Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 199 Education Reform
Yang Yiqing, the Minister of Rites, replaced Ma Wensheng and was granted the title of Minister of War and the title of Right Censor-in-Chief and Governor-General of Hetao by Zhu Houzhao in order to continue to strengthen the empire's rule and development over Hetao.

Yang Yiqing was an official who was good at commanding troops. The exaggerated Anhua Prince Rebellion made Zhu Houzhao deeply realize that an official like Yang Yiqing who was always yearning for advancement was not suitable to stay in the capital. Staying in the capital, this big melting pot, would only make a talented general know how to fight for power internally. It would be better to send him to the border town to make achievements.

Of course, letting Yang Yiqing replace Ma Wensheng to take charge of Hetao was also because Emperor Zhengde Zhu Houzhao had no intention of stopping the Ming Dynasty in Hetao. Although the southern and northern parts of the desert and even further north are not very worthy of occupation and development for the Ming Dynasty now, they will be worthy of development in the future, especially Siberia, which is rich in natural gas resources.

However, Zhu Houzhao now had to turn his attention to the south. There was no need for the north to expand before the empire had sufficient financial and military strength. Doing so would only waste the empire's financial resources and would be worthless, becoming a sign of warmongering in the eyes of civil officials.

Zhu Houzhao knew that the strategic focus of the empire must be shifted from land to sea, because now was the Age of Discovery, and from then on, the progress of civilization and the accumulation of wealth would come from the sea, and even the real crisis would come from the sea.

But for a while, Zhu Houzhao didn't know what else he could do as the emperor to help the empire dominate the sea. Soft sailing ships that were more suitable for sea travel and had faster speeds had already begun to be built at the Zhijiang Shipyard, and the treasure ship that Zheng He used to sail to the West was also being rebuilt. He specially ordered the Nanjing Ministry of Works to look for good wood in Southeast Asia.

The Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, Lin Tingxuan, was also ordered to train the navy in Guangdong and Guangxi.

Zhu Houzhao discovered that the only thing the empire lacked now was talents who could bring glory to the empire's maritime business.

The first is educational talent.

If Ming Dynasty is to have more maritime talents to open up shipping routes, and more generals to help it dominate the world, it must have more training bases for such talents, which in turn requires more educational talents who are proficient in navigation knowledge and naval warfare.

But the Ming Dynasty now did not have specialized personnel to teach navigation knowledge and naval warfare, not even in the Imperial University of Peking.

Of course, there were still people in the Ming system who were good at navigation and even naval warfare, and there was even a wealth of relevant information on maritime combat and navigation experience, such as the valuable drawings and documents of Zheng He's seven voyages to the West.

But most of these talents needed Zhu Houzhao to discover and count them himself.

Zhu Houzhao planned to organize this group of maritime talents one day in the future and build a maritime school to specialize in training maritime talents.

This maritime school is mainly responsible for teaching maritime-related knowledge and skills, and is not responsible for enlightenment and basic education.

What Zhu Houzhao could imagine was that once this maritime school was built, another problem it would face would be a lack of students to recruit.

Because if the maritime school recruits illiterate children of civilians, it will first have to provide them with enlightenment and basic education, which will take at least three or four years.

All the literate scholars and Confucian scholars were trying their best to pass the imperial examination and become Jinshi. The idea that everything else is inferior except for education was deeply rooted in them. Especially the young scholars and Confucian scholars were unwilling to pursue a career other than taking the imperial examination.

This is also the reason why the Imperial University of Peking only allows Jinshi graduates to register, because Jinshi graduates do not have the pressure of taking the imperial examination and can study more freely.

Sometimes Zhu Houzhao really wanted to abolish the imperial examination system, but he was worried that once it was abolished, the scholar class would completely break with him as the emperor, and would no longer hold on to the last bit of fantasy about his Ming Dynasty. After all, he would be depriving them of their path to advancement.

Moreover, before a better system for the advancement of the lower-class people is established, abolishing the imperial examination system will also cut off the hopes of the common people, especially the majority of the common people and landlords.

For the common people of the empire, although the admission rate of the imperial examination was low, at least there was hope that they could be farmers in the morning and enter the emperor's palace in the evening, so they did not have to rebel just because there was no hope.

Zhu Houzhao felt that the only thing he could do was to increase investment in enlightenment education and basic education, and turn more Ming people, especially young people and children, into cultural people with a certain level of knowledge. In this way, there would be more scholars who were not satisfied with the status quo, and the imperial examination with a low admission rate would no longer meet their needs for success. More students would inevitably be willing to choose maritime or other ways to achieve success.

As long as he can make the people realize that participating in the empire's maritime affairs will bring considerable income and good political prospects.

The same is true for the promotion of other industries.

But now we can only popularize education first.

The salt administration reform of "paying taxes to obtain salt" and the clean administration of officials saved the empire a lot of military expenses on transporting grain.

The opening of border trade has also increased the income of border towns and the imperial central court.

