Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1097 Good wife and mother school?

The ancients often said that "a woman is virtuous without talent", but in fact this sentence is only quoted halfway, and ordinary people actually go astray in their understanding.

The original sentence of this sentence is "a man who has virtue is a talent, and a woman who has no talent is a virtue".

It is said that "a man who has virtue is talented", emphasizes that "virtue comes before talent" and that "virtue is more important than talent", which is a consistent traditional Chinese thought.

If we use the sayings of later generations, it is: if a person is virtuous, the greater his ability, the greater the benefit to society; if a person is not virtuous, the greater his ability, the greater the harm to society. bigger.

This is actually easy to understand. What is difficult to understand is the second half of the sentence. What is "a woman without talent is virtue"?Is it true that the less talented a woman is, the better she is?
There is a saying that "a good wife in a family is less likely to cause harm to the husband". Can a simple reproductive tool be able to achieve the "good wife" in this old saying?Obviously not.Therefore, the ancients also had "talent" requirements for women.

The sentence "A woman's lack of talent is virtue" is actually the same as the previous sentence, but it emphasizes the priority, it emphasizes that "virtue comes before talent", and it means to persuade women to take virtue as the main thing, not to demean women , Said that women cannot be talented if they stay.

This whole misunderstanding is caused by misinterpreting the word "no" in "no talent".In fact, the word "wu" is a verb, which means "there is but nothing", which is equivalent to the last "clothes" in "undressing clothes", that is, "there are talents, but in the heart they regard themselves as nothing." the meaning of.

Just as the ancients believed that men's humility is a kind of virtue, women's "no" talent is also a virtue-it is a virtue to have talents, but not to show off deliberately.

Besides, it's not that women in ancient times didn't read books. In fact, how many real ladies of the great family didn't know big characters?absolutely not.The ancients even invented that Su Shi had a younger sister, and said that Su Xiaomei was so talented that even the great writer Su Shi wanted to give her three points, but I have never heard of anyone lashing out at the character "Su Xiaomei".As for a talented woman like Li Qingzhao, that's not to mention.

People who often read Ming and Qing legends and novels know that there are often plots in those books that there are special Xixi teachers in the families of officials and ladies who teach them to read.Even some young ladies are quite good at reading, and can even write stereotyped essays at their fingertips. It's a pity that there is no female imperial examination, so there is no place to display their skills.

This is why Gao Pragmatism emphasizes the "way out".

The "Princess Yongning Charity Fund" has been in operation for the poor people. After all, charity can never be done for noble and eunuch families, right?
For example, Zhu Yingzhen has a younger sister in her family. Does she need help from charity funds?Gao Yushi also has younger sisters, do they need help from charity funds?Do not make jokes.

But since it is charity for the poor, then the charity must be able to really help the other party.

For example, adopting orphans is something that Gao’s pragmatic mother, Mrs. Zhang, likes to do, but almost without exception, all the orphans she adopts become Gao’s maids—don’t think of being a maid as “serving a slave as a handmaid” Yes, in fact, this really helped them, because they might have starved to death, but now they are the maids of the Gao family, not to mention wearing gold and silver, at least they can live comfortably, and they can marry and have children, human relations Consummation.

So it's not helping?

But Princess Yongning wanted to build a school for girls on a whim this time, so Gao Wushi had to remind her: teaching can be taught, but what is the use of teaching?No matter how well you teach them, their literary proficiency is as high as my high-practical level, and they can pass the exams...but so what?She should starve to death, because she can't take the imperial examination.

Ladies and gentlemen study because almost all their husbands will be scholars in the future, so they also need some knowledge, at least not if she can't understand what the husband said, and they must be able to communicate.

For example, Lu You and Tang Wan, many people know their love story, so there is no need to elaborate here.It is only said that after Lu You wrote "The Hairpin Phoenix: Red Crispy Hands", his ex-wife Tang Wan saw it and composed a song "The Hairpin Phoenix: The Love of the World".Isn't this harmony an excellent work?
What's more, the ancients read books first and foremost to cultivate morality. The so-called "the way of great learning lies in Mingming Mingde". It is believed that women who have read books can be more helpful to their husbands.

