Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1241 Epilogue : Prince Consort Xie also submitted a petition to do the right thing

A few days before the winter solstice, all official schools across the country are closed.

It’s just that public schools have a unified holiday, while private schools can arrange their own holidays.

For example, some teachers and students of Gongxian Yuxiu Academy stayed on campus and would not even go home for the Spring Festival. My eldest brother Xie Hong went to the mountains over there and had to study hard until next autumn before returning home to marry his fiancée, his cousin.

"What the hell, so many blank papers!"

Xie Yan is grading the final chemistry test papers.

There were two thousand students in the outer dormitory of Luoyang Imperial College, one thousand of whom studied science and were taught by six chemistry lecturers.

Xie Yan graded some final exam papers, and from time to time he encountered students who handed in blank papers.

After grading the test papers in his hand in a few strokes, Xie Yan picked out a few excellent papers and gave them to other teachers for cross-marking.

For excellent test papers, they need to be cross-checked by three or more people.

If it is a dormitory entrance examination, even the name has to be covered.

"Were there so many blank papers in previous years?" Xie Yan asked.

The chemistry lecturer at the next table sighed helplessly, "It's like this every year. The later the class is in the dormitory, the more students hand in blank papers."

Another chemistry lecturer also graded the papers he was assigned and picked out the top papers: "During the reigns of Taizu and Taizong, even in the outer dormitories of the Imperial College, all students were diligent and hardworking. Alas, it's nothing like now."

Another teacher said: "At that time, you didn't have to be rich or powerful to get into the Imperial College. There was only one Imperial College in the country, and the entrance exam was extremely difficult."

Another teacher said, "Entrance exams are difficult nowadays. However, what is being compared is not academic knowledge, but family power or connections. Would you accept the grandson of a cabinet minister? Would you accept the nephew of a minister? You know they are here to get by, but if someone asks you to, you have to accept them."

"..."

The final chemistry scores of the students living outside the dormitory were calculated on the same day.

Xie Yan took a careful look: 58 people in grade A, 172 people in grade B, 339 people in grade C, and 431 people in grade D.

Such data made Xie Yan extremely speechless.

Due to the major changes in the chemistry content, this year's final exam is very simple. If you pay a little attention, you will definitely get a B grade.

What does this mean?
This means that 77% of the science students living in external dormitories don’t study seriously at all, they are all just here to kill time!
After returning home and having dinner, Xie Yan went straight to the study.

Zhu Tangxi followed curiously: "What is Liu Lang writing?"

Xie Yan said: "As a scholar of Furong, write a letter directly to the emperor."

Then he explained in detail: "This year's foreign dormitory chemistry exam couldn't be easier. Even if you didn't listen to any class and just memorized your class notes for a few days, you could at least get a B grade. But the result? 77% of the foreign dormitory science students didn't make it!"

"This situation has been going on for decades," Zhu Tangxi said. "The officials and teachers at the Imperial College actually have no say in the matter."

Xie Yan said: "Since I am a lecturer at the Imperial College, I should be loyal to my duties. As for whether the court will order rectification, that is their business. If I don't write to Your Majesty, it is my dereliction of duty. If I write the letter and they don't make changes, it is their dereliction of duty."

Zhu Tangxi smiled and said, "I didn't expect Liu Lang to be so upright and unconventional."

Xie Yan said: "I just want to feel at ease. Anyway, I am not afraid of offending anyone."

"Fortunately, you didn't become an official, otherwise you would have made countless enemies," Zhu Tangxi couldn't help but sigh, and then added, "If Liu Lang was born forty years earlier, he would have been favored by the emperor, and perhaps he would have been an important official in the court now."

Xie Yan chuckled and said, "I'm not that capable. I wrote this letter just to get my thoughts across."

……

Anyone who was a bachelor of the Royal Society was qualified to write secret letters to the emperor. This was the rule set by Emperor Taizong back then.

Taizong would even reply to the letter himself, and once he scolded someone in the letter: "If there is nothing important, you don't need to write. Stop flattering me. If you have the time, you might as well do more experiments. If you don't even do experiments, you can just go to the livestock pen and watch the pigs playing in the mud."

The scholar who received this letter actually built a pigsty and announced to the public that he was "raising pigs by imperial order." He also wrote another letter to Emperor Taizong to report the matter!

