prosperous age

"This is the report from the Ministry of Personnel on the inspection of Guangdong officials. Three of them were recommended to be demoted."

In the Prime Minister's duty room, Zhang Juzheng summoned Wei Guangde and Zhang Siwei to discuss a memorial from the Ministry of Personnel regarding Guangdong officials.

Wei Guangde had already briefly read the memorial from the Ministry of Personnel and knew that it was actually directed at Shi Guanmin.

The Ministry of Personnel itself has the right to directly transfer fifth-rank officials, but Shi Guanmin was demoted because he was classified as low-ranking during the assessment.

The specific handling opinion was that Shi Guanmin was transferred from the deputy envoy of Huizhou to the deputy envoy of Qiongzhou, and stationed troops in Hainan.

At that time, Hainan had not yet been established as a province, and naturally there was no governor. The entire island was under the jurisdiction of Qiongzhou Prefecture, which included three prefectures, Yazhou, Danzhou, and Wanzhou, and thirteen counties, and was under the jurisdiction of the Guangdong Provincial Administration.

Because of the development of maritime trade in the Song Dynasty, Hainan's highest administrative agency, the Qiongguan Anfusi, was responsible for governing "Qianli Changsha" and "Wanli Shitang", which are now XSQD and NSQD.

After the Yuan Dynasty destroyed the Song Dynasty, it established the Qiongzhou Road Pacification Office, also known as the Qianning Military and Civilian Pacification Office, which continued to govern the "Wanli Shitang" and used it as an inland sea.

When the Ming Dynasty replaced the Yuan Dynasty, it naturally copied the Yuan Dynasty system, so Qiongzhou Prefecture not only governed the entire Hainan Island, but also was responsible for the jurisdiction of XSQD and NSQD in the south.

Wei Guangde actually did not want to get involved in this memorial. He was not familiar with Shi Guanmin and had no intention of helping him to offend Zhang Juzheng.

What Zhang Juzheng wanted to do now was to set up a target and make an example so that local officials would know the pros and cons.

In fact, although the local government was currently carrying out the ban on academies, Zhang Juzheng already felt a lot of resistance.

Take the academies in northern Zhili for example. Although many academies had been demolished due to his forced intervention, more academies were converted to sociology. However, in reality, it was a practice of changing the name but not the substance under the noses of local officials.

In addition, some academies have been closed in name only, but have revived under the guise of poetry societies.

This is also the fundamental reason why Zhang Juzheng insisted on demolishing the closed academy. Such an approach was simply treating him like a fool.

In fact, Zhang Juzheng understood the difficulty that local officials faced in handling this matter.

After all, among the people, building roads and bridges and establishing academies are considered to be good deeds that benefit the community.

But now the government is asked to demolish the academy. Will these officials still maintain their reputation?

Since the people below were perfunctory, Zhang Juzheng had to set an example.

Unfortunately, Shi Guanmin became the chicken that was killed to scare the monkeys.

Zhang Juzheng asked Wei Guangde and Zhang Siwei for their opinions. In fact, the two had been informed in advance and had already weighed the pros and cons and decided to back down. Naturally, their decision was approved at the cabinet meeting.

Zhang Juzheng personally drafted the document and then had someone send it to the Imperial Household Department. This was a special matter that was handled with special care.

Anyone who doesn't do his job well will end up like Shi Guanmin.

As for what choice Shi Guanmin would make after receiving the demotion document, that was not Zhang Juzheng's business.

The imperial court wanted to ban academies, but Shi Guanmin was still planning to build one in Huizhou. Wasn't this just going against the law or something? He totally ignored the prime minister.

People fight for a breath of air, Buddhas fight for a stick of incense. Shi Guanmin wants to go against the court system for his ambitions. Can't Zhang Juzheng deal with him for the sake of his own face?

Even though the information fed back from all sides indicated that this official named Shi Guanmin was actually quite good, at least he was not someone who really used the establishment of the academy to make money under various pretexts.

However, he became an official in an era that was not suitable for him to be an official.

After a while, Wei Guangde came out of the Prime Minister's duty room, looking very relaxed.

He not only looked back at Zhang Juzheng in the room, but also although he still looked calm, Wei Guangde believed that he was facing a lot of pressure now.

Wei Guangde received the news last night, and Hai Rui, who had returned to Qiongzhou, submitted a memorial requesting the court to revoke the decree banning the academy.

However, today, Wei Guangde did not see this memorial. It was obviously either in Zhang Siwei's hands or in Zhang Juzheng's hands, but it was suppressed and not taken out.

In fact, Zhang Juzheng still had a letter from Xu Jie in his hand, which also advised him not to go too far.

Xu Jie needed Zhang Juzheng to help the Xu family, so naturally he didn't want Zhang Juzheng to fall.

And now Zhang Juzheng's move to ban the academy is actually playing with fire.

Even if he can suppress it for a while now, can he suppress it forever?

However, Zhang Juzheng also had his own difficulties, that is, he saw the ideological explosion brought about by the prosperity of academies.