But the premise here is that everyone is a good lady. Since everyone is a good lady, according to the principle of matching the family, the conditions of the husband’s family will not be bad, so she herself does not have to worry about food and clothing, and she does not need to study for "learning literary and martial arts, and the goods are as good as the emperor's family." "go.

Simply put, they study to be worthy of a better husband, not to sell their talents for money.

But the poor girls who need help from the Princess Fund are different. If you teach them to read, they will not be able to marry into the noble family.And if she just married an ordinary man, for example, a mason, then the books she read would not be very meaningful. It would be better to learn some female celebrities, and at least she could do something for the family and subsidize the family. .

As for going to be a concubine in a noble family... as we all know, there are quite a few famous prostitutes who become concubines from the good, but very few of them can truly integrate into the family harmoniously. In this way, the wife of the main room will probably not be happy, and once the wife of the main room is unhappy, the result will be that the family will not be safe.

The plot of concubines and wives competing for favor usually only appears in romance novels, and it is basically impossible to appear in reality.Because the concubine is only a kind of property in the law, but the wife is the master, and the master has the right to dispose of her property.

There is a saying that marry a wife and a virtuous person, and take concubines and sex.If you are a concubine, it really doesn't matter if you are talented or not, and even if you are talented, you are even more jealous of your wife.And Princess Yongning presumably didn't run the school just to provide high-quality concubines to the rich and powerful.

Gao Wushi explained these truths to Princess Yongning one by one, and the princess was stunned after hearing this. It took a long time to recover, and she murmured listlessly: "Unexpectedly, there will be such troubles."

The look in her eyes dimmed, and she sighed: "I haven't seen the experiences of those refugee women with my own eyes, but there are also many court ladies in the palace who tried to enter the palace because their families could not support them. I heard They talked about some of the tragic situations back then, and they really wanted to help a group of poor girls like them back then. Senior High School Cheng, I know that you have become Wushuang, can you... can you think of a way to get the best of both worlds?"

Gao Wushi wished he could roll his eyes, but this act was too disrespectful. It was because the emperor was raised by his classmate, but he still had to be a little more dignified in front of the princess.

So he had no choice but to pretend to be thinking, pretending to ponder: "Well... I need to think about it."

Princess Yongning's eyes lit up, her smile widened, she just said "yes", when Gao Yushi suddenly heard a "cuckoo" in her stomach.

Both of them were taken aback.

Gao Wushi reacted quickly, and said with a dry smile: "Your Highness is laughing, I came in a hurry..."

Princess Yongning smiled unconsciously after hearing this, and said with a smile: "This is my negligence, Senior High School Cheng forgive me." Then she told the eunuch and maid at the door: "Go, prepare a lunch for Senior High School Cheng, there is no need to change it. It’s time to send it to the Palace of Chengxi.” Then he told the maids about the dishes to be delivered.

The Chengxi Hall is the west side hall of the Changchun Palace, which is usually used for meetings, and is obviously not a place to eat, so Princess Yongning was taken aback by what she said in a pragmatic way, and hesitated: "This place...isn't suitable?"

According to the rules, there is a place for meals, and even if the princess stays with guests for dinner, she usually will not accompany her in person, let alone the object is a courtier?The so-called respect and order, and the difference between men and women, now Princess Yongning obviously will not deliberately avoid it, so it would be a bit out of etiquette for Gao Wu to dine here.

But Princess Yongning turned her gaze away from him, and said in her mouth: "I'm here, can't you eat?"

"Uh...Your Highness is too serious, how can I be like this." Gao Wushi scratched his head a little. Her Royal Highness's temper is much harder to fathom than her brother's. She is sad at times, hesitant at times, and choking at times. Woman heart sea needle.

Forget it, I can't offend this kind of bad temper, just eat here if you eat here, anyway, you voluntarily accompany me, no one will have to cut off my head because of this.

