Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

“Is there a cafeteria in the Normal School?”

"How's the food in the cafeteria?"

Zhu Youjian asked with concern.

As a former student, he knew that the cafeteria was definitely one of the topics most discussed among students.

Gui Zhuang was so excited in front of the emperor that he forgot all his usual eloquence and answered without hesitation:

"When the Normal School first opened, there was no cafeteria, so students had to cook for themselves."

"Later, as the number of students increased, there were not many places for them to cook, so Principal Sun opened a cafeteria."

“The meals are enough to fill people’s stomachs, but there are also wealthy students who rent houses outside and cook their own meals.”

"Nowadays, there are more restaurants outside the school, and students often eat out."

His words were incoherent and not as eloquent as usual.

Zhu Youjian listened to these somewhat confusing words and nodded:
"Mr. Sun is dedicated to running the school. The Normal School can be a model for schools in the capital."

"But the issue of food is related to public health. In the past two or three years, have any students had accidents due to food problems?"

Gui Zhuang was a little confused. He had never paid attention to this problem before.

After hearing the emperor's question, he lowered his head and thought for a while, then said:
"Last fall, when school started, several classmates got sick after having a meal together, and one of them died from the illness."

"At the time, people said it was due to poor acclimatization. Now I think it may be a hygiene issue."

Zhu Youjian looked heavy-hearted, and he borrowed Gui Zhuang's words to say:

“Students come to the capital to study in order to improve their knowledge.”

"They are the future pillars of the Ming Dynasty. How can we let them die in vain because of hygiene problems?"

"Decree that any student death must be investigated by the City God Division. If any problems are found, report to the Weiwei Temple in a timely manner."

He asked Grand Secretary Xu Guangqi to draft an edict to show his concern for his students.

At the same time, he instructed Liu Qiao that a conclusion must be given to the murders of students and other scholars.

Most of the officials were scholars, so they naturally supported this. Xu Guangqi quickly drafted the decree and prepared to issue it after going through the formalities.

Then, Zhu Youjian continued:

"School canteens are related to student safety and supervision must be strengthened."

"The General Health Administration of the Weiwei Temple should work with the Guanglu Temple, the Imperial Hospital, and the Academy of Sciences to make regulations and formulate relevant standards for the water source, vegetables, meat, sauces, etc. in the canteen."

"Based on this, a method for issuing health licenses will be formulated. For catering establishments of a certain scale, inspections must be carried out."

"If the business is qualified, we will issue a license. If the business is unqualified, we will ask them to make corrections. If they refuse to change after repeated warnings, we will revoke their health license and stop them from operating."

"Liu Qing, you will be in charge of this matter. Come up with a solution as soon as possible."

Liu Qiao hurriedly accepted the order and trusted Gui Zhuang even more:

If it weren't for this man's proposal regarding public health, how could he have received this order and shown off in front of the emperor and his ministers.

Xu Guangqi was somewhat hesitant about this and advised:
"Your Majesty's health permit is well-intentioned, but I am worried that when the Weiwei Temple enforces the law, it may affect the livelihood of ordinary people."

"Your Majesty, please think of the people and don't be too strict."

These words made Liu Qiao unhappy. Gui Zhuang, who was fearless, retorted in front of the university scholar:
“The livelihood of the store owner is important, but the safety of the diners is not important?”

“Only by strictly enforcing the law can we reduce health problems.”

"When Mr. Xu eats out, doesn't he worry about the hygiene of those restaurants?"

Xu Guangqi was speechless, and he began to take Guizhuang seriously. He felt that with the addition of these students, the Weiwei Temple became more organized and more like a civil service office.

This was probably the emperor's intention in allowing the Weiwei Temple to recruit college students, transforming it from a military institution into a law enforcement office.

Before Xu Guangqi could respond, Emperor Zhu Youjian smiled and mediated:
"What Xu Xueshi and Gui Xueshi said both make sense."

"It's not good if we don't check hygiene. If we check too strictly, it will disturb the residents."

"So we must strike a balance. This is a real test of the Weiwei Temple's execution capabilities."

"Mr. Liu, can you handle this matter? Can the Weiwei Temple take on this responsibility?"

Liu Qiao of course said yes, and said firmly in front of the emperor:

"I will definitely do a good job of health inspection and prevent the officials of the Weiwei Temple from disturbing the people."

