Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 999 Ascent Channel
After inspecting the Guozijian and martial arts, Wang Yan came to the Gongbu Academy again, which was also something that was just built this year.

Wang Yan said that the four peoples are the stone pillars of the country, and many people agree with him. With the rise of various workshops in society, the status of craftsmen has indeed risen, but it is still not the time to completely shake the inherent concerns.

It can be said that Wang Yan encountered opposition from many people when he wanted to run the Ministry of Industry Academy, including most of the people around him who did not understand.

In the eyes of most scholars, being a craftsman is always a cheap profession.

Wang Yan, Gu Yanwu and others walked through the school, and in a room, there was a huge model, which was a hydraulic stamping machine made by folk craftsmen not long ago.

"Your Highness, although you can gain a large number of masters by opening this school, the officials feel that the gain is not worth the loss!" Gu Yanwu stood beside Wang Yan and said: "Nowadays, among scholars, the struggle between the mind and the Neo-Confucianism is between the Minben School and the Emperor's. The controversy over the reunification faction has already caused turmoil in the government and the opposition. Since His Highness told Taichong not to make radical remarks in the Imperial College, why did he still want to set up this school of the Ministry of Industry and give Shilin an excuse?"

Wang Yan already had an idea in his mind, and he mused: "The promotion of the theory of mind and people-based theory in the Imperial College has shaken the foundation of Neo-Confucianism. They counterattacked fiercely. If Gu Ruo insists on continuing to promote it forcefully, it will be the tip of the needle against the wheat, which will definitely trigger even bigger problems. turmoil, so they go to recycling alone to make them feel that the situation is not urgent."

Wang Yan paused for a moment, then smiled and said: "Now that the ideological confrontation has encountered a bottleneck and strong resistance, I will find another way. This engineering is underestimated by them, and they think it is nothing more than a strange skill, so they will definitely not be too aggressive. Pay attention to this school, but let them say a few words, but the idea that all peoples are stone pillars can be practiced here. After these students complete their studies, they will be assigned to the Ministry of Industry as officials, or sent to the chamber of commerce. It will be able to affect the social reputation, break through from the side, and dig the corner of traditional Neo Confucianism."

After listening to Wang Yan's words, Gu Yanwu couldn't help admiring Wang Yan. His Royal Highness the King of Chu is worthy of being the one who leads troops to fight. This move avoids the real and hits the weak, and attacks in a roundabout way, which is really hard to guard against.

"Your Highness, this strategy is really good!" Gu Yanwu couldn't help but praised: "Ten years of hard work may not be able to enter the court as an official and become a superior person, but you can study for a few years in this engineering, not to mention being a high-ranking official. At least eating and drinking in the future can really drive some people to change their views on craftsmen."

Wang Yan nodded, "This is exactly one of Gu's intentions. Now we are facing not only political enemies, but also conflicts with the people. Gu's doing this is also to give the people an extra channel to rise. "The imperial examination is a great system invented by China. It allows the class to flow without being completely solidified, and the poor can have a channel to rise.

The dynasties of the past dynasties can also attract outstanding talents to the ruling class through the imperial examination, so as to prevent these talents from staying at the bottom and forming a rebellion due to dissatisfaction with the dynasty.

Generally speaking, if the talents are above the court, the dynasty will be stable, but if the talents are in the countryside, the dynasty will almost come to an end.

However, Wang Yan feels that the imperial examination alone is not enough, especially since he is now in an era of change unseen in a thousand years, and he must build a few more upward paths from the bottom to alleviate social conflicts.

In the Tang Dynasty, a scholar who took the Jinshi examination several times, but all of them were named Luosunshan, found that the road to the imperial examination was blocked, and wrote a poem "Fu Ju after Budihou" full of anger. Kill. The fragrance of the sky penetrates Chang'an, and the whole city is covered with golden armor." The person who proposed the poem, soon after returning, withdrew the banner and rebelled against the Tang Dynasty.

In later generations, a talented scholar who failed in the imperial examinations hated Confucius to the core, started worshiping God, and stirred up the situation for more than ten years.

If the whole society is not only a channel of advancement, but the status of craftsmen and merchants is also raised, then the imperial examination will fail, and the poet who wrote it may continue to sell salt.

At a time when the commodity economy is beginning to develop and thinking is turbulent, Wang Yan has to think of ways to provide more channels for the people to rise, so that people have multiple choices, otherwise the whole society will be full of contradictions.

Although there seemed to be someone manipulating the Jinhua rebellion this time, the fundamental reason was that both the common people and scholars began to be dissatisfied with Wang Yan, and only when they were dissatisfied would they be instigated.

After listening to Wang Yan's words, Gu Yanwu felt that it made sense: "If there is only one way of the imperial examination, the current selection of scholars by the imperial court is obviously biased towards the scholars who study the mind. The chances of the scholars who were originally influenced by Neo Confucianism will be greatly reduced. They study hard for ten years. For the rest of the year, they were unable to gain fame in the end, so they naturally resented His Highness and the court, and if there was another way for them to go, then they would not participate in the Jinhua rebellion."

The problems faced by the entire Ming Dynasty were the problems brought about by its own social transformation and various problems existing in the society itself.

For example, capital germination and business development, if the status of the businessman is not high, then the businessman makes money, he must not continue to invest in business, but to buy land, turn himself into a landlord, and then train his children to take the imperial examination, and then turn himself into a landlord. A gentry, become a man above others.

Because of the high status of the gentry, there is only one upward channel for the gentry in the whole society, so the people below must only climb up through this channel, and the merchants make money to sell the land, and the funds are limited to the land. There will be no transformation, no capitalism.

The germination of capital in late Ming society was actually opening up another upward channel. If the status of a businessman was sufficient and he became a successful businessman, he would be a member of the upper class of society. With more funds, the era of capital has arrived.

The same principle is also applicable to people at other levels. People in the whole society are trying to become the same, to become gentry, then the whole society will not be able to change, and it will always be a united society.

In order to break up this unitary society, the status of merchants, craftsmen, and soldiers must be elevated so that they can become pluralistic from a unit.

It shows that the Korean society is changing, because he had the idea of ​​breaking the unit society, and thinkers like Li Zhi began to encourage the improvement of the status of businessmen and encourage business.

The more developed the society, the more upward channels it has. The Ming Dynasty is now transforming from a traditional small-scale peasant society to a commodity economy society, and to a capitalist society.

During this transformation process, new and old forces alternate, and various complex problems exist. Wang Yan's mission is to complete this transformation.

Wang Yan stood in the room outside the stamping machine for a while, and then led Gu Yanwu to the firearms teaching area.

(End of this chapter)