The land survey gave the empire more tax revenue, which increased the grain revenue worth millions of taels in a short period of time. Combined with the good harvests from the frontier towns and the newly allocated farmland in Hetao, the tax grain revenue of the Ministry of Revenue increased to 30 million dan! This is close to the grain revenue of the empire during the heyday of Hongwu and Yongle.

Combined with the silver income earned from the royal industries and the mineral development in Yulin City, the current treasury revenue of the Ming Dynasty has even exceeded any period in its history.

It was precisely because of such strong financial support that Zhu Houzhao was able to increase investment in education.

The seventh year of Zhengde, the beginning of the new year.

Zhu Houzhao officially issued an edict, ordering governors and education commissioners in various places to expand community schools, and requiring that every village must have a community school. Old community schools that had been abandoned should be reopened, and new villages and towns that had no community schools should immediately open community schools.

Moreover, community schools were incorporated into the education administration system and jointly managed by the county and the education commissioner;
Teachers of community schools are given the same status as Juren, and can directly take the imperial examination after teaching for four years;

A community school is allowed to have multiple teachers, and there is a principal who is granted the ninth rank.

At the same time, Zhu Houzhao decided to divide the power of the Ministry of Rites, and set up a separate Ministry of Education to handle the academic affairs that were previously the responsibility of the Ministry of Ceremonies and Personnel. Kang Hai was appointed Minister of Education to lead the academic affairs of the empire, thus changing the six ministries that had been in place for a thousand years.

There was not much opposition to this organizational reform. At most, the officials of the Ministry of Rites felt that their power was divided. However, Yang Yiqing, the Minister of Rites, had just been transferred to the governor of the border town. The officials of the Ministry of Rites had been greatly weakened because Zhang Sheng and Mao Cheng, the two former Ministers of Rites, were killed. As a result, after the establishment of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Rites did not dare to go against Zhu Houzhao's wishes. However, in order to achieve the goal of streamlining the government, Zhu Houzhao also issued an edict to merge the Taichang Temple, Guanglu Temple, and Honglu Temple into the Ministry of Rites, and ordered the cabinet to re-establish the affairs of the Ministry of Rites and clarify specific ceremonial matters and foreign affairs.

The central government established the Ministry of Education to better manage academic affairs and promote education. From then on, education was no longer just the business of the Ministry of Rites, but the business of the imperial court. In terms of the system, it was managed directly by the emperor through the Ministry of Education.

Kang Hai, the first Minister of Education, was the first official of the fourth rank or above to go to the Imperial University for further studies. He also understood the importance of education. Even the specific reforms of the community school and the curriculum were completed by him personally.

For example, those who pass the county examination can directly enter the county school. After five years in the county school, they can directly take the prefectural examination. After three years in the prefectural school, they can directly take the academy examination.

Based on the existing financial resources of the Ming Dynasty, after discussions between the Cabinet, the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Education, Zhu Houzhao decided to implement a four-year compulsory education system in community schools, with the financial resources allocated by the central court.

In order to promote the revitalization of Ming Dynasty's academic research and smoothly implement compulsory education, Zhu Houzhao ordered that the Royal Tax Bureau should allocate 30% of its tax revenue to the Ministry of Education every year, to be used specifically as the cost of Ming Dynasty's academic research, and the imperial treasury should also allocate corresponding revenue to the Ministry of Education.

Because the performance evaluation system uses political performance as the only criterion for promoting officials, education is the most active thing for local officials. Now that the court has allocated a large sum of money to aid education, local officials will naturally respond more actively. The people do not object to this, after all, they also know that studying is a good thing.

But in fact, this is not the case. Low-income families are still reluctant to send their children to school, at least not all of their children. After all, they need enough labor to increase family income, even if it is just herding cattle for the rich.

Although the government provided free education, in practice some low-level officials and clerks still collected money under the guise of textbook fees, writing materials, etc. Therefore, for a time, although the court invested a lot of money, there were not many children from the common people who could actually go to school.

In order to deal with inspections from above, some low-level officials and clerks even forced the children of commoners to attend community schools, and also required them to pay fees. This prevented the children of commoners from enjoying the benefits of free education provided by the court.

After hearing this, Zhu Houzhao naturally did not hesitate and directly ordered the execution of these officials and clerks. After killing several batches of them, many of the officials and clerks under him became much more honest.

In any case, although there were policies from the top and countermeasures from the bottom, and although the actual implementation effects at the local level were different from the original intentions of the central court, many children from common people still had the opportunity to receive education.

After Yan Song took office as the governor of Southern Zhili, he began to implement the court's order to implement compulsory education. Unlike other places, he also strictly followed the court's order to add arithmetic and general knowledge subjects in the community school, and required that from the seventh year of Zhengde, students in Southern Zhili would be required to take arithmetic and general knowledge subjects in the examinations. Even if they did well in the eight-legged essay, those who failed in arithmetic and general knowledge would not be allowed to enroll.