Zhu Youjian nodded in approval, but did not believe his empty words. Instead, he asked Liu Qiao to write a letter of guarantee on the spot, threatening to hold him accountable if he failed to do so.

Liu Qiao secretly groaned in his heart, but he could only write it down according to the emperor's order, because this was his own promise, and he could not deny it in front of the emperor.

Zhu Youjian asked all the officials present to witness and sign their names, then smiled and said to them:

"This letter of guarantee should be considered as a policy outline."

"The governor's policy outline has been implemented quite well. From now on, each government office should also write down what it is going to do."

"This will make it easier to pass the test and select capable officials."

He casually mentioned the matter and asked the young eunuch to convey the oral instructions to the Ministry of Personnel.

Zhu Youjian then turned to Xu Guangqi, who was about to say something:

"It's hard for ordinary people to make a living, and they don't know how to deal with the government, so for self-employed people, health licenses don't need to be obtained for the time being."

"As long as there have been no accidents, there is no need to worry about them. Just let the self-employed association supervise them and rate them. Three stars for good hygiene and service, and downgrade for poor ones. If there are accidents, rectification will be carried out."

"Institutions operating above a certain scale can also be rated four or five stars. Supervision must be strengthened on them to avoid accidents that affect many people at once."

"For example, restaurants that can accommodate more than 20 people for dining in and companies that produce and sell food must obtain health permits and be inspected regularly by the Department of Health to prevent public safety incidents due to poor hygiene work."

"Master Xu, what do you think of this method? Can it take care of everything?"

Xu Guangqi thought about the method proposed by the emperor and found that the emperor had always emphasized the word "scale".

It seems that the emperor has always been concerned about public health, which affects many people, and he does not intend to allow the Weiwei Temple to enforce the law arbitrarily and disturb the people.

So he agreed:
"Your Majesty will see!"

“That way everything is taken care of.”

The ministers also praised the emperor, believing that he was a wise ruler who loved his people like his own children. Gui Zhuang, who attended such a meeting for the first time, was extremely excited, and felt that the image of the sage ruler in ancient books completely matched the current emperor.

If the previous emperors were like the current emperor, how could the Ming Dynasty have fallen to such a state?
He must assist the current emperor in creating a prosperous era like Gu Yanwu did.

Just as he was thinking with great emotion, he suddenly heard the emperor say:
"Food hygiene supervision cannot rely solely on the Weiwei Temple."

"Newspapers and other public opinion supervision agencies should also have the right to supervise in this regard."

“And customers can also elect representatives to supervise food hygiene.”

"For example, each university can set up a student union and select students who have time to supervise the hygiene of the cafeteria so that people can eat with peace of mind."

"Gui Qing, you are still a student now. You can organize a student union in the Normal School and start by supervising the hygiene of the cafeteria."

Gui Zhuang excitedly accepted the order, thinking that the current emperor was so kind to his students by granting them this power.

The emperor and his ministers carefully discussed public health, with food hygiene as the main focus, and decided that this crackdown would start with public health, with public safety and other security work as the theme.

Restaurants where public health incidents have occurred will be strictly inspected to ensure that they can ensure food hygiene. If they fail to meet the standards, they will be required to make corrections within a specified period of time.

At the same time, for those operators who deliberately sell inferior products as good ones and cause health incidents, additional punishments will be imposed during the crackdown according to their crimes, and a certain proportion of them will be exiled and forcibly relocated.

Local health departments have also begun accepting reports and investigating related corporate hygiene issues.

This was supported by many people, and various real-name and anonymous reports came in one after another.

Obviously, many people know which restaurant has hygiene problems, but there was no channel for feedback before, so they could only pretend not to see it.

Now that the imperial court is taking care of this, they naturally actively support it and hope that dining will be safer in the future.

The Weiwei Temple attaches great importance to the real-name reports from the public. They need to verify the content of the reports to determine whether there are any problems.

As for anonymous reports, the court initially ignored them because of its taboo against anonymous documents. Later, when Zhu Youjian learned about this incident, he asked the Jinyiwei to set up a special mailbox to receive anonymous reports.

Letters sent to these mailboxes are not required to indicate the sender.

After receiving the letters, the Jinyiwei classified them and processed the relevant information.

However, because the information in the anonymous document was very likely to be forged, Zhu Youjian did not ask the Jinyiwei to solve it. He just asked them to pay more attention to the information reported by multiple people.

This leads to the fact that anonymous documents also have a certain effect. Some people who want to report but are afraid of retaliation like to report problems anonymously.

