Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

The first month of the fourth year of Chongzhen was relatively uneventful.

This was the first year of the full implementation of the new calendar, and Zhu Youjian did not do anything new to avoid any trouble.

In order to maintain stability, he even held a court meeting on the first day of the first lunar month to get his ministers used to it.

At the same time, he also clearly stated that a court meeting would be held on the first day of the first lunar month, and the annual holiday would be extended to the eighteenth day of the first lunar month.

It is not until the 19th day of the first lunar month that the various government offices in the capital will officially start printing, during which time officials will be arranged to take turns on duty.

This was naturally welcomed by the officials, especially when they received the year-end bonus from the court at the end of the year.

This was the profit from issuing subsidiary currency notes, and Zhu Youjian decided to use it all to pay bonuses to make them more supportive of subsidiary currency notes.

Ministers in the court also received other rewards. Zhu Youjian gave them bonuses from a portion of the inner court's income on the grounds that they served in the Zhanshi Mansion.

Each person received at least 100 subsidiary coins, and some even received as much as their annual salary, which reduced their resentment towards the emperor's business operations and made them more supportive of the current emperor.

The new calendar was implemented smoothly and no one dared to oppose the emperor.

At the same time, the name of the new calendar was officially decided, from the solar calendar to the daily and lunar calendar.

This is not only because the words "sun" and "moon" are more suitable for the Ming Dynasty, but also because after the new calendar was implemented, in order to indicate the changes in the phases of the moon, moon phase symbols such as "new moon, full moon" were added to some dates.

In this way, it is not a simple solar calendar, but a solar-lunar calendar that combines the lunar and solar elements, with the sun as the main element.

So its name was changed to solar-lunar calendar.

People quickly accepted the low-priced calendars produced by the printing workshop.

This calendar was printed by Zhu Youjian in imitation of the calendars of later generations. It has digital dates, stems and branches, new moons and full moons, etc., integrated into one table.

Although it is not as perfect as the almanac, it is very popular among people because of its low price.

Even those who could not read bought the coins. They used the numbers on the coins to identify the dates on the calendar.

Families with spare money will buy new clocks that can display time, date, zodiac signs, and moon phases.

This kind of clock was also invented at the suggestion of Zhu Youjian.

In later life, he had seen complex watches with functions such as calendar and moon phases, so he instructed watchmakers to research them.

The calendar was invented first because the new calendar had a fixed period of 30 days per month. Except for a few leap days at the end of the year that needed to be manually adjusted, the calendar was very easy to develop.

Some people even added the Ganzhi to show the corresponding Ganzhi time of each day.

The moon phase watch looks complicated, but it is actually very simple.

Because the moon phase changes every 29.5 days, as long as the moon phase gear is set to 59, the moon phases such as the new moon, crescent moon, full moon and waning moon can be displayed with patterns.

After the dial was made under the emperor's instructions, the moon phase watch was soon produced.

Although it has not yet been shrunk into a watch as requested by the emperor, calendar, zodiac, moon phase and other dials have been added to the high-end table clock.

This made the display of various times more intuitive, effectively promoted the dissemination of the new calendar, and was praised by Zhu Youjian.

In short, the first major thing at the beginning of this year is to ensure the implementation of the new calendar and achieve a smooth transition.

At the same time, the release of "On Production" also shifted the focus of public opinion.

More people are focusing on this article rather than finding trouble with the new calendar.
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It was under such circumstances that Zhang Pu went to Beijing, accompanied by Chen Jiru, Yang Tingshu, Wu Changshi, Wu Weiye, Zhang Yao and others.

Most of them came to take part in the imperial examinations, while some had other purposes.

When Chen Zilong saw Zhang Pu and the others coming, he immediately stepped forward to greet them:

"Brother Tianru, you are finally back in Beijing!" He said to Chen Jiru:

"Mei Gong is here too, how unexpected!"

I was extremely surprised that Chen Jiru, the hermit, came to Beijing.

Chen Jiru smiled bitterly when he heard this, and seemed not to want to mention the reason for going to Beijing.

Zhang Pu smiled and said:
"Mei Gong had no choice but to be blocked and scolded by a group of women."

"I came to the capital to find some peace and quiet, to see if there is any way to solve the problem."

When Chen Zilong heard this, he remembered a rumor in the capital:
The Queen was dissatisfied with Chen Jiru's statement that "a woman's virtue lies in her lack of talent" and prevented him from becoming a Yuanshi.

If Chen Jiru wanted to be specially granted the status of a Yuanshi, he had to clarify this sentence and even include women in the parliament.

This was obviously a troublesome matter, but Chen Zilong never thought that Chen Jiru would be scolded by a woman in Jiangnan and no one dared to intervene.

This made him curious and asked:
"How is this going?"

"Mei Gong is scolded even in Jiangnan. Doesn't the government care?"

Officials and gentry in Jiangnan received a lot of guidance from Chen Jiru.

It is impossible that no one will protect him and help him solve his problems.

Wu Changshi then smiled and said:
"That's because of Brother Tianru."

"The Women's Workers Association he formed sent people to sit in front of Meigong Gate every day, and sometimes people would go and curse in the streets."

"Even if the government wants to control things, they can't even forbid people from sitting in silence."

"Besides, which of those officials doesn't have a mother or a wife?"

This was the most difficult part for Chen Jiru. Officials who were on good terms with him did not want to get involved in the matter, citing their mother’s orders as an excuse, in order to avoid offending the empress or even the emperor.

The Women's Workers' Association also felt that they had a backer because they offered maids to serve the queen. With the support of some noble ladies, they went to Chen Jiru's door all day long.

Even Zhang Pu couldn't control them, making Chen Jiru a laughing stock in Jiangnan.

Therefore, no matter whether Chen Jiru was willing to become a Yuanshi or not, solving the saying "A woman's virtue lies in her lack of talent" had become a problem he had to face.

He had not even spent a year in Jiangnan before he went to Beijing with Zhang Pu and other candidates who were taking the imperial examinations.

After arriving in the capital, the situation was indeed much better.

Although there were girls' schools in the capital, they still criticized him tirelessly in the newspapers.

But most of these people come from wealthy families and will not curse like the female workers in Jiangnan.

Chen Jiru felt the long-lost peace and quiet, and had close contacts with Qian Qianyi, Dong Qichang, Chen Renxi and others.

Even Yuan Keli attended their gathering and discussed the most popular historical periodization issue in Beijing:
"The historical periodization mentioned by Mu Zhai in "On Production" is really refreshing."

"In the past, people always said that the present is not as good as the past. Now, seeing the changes in objects, we know that the world will surely progress and the future will be better than the present."

This is a viewpoint raised in the newspaper after the publication of "On Production". From the evolution of stone tools, bronze tools and iron tools, it refuted the view that the past is more important than the present and concluded that "the world will surely progress and the future will be better than the present". It encouraged people to work hard and create greater achievements than their predecessors.

This point received a lot of support in the Privy Council. Those who had felt the changes in weapons most deeply easily agreed with this conclusion.

However, many people disagree with this and quote the words of ancient sages to show that modern people are far inferior to ancient people. (End of this chapter)