Chapter 199 Academic Reform
Yang Yiqing, the Minister of Rites, replaced Ma Wensheng, and was awarded the title of Minister of the Ministry of War and the governor of Hetao, the right capital censor, by Zhu Houzhao, in order to continue to strengthen the empire's rule and development of Hetao.
Yang Yiqing is an official who is good at running the army and leading troops. The exaggerated incident of the Anhua King's Rebellion made Zhu Houzhao deeply realize that an official like Yang Yiqing who always aspired to work in the camp was not suitable to stay in the capital. If he stayed in the big dye vat of the capital, he would only do nothing. It would be better to send a general to a border town to make achievements if he only knows about internal struggle.
Of course, Yang Yiqing was allowed to replace Ma Wensheng in the Hetao because Emperor Zhengde Zhu Houzhao had no intention of letting the Ming Dynasty stop at the Hetao. Although the current Monan, Mobei and even further north were not very worthy of occupation and development for the Ming Dynasty, But it is a site worth developing in the future, especially in Siberia, which contains rich natural gas resources.
But now Zhu Houzhao had to turn his attention to the south. Before the empire did not have enough financial and military strength, there was no need to expand in the north. This would only waste the empire's financial resources and be of no value. It would become a sign of militarism in the eyes of civil servants.
Zhu Houzhao knew that the strategic focus of the empire must shift from land to sea, because now is the Age of Discovery, and from now on, the progress of civilization and the accumulation of wealth will come from the sea, and even real crises will come from the sea.
But for a while, Zhu Houzhao didn't know what else he, the emperor, could do to help the empire dominate the sea. The construction of soft sailing ships that were more suitable for sea travel and faster had begun at the Zhijiang Shipyard, and Zheng He's sailing ships during his voyages to the West The treasure ship was also in the process of being rebuilt, and the Nanjing Ministry of Industry was specially ordered to search for good wood in Nanyang.
Lin Tingxuan, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, was also ordered to train naval forces in Guangdong and Guangxi.
Zhu Houzhao found that the only thing the empire lacked now was the talents to create greater glory for the empire's maritime career.
The first is to educate talents.
In order for Ming Dynasty to have more sailing talents to open up shipping routes for Ming Dynasty, and more generals to help Ming Dynasty dominate the world, there must be more training bases for such talents. The prerequisite is that more people who are proficient in navigation knowledge and naval warfare are needed. Educational talent.
But now the Ming Dynasty does not have professionals who specialize in teaching navigation knowledge and naval warfare, not even in the Capital University.
Of course, there are still talents who are good at navigation and even water warfare in the Ming Dynasty system. There is even a wealth of relevant information on maritime combat and navigation experience, such as the valuable drawings and documents of Zheng He's seven voyages to the West.
But most of these talents need Zhu Houzhao to discover statistics by himself.
Zhu Houzhao planned to organize this group of maritime talents one day in the future and first build a maritime school to specially train maritime talents.
This maritime school is only responsible for teaching maritime-related knowledge and skills, and is not responsible for enlightenment and basic education.
What Zhu Houzhao can imagine is that once this maritime school is built, another problem it will face is that it will not be able to recruit students.
Because if they recruit illiterate civilian children, the maritime school must first provide them with enlightenment and basic education, which will take three or four years.
As for those literate scholars and Confucian scholars, who have not sharpened their heads and wanted to pass the imperial examination. They are inferior in everything, but the consciousness of being good at reading is deep-rooted for them, especially the young scholars and Confucian students, no one wants to engage in anything other than career. road.
This is also the reason why Capital University only allows those with Jinshi background to register, because those with Jinshi background have no career pressure and can study more freely.
Sometimes Zhu Houzhao really wanted to abolish the imperial examination, but he was also worried that if the imperial examination was abolished, the scholar class would completely break with him as the emperor, and he no longer even had the last illusion about his Ming Dynasty. After all, he was tantamount to taking away the imperial examination. People’s path to advancement.
What's more, before a better promotion system for the lower class people is established, abolishing the imperial examination will also break the thoughts of the common people in the world, especially the majority of common people and landlords.
For the people of the empire, even though the admission rate for the imperial examinations was low, there was still hope that they would be able to serve as farm ministers and ascend to the emperor's hall at dusk, so they did not have to rebel because there was no hope.
Zhu Houzhao felt that the only thing he could do was to increase investment in enlightenment education and basic education, and turn more Ming people, especially young people and children, into literate people with a certain level of knowledge, so that scholars who are not satisfied with the status quo will More and more, the imperial examination with a low enrollment ratio can no longer meet their needs for success. There must be more students willing to choose maritime or other ways to achieve success.
As long as he can make the people realize that participating in the empire's maritime affairs will bring him considerable income and good political prospects.
The same goes for the promotion of other industries.
But now we can only popularize education first.
The reform of the salt policy and the official administration after the Qingming Dynasty allowed the empire to save a lot of military expenditures on transporting grain.