After some reported problems were resolved, many people became more active.

These cases involve not only health issues, but also many safety-related cases.

The establishment of the Public Security Committee was rapidly promoted. Liu Qiao established relationships with many government offices by handling the contents of the letters of complaint.

For example, the Guanglu Temple and the Imperial Hospital have obtained some law enforcement powers through joint law enforcement with the Weiwei Temple. They will be responsible for food and drug supervision and formulate corresponding regulations.

The Academy of Sciences played an important role in this. Xu Guangqi and researchers from the Academy of Sciences used numbers to determine the standards for various tests. In particular, they had to determine how much dose would cause poisoning and find out the corresponding testing methods for heavy metal pollution such as lead, mercury and cadmium raised by the emperor.

Food and drugs in the Ming Dynasty were further standardized, and the concepts of public safety and public health began to take root in people's minds.
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At the Normal School, after Gui Zhuang received the emperor's instructions to form a student union, he quickly gathered students in the school to form an association.

When these students learned that it was the emperor's instruction and that the student union was given the power to supervise the canteen hygiene, they naturally supported it enthusiastically and participated actively.

Guizhuang used the lottery election method that was experimented with by the Congress to select half of the student union members from the students with the highest recognition, and then selected the other half by drawing lots.

The student union of the Normal School quickly started working and improved the overall hygiene of the school cafeteria.

The students were all satisfied and praised the student union they formed.

Other schools in the capital also followed the example of the Normal School and established their own student unions.

Although some teachers in the school were not happy with this, they did not express their opposition explicitly because of the emperor's instructions.

Sun Qifeng also asked the emperor for a policy. While the students were forming a student association, the teachers of the Normal School were gathered together to form a teacher association:

"Now various associations are being formed. The teachers in our normal school are teachers, and many of the students will also work in education in the future."

“We should adapt to the situation and form a teachers’ association.”

The teachers at the Normal School all knew that Sun Qifeng was a favorite of the emperor and that he had been hired as a civilian representative to participate in the preparations for the National Assembly.

Ai Nanying, one of the four talented scholars of Linchuan, who had ridiculed Wei Dang in his answer sheet and was punished to stop taking three exams, is now teaching at the Normal School. Upon hearing this, he said with interest:
"The student union has the power to supervise the cafeteria, so what does the faculty association have to do with it?"

"Should we also supervise the cafeteria and set up a special cafeteria for teachers?"

Everyone laughed when they heard this, and Sun Qifeng also smiled and said:
"Of course, I'm not asking you to supervise the cafeteria, but to connect with the Congressional Education Committee to formulate education measures."

"You should know that the 15 special committees that the Congress Preparatory Office is setting up will be the real power bodies of the future Congress and will be responsible for formulating relevant bills."

"The duties of the Education Committee are to promote education and formulate education bills."

“The Teachers’ Association will serve as a private association supervised by the Corrections Commission and give its opinions on the Corrections Bill.”

These simple words made the teachers present breathe heavily.

As a scholar, who doesn't have the ambition to govern the country and bring peace to the world? It's just that they don't have the opportunity to govern the country because they are not famous or are not suitable for officialdom.

Now, from what Sun Qifeng said, the emperor wants them, the civilians, to formulate corresponding laws.

This means that they can also participate in governing the country, and officials are just executors of the laws.

Ai Nanying asked impatiently:
“Can I only give suggestions?”

“Can the teachers’ association participate in the formulation of the bill?”

Sun Qifeng stroked his beard and said:
"It is the power of Congress to make bills, and those related to education are made by the Education Committee."

"As a private association, the Teachers' Association does not have this power."

"but……"

After a pause, Sun Qi continued, meeting the expectant gazes of the teachers:

"If people from the teachers' association are elected as councillors, they can be elected as professionals and have priority in the education committee, and then they will have the power to make education bills."

“You can run in the election and try to become a member of parliament.”

“The Teachers’ Association will provide corresponding assistance to help you run for parliament.”

This made all the teachers look satisfied. Many of them thought that with their reputation, they should be able to become members of parliament.

The Teachers' Association of the Normal School was soon established with their support. Then these teachers actively contacted other schools to form a teachers' association for the entire capital.

Strive to become a member of the Shuntian Prefecture Council when it is established. Control the Education Committee of the Shuntian Prefecture Council and formulate the Education Bill. (End of this chapter)