Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Just as Sun Qifeng and others formed a teachers' association with the intention of controlling the Education Committee, Zheng Shiyi, the head of the Imperial Guard, was discussing laws related to national security with Liu Zongzhou, who was in charge of the National Assembly.

This was something that had been decided long ago. After Liu Qiao established the Public Security Committee using public health as a breakthrough point, the establishment of the National Security Committee was also imminent and required the support of all government departments.

Zheng Shiyi conveyed the emperor's will to Liu Zongzhou and others at the National Assembly Preparatory Office:
"The formulation of the National Security Law can take its time, but the Act to Punish Traitors must be finalized as soon as possible."

"The Imperial Guard intends to use the collusion case and the espionage case as a breakthrough point to severely punish the traitors who defected to the Jianlu."

"I hope Mr. Liu will preside over the National Assembly and finalize the relevant draft as soon as possible."

Liu Zongzhou found this statement very interesting:
"Han traitor means a traitor among the Han people, or a Han thief."

"The traitors that the emperor wants to punish seem to be different from the thieves."

Zheng Shiyi smiled and said:

"Mr. Liu is right."

"When the emperor refers to traitors, he is referring to the scum among the Han people."

"Or people who are Ming people who rely on outsiders and sell out the interests of the country."

“The Anti-Traitor Act is specifically aimed at these people.”

Liu Zongzhou nodded slightly, and then asked further:

"In that case, the foreign races that the emperor is talking about are the Hu people other than the Han people?"

"The Education Committee is currently formulating methods to educate the alien races, and the scope of the alien races needs to be determined first."

"Which foreign races can be educated and which foreign races are completely foreign enemies? Has the emperor given any instructions?"

The concept of foreign races was mentioned several times by the emperor after he ascended the throne. It was not only related to education, but also to hired laborers and slaves.

When Liu Zongzhou was preparing to set up the Education Committee and draft relevant laws, he was troubled a lot. Many people asked him who were considered foreign slaves?

He had originally planned to bring it up in front of the emperor, but now that Zheng Shiyi was discussing the punishment of traitors with him, he started the discussion first.

Zheng Shiyi was not very clear about the foreign races, but he asked the emperor which ones were traitors, and after careful consideration, he said:
"Tribes other than the Han Chinese should all be considered foreigners."

"But the chieftains who are loyal to the Ming Dynasty and the naturalized Hu people should also be called Ming people."

"Mr. Liu can discuss this with His Majesty. We, the Jinyiwei, will obey His Majesty's arrangements in everything."

Liu Zongzhou nodded, knowing that he could not get anything out of Zheng Shiyi. After sending him away, he submitted a petition to the emperor to ask for instructions to define the concept of foreign races as soon as possible.

Otherwise, the National Security Bill, the Education Bill, and the Slavery Bill would not be able to be passed, and the work of the Congress and other government offices such as the Imperial Guard would also be affected.

After reading this memorial, Zhu Youjian also felt that this was a big problem. He convened a meeting to discuss this issue:

"I wish to govern the world together with all the people. Those among the people who are willing to assume public obligations and enjoy public power can be called citizens."

"What kind of people can become citizens of the Ming Dynasty and what kind of people are outsiders is a problem that must be resolved."

"All the ministers, please tell me how to determine this range?"

As the initiator of this incident, Liu Zongzhou was the first to speak out:

"Confucius said: It is better for the Chinese to have no ruler than for the barbarians to have one."

"Mencius said: I have heard of using the Xia to change the barbarians, but I have never heard of changing like the barbarians."

"This is the distinction between Chinese and barbarians as taught by Confucius and Mencius, also known as the defense against barbarians."

"Will the Ming Dynasty educate foreigners and accept them as citizens?"

These words caused a lot of discussion among the ministers.

Some officials thought this was not a big problem. Yuan Keli, on behalf of the Privy Council, said:

"People of other races who are loyal to the Ming Dynasty should be accepted as citizens and given the right to serve as officials."

"Otherwise, generals of Hu nationality like Hu Dawei and chieftain generals like Qin Liangyu would be in danger."

"I believe that the citizens of the Ming Dynasty should absorb people of other races."

Minister of Rites Cheng Jiming said:

“People of other races can be educated, but what kind of people can become citizens and officials requires careful identification.”

"The current Jianlu Rebellion, She'an Rebellion, and the Northwest Civil Rebellion are all related to foreign races."

"There was even the former Imperial College Priest Ma Zhiqi, who advocated the theory of Dadong and Xiaodong to overthrow upright people. He was not of our kind and acted extremely recklessly."

"I believe that we should strictly formulate the education law and strictly investigate the Ming citizenship of foreigners."

This statement was also recognized by many people, because the current chaos in the Ming Dynasty was indeed closely related to the alien race.