The opening of border trade has also increased the income of border towns and the central court of the empire a lot.
The clearing of farmland allowed the empire to have more tax revenue. In a short period of time, it increased grain revenue worth millions of taels. Coupled with the bumper harvest from the farmland in Bianzhen and the newly divided civilian land in Hetao, the tax revenue of the empire's household department Grain income has increased to 30 million shi! This is close to the food income of the empire during the heyday of Hongwu and Yongle.
Coupled with the silver revenue earned from the royal industry and the mineral development of Yulin City, the Ming Dynasty's current treasury revenue has even exceeded any period in the history of the Ming Dynasty.
It is precisely because of such strong financial support that Zhu Houzhao was able to increase investment in education.
The seventh year of Zhengde is the beginning of the new year.
Zhu Houzhao formally issued an edict, ordering local governors and academic envoys to expand social studies, and required that each village must have a social study. Old social studies that had been abandoned were re-opened, and new villages and towns without social studies were immediately opened with social studies.
And social studies are integrated into the academic administration system and are jointly managed by the county and the academic envoy;
Mr. Sociology students are given the same background as the candidates, and after four years of teaching, they can directly take the examination;
Social Studies is allowed to have multiple teachers, and Social Studies has a principal, who is given a ninth-grade background.
At the same time, Zhu Houzhao decided to divide the power of the Ministry of Rites and set up a separate academic department for the academic affairs responsible for the ritual system and the Qing officials. Kang Hai was appointed as the minister of the academic department to lead the academic affairs of the empire, changing the six-department division that had been implemented for thousands of years.
There is not much opposition to this kind of organizational reform. At most, the officials of the Ministry of Rites will feel that their powers are divided. But now that Yang Yiqing, the Minister of Rites, has just been transferred to the governor of the border town, the officials of the Ministry of Rites system are also because of Zhang Sheng The two ministers of the Ministry of Rites, Mao Cheng and Mao Cheng were killed and their power was greatly reduced. Now that the academic department has been established, the Ministry of Rites does not dare to go against Zhu Houzhao's wishes. However, in order to achieve the goal of streamlining the military and streamlining administration, Zhu Houzhao issued an edict to merge Taichang Temple, Guanglu Temple, and Honglu Temple into the Ministry of Rites, and ordered the cabinet to reorganize the affairs of the Ministry of Rites and clarify specific etiquette matters and foreign affairs.
The central government established academic departments to better manage academic affairs and promote education. From then on, education was no longer just a matter for the ministry, that is, the Ministry of Rites, but a matter for the court. Institutionally, it was managed directly by the emperor through the academic departments.
Kang Hai, the first minister of the academic department, was the first official to go to the Capital University as a senior official of fourth rank or above to further his studies. He also understood the importance of education, and even the specific reform of social studies and the reform of the academic system were completed by him personally.
For example, if students pass the county examination, they can directly enter the county school. After five years of county school, they can directly take the prefectural examination. After three years of prefecture school, they can directly take the college examination.
Based on the existing financial resources of the Ming Dynasty, after discussions between the cabinet, the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Education, Zhu Houzhao decided to implement a four-year compulsory education system in social studies, with finances allocated by the central court.
Moreover, in order to revitalize the academic affairs of the Ming Dynasty and successfully implement compulsory education, Zhu Houzhao decreed that the Royal Taxation Bureau should allocate 30% of the tax revenue to the academic department every year to specifically fund the education of the Ming Dynasty, and the imperial treasury should also allocate The corresponding income will be given to the school department.
Because the official examination method uses political performance as the only criterion for promotion to officials, studying politics is what local officials are most active in. Now that the court has allocated large sums of money to aid students, the local officials are naturally more responsive, and the people do not object. After all, they I also know that reading is a good thing.
But in fact, this is not the case. Low-income families are still unwilling to send their children to school, at least not all of their children. After all, they need enough labor to increase the family's income, even if it is to herd cattle for the rich man. .
Although the government was free of charge, in practice, some low-level officials and subordinates continued to collect money in the name of book fees, pen and ink fees, etc. Therefore, for a while, although the court invested a lot of money, civilian children could really enter the school. Not much at the moment.
In order to cope with the inspections from above, some low-level officials and subordinates even forced the children of civilians to study in social schools, and also required the children of civilians to pay fees. This did not allow the children of civilians to enjoy the benefits of free education from the imperial court.
After hearing this, Zhu Houzhao was naturally not polite and directly ordered these officials and subordinates to be executed. After killing several batches of them, many of the subordinate officials and subordinates became more honest.
In any case, although there are policies from above and countermeasures from below, and although the actual implementation results at the local level are different from the original intention of the central court, many children from common people still have the opportunity to receive education.