The secret letters from the scholars were not submitted to the cabinet but directly to the emperor by the Tongzhengyuan.

The envelope is sealed with wax, and opening it without permission is a serious crime of deceiving the emperor.

Chui Gong Hall.

Empress Dowager Ye was reviewing memorials.

This memorial was submitted by the Minister of Guanglu Temple, saying that it had snowed a lot recently and requested to cancel the winter solstice court meeting.

Every year during the winter solstice court meeting, more than 95% of the reasons for suspension are snow.

Civil and military officials had to go out in the snow in the middle of the night and queue up multiple times in the imperial city. After standing for two hours in the wind and snow, there might be a lot of them who caught a cold or fever.

The cabinet has approved the request to suspend operations.

Empress Dowager Ye naturally had no reason to object. Who doesn't want to sleep in a little longer? She immediately picked up her pen and wrote the word "yes".

The grand court meeting was one of the highest ceremonies, and even if it was to be cancelled, it had to be approved by the emperor himself.

After reviewing a series of memorials, Empress Dowager Ye felt a little bored, so she stood up and took a walk in the hall to stretch her legs.

A eunuch came over and added some charcoal to the brazier.

Before Empress Dowager Ye finished her walk, a secretary from the Tongzhengyuan came outside the palace with a secret letter and asked for a meeting.

"What's the matter?"

"Your Majesty, this is a secret letter from Prince Consort Xie."

Empress Dowager Ye was at a loss whether to laugh or cry after hearing this. Xie Laoliu could enter the palace at any time, but he insisted on writing a secret letter.

Such secret letters should be delivered tomorrow.

It was delivered expedited today, I can only say that the Tongzhengyuan has a good eye.

Queen Mother Ye sat down beside the brazier to open the letter. After reading it carefully, she handed it to Tao Jinfeng and said with a smile, "I thought that apart from studying, he only knew how to please the princess. But I didn't expect that he was someone who dared to speak the truth."

Tao Jinfeng took the secret letter. Empress Dowager Ye said, "Guess what he wrote in the letter? He said that Wuyou Cave is full of filth and needs to be cleaned regularly. If the Imperial College is not rectified, and only the outer quarters are full of filth, I'm afraid that the inner quarters and upper quarters will also become Wuyou Cave in the future."

Tao Jinfeng finished reading the letter and said with emotion: "What a pity."

"Why is it a pity?" asked Empress Dowager Ye.

Tao Jinfeng said: "Prince Consort Xie is a man who dares to take on responsibilities. If he were to enter politics, he would surely achieve great things."

Empress Dowager Ye said, "Send the letter to the cabinet."

……

cabinet.

In the middle of winter, Yuan Huaiyi did not sleep, but was dealing with military-related government affairs.

Apart from military matters, Yuan Huaiyi was too lazy to deal with other things.

Similarly, the other six cabinet ministers would reciprocate and basically would not oppose Yuan Huaiyi's military decisions.

There are a lot of military duties in winter, most of which are related to logistics support.

These things had been arranged at the beginning of winter, and now we have received reports from various places. The Ministry of War can handle it with full authority, and only needs to inform the cabinet, and there is no need to even alert the Queen Mother.

In addition, the army must be mobilized to break the ice on the river and open it to navigation. The Ministry of War has already made arrangements. Now that they are reporting back one after another, it is because the relevant rivers are completely frozen and there is no need to send troops to break the ice.

"Mr. Yuan, the Prime Minister has invited me."

"coming."

Yuan Huaiyi, who was originally full of energy, was invited to attend an emergency cabinet meeting, but he started yawning halfway through the meeting.

His body had developed a conditioned reflex and he felt sleepy as soon as he got near the meeting room.

Yuan Huaiyi bowed to the other ministers and found his own chair to sit down. The chair had a cotton cushion and backrest, and was covered with velvet, and even had a blanket to cover the legs.

A letter was handed over.

Deng Gongwu said, "This is a secret letter from Prince Consort Xie to your majesty. To be honest, it really surprises me. When I was young, there were many students in the outer dormitories of the Imperial College who didn't study, but they definitely didn't exceed 30%. It's only been a few years, and the number of students who just want to waste their time has reached 77%!"