The food in the palace is actually quite ordinary for Gao Yushi. It’s not that the craftsmanship of the imperial chef is not good, but because the palace is special, and the food can be served at any time, which leads to many times that the food is prepared and used The warm water cauldron is filled with sealed meals to keep warm, which will have an impact on the taste.

Of course, this kind of meal is more pragmatic and eats more, so it's like going to a steamed vegetable shop to eat steamed vegetables in later generations, and I don't bother to care about it.The key is that the maids and eunuchs in Changchun Palace are no better than those around Zhu Yijun, and they don't know how to eat more pragmatically. Based on the principle of what can be more and not less, they serve him an excessive amount of four dishes and one soup.

"Four dishes and one soup" is a feature of Ming Dynasty, which comes from Zhu Yuanzhang's regulations. Unless the banquet is held according to the relevant etiquette, even the emperor's daily meals are configured in this way.Similarly, the cabinet ministers working in the palace, including the newly transferred XX Lang from the Hanlin Academy to the chief assistant of the current dynasty, also had four dishes and one soup as the dining standard, which must not exceed the standard.

But Zhu Yuanzhang also has a hundred secrets and one sparse place, that is, there is no prescribed weight.

So Gao Wushi now placed a plate of spicy rabbit shreds, a braised river carp, a roasted leg of lamb, a plate of freshly fried seasonal vegetables, and the famous emerald white jade soup of Ming Dynasty.

The "spicy" of this spicy rabbit shreds does not come from chili peppers - there is no such American product in Ming Dynasty at the moment. It was the first time for Gao Yushi to eat this dish. He was a little surprised when he heard the word "spicy". Chen Ju asked It was only later that I learned that the method is "shred, simmer in chicken broth, add rice wine, soy sauce, green onions, ginger juice, pepper powder, and soybean powder to collect the soup."

That is to slaughter the rabbit, peel and wash it, remove the bone and cut it into shreds, simmer it with chicken broth over a low heat, add rice wine, soy sauce, green onion, ginger juice, and peppercorns to taste, when the soup is almost exhausted, thicken it with mung bean starch. become.Therefore, its "spicy" concept comes from ginger juice and pepper powder.

Gao Wushi's strange thing at this moment is that the four dishes and one soup were not "ordered" by himself, but ordered by Princess Yongning, but these dishes are all his favorites, and there is no particularly greasy dish.

He couldn't help muttering to himself, although the eldest princess may have had some thoughts about herself for a period of time in the past, but she was actually young at that time, so she shouldn't be able to pay attention to her food preferences... …

But he didn't have a chance to think too much. Princess Yongning saw that he was not moving the chopsticks for a long time, so she asked in surprise: "But the dishes are not well chosen?"

Gao Wushi shook his head quickly, and said: "No, no, the selection is very good, it's all in my favor, but I just happened to think of His Highness's question just now, and have some ideas."

Princess Yongning's face brightened, and she was going to ask, but her words changed: "Since I have already thought about it, then don't worry about it, Gao Gaocheng should eat the meal before it's too late."

Since it was so hard to turn down such hospitality, Gao Yushi had no choice but to be as hospitable as he wanted, and began to eat in suspense.

Princess Yongning seemed to be very interested in his meal, she sat obediently and watched, almost reluctant to blink.

Gao Yushi used to be fat in his previous life, and later he was motivated to lose weight and achieved success. One of them is to eat slowly, no matter what you eat, chew slowly, which can greatly reduce the possibility of overeating.

But now that he was stared at by a princess, he felt a little uncomfortable, so he had to speed up and eat it as a marching meal.

After the maids brought clean water and clean handkerchiefs, and Gao Wushi used them bluntly, Princess Yongning pursed her lips and said with a smile: "It seems that Senior High School Prime Minister came here really hungry."

Gao Yushi looked at the table subconsciously, only to realize that he had eaten too much. Due to the stagnation of satiety, he began to feel full now, so he couldn't help smiling wryly, but he didn't know what to say.

Fortunately, Princess Yongning was not displeased, she even looked quite happy, she smiled at him, and said: "If Senior High School Cheng has any clever plans, you might as well tell me, I am all ears."

