an hour in between for them to eat and rest. The rest of the time can be timed with an hourglass. A class is three quarters of an hour long, with a quarter of an hour left for the break between classes.”
Zhu Biao nodded without hesitation: "Brother-in-law's idea is excellent, excellent. Here's what we'll do: when Xu Xiang and Chang Pingzhang recaptured Dadu, they found a water clock in the Daming Hall that would ring every hour to tell the time. When I get back, I'll gather craftsmen to replicate it. If we're lucky enough to succeed, I'll have someone send one to Ningyang County to be placed in the Confucian Temple for telling the time."
Telling the time?
Does it ring every hour?
Holy crap, isn't this just a clock?
Since it was discovered by Xu Da and Chang Yuchun in the Daming Hall of Dadu, it means that it was made during the Yuan Dynasty. So why did it disappear later, and why did those barbarians in Europe invent the self-ringing clock first?
Was it lost during the Ming Dynasty, or did the Jianyi Tartars do something utterly depraved?
While grappling with these messy and trivial matters, Magistrate Yang led Zhu Biao to the Minglun Hall.
Zhu Biao's attention was quickly drawn to the windows of Minglun Hall.
The windows of Minglun Hall were not made of paper or silk, but of mixed-color glass with poor light transmission.
The problem is that even the worst glass is still much better than windows made of paper or silk.
At the very least, this type of window is not afraid of rain and does not let in drafts.
Yes, this is the poor county my brother-in-law was talking about, a county so poor that they had to install glass in the windows of the Minglun Hall.
Just as Zhu Biao was secretly complaining, Magistrate Yang said with a smile, "These are all children from ordinary families, and there are a few promising talents among them."
Zhu Biao's heart skipped a beat, but Magistrate Yang continued, "As the saying goes, it's better to arrive at the right time than to arrive early. These days are the time when the Confucian Temple Academy is organizing exams, and Your Highness will soon see the results of these children's exams."
Zhu Biao wanted to laugh.
I want to burst out laughing.
Are there a few promising young talents?
It's the perfect time to organize the exams, and we'll see their results soon.
Tsk tsk, I was originally thinking about how to ask them to leave a few behind, but now I have a ready-made reason—well, I feel that they are indeed good students, so why don't I take them back to the capital to study?
When the time comes, pick a few who are a little older and have them study while working for me in the Imperial Household Department. Brother-in-law, you can do whatever you want with them. Anyway, I have people from Ningyang County under my command.
I'm so clever!
After giving himself a good internal pat on the back, Zhu Biao smiled and said, "Then I'll have to trouble you, brother-in-law."
Seeing Zhu Biao's barely concealed smile, Magistrate Yang couldn't help but chuckle.
Are the children of Ningyang County something you, Zhu Biao, can just take away whenever you want?
At the very least, you should ask these children if they are willing, and ask their parents if they are willing. You can't just conscript men because you're the crown prince.
Oh dear, seeing so many promising students in Ningyang County but unable to take them away, I wonder how you, Zhu Biao, feel?
Magistrate Yang became increasingly pleased with himself, so he simply led Zhu Biao around the Minglun Hall and headed towards the room in the backyard of the Confucian Temple where the examination papers were stored.
Thanks to Zhu Biao, Ningyang County now has paper mills. Wu Yanhu, Chen Mo, and Lü Peng, who were tricked by Zhu Biao into coming to Ningyang County to work as teachers, along with twenty-six other students, now have paper to use and no longer need to use small blackboards like Liu Han and Geng Er did back then.
Magistrate Yang found a test paper, glanced at it a few times, and then handed it to Zhu Biao: "Your Highness, please take a look. This test paper is prepared for children under ten years old. It is basically about some questions about rhyme in the Hongwu Zhengyun and some simple addition and subtraction in the Hongwu Suanfu."
"As long as these students can answer all the rhyming questions correctly, it means they have truly mastered how to learn characters by rhyming. In the future, even if they encounter unfamiliar characters, they can learn them by consulting the Hongwu Dictionary."
"As for these simple addition and subtraction problems, once these students have mastered them all, learning multiplication and division will be much easier, and it will be sufficient for their daily lives."
Zhu Biao took the test paper and glanced at it, then asked with great curiosity, "So what's next? How will the test be conducted?"