Yang Zhengfu said: "This matter must be dealt with, otherwise the Imperial College will really be ruined."

"Not really," Hou Guang said, "All students in the outer dormitories of the Imperial College are self-funded, and they are not supported by the imperial court. As long as the inner and upper dormitories are strictly controlled, the Imperial College will never rot."

Ge Congxin shook his head: "Etiquette is the foundation of a country. Just like cheating in the imperial examination, even if it is not verified, it must be dealt with if it is just a rumor. The outer dormitory of the Imperial College is almost rotten. If we continue to let it go, I am afraid that it will affect the inner dormitory in less than 20 years."

Yuan Huaiyi put down the letter and began to doze off as usual.

Zhang Yu said: "This matter involves a lot of things. Just strictly taking the entrance exam will probably not work at all."

Deng Gongwu thought about it and said: "Shorten the expulsion period from the Imperial College from four years to two years. If you fail the exam in the first year of enrollment, your room and board and tuition will be doubled in the second year. If you still fail after two years of enrollment, you will be expelled directly!"

"It's feasible." The cabinet ministers agreed.

Deng Gongwu's method did not block the path to entering the Imperial College, and the children of the powerful and wealthy could still enter.

Therefore, there is no difficulty in implementation.

And who among the rich and powerful doesn't want to see their children study hard? Increasing the intensity of punishment and shortening the time for expulsion is also forcing students to study hard.

If you still fail the exams after two years of enrollment, then there is no point in studying. Just do something else as soon as possible.

The meeting was short and ended in less than ten minutes.

Ge Congxin joked: "Does this count as a political discussion?"

Yang Zhengfu said: "He is a lecturer at the Imperial College and a scholar of Furong. It is normal for him to report what he saw and heard to Your Majesty. Moreover, he only raised the problem and did not say how to solve it. So it does not count as a political discussion."

Deng Gongwu said: "I would like to take this opportunity to say a few words. The people in Wuyou Cave in Luoyang have now been transported to Shanghai and boarded the ship. Next year, all major cities across the country will be checked and all will follow this method. As for the matter of the Imperial College, all seven Imperial Colleges across the country will be checked and rectified. Luoyang cannot be the only one that is spared!"

Zhang Yu said: "In fact, the problems of community schools in prefectures and counties are even bigger."

Deng Gongwu said: "Well, let the local government investigate on its own."

Historically, community schools appeared in the Yuan Dynasty and continued until the end of the Qing Dynasty.

During the Yuan Dynasty, fifty households formed a community and set up schools to provide literacy education. The necessary funds were provided by the local governments themselves.

In the Ming Dynasty, the community schools became semi-public schools in the countryside. Part of the funds were provided by the local government, and part of the funds were donated by gentry and merchants. The teaching content was expanded to include legal knowledge, agricultural knowledge, classics, history, calendar, etiquette and morality, etc. Schools were only open during the slack season.

Until the Qing Dynasty, each township established a community school with similar funding to that of the Ming Dynasty, and stipulated that the admission age was between 12 and 20 years old.

In the Ming Dynasty of this time and space, under the promotion of Emperor Taizong, there were community schools even in urban areas. Moreover, the funds for running the schools mainly came from local finances, and also accepted donations from gentry and merchants.

As it has developed to the present, social studies have encountered major problems.

One is "eating a salary without working".

Some community schools and students only exist on paper. The school funds are embezzled by officials!
Anyway, it is the local finances that pay for it, the central government rarely sends people to investigate, and even if they want to investigate, they can’t find out the truth.

The second is illegal occupation of land.

Local officials colluded with the gentry and seized the farmland of the common people on the pretext of setting up school land. Then, they subcontracted the so-called school land to the gentry for tenant farming.

The people whose land was seized became tenants of the school fields without knowing it, but in fact they became tenants of the evil gentry.

The community and township literacy schools set up by Zhu Ming have been completely ruined by corrupt officials and local tyrants.

But it can still be maintained, and every year a large number of low-income teenagers can be free from illiteracy, and some even pass the examination to become scholars or even juren, and then switch to other industries to cross the social class!
Deng Gongwu felt that he had a lot to do and there were not enough censors.

The mess that is social school can only be put on hold for the time being.

(End of this chapter)