The gentry in the south of the Yangtze River were extremely disgusted by this, and they contacted their local officials to impeach Yan Song, saying that this was putting the cart before the horse and betraying Confucianism and making students learn the teachings of the lower nine classes.

However, Zhu Houzhao did not object to this. On the grounds that the Southern Zhili region had always been a gathering place for literary style, he allowed Yan Song to carry out new educational reforms in Jiangnan. He also required that the Ministry of Education add an arithmetic subject to the joint examination and the palace examination, and even a general knowledge subject, to prevent future Jinshi from only knowing the Four Books and Five Classics.

Zhu Houzhao's statement caused an uproar throughout the country! They all thought that this was a move to disrupt the country. Some great Confucian scholars even said that they and their disciples would no longer participate in the imperial examinations to express their protest against the court's excessive emphasis on non-Confucian knowledge.

Li Youmin, the principal of Heshan Academy in Nanzhili, publicly stated in newspapers published in Jiangnan that his own students and he would not take part in the next provincial examination in Nanzhili, in order to express his protest against Yan Song, the governor of Nanzhili, for not respecting Confucianism alone.

Unlike Wang Yangming, Yan Song, the governor of Southern Zhili, did not deal with the matter with force. Instead, he published a notice in newspapers stating that he had requested the court's permission to expand the number of candidates for the next provincial examination by thirty.

And precisely because of this, when the Nanzhili provincial examination came, Li Youmin's students flocked to take the exam, and no less than ten of them passed.

The same was true for other scholars who threatened not to take the imperial examinations to resist the addition of arithmetic and common sense requirements. Most of them just talked about it, but still showed up to take the exams when the time came.

Li Youmin was extremely angry about this and directly threatened that those who entered his academy would not be allowed to take the imperial examinations in the future, and claimed that he would only accept those who devoted themselves to Confucianism and the teachings of Confucius and Mencius as students.

As a result, there were very few new scholars who signed up for Heshan Academy. Li Youmin finally had to admit that most people studied for fame, wealth and power, and not many people were truly willing to study. However, this also made him feel more and more that he and his academy were noble. He and the students who were still holding on in his academy began to mysteriously regard themselves as superior.

After Zhu Houzhao established a new ministry of education and reformed the academic policy and established a new school system, there were many people like Li Youmin who were stubborn and would rather give up the imperial examinations and respect Confucianism. However, as more and more people studied the new school of thought, they became more and more of an outlier and were shunned by the mainstream society.

These stubborn Confucian scholars were no longer welcomed by the rulers of the empire. They could no longer be summoned by the emperor and cared for by the court because of their good knowledge of sage learning, which made these Confucian scholars somewhat dissatisfied or frustrated with the court.

Prince Ning took this opportunity to recruit more such great scholars into his camp, which made him even more excited. Under the boasting of some great scholars, he believed that he was the one supported by the people of the world, and thus became more determined to rebel.

In order to gain more support from great Confucian scholars, King Ning became more and more humble and courteous, and more and more obsessed with Confucianism. Every day he would listen to a great Confucian scholar talk about scriptures and philosophy, and even frequently showed goodwill to the Kong family.

The Kong family also began to flirt with Prince Ning, but as a family with rich experience in selling out their country, the Kong family would naturally not easily board Prince Ning's pirate ship, Zhu Chenhao, and only temporarily engaged in some business dealings with Prince Ning.

But in any case, because Prince Ning's style of seeking talented people and respecting Confucianism and Confucius was in sharp contrast to Emperor Zhu Houzhao's love of miscellaneous studies, not holding lectures on classics, and even making major changes to the academic policy, more and more great Confucian scholars joined Prince Ning's staff.

Zhu Houzhao began to find that after the education reform in the seventh year of Zhengde, there were more and more positive comments about Prince Ning in the court and the public, especially some great scholars with relatively low political quotient actually began to publicly praise Prince Ning as a wise king.

Prince Ning himself did not realize that the more high-profile he was, the more likely his rebellion would fail. Instead, he felt that it would be easier for him to succeed. In his opinion, as long as he could do what Zhu Houzhao could not, it would prove that he was more suitable to be a good emperor than Zhu Houzhao.

Therefore, when Prince Ning heard that Zhu Houzhao had taken in a few more palace maids and had not attended court for several days and had only played in the harem, he became even happier and felt that his great cause could be accomplished.

Few of the Ning Wang's staff had real talent and knowledge, and they followed suit in belittling Zhu Houzhao and praising Ning Wang. Some were even more crazy than Ning Wang and demanded that he rebel right away.

Thanks to my book friend Lu Yangyang for his 100 Qidian coins reward. Thank you to my book friend Feng Liangwenyue for his 100 Qidian coins reward. Thank you to my book friend his elderly grandfather for his 100 Qidian coins reward. Thank you to my book friend nkj8084 for his 100 Qidian coins reward.

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(End of this chapter)