Ming Dynasty: Domination of the World from the Imperial Examination

Chapter 212: Shaping the World!
There was dead silence.

Xia Zhibai's sonorous words echoed in the pavilion.

Scholars such as Liu Sanwu could all hear that Xia Zhibai had no intention of joking at all.

The attitude is very serious.

However, Liu Sanwu, Huang Zhang and other scholars were puzzled. Why did Xia Zhibai do such thankless tasks? What good would it do him? Once the news spread, Xia Zhibai would become the target of public criticism and be criticized by scholars all over the world.

How many scholars' livelihoods will be cut off by this?

Fang Xiaoru suppressed his shock, pulled his beard, and asked, "Grand Secretary, what specific aspects do you want to unify education in?"

Xia Zhibai looked at the middle-aged man and said, "The current teaching model in the world is too loose and unsystematic. It's basically just taking a few books and repeating them over and over again. Therefore, as a textbook compiled by the court, it must cover all aspects. Although most people only touch on the surface, it must allow readers to have some knowledge."

“Interest is the best teacher.”

“Only by dabbling in many things in the world can you know where you are suitable and focus your energy on one thing.”

“However, the teaching materials to be compiled at present only cover the younger age groups.”

"Mainly language, mathematics, history, politics, ethics and law, and a miscellaneous subject."

"The language should break the Confucian monopoly, gather the essence of China, and become a model for the Ming Dynasty."

"In addition to selecting a few articles from the Four Books and Five Classics, it should also include pre-Qin poetry, works of various philosophers, Han fu, Tang poetry, Song lyrics, Yuan opera, etc. Everything should be from simple to difficult, step by step to deepen the readers' understanding of Chinese culture."

"Sculpting for the world!"

“This is the main part of language learning.”

"When I was in the north, I went to do some field research. It was very difficult for northern students to learn Chinese at the beginning because Chinese characters have many strokes and the entry threshold is very high. On the contrary, some foreigners have alternative learning methods. Therefore, I plan to use the symbols of the foreigners as an enlightenment for students in the Ming Dynasty to reduce the difficulty of literacy."

"At the same time, through this method, the pronunciation of the world can be integrated."

"I have done some research on this part. I will publish it in a few days. You will know the answer then."

"The language mainly teaches 'listening, speaking, reading, writing, translating and editing'. It is a collection of ancient and modern Chinese culture, enlightening the intelligence of Ming Dynasty students, strengthening patriotism throughout the world and promoting traditional literature."

"As for mathematics, as the name suggests, it is related to arithmetic."

"The content of learning starts from addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, and then goes to length, width and height, Pythagorean theorem, volume and area, and then to fractions, etc., also from easy to difficult. Students of Daming cannot only know poetry and songs. They must not only understand numbers, but also know how to calculate them."

"This subject is mainly based on Arabic numerals, supplemented by some foreign characters."

“Simplify the writing process, the focus is on extrapolation.”

“The second is history.”

"To forget history is to betray."

"The Chinese have had the habit of writing history books since ancient times."

"China has a long history, but most people in the world are not aware of it. Therefore, it is necessary to understand history. Only by understanding history and knowing the history of China can we deeply understand the difficulties of living in this land and the glory and splendor of China."

"But since we are going to write history."

“There should be a standard.”

"I personally suggest starting with the Yellow Emperor's calendar."

"It is now the 4083th year of Hongwu, which is years in the Yellow Emperor's calendar."

"As for the history before the Xia Dynasty, we can give a brief account of it, focusing on the macro-narrative and supplemented by some anecdotal historical materials. We start to record it seriously from the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, and from the Qin Dynasty, we will start a large chapter on a unified dynasty."

“At the same time, it is necessary to describe what these dynasties mainly did, what achievements they made, and their actions in politics, culture, and military.”

"It is also necessary to clearly state the lessons learned from the rise and fall of a country."

"In addition to the great unified dynasties, we should also write about the harm of the Five Poison Powder in the Jin Dynasty, the migration of the elite to the south in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the serious harm of the military generals' monopoly of power in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. At the same time, we should also write about the malpractice of emphasizing civil over military in the Song Dynasty. As for our dynasty, we should mostly praise it."

"In particular, it should clearly state the expulsion of the Tartars, the restoration of China, the bridging of the north and the south, the recovery of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, and some of the decisions made by Your Majesty."

talking.

Xia Zhibai closed his eyes slightly.

He pondered for a moment and finally said something that many people dared not say.

"As for the Yuan Dynasty."

"It is also included in the Chinese orthodoxy."

"Even the past Xiongnu and Turks can be left with a certain amount of space, but these nomadic tribes are all classified as 'Zhu Xia'. During the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, there were barbarians and Chinese people in the world. After wars, the Shang and Zhou dynasties unified the country, but some Chinese people were unwilling to accept the unification and were left outside, and were called 'Zhu Xia'."

"Historical achievements must be recorded, and shame must also be recorded."

“Only by facing up to history can we learn lessons and avoid making the same mistake again.”

Xia Zhibai was hesitant to speak, and there were some things he ultimately didn't say. He really wanted to add that all history is contemporary history, and history should be written from a contemporary perspective, but after hesitating for a moment, he didn't say it because it wasn't appropriate.

When Xia Zhibai stopped, there was an uproar in the pavilion.

Earlier, when Xia Zhibai mentioned that language should break the monopoly of Confucianism, it had already caused dissatisfaction and fear among many scholars. And when they heard that it would also learn from the learning methods of the Hu people, many scholars became furious. When they heard these historical descriptions, many scholars were so angry that their faces were twisted.

