The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 369: The booming education in Qing

"After the Chinese New Year, your university will need to select a number of outstanding talents from various disciplines to go to Xingqing (now La Plata City) to contribute to the preparation of Xiazhou University, so as to build the basic structure of the university in the shortest possible time."

On February 1736, 2, which was the New Year's Eve of the Bingchen Year in the lunar calendar, a routine New Year's banquet was being held in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology building in Zhongjing City of Qing State (now Viedma, a city in south-central Argentina).

The general manager of the Royal Science Foundation, Xuanping Hou Qi Weicheng, the deputy prime minister of the cabinet Ni Tingshi, and the minister of education, science, and technology Yuan Pingzhong, on behalf of the royal family, the cabinet and the Ministry of Education respectively, hosted a banquet for senior scholars, experts, professors and many outstanding representatives from the science and education industries in Beijing, and expressed their sincere gratitude and condolences for their efforts in promoting the development of science and education in Qing Dynasty in the past year.

When Yuan Pingzhong, the Minister of Education and Science, came to take his seat at Zhongjing University, he mentioned the establishment of Xiazhou University and asked them to gather as many professors and scholars as possible to go to Xingqing to contribute to the construction of the fourth university in Qing State.

However, he never expected that as soon as he opened his mouth to say this, he was met with a series of complaints from Song Shaozhang, the Dean of Education of Zhongjing University. He said that the school's faculty was already very weak, and there were only a handful of professors who could be considered experts and scholars. If more personnel were forcibly transferred to the Xiazhou University that was under preparation, it would seriously affect the normal teaching and scientific research work of Zhongjing University.

In addition, he also mentioned that several professors from Hanzhou in the school wanted to return to Qi to seek better development after the expiration of their contract, which further aggravated the shortage of teachers at Zhongjing University.

"The education system of our Qing country is still at a very low level. Not to mention that it cannot be compared with Hanzhou, I am afraid that even Qianzhou (now South Africa) is far inferior. In the situation where talents are still extremely scarce in our Qing country, the departure of every expert and scholar is a great loss to our Qing country. Therefore, no matter what means or methods you use, you must make sure that all the professors who want to leave stay in the school and in our Qing country." Yuan Pingzhong held Song Shaozhang's arm and said earnestly: "Mr. Song, this matter is related to the development of science and education in our Qing country, and it is also related to the reputation of your Zhongjing University. It requires high attention and must not be neglected. Whether they want to increase their salary or want a higher status, we can try our best to satisfy them."

"Sir, those professors who want to leave are not for money or status." Song Shaozhang smiled bitterly and shook his head: "In addition to being disappointed with the school's lack of investment, they are also dissatisfied with my Qing country's policy of raising slaves."

"How does this matter get involved in the issue of slavery?" Yuan Pingzhong asked curiously.

"A few months ago, news came from the Caribbean port of Rui'an (now the Port of Barahona, Dominican Republic) that the local colonial government of Qi announced that it would abolish all forms of slave labor in its territory and advocate the abolition of slavery throughout the island of Saint Domingo, the Caribbean region, and the world, so as to promote the development of the entire human society and promote the progress of world civilization and freedom." Song Shaozhang said: "These Qi scholars in my Zhongjing University jointly proposed that Qing should also respond to Qi's call and implement abolition nationwide, thus demonstrating the responsibility and responsibility of a civilized country."

“Just because the government rejected their joint request, they are dissatisfied with our Qing Kingdom and want to leave in anger?” Yuan Pingzhong felt a headache when he heard this.

Asking our Qing Kingdom to take the initiative to implement abolition of slavery is tantamount to destroying its own foundation!

The newly developed coal mines in Shunzhou (now Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), the construction of the new capital Beijing, agricultural production in official farms across the country, the construction of important port facilities, and the construction of public roads and railways across the country... Which project did not require the participation of a large number of slave laborers?

Oh, by the way, there are also the powerful and wealthy businessmen in the country, big and small, who all keep a few slaves to take care of their masters' daily lives.

If so, our Qing Kingdom really wants to imitate Qi Kingdom and hypocritically release slaves on a large scale in the country and declare them free people, then how can we use them for free in the future?
Precisely because of the existence of a large number of slave laborers in the country, the Qing government was able to significantly reduce the conscription of corvee labor on the people in the country, and in just a few decades, it was able to build prosperous towns, construct the most complete road transportation network in the entire South America, develop countless farmland and water conservancy facilities, and accumulate a certain amount of original capital for industrial development for Qing.

Thanks to the hard work of hundreds of thousands of slave laborers, the agricultural and sideline products and mineral products of Qing Kingdom had a relative cost advantage, and then through continuous export, they were exchanged for a large amount of gold and silver currency for Qing Kingdom.

Abolishing slavery is something the people of Qi say so easily!

Not only does your State of Qi have absolute technological advantages and can make large-scale use of mechanization to reduce the number of workers and thus reduce costs, but its own population is over 30 million. Coupled with the countless colonial territories it controls, it can be said that there is no shortage of cheap labor. Naturally, you can declare the abolition of slavery in a high-profile manner without any psychological burden.

