Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Looking at Lu Xiang's leaving figure, Zhu Youjian was delighted that a genius like Lu Xiang had appeared, but also felt that there were too few Lu Xiangs in the Ming Dynasty.

If there are hundreds of talents like Lu Xiang, why should he worry about technical matters? You just need to assign tasks and let these people complete them.

In order to allow more Lu Xiang to appear, Zhu Youjian left Wang Chengen behind, and sent people to summon Liu Ruoyu, the chief of the internal affairs department, and Qi Changguo, the admiral of Jinyiwei Nansifang, and said to them:
"Officials are graded, and craftsmen working for the court must also be graded."

"There are craftsmen in the inner official prison and the inner palace prison, and there are also military craftsmen in the royal guards."

"The three of you work together to classify various craftsmen according to their skills, and divide them into nine levels from low to high."

"For example, Lu Xiang is very skilled in carpentry and can be classified as a ninth-level carpenter. The skills of a ninth-level carpenter are based on him."

"Let him, together with other ninth-level carpenters, write the skill level standards for the carpentry industry, and hold exams every year to determine the carpenter level."

"The same applies to craftsmen in other industries. From now on, their wages will be based on this level."

This classification is modeled on the eight-grade wage system of later generations. Just because the officials and chamberlains of the Ming Dynasty were previously rated as level nine by Zhu You, the level of craftsmen was also rated as level nine by him.

Once you reach the ninth level, you will be treated like a ninth-grade official. Regardless of status or salary, he is equivalent to a ninth-grade official.

In the Ming Dynasty, the annual salary of a ninth-grade official was sixty dan, but the actual salary he received was 42 dan. For skilled craftsmen, they look down upon this salary at all. The reason why I am willing to work shifts in the Wensi Academy is that I have the official position of deputy envoy of the ninth rank and ambassador of the ninth rank——

In this way, they have official status. No matter how low their rank is, their status is completely different.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian could only set up a ninth-level craftsman on top of the eighth-level craftsman, making it clear that his status was equivalent to a ninth-level official, so that he could be accepted by the craftsmen of Wensi Academy.

The classification of the ninth-level craftsmen is the same as that of the ninth-level officials outside and the ninth-level servants in the palace. Wang Chengen, Liu Ruoyu and others understood it as soon as they heard it.

However, a ninth-level craftsman is still a craftsman after all. Wang Chengen said doubtfully:

"Lu Xiang is now a member of the sixth-rank 100 households and is acting as the fifth-rank official."

"Does his salary also need to be paid to a ninth-level carpenter?"

Of course Zhu Youjian would not make such a mistake and said:
“In addition to craftsmen, there should be engineers.”

“Engineers master at least one technology, have a complete set of technical solutions, and can even invent and innovate.”

“The levels of engineers are divided into five levels: assistant engineer, junior engineer, intermediate engineer, senior engineer, and special engineer.”

"Assistant engineers are divided into nine levels like craftsmen. Junior engineers' status and salary are equivalent to ninth-grade officials, intermediate engineers are equivalent to eighth-grade officials, senior engineers are equivalent to seventh-grade officials, and special engineers are equivalent to sixth-grade officials."

"For example, Lu Xiang, in addition to the ninth-level carpenter, he can also be rated as a special-level engineer. His status and basic salary are treated at a higher level, that is, a special-level engineer, equivalent to a sixth-grade official."

"In the future, all craftsmen working for the imperial court will be assessed, the craftsman level and the engineer level will be assessed, and their status and treatment will be determined."

This decision raised the ceiling for Ming craftsmen from the ninth-grade ambassador of the Wensi Academy to the equivalent of a sixth-grade official, a special engineer.

I believe it can encourage some craftsmen to serve the court more actively.

In Zhu Youjian's heart, he also hopes that more engineers will appear and use the technology they master to produce more things.

In order to ensure fairness in the rating of craftsmen and engineers and prevent craftsmen from getting into trouble because of injustice, Zhu Youjian said:
"The grade assessment will be trialled among the craftsmen of the Inner Court and Jinyiwei first. Let Lu Xiang participate in this matter and select highly skilled craftsmen to form a skills review committee."

"After it is perfected, we will try it out at Wensi Courtyard and other yamen."

"If the craftsmen of the Wensi Academy have no objections, then a skills evaluation agency will be established in Shaofu Temple to be responsible for this matter."

"Select personnel from the senior craftsmen and senior engineers of the Wensi Academy to be responsible for the skills review in rotation."