Is there something that can be written?
Liu Sanwu waved his sleeves and angrily shouted, "Xia Zhibai, how long do you want to keep messing around?"

"Abandoning the mainstream of Confucianism and pursuing some minor paths, this is the first time I have heard such a ridiculous statement in all my years of studying. It is simply shocking. If the Ming Dynasty really does what you say, it will be a disaster."

"You're still borrowing things from the Hu people? What can we learn from the Hu people?"

"What does the Ming Dynasty have? Do we need the barbarians' knowledge? I am still very stubborn." "Teaching arithmetic is unheard of. What's the use of learning these weird things? Can they help govern the country? Can they help the Ming Dynasty solve problems? As a student, you should focus on governing the world. Learning these things is not doing your job properly and is really misleading."

"Xia Zhibai, I will not teach you much because you are still young. If you are still so stubborn and want to promote this wrong thing, don't blame me. I will impeach you to His Majesty. Your ideas are too unorthodox and stupid."

"Dead wood can't be carved!"

Liu Sanwu was so angry that he stamped his feet and fluttered his sleeves.

His face turned red with anger.

Huang Zhang also followed suit and rebuked, "How can history be read casually by people?"

"If the Yuan Dynasty is included in the orthodox tradition, then what is our Ming Dynasty?"

"Are you planning to usurp the throne?"

"What about the migration of culture and status to the south? It's been a long time since then. I'm from the south, so I'm a southerner. What does it have to do with the migration of culture and status to the south? What do you mean by this? Are you accusing me of forgetting my roots? You're trying to stir up disputes between the north and the south!"

"What's wrong with the Song Dynasty emphasizing culture over military affairs?"

"Do you know how prosperous the Song Dynasty was? How prosperous was its literature?"

"If the Song Dynasty's military commanders were not incompetent, how could they allow the barbarians to bully them? How can this be considered the fault of the scholars?"

"absurd."

"Barbarians are barbarians."

"Even if they are really Zhu Xia, they are still barbarians."

"China has its own orthodoxy. How can you have the right to comment on it?"

"."

There was a lot of accusations in the field.

Some people accused Xia Zhibai of being disrespectful to teachers and betraying the Chinese tradition of respecting Confucianism.

There were also those who scolded Xia Zhibai for his wild ideas, wanting to make "arithmetic", which was originally a subject only for aristocrats, become a commonplace and ridiculous subject. There were also those who angrily scolded Xia Zhibai for provoking disputes between the North and the South and smearing the founding of the Ming Dynasty. There were also those who were dissatisfied with the various viewpoints mentioned by Xia Zhibai.

There was now a quarrel in the huge pavilion, and everyone was blaming Xia Zhibai.

Only a few people remained silent.

They all responded indifferently.

Xia Zhibai endured it silently and couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

The journey is difficult and there are many forks in the road.

The textbooks he was going to compile would directly pull down the fig leaf of scholars and make many things that scholars were proud of become commonplace, for example arithmetic. Among the six arts of Confucianism, arithmetic was one, but nowadays arithmetic was not taken very seriously and only the children of rich families could learn it, as well as the housekeepers and accountants who learned it in the family.

A deeper level is accounting.

Accounting is a science.

The less you know about arithmetic, the harder it is to spot accounting problems.

If the students of the Ming Dynasty really learned arithmetic, I am afraid that it would become much more difficult to "do accounts" in the future. This has already involved the vital interests of many people, so how could they not stop it?
From ancient times to the present.

The scholar class were first scholars and then officials of the dynasty.

The reason why the scholar class has always been superior to others is that they control teaching.

As long as they have a few books and knowledge, they can always have food to eat even if they do nothing, because there will be people begging them to teach. This is the most basic and direct manifestation of a scholar's status. If they succeed, many scholars will "lose power" and will most likely starve to death.

No scholar would like to have such a gap between the upper and lower levels.

Moreover, if history became known to more people, the origins of many of their ideas would be discovered and people would no longer be amazed and praised. In the future, the requirements for scholars would become higher and higher, and the threshold for scholars would be raised step by step. How could this be a good thing for these scholars?
They serve as officials to make profits, not to cut off their own retreat.

Xia Zhibai waited for a while.

The excited voices from the surrounding crowd never subsided.

He said loudly, "It's too late."

"When I came here, I had already written these contents into a memorial and presented them to His Majesty. If you really have any objections, you can go and argue with His Majesty directly and ask His Majesty whether his sword agrees. If the Ming Dynasty wants to truly achieve the goal of bridging the north and the south, it must work hard on education."

"Otherwise, Your Majesty would not have issued the Great Edict."

“Now it’s just a step further.”

"I did not come here today to argue with you."

"It's a notification!"

"Instead of opposing, why don't you weigh the pros and cons in your mind first? Which is more important, the country or the family? Once you have weighed the pros and cons, come and argue with me as a Hanlin scholar. I believe you will calm down."

“And we will make the right decision.”

"The journey of the great road means that the world is for the common good."

"From your attitudes, the court must unify education."

"Otherwise, they are all a bunch of selfish and despicable people, and then there is really no hope for the Ming Dynasty."

"The knowledge you have learned has been divorced from the national economy and people's livelihood. If you continue to be so stubborn and pursue trivial matters, you will inevitably seek glory and suffer humiliation. Why can't the Ming Dynasty abandon such scholars?"

(End of this chapter)