Diqin Designer

Chapter 244 Opening Ceremony

The first day of March in the first year of Emperor Qin Shihuang's reign will be a day that will be remembered in history. Even if the Qin Dynasty perishes in the future, it will not change the importance of this day in history.

Because this day is the day when Daqin begins to try out the educational method proposed and led by Li Nian. From this day on, Daqin will adopt an educational method that has never been used before, including but not limited to new teaching materials, new courses, and new teaching and testing models.

On the first day of March, at noon, which is a little after eight o'clock in later times, Li Nian arrived early at the square outside Zhangtai Palace, because today was the first day of school and the First Emperor would personally preside over the opening ceremony.

He knew that this matter would be recorded in history and passed down to future generations. In addition, Li Nian told him that the people who were going to enter school today were all his disciples. If he could say a few words, it would definitely leave a huge impact in the hearts of the students, which could not be left to others.

The First Emperor naturally agreed and turned today's school opening into a ceremony. In order to show how important this matter was, he decided to hold it in the square outside the Zhangtai Palace. This place was where his enthronement ceremony was held and it was of great significance.

When Li Nian arrived, some people had already arrived and formed teams in the square. There was a team composed of the princes of the Great Qin and some members of the royal family, a team of the ministers of the Great Qin, a team of students who were going to enter school today, a team composed of the parents of the students, and a team of teaching staff...

The First Emperor invited all the princes and clan members of the Great Qin to attend, which was to show his importance of this opening ceremony through the princes and to tell the students, "I have summoned all my sons to attend your opening ceremony. I am very optimistic about you. You must study hard and serve the Great Qin in the future."

At the same time, he was also conveying a message to all the young masters, "I value education and talents, and you should learn from me."

Most of the princes would become kings in the future, so naturally they would need talents. The First Emperor wanted to set a good example for them.

The reason why all the ministers came here was the same, to let the students know how much he valued them and to encourage them to study hard, as they might have a place in the future Qin court.

Looking at the group of students who are going to enroll today, there are more than 700 of them. Originally, there were only more than 400. But because Li Nian proposed to set up a women's department in the Medical Academy, the First Emperor ordered a group of smart girls to be sent from all over the country.

This is also the advantage of this era. Although it is indeed inferior to later dynasties in many aspects, relatively speaking, there are fewer constraints. For example, if some dynasties in later generations recruited so many girls as students, the label of feudal ethics would be immediately put on them.

However, only more than one hundred girls were sent from various places, and some of the others were children of the princes and nobles of the Qin Dynasty. After the princes and ministers of the Qin Dynasty knew that Li Nian was going to open a school to teach, they selected some of their younger generations from their families or clans and sent them here.

After all, they are a privileged class. Although Li Nian could firmly refuse to accept these people, it would do him no good to do so, so he accepted them anyway.

Scholars from all over the six countries had opinions about these more than 700 students. They were not dissatisfied with the students themselves, but with the origins of these more than 700 people.

These students were all from Qin, none of them were from the six kingdoms. But they were not in a position to raise any objections, and they could even understand this approach.

The Qin Emperor summoned these students to Xianyang, obviously to let them learn advanced knowledge and train them to become the pillars of the Qin Dynasty. But now that the world has just been settled, there must be people who are dissatisfied with the Qin Dynasty. If children from other places are summoned, what if some people take advantage of the opportunity, wouldn’t it bring disaster to the Qin Dynasty?

It is completely understandable that the Emperor of Qin only allows children of the Qin people to go to school now, but if in the future, the Emperor of Qin does not call children from other places to go to school, it would be wrong. They would write to ask: Your Majesty, are you the emperor of the Qin people, or the emperor of the world? If you are the emperor of the world, why do you favor the Qin people in everything and ignore people from other places?
Everyone in the team of students' parents had an expression of joy and excitement on their faces. A few months ago, how could they have dared to imagine that their children would one day go to Xianyang to study and become disciples of His Majesty the Emperor?
These are the emperor's disciples. If this news gets out, it will bring honor to the family. Unless there are no accidents, their children will be able to make great achievements and even serve in the Qin court and become important officials of the country.

The teaching staff included people selected by Li Nian to teach these students, candidates who had participated in the Xianyang examination, craftsmen from the Shaofu, alchemists, and many scholars who assisted Li Nian in compiling dictionaries and textbooks. All of them together made up this team.

He has to be in charge of the overall teaching tasks, but some classes can be assigned to others to teach, such as physical education, music, literacy, basic scientific knowledge, etc.

Otherwise, with more than 700 students, how long would it take him to teach them all by himself? How could he take care of them all?
Looking at the teaching staff, Li Nian thought of something. Originally, there should have been more teaching staff, but unfortunately due to the rebellion of the old nobles of the six kingdoms, some people became discouraged and chose to leave Xianyang, like Fan Zeng who did not stay.

This "father" of Xiang Yu will probably never appear again, nor will he be remembered as deeply as he should be in history, and it is not certain...

During the Xianyang Examination, Fan Zeng and Chu Mo Juzi were almost considered to have cheated, and he had it recorded in the events of the First Xianyang Examination. Who knows, someone might dig it up and laugh at it in the future: Shocking, a thousand years ago, Chu Mo Juzi was almost caught for cheating and his results were invalidated?

Why did Master Chu Mo cheat thousands of years ago? He was the reason behind it!

Li Nian was daydreaming when he suddenly heard a voice saying "His Majesty is here!" He immediately collected his thoughts and looked in the direction of the voice. He saw Ying Zheng walking towards the high platform in the square under the escort of the guards.

After Ying Zheng walked onto the stage, he stood in the position that belonged to him alone. All the teams below the stage bowed and saluted in unison: "Greetings, Your Majesty!"

Not caring about whether he was an official or not, Ying Zheng said: "My fellow ministers, please stand up politely!"

After everyone stood up, Ying Zheng continued, "I once heard something from Li Nian, which roughly means 'I have never heard of a country becoming poor or destroyed because of education. Education will not make a country poor, on the contrary, education is the best way to get rid of poverty.'"

"I have pondered over these words and feel that they make sense, especially in this era of great contention. If we cannot take the lead in education, our country will not be able to take the lead and will fall behind other countries. You all know what will happen to our country!"

After hearing what Ying Zheng said, Li Si, one of the ministers, sighed in his heart. Although he had long known that the Qin Dynasty would take a path different from the Legalists' idea, he still couldn't help but sigh.

Until now, he still hasn't fully understood why Ying Zheng gave up those Legalist policies and turned to write to Li Nian.

Anyone who is not stupid knows that Li Nian played an important role in the various changes that have taken place in Ying Zheng in recent months, and today's opening ceremony is definitely included.

(End of this chapter)