But what does my Qing country have?
The three major elements of development, namely population, technology and capital, are all lacking. We can't just rely on the hundreds of thousands of financial support from Qi every year, right?

Besides, Qi’s financial aid is not free, it has to be exchanged for something.

Materials, or sovereignty.

In order to develop and become self-reliant as soon as possible, in addition to occasionally taking advantage of Spanish America and Portuguese Brazil, our country can only continue to tap and exploit domestic potential, and exert efforts both internally and externally in order to enable our country to "grow bigger and stronger and create brilliance."

How to tap internal potential?
In order to demonstrate the superiority of Qing State and attract more immigrants, it is natural that the people in the country cannot be exploited too much, otherwise they will be driven away.

The only option was to direct the "flesh-cutting knife" at tens of thousands of slave laborers, squeezing as much oil and water out of them as possible in order to feed and nourish the still-budding Qing industry.

The Rui'an Governorate of Qi announced the abolition of slavery, and the Qing government naturally received this ridiculous and annoying news.

The reaction of the Spanish and Portuguese was surprisingly consistent. The people of Qing believed that Qi's approach was just a stopgap measure to deal with the military threat from French Saint-Domingue. They wanted to use the abolition movement to cause chaos in the French colonial territories, thereby preventing them from concentrating on launching a targeted attack on Qi's Governorate of Rui'an.

Believe it or not, if Qi defeated France and seized French Saint-Domingue, it would definitely take over the French plantations and slaves intact, and then continue to obtain a steady stream of sugar cane profits by exploiting those slaves.

Could it be that the people of Qi would really announce the liberation of the black slaves and then give them a fair employment contract?

Unexpectedly, these scholars and professors introduced from Qi State would naively believe in the abolition movement in the Rui'an Governorate of Qi State, and then jointly issued a proposal to the Qing Government, demanding the abolition of all slaves in Qing State and allowing them to receive "fair" national treatment.

Naturally, their suggestions were politely rejected by the relevant departments of the Qing Dynasty Cabinet, which stated that whether to abolish slavery or not must be considered and studied comprehensively at the entire social and economic levels before a corresponding decision can be made.

It is impossible that the Qing Kingdom will suffer major economic losses just because of the "Madonna sentiment" of a small group of people!
Zhongjing City is located on the south bank of the Xiang River (now the Negro River in southern Argentina). It has been the capital of the Qing Kingdom for more than 50 years and has a population of over 30,000. Although it is not as big as the historic cities such as Lima, Mexico, and Recife, it is a rare important port in South America and the largest commercial distribution center in the south. It is extremely prosperous and bustling.

The city of Linxiang (today's Carmen de Patagones, Argentina) on the north bank of the Xiang River appears particularly quiet and elegant, like a lonely girl sitting and watching the flowers falling in the garden of Zhongjing City on the opposite bank.

Initially, Linxiang City existed only as a protective fortress for Zhongjing. More than 60 years ago, the Kingdom of Qing fought with Spain here for several months. In the end, it paid the price of more than a thousand casualties before it was able to barely defend the city.

When Qing Kingdom gradually moved its border northward to the La Plata region, Linxiang City lost its military function as a fortress and became an ordinary riverside town. In addition, due to the siphon effect of Zhongjing on the opposite bank, the city was inevitably suppressed in terms of population and economic development. "If Qing Kingdom moved its capital to Xingqing City, then this small town would have completely fallen into decline." Zuo Yingduan, the head teacher of Linxiang High School, stood on the tower of the former fortress and overlooked the entire town. He couldn't help but sigh, "After all, Xingqing City is located in the core of the rich Southeast Plains, with abundant products and fertile land. In addition, it is next to the ocean and not too far from the Spanish Peruvian Viceroyalty and Portuguese Brazil. It will definitely attract more people and logistics to converge here."

"Why, Brother Zuo, you don't want to return to Hanzhou with us, but are thinking about moving to Xingqing City with many government agencies and scientific and educational institutions of Qing Kingdom?" Ji Junqing, professor of physics at Zhongjing University, asked with a smile.

"As a middle school dean, why should I join in on this fun?" Zuo Yingduan shook his head and said, "I'm just a little worried. The senior high school I'm in charge of has just been expanded. If the capital is moved, will it cause a large number of people to migrate to the north, causing this school with gradually improved facilities to face the dilemma of insufficient students."

"If Qing Kingdom can enroll a large number of slave children in schools, then why would it need to worry about a shortage of students?" Yan Dexuan, a professor of chemistry at Zhongjing University, said in a cold voice.

"Brother Yan, are you still bothered by the slavery issue in Qing Kingdom?" Zuo Yingduan sighed slightly.

"During the pre-Song Dynasty, China abolished slavery on a large scale and switched to an employment relationship based on personal equality." Yan Dexuan said, "I never thought that after hundreds of years of changes in the world, there is still such a barbaric and ignorant phenomenon as slavery. When I think of this, I am ashamed to face the ancients!"

"Brother Zuo, do you think slavery was really abolished during the pre-Song Dynasty? Is the employment relationship between master and servant truly equal?"