In the Ming Dynasty, academies were not only places for lectures and teaching, but also places for academic freedom and mutual debate. Various problems could easily arise from the collision of various ideas, thus affecting the stability of the court.

But academic freedom officials are not welcome, especially high-ranking officials who hold great power.

But for lower-level officials, it doesn’t matter to them, because it does not prevent them from being officials.

Academies emerged in the Tang Dynasty and became popular in the Song Dynasty. Even during the transition from Song to Jin and Yuan Dynasties, many academies across the country were destroyed due to frequent wars.

But after the war, "the Yuan Dynasty rulers adopted a policy of protecting, promoting and strengthening control over academies."

While the Yuan Dynasty encouraged the construction of academies, it also actively transformed academies into official schools.

For example, teachers in academies were appointed by the government, admissions and examinations were led by the government, and funding for academies was provided by the government.

That is to say, starting from the Yuan Dynasty, Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism became the country's orthodox thought, and the content of lectures in major academies was basically Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism. From then on, academies began to lose the characteristics of "a hundred schools of thought contending".

Therefore, during the Yuan Dynasty, academies served the imperial court, so naturally there were not too many problems.

However, the situation changed greatly in the Ming Dynasty, especially with regard to the two famous scholars of the School of Mind, Zhan Ruoshui and Wang Yangming.

It was also because of their promotion that the trend of private lectures emerged, and academies suddenly entered a period of revival. They soon entered a rapid development track and entered a period of glory.

Lu and Wang's School of Mind was never the official academic discipline of the Ming Dynasty. Zhan Ruoshui, Wang Yangming and others gave lectures and promoted the School of Mind, which was bound to be attacked by Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism and suppressed by the government.

The first time an academy was destroyed in the Ming Dynasty was in 1537, when the censor You Jujing wrote a memorial to denounce the Nanjing Minister of Personnel Zhan Ruoshui for "promoting evil teachings, recruiting many scoundrels, and privately establishing academies." As a result, Emperor Jiajing ordered the destruction of all academies founded by Zhan Ruoshui.

The second time was in 1538, when the Minister of Rites Xu Zan believed that official schools were decadent and that academies "gathered students and provided for the disturbance of hundreds of millions of subjects", so he suggested destroying academies.

After hearing the news, Emperor Jiajing "immediately ordered strict prohibitions both inside and outside the country and destroyed the academies" and "destroyed all the academies in the world."

However, although Yan Song, the Prime Minister in power at the time, also hated the academy, especially because it was full of criticisms of the father and son's autocracy and corruption, he also knew the severity of the situation, so he largely delegated power to local governments.

Therefore, the local authorities naturally found ways to maintain and protect the academy.

In fact, after Yan Song's downfall in the late Jiajing period, Xu Jie and Zhang Juzheng actively participated in teaching in the academy, which did not fail to show their opposition to Yan's party policies.

However, after all, most of the lecturers are from the literati, who are full of scholarly spirit and cannot come up with any good measures to govern the country and maintain peace. Most of their talk is just empty talk and harms the country.

This time, Zhang Juzheng was serious about it and really wanted to close and demolish private academies.

At this time, in Jinyang City, Shanxi Province, a group of soldiers and police officers had surrounded the Jinyang Academy in the city.

"Go in, evict everyone inside, and forcibly close the academy."

Following the order given by the leading green-robed official, a large group of soldiers broke into the Jinyang Academy and dragged all the professors and scholars out. Then, the gate of the academy was sealed by the government, and groups of soldiers entered from the side door and began to demolish the houses inside.

At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, Dong Anyu, a retainer of Zhao Tongzi, built the city of Jinyang. In history, Jinyang was once the seat of Taiyuan County and Bingzhou.

Jinyang Academy was built in the Ming Dynasty. In the ninth year of Jiajing, Chen Jiang, the deputy envoy of Shanxi Province, built a courtyard on the vegetable field in the west section of Houjia Lane and opened the "Jinyang Academy", where he recruited scholars and officials in the city to study.

At that time, Jinyang Academy was one of the most famous academies in Shanxi, but it was still forcibly closed under Zhang Juzheng's ban.

The scholars cried and made a fuss outside the academy, and many of them cursed at the leading officials, but they turned a deaf ear to them and just kept issuing various orders, directing the soldiers to enter the academy and destroy it.

At this time, in the Bailudong Academy located on the southern foot of Wulao Peak in Lushan Mountain, the principal, the doctor and a group of students knelt and kowtowed towards the main hall of the academy.

"Principal, are you really going to close the academy? Is there no other way?"

After the ceremony, a doctor stood up and asked the dean with tears in his eyes.

All he got was the headmaster's shaking head and sighing, "No way, the imperial court has issued an order, it is really difficult to disobey.

But they also agreed that although the academy was closed, they would not come here to demolish the academy, and would send people to protect it strictly.

When the academy is allowed to be rebuilt in the future, we will reopen the gate and recruit students to study there."

"woooooo"

After the dean finished speaking, he could hear the soft sobbing of the doctors and students behind him.