After Yan Song became the governor of Southern Zhili, he began to follow the imperial court's orders to implement compulsory education. Unlike other places, he also strictly followed the imperial decree to add arithmetic and general knowledge to social studies, and required self-righteousness. Beginning in the seventh year, students in Nanzhili will take arithmetic and general knowledge in the exam. Even if they do well in the eight-part essay, those who fail arithmetic and general knowledge will not be allowed to enter.
The gentry in the south of the Yangtze River were extremely disgusted with this, and they contacted their local officials one after another to impeach Yan Song. This was putting the cart before the horse and ordering students to follow the ninth-rate learning in violation of Confucianism.
However, Zhu Houzhao was not disgusted with this. On the grounds that the southern Zhili area had always been a gathering of literary styles, he allowed Yan Song to carry out new academic reforms in Jiangnan, and required that the academic examinations and palace examinations hosted by the academic department should also add an arithmetic subject, and even require an exam. Common sense, in order to avoid that most of the future Jinshi only know the Four Books and Five Classics.
Zhu Houzhao's statement caused an uproar throughout the country! Everyone thought this was an act of chaos for the country, and some distinguished Confucian scholars even stated that they and their disciples would no longer participate in the imperial examinations, in order to express their protest against the imperial court's excessive emphasis on non-Confucian learning.
Li Youmin, the director of the Heshan Academy in South Zhili, publicly stated in a local newspaper in Jiangnan that the students of his academy and he would no longer participate in the next provincial examination in South Zhili to express his disdain for Yan Song, the governor of South Zhili. Confucian protest.
Yan Song, the governor of Southern Zhili, unlike Wang Yangming, did not use force to deal with the problem. He only issued a notice in newspapers and periodicals saying that the next rural examination had been submitted to the imperial court for permission to expand the enrollment by 30 people.
And precisely because of this, when the Nanzhili Township Examination came, Li Youmin's students took reference one after another, and no fewer than ten students even passed the exam.
The same goes for other scholars who threatened not to take the scientific examination in order to resist the increase in arithmetic and common sense. Most of them just paid lip service to it and still took the test obediently when the time came.
Li Youmin was extremely angry about this, and directly threatened that those who entered his academy in the future would not be allowed to take the scientific examination, and claimed that he would only accept as students those who devoted themselves to Confucianism and Confucius and Mencius.
As a result, there were very few new scholars who signed up for Heshan Academy. In the end, Li Youmin had to admit that most people studied for fame and fortune, and not many people were really willing to study. However, this made him feel more and more connected with himself. As for the nobility of the academy, he and the students who were still holding on in his academy began to think of themselves as noble.
After Zhu Houzhao established a new academic department and reformed academic politics and established a new academic system, there were many people like Li Youmin who were stubborn and would rather give up scientific examinations and only respect Confucianism. However, as more and more people learn new learning, They have become increasingly alien and shunned by the mainstream of society.
These stubborn Confucian scholars were no longer welcomed by the rulers of the empire. They could no longer be summoned by the emperor and taken care of by the court for their good governance of sage studies. This made these Confucian scholars somewhat dissatisfied or frustrated with the court.
King Ning took this opportunity to recruit more such great scholars to join the imperial court, which made him even more excited. Under the boasts of some great scholars, he believed that he was the support of the people of the world, and thus became more determined to rebel.
In order to gain more support from the great Confucians, King Ning became more and more courteous and courteous, and became more and more obsessed with the Confucian Neo-Confucianism. He would listen to the great Confucian scholars talking about the classics and Taoism every day, and even frequently showed his favor to the Confucian family.
The Kong family also began to flirt with Prince Ning, but as a family with rich experience in betraying the country, the Kong family would not easily board the pirate ship of Prince Ning Zhu Chenhao, and would only temporarily have some business dealings with Prince Ning.
But in any case, because of the sharp contrast between King Ning's pursuit of talents and his respect for Confucianism and Confucianism, and Emperor Zhu Houzhao's behavior of being fond of miscellaneous studies and not holding scripture banquets and even making major changes in academic politics, more and more great Confucianists joined in. Arrived under the curtain of King Ning.
Zhu Houzhao began to find that after the academic and political reforms in the seventh year of Zhengde, there were more and more favorable comments about King Ning from both the government and the public. In particular, some great Confucian scholars with relatively low political EQ began to publicly praise King Ning as a wise king.
Prince Ning himself did not realize that the more high-profile he was, the easier it would be for his rebellion to fail. Instead, he felt that it would be easier for him to succeed. In his opinion, what Zhu Houzhao couldn't do, as long as he could do it, he would be able to prove that he was better than Zhu Houzhao is more suitable to be a good emperor.
Therefore, when King Ning heard that Zhu Houzhao had taken in several more maids and that he did not go to court for several days and only played in the harem, he became even more happy and felt that he could achieve great things.
And few of the staff who followed King Ning had real talents and knowledge. They also belittled Zhu Houzhao and boasted about King Ning. Some were even crazier than King Ning and asked King Ning to raise troops to rebel now.
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(End of chapter)