The Privy Council wanted to absorb foreigners because there were foreign generals in the army, but those civil servants who were worried about foreigners causing unrest strongly opposed this.

Many people use the An-Shi Rebellion as an example to illustrate the unreliability of foreigners, believing that "those who are not of our race must have different hearts" and the court should not accept them.

For a moment, the two sides engaged in a heated argument.

Zhu Youjian watched coldly and found that most of those who agreed to absorb foreign races were in the border areas. In order to reduce the pressure of war, they hoped to absorb some foreigners to control foreigners.

Officials in the interior, especially in Jiangnan, generally did not want to accept foreigners. They thought that restrictions should be tightened to prevent foreigners from becoming Ming citizens on a large scale.

This made Zhu Youjian feel very interesting, trying to figure out the psychology of these people:

"The ethnic minorities in the border areas and the Han people often go to war and compete for living space, but they agree to allow the ethnic minorities to become naturalized citizens on a large scale."

"There aren't many foreigners in Jiangnan, but they generally oppose this."

"Why is this? Why is there such a difference?"

After much thought, Zhu Youjian could only attribute it to the fact that the Han people in the border areas, because of the continuous wars, recognized the right of other ethnic groups to survive in the Ming Dynasty.

Because of the slave policy for foreigners, the people in Jiangnan hope to have more foreigners as slaves. They even hope that their ancestors have been slaves for generations and have no chance to become citizens of the Ming Dynasty.

So this weird thing happened:
The Han people in border areas who have many disputes with other ethnic groups are willing to accept other ethnic groups as citizens.

The Han people in the south of the Yangtze River, who rarely see foreigners, are very hostile to them.

After roughly understanding their attitude, Zhu Youjian spoke after the ministers' arguments gradually subsided:

"I have said before that slaves from other races can only become citizens of the Ming Dynasty after passing the corresponding level of Chinese language examination."

"Has the Ministry of Rites decided on the relevant exams? When will the exams begin?"

Minister of Rites Cheng Jiming replied:
"After much discussion, we have formulated four levels, A, B, C, and D, for the Chinese language test."

"Exams C and D only have written tests, while exams A and B include oral interviews."

"The Ding-level exam is for illiterate people. They need to know the 500 most commonly used characters and master the pinyin or radical-based dictionary to pass the Ding-level exam and become qualified Dingkou."

"The requirements for the C-level exam are higher. You need to know 2500 commonly used characters and be able to read newspapers and vernacular texts smoothly."

"Level B requires students to know 4500 words from the Four Books and Five Classics, understand the principles in the classics, and recite them in Mandarin."

"Grade A has the highest requirements, requiring students to be able to recognize all of the 7000-plus characters on the printed common standard character list. They must also be able to break down the characters and understand the meaning behind them."

"Those who pass the A-level exam can become typesetters or typesetters. If they memorize the digital code, they can become military communicators or code decoders."

This requirement is very high. Some scholars in the Ming Dynasty may not know 7,000 Chinese characters. The span of the four levels is also relatively large, and each level will eliminate a group of people.

Obviously, this method was formulated by officials who did not want foreigners to become naturalized citizens. They wanted to restrict the naturalization of foreign slaves by setting high standards.

Zhu Youjian could see their intentions, and so could the other ministers.

Yuan Keli asked the officials of the Ministry of Rites:
"What level of examination do naturalized Hu people from the frontier need to pass to become citizens?"

"If the price is set too high, I'm afraid many soldiers won't be able to get through it."

Cheng Jiming and the officials from the Ministry of Rites replied:
"It is precisely because they do not understand Chinese characters that they need to be educated."

"I believe that foreigners should pass the B-level examination to become naturalized citizens."

"Let them know the great principles of the Four Books and Five Classics, and be able to speak Chinese."

As a Confucian scholar, Yuan Keli agrees with this point in his heart, but the reality makes him disagree:
Many naturalized generals cannot even write, and it will take them a long time to pass the Class B exam.

Wouldn't they be used before this and given the opportunity to serve as officers and lead troops?
In response to this, Cheng Jiming said:
"Those who have proven their loyalty will naturally be granted citizenship and become subjects of the Ming Dynasty."

"But in the future, you will have to pass an exam to get citizenship."

Yuan Keli still disagreed, because although this solved the identity problem of the current naturalized generals, it would be very unfavorable for the naturalization of the future Hu people.

After those Hu people knew that it would be difficult for them to obtain citizenship of the Ming Dynasty and get opportunities to become officials, they would not surrender to the Ming Dynasty but would firmly become the enemy of the Ming Dynasty.

Chief of Staff Yang Sichang, Minister of Frontier Defense Liu Zunxian and other Privy Councilors joined him in opposing the Ministry of Rites' proposal.

Seeing that things were at an impasse, Cabinet Grand Secretary Xu Guangqi said:

"Naturalized generals are no longer that important in the future."

