Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

At the same time, Zhang Pu and other famous scholars who were taking part in the provincial examination were drinking on the Qinhuai River.

At this time, Zhang Pu was really in high spirits and his face was full of joy.

After gathering a group of students of Mingsuan to estimate their scores, he was able to confirm that among the students he knew, no one had a higher score than him.

Therefore, not only was he certain to pass the exam, he also had a great chance of becoming the top scorer in the Mingsuan subject.

If he were to win one of the Five Classics or the Law Examination, he would become the First Prize in the Exam as Zhang Yixian said, and start the process of becoming the Third Prize in the Exam.

So during these days, Zhang Pu felt both joy and anticipation, hoping that he could become the top scorer in the Five Classics and get the title of Jieyuan.

While joking with the singing girl next to him, a scholar suddenly said:

“This time next year, we won’t be able to drink as much as we can now.”

"Brother Tianru is very good at math and has already ensured that he will pass the exam."

"Wouldn't it be easy to pass the imperial examination next year?"

"If you become an official, you must be examined for propriety, righteousness, integrity and shame. How can Brother Tianru come to such a decadent place?"

"Let's all raise our glasses to bid farewell to Brother Zhang!"

Everyone laughed when they heard this, raised their glasses and said goodbye to Zhang Pu.

Even some singing girls said goodbye to Zhang Pu.

Seeing that they were making fun of him, Zhang Pu could only raise his glass, feeling helpless and amused.

Suddenly he thought of something and said:

"Don't just make fun of me. This year, more than 350 people were admitted to the Jiangnan Provincial Examination. I wonder how many people will pass the imperial examination next year!"

"And even if you didn't pass the exam, you still want to pay attention. From now on, all public figures will be subject to supervision like officials, and will also be examined on the four dimensions of propriety, righteousness, integrity and shame."

"I think none of you here can stay. You all need to stay away from the Fallen Zone next year."

This incident caused a great response in the newspaper industry in the capital, but most students in Jiangnan did not pay attention to it.

After Zhang Pu mentioned it, some people started to ask about it. Then they learned that the court, at the suggestion of Qian Qianyi, had included parliamentarians, journalists, and writers in the list of public figures and brought them under the scope of supervision.

In the future, these people will also be subject to supervision and rating. If they do not have a star rating, they will not be allowed to express their opinions to the public, otherwise it will be a crime.

Hearing such strict requirements, the students were all indignant. Some slammed the table and said:
“Isn’t this a way of suppressing public opinion?”

"Why did Qian Muzhai make such a proposal?"

"I've seen that this person has evil intentions and wants to block future generations."

He cursed Qian Qianyi and considered him a traitor for making such a proposal.

Others also started to curse Qian Qianyi when they thought of his suspected cheating in the imperial examination and his irresponsibility.

Obviously, these non-Suzhou scholars did not respect Qian Qianyi that much.

After all, there is no such thing as fellow villagers in Southern Zhili. If you are not from the same prefecture, you cannot be called a fellow villager.

Soon, they dug up everything Qian Qianyi had done in the past few years and believed that this next generation leader of the Donglin Party was not a qualified Donglin Party member.

Zhang Pu was silent for a moment as he listened to their remarks. He and Qian Qianyi were both from Suzhou, and although they occasionally had disputes, they still had a tacit understanding.

He felt a little sad about Qian Qianyi being insulted by these people. He wondered if he would be criticized by scholars for a similar proposal after he became an official.

Therefore, in his heart, he agrees with the Public Figures Supervision Law, believing that it is not about suppressing public opinion, but about making public figures accountable for their words and deeds.

However, it was difficult to express this view in front of these indignant scholars, so he could only remain silent for a while.

However, what Zhang Pu did not expect was that these scholars did not just criticize him verbally, but some of them proposed a plan to replace Qian Qianyi:
"The reason why Qian Muzhai has such a great reputation is because he is the successor of Donglin."

"If we inherit the legacy of the Donglin masters, how can Qian Qianyi, a villain, deceive the world?"

"Gentlemen, there are many literary societies in Jiangnan now. Why don't we merge them into one and establish a new Donglin to carry forward the legacy of the Donglin gentlemen!"

As soon as the "New Donglin" proposal came out, everyone applauded.

The Donglin Party today has the Prime Minister Han Yu at the top and local officials and provincial governors at the bottom. Although its power is not as strong as it was at its strongest, it has recovered some of its strength.

Many scholars wanted to join the Donglin Party to gain help in officialdom.

But they have no connections and cannot compete with the old Donglins.

It would be easy if we could establish a new Donglin and then reconnect with the former Donglin Party members.