The old headmaster did not turn around, but suddenly raised his voice and said in a loud voice: "The academy is closed, but you can still go home and open a private school. The court banned academies, but it did not ban the opening of private schools to teach students.

What's more

At this point, the headmaster suddenly pointed to Xianglu Peak and continued, "Below Xianglu Peak, in front of the waterfall curtain, you can discuss freely. We are not in the academy, but just friends hanging out together. Don't tell me the government forbids us to talk?"

The old headmaster's words were like enlightenment, which immediately made everyone's minds active.

Yes, although these professors, doctors, and even lecturers in the academy can no longer teach students in the academy, they can continue teaching at home in the form of private schools.

Of course, you can also make tea and discuss at home, which is actually no different from giving lectures in the academy.

Moreover, the dean also said that even if we couldn't study and discuss in the academy, Mount Lu was so big, couldn't we just discuss freely in the mountains?

Green shadows, red clouds, vast and peaceful lake, where can one not give lectures and preach?

"Seal the mountain gate."

"Yes."

There are no secrets in the officialdom. When Zhang Juzheng wanted to transfer officials from Guangdong to investigate information, some people in the capital had actually keenly noticed his true intentions.

After all, many people knew about Shi Guanmin's deeds. In his early years, an imperial censor had impeached him for amassing wealth under the guise of building a college.

However, after Sun Jigao from Changzhou Prefecture became the top scorer in the imperial examination, fewer people discussed the topic anymore.

No matter what, Sun Jigao was Shi Guanmin's student, and the academy he built directly produced a top scholar. Who would have the nerve to accuse him of making money?

Knowing that Shi Guanmin was going to be in trouble, no one else was gloating at this time, but instead realized that the Prime Minister was serious about it.

As a result, during this period of time, countless letters flew out of the capital and were delivered to officials in various places, all of which were reminders to them.

With the pressure, even if the officials below don't want to move, they will no longer dare to disobey as before.

Those who were slightly more restrained mostly visited the principal of the academy overnight and made various guarantees, or changed it into a community school, or suspended classes and closed the academy. In short, they could not go against the capital.

Those who wanted to curry favor with Zhang Juzheng directly ordered their troops to demolish the academy and expel the students.

In the past, those who cursed Zhang Juzheng in the countryside were mostly officials who had fallen from power. Now even the gentry among the people have joined in, and all of them are secretly cursing Zhang Juzheng for bringing disaster to the country and the people.

You know, at the beginning most people noticed the ban on teaching and thought it was aimed at the School of Mind, so the School of Principle naturally didn't take it too seriously.

Academies have been banned before, but it was mostly just a formality, except for those that were targeted by people.

If you really want to focus on the study of mind, you can go to Bai Lu Dong Academy, Zi Yang Academy, Yao Jiang Academy, etc.

But now, Zhang Juzheng almost wants to ban all private academies in the world, which means banning the academies of the Neo-Confucian school as well.

However, by this time, everyone was intimidated by Zhang Juzheng's power, and no one dared to submit a memorial to discuss the matter again.

The decree has been issued, and continuing to oppose it would be a slap in the face of the emperor.

Although everyone knows that the current emperor does not exercise power, those who exercise power are even more difficult to deal with.

Hasn't the old saying been said before? Only villains and women are difficult to raise.

In front of a dilapidated building in Liangxi, Wuxi, there were several scholars dressed as students staying there.

"Brother, you will leave for Beijing tomorrow to prepare for the exam. Why do you have to come here today?"

A scholar in his twenties said to an older scholar.

"Yuncheng, do you still remember what your mentor said at that time?"

The older scholar said, "This was once Guishan Academy. Although it has been abandoned, every time I come here, I seem to be able to hear the predecessors still chanting scriptures.

At that time, I also said that if I had the financial resources in the future, I would rebuild the academy and spread the teachings of the ancient sages. "

The two people talking were brothers. One was called Gu Xiancheng, who was a juren from Nanzhili in the fourth year of Wanli and planned to go to Beijing for the imperial examination in the near future.

As for the people next to them, the one who spoke first was called Gu Yuncheng, and the others were Qian Yiben and An Xifan.

If people from later generations come here, perhaps they will know from their names that these four are the four known as the "Eight Gentlemen of Donglin".

"Brother Shushi, the imperial court has banned the opening of academies."

Qian Yiben said silently.

"Yes, the imperial court issued an order to ban academies and lectures. Do you really think that this can cut off our roots?"

Gu Xiancheng said with disdain.

Suddenly, Gu Xiancheng smiled and said loudly: "I originally planned to study for a few more years and strive to pass the imperial examination in the first attempt to enter the capital. Unfortunately, time does not wait for me. I must take part in the imperial examination next year. I only hope to become an official as soon as possible and scold that white turtle boy in the court."

"Brother Shushi, you can't do that. Zhang Jiangling is now in league with the eunuchs in the inner court and has great power. The leaders in the capital dare not speak out.

If Brother Shushi really wants to bring him down, he must plan carefully before he acts, and must not act rashly and bring disaster upon himself."

An Xifan immediately reminded. (End of this chapter)