Diqin Designer

Chapter 204: Young Master's Righteousness
Li Nian added: "The teaching materials should also be divided according to the different ages of students and the different knowledge they have acquired, starting from the easy to the difficult, and from the shallow to the deep."

"Beginners should first learn the basics, and after passing the assessment, they can then learn more advanced knowledge. They should not mix all the content together without distinguishing between the basics and the basics. Otherwise, it will be difficult for the teacher to teach and the student to learn."

"According to Li, the teaching materials can be divided into primary school, secondary school and university."

"The purpose of primary school is to learn to read and write, master basic knowledge, and lay a solid foundation; when entering middle school, more in-depth content is added to the foundation of primary school; after middle school, a major examination is required, and the best students are admitted to university, and then further learn more profound knowledge."

"Primary school, middle school and university are all divided into academic years, and the difficulty of the content learned in each year should also be different. For example, if primary school is set as three years, when we compile teaching materials, we want students to master what they have learned in this stage of primary school, which can be divided into three academic years for students to learn."

"Students must be assessed every academic year or after completing a certain learning goal. This is to understand both the teacher's teaching situation and the student's learning situation. Only those who pass the assessment can proceed to the next stage of study, and those who fail the assessment will be punished."

Examination-oriented education has been criticized by some people in modern times as being worthless, but it is indeed an effective way to quickly eliminate illiteracy and select talents from the general public.

On the other hand, the happy education that is advocated is something that only rich people can afford, and the rich don’t play it that way at all. Instead, they get more involved. If the lower-class people really believe it, they will only be miserable.

You can get an idea by looking at those people in the West who are not illiterate but whose behavior is no different from that of illiterates due to the happy education.

The difficulty in compiling the textbooks this time is to divide the textbooks into subjects and grades.

It's not impossible for Li Nian to do it alone. At worst, he can copy the textbooks of later generations and modify them to suit the current era.

But if we do that, we won’t be able to mobilize the resources of all the families.

The various schools of thought include the vast majority of literate people in the world today. If this power is not utilized but instead thrown aside, it will not only be a waste but also harmful.

Because they would definitely think that Emperor Qin and Li Nian wanted to depose them and establish a new school to replace them.

In this situation, confrontation and resistance are bound to arise, but if we allow them to participate, we can not only borrow their resources and strength but also prevent this mentality from arising.

Even if the textbooks are compiled and popularized as new knowledge throughout the world, they have also participated in it, and their contributions and sweat are also included in it, so it cannot be considered as dismissing them.

It is easy to study the science of things and mathematics, but it is not easy for Li Nian to handle moral education, history and geography alone.

The era from which Li Nian came is more than 2,000 years away from the present day, and there are differences in topography and climate. If Li Nian were to compile geography textbooks according to the conditions of later times, there would definitely be many errors and omissions.

The same goes for history. The history of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties is so long ago in later generations that the information is incomplete and distorted, and some things are difficult to explain clearly. But it is different for people of this era.

To them, the Spring and Autumn Period seemed like the day before yesterday, and the Warring States Period seemed like yesterday. They obviously knew more about these historical events than Li Nian.

Li Nian said: "I know that some people come to participate in this Xianyang exam with the intention of governing the country and the people, so I will not force you to accept the task of compiling new characters and textbooks."

"The world has been unified for less than half a year, and there is a shortage of officials. If you have the ability to govern the local areas, I hope you can go to the local areas to take charge of the government, manage people's livelihood, and handle civil affairs."

"However, if you don't want to be an official in the local area, please help me. His Majesty has ordered that all those who compile characters and edit books here will have official salaries and ranks." Li Nian didn't want so many people to stay here to edit books. He hoped that some people would go to the local areas to be officials. Although compiling new characters and textbooks were good things, they also had to govern the local areas and maintain the stability of the Qin Dynasty.

In Li Nian's opinion, those who want to be officials can become officials, and those who don't want to be officials can come and compile characters and teaching materials.

He added: "The reason why all the scholars of the Hundred Schools came to Xianyang this time is probably for paper. All the scholars of the Hundred Schools who are here today can obtain the paper needed for the hundred volumes of classics of each school."

If there is no interest, but only sentiment and morality, ideals and aspirations are concerned, these people can indeed be motivated to do things, but how can they be as motivated as promising something and paying a salary at the same time?
"After that, each faction will be given a quota of 100 scrolls every year. If you still need paper, you will need to buy it yourself or exchange it with points."

"As for your concerns that the Hundred Schools of Thought will be banned, I have advised Your Majesty to build a Hundred Schools Academy in Xianyang, where you can set up academies to study your own theories or exchange and debate with other schools of thought."

Most of the hundreds of schools of thought will disappear sooner or later, but their thoughts and doctrines will gradually unify and blend into one or several.

This is the trend of history, and there will not always be a situation where a hundred schools of thought will flourish and compete with each other.

Even if Dong Zhongshu had not proposed the idea of ​​"abolishing all schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone", if someone in history had destroyed Confucianism, the other hundreds of schools of thought would not have continued to exist. They would have decided on a new dominant school, and then this school would have proposed "abolishing all schools of thought and respecting them alone".

It seems that Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism coexisted in later dynasties. In fact, one of the reasons why Buddhism and Taoism can exist is that they both have religious attributes. As long as there are people who believe in them, they can continue to exist. This is unlike some schools of thought, which have no one to study and believe in them, and Confucianism has become the mainstream, so they can only gradually disappear in history.

But even so, Buddhism and Taoism have integrated each other's and Confucian content and are no longer pure Taoism and Buddhism.

It's all a hodgepodge, but as long as the core of the doctrine remains unchanged, I will still be me, not someone else.

The numerous schools of thought are destined to be lost in history, and Li Nian's compilation of new characters and textbooks will accelerate this demise.

Knowing that all schools of thought would eventually die out, Li Nian couldn't help but feel a sense of regret.

The various schools of thought once created the most splendid page of Chinese civilization. Even in modern times, their theories are still of great use, but this page must eventually be turned over.

The theories and thoughts of the various philosophers will continue to exist, but the schools they established will die out. It will no longer be like today, where one person is from Confucianism, and another is from Mohism...

But as long as the theories and ideas are still there and later generations know and understand them, the Hundred Schools of Thought are not really gone. As long as the Chinese civilization does not perish, they will always be there, just in a different way!
Li Nian gathered his thoughts and bowed to the audience: "I have finished speaking. If you have any questions, you can discuss them among yourselves first and ask me again in half an hour."

After Li Nian finished speaking, the audience was silent for a few breaths, and then someone stood up and saluted Li Nian: "Young Master, you have both great talent and great righteousness. Please accept my respect!"

Although creating new characters and textbooks does not bring much benefit to all schools of thought and may even cause harm, Li Nian's starting point is not for his own selfish interests but for the whole world.

The others also stood up and saluted Li Nian in unison: "Young Master, please accept our greetings!"

(End of this chapter)