Many people turned their attention to Zhang Pu, wanting the leader of the Ying Society to come forward and merge the various societies into a new Donglin.

Given Zhang Pu's reputation throughout the country and the emperor's favor, even the ministers of the Donglin Party could not be ignored and had to consider accepting them.

Facing these scholars who asked him to form a society and inherit the legacy of Donglin, Zhang Pu said:

"There is no need for societies. The court has already decided to bring societies under regulation."

"From now on, people from the same community should avoid each other according to their clan."

"Everyone should inherit the legacy of the Donglin gentlemen. There is no need to form any clubs. All you need to do is learn how to be a good person."

"This public figure monitoring is actually not a big deal. As long as you are not a public figure, you will not be subject to this restriction."

Turn the topic to public figures and avoid talking about Xin Donglin.

After these words were spoken, the scholars present fell silent.

Although not all of them are journalists or writers, and not all of them have decided to run for parliament, the desire to express their opinions to the public is hidden in the hearts of almost all of them.

These people enjoy the feeling of being the center of attention and want the ignorant masses to accept their teachings.

As a result, regardless of their current identities, these people were very curious about the Public Figure Supervision Law and asked Zhang Pu:

“What exactly is the standard for a public figure?”

"Does it mean that just by saying a few words to others, you become a public figure?"

As the helmsman of Ming Pao, Zhang Pu had done in-depth research on this. He explained to them:
"If you just express your opinions to a few people, then naturally no one will pay attention."

"But as long as you publish articles in newspapers, you are a public figure and need to be regulated."

"If you print more than 500 books yourself, you are also considered a public figure."

"I heard that the Publishing House is numbering books. All books with more than 500 copies must obtain a publishing number before they can be publicly released."

Establishing numbers for books is something the Publishing Office has been busy with recently.

Although there are no barcodes now, numbering according to certain rules is still very helpful for identifying and classifying books.

The Chongzhen Encyclopedia, compiled under the leadership of Liu Zongzhou, adopted this numbering method.

Zhu Youjian also ordered the library to classify books according to this numbering to facilitate the search for information. Zhang Pu, as a giant in the newspaper industry, had heard about this. He also knew that if the false news was spread more than 500 times, the publisher might be held criminally responsible.

So he believes that the standard of a public figure is to spread it 500 times or influence 500 people.

This number made many people breathe a sigh of relief. Obviously, they didn't have much ambition and didn't think they could reach the standard of 500.

However, there are also people who are naturally unwilling to be constrained and still curse about it, believing that monitoring public figures is a bad policy.

Some people even lamented that officials had a hard time making a living and believed that the emperor was too harsh on officials and scholars.

As a person appreciated by the current emperor, Zhang Pu certainly could not tolerate such slanderous words against the emperor.

After hearing this, he immediately stood up and said seriously:

"Your Majesty follows the ways of Yao and Shun, and always puts benevolence first."

"Don't you know how much favor the emperor has shown to scholars since he ascended the throne? How can you say that he is mistreating scholars?"

"If it weren't for Your Majesty, who would guarantee that they would pass this exam, and how many people would be able to pass it?"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone fell silent.

No matter how dissatisfied they were with the policies of the current emperor, they had to accept the emperor's favor in passing the imperial examination.

The competition in the Jiangnan provincial examinations was well known to be fierce. Without the emperor's broad quota, many people would have had no chance of passing.

Even some scholars who were lazy and did not study in school were not eligible to take part in the provincial examination.

No matter how many faults the current emperor has, they, the students, are the last people who should slander him.

It can be said that because of the large number of candidates in the provincial examination, Zhu Youjian's reputation among scholars was unprecedentedly grand.

Even though the preferential treatment for Juren was abolished, there were still many scholars who aspired to become Juren and get the opportunity to be directly appointed as an official.
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After these words, Zhang Pu felt that he had lost interest, so he quickly said goodbye to everyone and returned to his residence in Nanjing.

Just as he was discussing the articles for the next issue of Ming Pao with his disciple Wu Weiye and others, Yang Tingshu and other colleagues who were taking part in the provincial examination came over.

Zhang Pu was very happy to see these people and said:

"Brother Yang, how come you have time to come to my place?"

"My humble abode is simple, please forgive me, brothers."

Yang Tingshu laughed loudly and said:

"Who dares to say that Mr. Ximing's study is shabby? Isn't that asking for humiliation?"

"I came here this time to talk about the Donglin Academy."

"Brother, do you know that the academy has been rebuilt with donations and several rooms have been built?"

"No one destroyed it this time. As long as there is enough money and food, everything will be restored to its original state soon."