Gao Wushi cleared his throat, and became serious, saying: "If His Highness insists on letting these girls learn, the minister's opinion is to focus on learning."

Princess Yongning asked: "How to focus?"

Gao Wushi said: "Focus on how to be a good wife and mother."

"Ah?" Princess Yongning said in amazement, "Is this... learned?"

Gao Wushi asked back: "Does Your Highness think that good wives and good mothers are born?"

Princess Yongning didn't answer right away, she thought for a while before asking: "But, that's not what I meant."

"Your Highness must hope that they can stand on their own in the world after studying in school." Gao Wushi shook his head and said, "Actually, I support this idea, but I have to say that it cannot be done now."

"why?"

Gao Wushi said: "Unless His Highness intends to let them live a lifetime of green lamps and ancient Buddhas."

Princess Yongning was taken aback, frowned and said, "Why do you say that?"

Gao Wushi sighed: "I make a hypothesis: there is a woman who entered His Highness's school and learned a thousand volumes of scriptures. She is very talented, but she can't do other things except reading. She doesn't know how to manage money, and she doesn't know how to arrange family affairs. She only knows how to read... May I ask Your Highness, if she just married a carpenter, what can she do for her husband?
If His Highness says that she doesn't need to marry, how can she support herself?Although studying is good, at most it is to be a teacher for the female relatives of a wealthy family, and they may not be happy - after all, there are many candidates who have failed the exam, and there are more students. How, there is no place to test. "

Princess Yongning thought for a while, then sighed softly: "But if you go to the school to learn some female celebrities, then why should I build this school, if their mothers are still there, can't they teach?"

Gao Wushi smiled and said: "So I said that there must be emphasis. Female celebrities and so on are just the basics. There are also various 'disciplines' such as etiquette and family financial management. You can even add some more inclined subjects, such as silk reeling. Wait."

Princess Yongning asked: "Etiquette and financial management are understandable, but such as silk reeling, it seems that it is not very useful if you learn it in the north?"

Gao Wushi said: "I am just giving an example, because I am vigorously promoting the tussah silk industry in Liaodong, and in many processes related to this, female workers are far better than male workers, and I even spent a lot of energy on this. Train them. It can be seen that some jobs that are more suitable for female workers can be taught in His Highness's school—as long as His Highness really opened this school for those poor women."

Princess Yongning thought for a while, and suddenly said: "I think this is actually similar to your craftsman school, but my school only accepts girls, right?"

Gao Wushi nodded and said: "His Royal Highness sees Wanli, it is indeed very similar, but although this kind of school does not sound elegant, it is practical enough. If there is such a school, the girls who graduate from the school must be able to find a good husband's family and go smoothly. Live your life."

Princess Yongning fell into thinking after hearing this, but Gao Yushi sighed in her heart: This kind of women's school is an unprecedented practice. If you don't follow the method of my Jinghua Craftsman School to run a school, I am afraid that you will be impeached as soon as the school starts.You are a princess, and you have an emperor brother who loves your younger siblings, so you don't have to be afraid.

But don’t be afraid of returning home, if you really teach the Four Books and Five Classics, I’m afraid that not only will you be criticized by scholars, but the girls you teach in the end will not have a means of earning a living.

Building a girls' school similar to a craftsman's school, taking a name like "Lady's School", specializing in cultivating good wives and mothers with both ability and political integrity, is really for their benefit.

After a long while, Princess Yongning seemed to have made up her mind, and suddenly asked: "Just now the high school prime minister said that Liaodong is vigorously promoting tussah silk, so there is a great demand for female workers in this field?"

Gao Wushi nodded and said, "I did say so."

Princess Yongning hesitated for a moment, and said: "Then how about my school being built in Liaodong? I heard that Liaodong has its own disasters in recent years, and it was hit by a typhoon last year... I think there are many people in Liaodong who need help, and I also We can do our best to take them into school, and after they finish their studies, they can find a good family."

Gao Wushi was taken aback: "His Highness wants to open the school in Liaodong?"
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PS: This chapter... have you guessed anything?

(End of this chapter)