"After being equipped with new firearms, brute force alone can no longer influence the outcome of a battle."

These words made the Privy Council silent, knowing that the point had been touched upon.

Obviously, Xu Guangqi, the Grand Secretary in charge of military affairs, knew how to persuade them better than other ministers.

The result of the Battle of Daning showed that the brave generals had been eliminated. The new Ming army of firearms now valued command ability more.

Most of those naturalized generals had never even seen new firearms, so they had no idea what to do when they were asked to command a firearms army.

Therefore, having only brave naturalized generals is indeed not that important. The Ming Dynasty needs generals who are smart and good at command.

If the naturalized generals were smart, it would be easy for them to pass the Chinese test, unless they did not want to learn at all and did not really submit to the Ming Dynasty in their hearts.

Therefore, as soon as Xu Guangqi said this, all the ministers in the Privy Council fell silent.

After a long while, Yuan Keli finally said:
"So, Master Xu agrees that naturalization of foreigners requires passing the B-level exam?"

Xu Guangqi nodded and said:
“Although the requirements for the B-level exam are high, it is not difficult to pass.”

"Western missionaries traveled thousands of miles to the Ming Dynasty and were able to read Confucian classics fluently."

"What's so difficult about asking naturalized foreigners to do this?"

This made the ministers realize that this was what Xu Guangqi thought.

Zhu Youjian also nodded in approval:

"Western missionaries are familiar with the scriptures and should be encouraged to take the exam to become Nestorian priests."

"For these friendly people who have made contributions to the Ming Dynasty and have been commended, the requirements can be lowered and they only need to pass the B-level test to become naturalized."

"But for other whites and blacks, they must pass the A-level test before they can be naturalized as citizens of the Ming Dynasty."

The naturalization requirements for whites and blacks were also set. Because of their different skin colors, they were a group that was difficult to assimilate in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Youjian only intended to partially absorb white people to carry out cultural exchanges, and he politely declined the black people who were mostly still in a tribal state at that time.

He even restricted the use of black slaves to prevent some people who were greedy for money from bringing in blacks as slaves.

Then he continued:
"For Han people who were born in the territory of the Ming Dynasty and can speak Chinese, they can become citizens as long as they pay taxes and serve in the army according to the law."

"Those who do not speak Chinese must pass the Ding-level examination to become citizens of the Ming Dynasty."

"Do you have any opinions on this?"

The ministers were dissatisfied, and Qian Qianyi proposed:

"I believe that both Han and non-Han people must pass the Ding-level examination to become citizens of the Ming Dynasty."

“Otherwise, how can they enjoy their civil rights if they don’t even know how to vote?”

It is believed that the scope of citizens should be narrowed and the right to vote should be restricted to certain people.

Zhu Youjian disagreed with this and immediately scolded him:

“Can’t I vote if I can’t read?”

"You won't give candidates numbers so that the public can identify them accordingly?"

"The silver coins and subsidiary notes of the Ming Dynasty all have numbers printed on them. Which citizen wouldn't recognize them?"

"It is a fallacy that illiterate people cannot vote!"

Stop this topic decisively and don't let it escalate.

Seeing the emperor's strong reaction, the officials knew that limiting the number of citizens was not feasible.

The current emperor is truly willing to share power with his subjects, and the previous term was "all the people". They want to exclude some people, but the emperor will not agree.

Therefore, they no longer raised any objections to the Han people becoming citizens, but they felt that it was too easy for non-Han people to just pass the Ding-level examination.

Liu Zongzhou said:

"If you don't speak Chinese, it means you are not educated."

"I think the naturalization requirements for these people should be raised to a Class C test."

Zhu Youjian had no objection to this and nodded to Liu Zongzhou:
"This is a specific issue of education, which is under the responsibility of the Ministry of Rites and the Education Committee."

"The reason I mentioned this is that if there is no environment where Chinese is spoken, the Han people may also become barbarians."

"In the Tang Dynasty, Sikong Tu's poem "Thoughts on the Hehuang River" said: The Han people all speak the language of the Hu people, but they curse the Han people from the top of the city wall."

"For those places that speak foreign languages ​​and use foreign customs, they must pass the Chinese language test before they can become citizens of the Ming Dynasty."

"For Han people who migrated abroad, their descendants who wanted to become Ming citizens also had to pass the exam."

"For vassal states where Chinese is the official language and most people speak Chinese, they only need to pass the Ding-level exam."

"For vassal states with other official languages, they need to pass the Class C exam."

"Those who move to a foreign country that is friendly to the Ming Dynasty need to pass the B-level test."

"Those who move to an unfriendly foreign country will need to pass the A-level test."

"The less Chinese is spoken in a place, the more the exam requirements need to be raised."

"All aspects must be considered comprehensively to educate qualified Ming citizens." (End of this chapter)