Zhang Pu frowned and said:
"I have heard about it. Does it have anything to do with Brother Yang?"

"We can support Donglin in the Yingshe Society, but we cannot participate in the Donglin Party's affairs, and we cannot be regarded as one with them by outsiders."

Obviously, he knew the emperor's taboo against the Donglin Party, and knew that if he was labeled as a member of the Donglin Party, he would have to compete with people from the same party for the position of minister. The emperor would not allow too many Donglin Party members among the Grand Secretaries and Nine Ministers.

Yang Tingshu had been preparing for the exam in Jiangnan and was not as familiar with the situation in the court as Zhang Pu.

He didn't know what Zhang Pu was thinking, so he said:
"Tianru knows who my ancestors are. Our Yang family cannot avoid the Donglin Academy incident at all."

"Many scholars in Nanzhili want me to come forward to form an alliance with the literary society to rebuild the Donglin Academy and inherit the legacy of Donglin."

"I thought that you were highly regarded by the Emperor in the capital, so I wanted to ask for your advice."

Yang Tingshu's ancestor was Yang Shi, a scholar from the Song Dynasty. He was a disciple of the Cheng brothers and was worshipped in the Confucius Temple together with his teacher, the Cheng brothers. The Cheng's Yi Zhuan, the textbook of the Yijing used in the imperial examinations in the Ming Dynasty, was compiled by Yang Shi.

Donglin Academy was the place where Yang Shi first gave lectures. Gu Xiancheng and others revived Donglin Academy in order to borrow his name and claim to be the orthodox Neo-Confucianism.

Therefore, some people wanted to rebuild Donglin Academy or even establish a new Donglin Party, so they found Yang Tingshu and asked him to hold a conference in Jinling to bring together many literary societies in Jiangnan to form a new Donglin Party.

Historically, it was Zhang Pu who presided over this matter. However, because Zhu Youjian remembered his name, he took him in early. Zhang Pu's energy has been focused on the north in recent years, so naturally he has no time to worry about this matter.

As the initiator of Yingshe and a famous scholar in Jiangnan, Yang Tingshu was found by some scholars and asked to organize and merge the various societies into one.

In fact, because Yang Tingshu is the descendant of Yang Shi, some people even want to directly occupy Donglin Academy and become the real New Donglin:
"Someone mentioned this matter to me last year."

"But I was preparing for the exam at that time, so I rejected them."

"After this year's provincial examination, some people brought it up again."

"Do you think I should accept or reject it?"

After listening to Yang Tingshu's words, Zhang Pu was undecided for a moment.

Although the Donglin Party was disliked by the emperor in the court, the number of grand secretaries and nine ministers was restricted.

However, the emperor did not impose too many restrictions on middle and low-level officials. Instead, he employed many members of the Donglin Party.

In addition, the current Prime Minister Han Yu is a member of the Donglin Party, so no one would think that the Donglin Party has no strength.

If Yang Tingshu could become the leader of the New Donglin, his future would at least be that of Qian Qianyi.

Zhang Pu had no reason to remove Yang Tingshu from this promising position.

He could even see that Yang Tingshu was not asking him whether he should accept it, but wanted him to use the power of Yingshe to help him establish the New Donglin.

This left Zhang Pu silent, pondering the pros and cons of this matter:

"The Emperor doesn't like factions. I am someone that the Emperor values, so there is no need for me to get involved."

"But for Brother Yang, this is indeed an opportunity!"

"I don't know who promoted this new Donglin. Are there any risks?"

"If Brother Yang was pushed out by some people to test the emperor, that would be terrible."

After returning to Jiangnan for so many days, he had long realized that the scholars in Jiangnan and the court were not of one mind, and they also had many opinions about the emperor's reform of rituals and music.

However, the emperor was very determined, and he even used the fact that he stood up for the student to mobilize the employees and tenants, and even sent the Yingyang Army.

These gentry did not dare to resist openly, so they resorted to subtle tactics.

Could it be that encouraging Yang Tingshu to establish the New Donglin was one of them?

Thinking that he had also been encouraged to become the leader of the New Donglin, Zhang Pu asked Yang Tingshu:
"How will the New Donglin be organized? It can't just be a name, right?"

"If you want to learn from Mr. Gu, I advise you to give up this idea as soon as possible."

The reason why Gu Xiancheng was able to lecture at the Donglin Academy and gather such a large influence was because the imperial court did not pay much attention to him and did not target him at first.

Now the Donglin Party has long been the focus of attention of the government and the public, and it is simply impossible to gather a new Donglin Party through lectures. If Yang Tingshu holds this idea, he must dissuade his friend. (End of this chapter)