"In principle, the review is held at least once a year. Craftsmen only take practical exams. Engineers now add interviews and will later replace them with written exams and drawings to encourage them to learn cultural knowledge."

“The specifications for grade review shall be revised at least once every ten years, and shall be modified in accordance with feedback from craftsmen and technological development during actual implementation.”

After these are determined, the skill level and wages of the craftsmen are basically determined. However, in actual implementation, there must be craftsmen whose remuneration exceeds the grade wage. In order to prevent these people from raising objections due to being underpaid, Zhu Youjian said:
"Grade wages are only a reference standard. The court does not impose any regulations on how much wages outside craftsmen should receive, as long as they are not lower than the wages of the lowest grade craftsmen."

"Artisans working for the imperial court receive grade wages as their basic wages. Seniority wages are added based on the time spent working for the imperial court."

"Then the salary for the position is determined based on the division of labor. Performance wages are paid based on the amount of work completed in the position. If the job is over-achieved, bonuses will be given to the outstanding ones."

"At the same time, employees who have dividend rights in the workshop can also enjoy corresponding dividends based on their contributions. Workshops under the supervision of the internal government must set an example by announcing profits and issuing dividend bonuses at the end of the year, so as to set standards for people around the world."

"In short, we must not let craftsmen suffer, but must use various methods to encourage them to work, invent new working methods and technologies, and improve production capacity."

Lin Linzongzong gave a lot of explanations, and Zhu Youjian made specific regulations on the grade and salary of craftsmen. Improve their status and treatment, and improve the status of craftsmen.

But these are not enough. In order to encourage craftsmen to invent and create, and to give them higher treatment, Zhu Youjian finally said:
"Lu Xiang has repeatedly made meritorious deeds, and he should be awarded a medal."

"The hundreds of households awarded to military generals before were somewhat nondescript."

"I decided to set up the Craftsman Order, modeled on the Civil and Military Order."

"It is divided into three categories: Master, Shangzao, and Liangzao, and there are also four levels: junior, middle, upper, and large."

"The young scholar enjoys the treatment of the ninth grade, the young master enjoys the treatment of the seventh grade, the young good scholar enjoys the treatment of the fifth grade, and so on."

"Lu Xiang's rank is determined to be a fifth-grade Shaoliang. When he works in the imperial court, in addition to his official salary, he also has to be awarded honors and rewards. The honors and rewards refer to the number of stones in the official salary and are directly converted into silver taels."

"Those who do not work for the imperial court will only be awarded ranks and ranks, and no salary will be paid."

Liu Ruoyu was a little puzzled by this and asked:
"Do those who do not work for the imperial court still have to be awarded honorary ranks?"

Zhu Youjian said with certainty:

"Of course they must be distributed, and inventions and creations must be encouraged, and craftsmen must be encouraged to contribute to the court."

"As long as they can make meritorious service to the imperial court, their rank will be retained regardless of whether they work in the imperial court or not in the future."

"I established Gongshi before, and at that time I said it was equivalent to the seventh grade."

"Now it is officially stipulated that scholars and common people belong to public officials, they can all be called scholars, and their status is equivalent to the eighth or ninth grade."

"Those craftsmen who do not work in the imperial court but have received honors are equivalent to public servants. They enjoy corresponding status except that they have no salary."

"The craftsmen who were previously awarded the rank of Grand Master will all be awarded the rank of Eighth Grade Master this time."

The official rank of soldier corresponds to the title of Duke who accepts donations——

I believe that by associating the statuses of zhaoshi, common people and public servants, people will be more aware of zhaoshi and be more active in inventing and creating.

At the same time, because Zhu Youjian clearly recognized scholars and officials as scholars, and Qian Qianyi wrote "Lun on Constant Property", according to "Mencius" said "Those who do not have permanent property but have perseverance, only scholars are capable" ", describing scholars as naturally possessing perseverance.

In order to gain fame, some rich people may donate money to civil servants and obtain scholar status.

The donation hole opened by Zhu Youjian will once again harvest a batch of money.

However, Zhu Youjian's current purpose in setting up public officials is not mainly for money, but to use this civilian title established by the inner court to protect the status of some wealthy people. Prevent local officials from being unscrupulous and misbehaving against them.

In the future, there will be more public officials in the Ming Dynasty, and he will be able to establish citizens under the public officials. Change various household registration systems to release the vitality of the Ming Dynasty.

It was out of this consideration that Zhu Youjian equated zhaoshi, common people and public officials and included them into the official class.

This class has many overlaps with the permanent property people proposed by Qian Qianyi, and may become the backbone class of the Ming Dynasty. (End of chapter)