"..." Yan Dexuan was suddenly speechless.

"Even if it is not true equality, under the law, the master and servant have equal rights, and there is no personal dependence." Professor Fan Zhishou, who also came from Zhongjing University, said.

"If true equality cannot be achieved, what is the meaning of having the right to 'equal status' for the slaves themselves?"

There is no such thing as true equality in this world!

"Some things, even if they cannot be truly realized, always have to have a beginning, and will eventually play a role." Ji Junqing said solemnly: "Moreover, we always believe that all people are born equal. Maybe our generation or the next generation will not be able to realize it, but things will definitely change slowly."

"But, as teachers, shouldn't we focus all our energy on teaching, educating and answering questions?" Zuo Yingduan continued to persuade patiently, "If the three of you decide to leave school and return home just because of different political views, wouldn't it be a bit impulsive? You should know that in Qing Country, whether it is basic primary education, secondary primary education, or even university higher education, it is extremely backward and urgently needs people of insight like us to change and improve it. We shouldn't ignore the students for a little obsession! Qing Country needs you, and those students need you too!... For them, stay."

"Without a few people like me in Qingguo, will the entire education industry stagnate?"

"But with you, Qing's education will take a small step forward."

It was not until 1678 that the Qing Kingdom established its first institution of higher learning, the Nanyang College, in Nanyang (Commodore del Rivadavia, a city in southern Argentina) in order to cultivate local talents.

Due to financial constraints and weak teaching staff, the newly established Nanyang College had only twelve teachers who were responsible for teaching more than fifty outstanding students who had been screened through multiple levels.

The school was modeled after the Tiangong College in Qi State. It only accepted male students and used Chinese as the teaching language. The courses included Chinese, writing, history, astronomy, mathematics, geometry, physics and chemistry. The teaching method was mainly that the teacher read the university textbooks from Qi State, and the students followed, repeated, wrote outlines, discussed and practiced. There were very few class hours per week, and the school size was incomparable to that of Qi State University.

In order to cultivate children's national consciousness, reading and writing skills, and to fulfill national obligations well when they grow up. In 1683, after the end of the First Qingxi War, the Qing government promulgated the "Compulsory Education Decree", requiring all Han (including mixed-race) and European immigrant children to receive three years of compulsory education (two years later, the scope of compulsory education was expanded to Indian children in the controlled areas), and also encouraged parents and masters to provide supplementary education for their children or apprentices.

The Qing government used its limited financial funds to establish primary and secondary schools in towns and villages. It also reduced business taxes to encourage private capital to run schools and did its best to enroll children of all ages.

In the Second Qi-Xi War, the Qing State extorted 500,000 taels of silver as an indemnity from the Spaniards. In addition, as maritime trade became increasingly frequent, industry and agriculture developed rapidly, and finances became more affluent, the scale and methods of education also underwent new changes. Not only did the number of primary schools increase several times, but the number of higher education institutions also increased to three, and various types of vocational education also came into being.

In order to cope with the situation where some immigrant villages and towns in Qingguo are remote and it is inconvenient for children to go to school, the Qingguo Education Department has also developed a "circuitous teaching" teaching model, that is, children near each immigrant teaching point are gathered at regular intervals, and teachers are sent by municipal schools to each teaching point for circuit teaching.

Although the Qing government wanted to copy the comprehensive compulsory education system of its motherland Qi, it was constrained by tight financial conditions and a shortage of teachers and had to settle for the second best and choose the principle of combining limited universal education with elite education as the guiding ideology of domestic education.

In the government-run primary schools, both Chinese and natural sciences are taught. During the five years of study, there are multiple rounds of elimination. When graduating, about one-third of the students are excellent and can enter the secondary school for free. Those who fail to enter the middle school can not only obtain various well-paid social jobs, but also become elementary school teachers (teaching children below the third grade).

As for the primary and secondary school teachers who do not require advanced knowledge, Qing State can gradually expand the scale and improve the education level through its own training. However, for higher education, especially the teachers of engineering disciplines such as physics, chemistry, mechanics, etc., Qing State seems to be somewhat unable to cope and needs to introduce a large number of teachers of the corresponding disciplines from Qi State.

Despite being a close vassal state, Qi still imposed many technological blockades on Qing, not to mention allowing senior experts and senior scholars from higher education institutions to flow out at will.

Therefore, the teachers that Qing State could introduce from Qi State were nothing more than second-rate or third-rate talents from some Qi State universities, or even graduates who had just graduated from university.

Of course, even if he is an unimportant "three-legged cat" in Qi State, he is an extremely rare high-end talent for Qing State, and is highly valued by the Qing State government and universities.

This also made some of Qi's "high-end talents" a little spoiled. Not only did they demand salaries far higher than their local counterparts, they also wanted to obtain "super-favorable" political status. They believed that they were qualified to comment on Qing's policies, big and small, in the hope of making Qing as free and civilized as Qi.

Today, these idealists are somewhat unwilling and resentful when their enthusiastic suggestions and advice are rejected and ignored.

It's so sad!

In that case, why not go home?
(End of this chapter)