Daming Yuanfu

The four shopkeepers looked at each other, and finally Tao Tingyan, the boss of "Jinghua Weekly", answered: "When I go back to my boss, there are all kinds of voices among the scholars in the capital, but they are mainly focused on denouncing the existing system. Regarding how the new imperial examination system should be reformed, the current discussion seems to be insufficient and mainstream opinions have not yet been formed.”

This brother's answer was still within Gao's pragmatic expectations. After all, it is easy to criticize the old system, but it is extremely difficult to propose a reasonable and feasible new system. And if you want to use your own opinions to convince other people who are also scholars, it is obviously even more difficult. How can it be so easy to form a "mainstream opinion" ?

Gao Pragmatic nodded slightly and asked: "So can you guys talk about it, what are the current areas where Shilin's criticism of the existing imperial examination system mainly focuses?"

This time it was Tao Tingyan who was the first to answer: "My boss, "Jinghua Weekly" learned that the most criticized thing at present is that when reviewing the imperial examination papers, it is easy to argue about the best articles.

Although the examiners are all court ministers, and the court ministers themselves are well-educated people, and even senior scholars, the trouble lies here... sometimes the examiners will argue, but in the end, the results will always be given and the winners will be decided. High or low, but a lot of inside information about the debates between ministers will always leak out afterwards, which gives many people the opportunity to criticize.

There are different opinions on the quality of articles, and not every subject can be selected like the situation in the master's internal examination. As soon as an article is published, the whole house is silent. Nowadays, most of the year, there are always a few or even a dozen good articles, some are good, but they are all so good that it is difficult to distinguish them.

Although the imperial court finally ranked the list, there was always a long debate among the scholars. In the end, no one mentioned it again because of the passage of time. But once someone mentioned it, another debate was inevitable.

In short, what most scholars hate today is that it is difficult to be fair in article review. Everyone hopes that there is some way to solve the problem of several articles being difficult to distinguish. "

Gao pragmatic nodded to express his understanding, and then asked the other three people: "What about you?"

Tong Zhengshen, the chief shopkeeper of "Ban Yue Shi Lun", held up his hands and said: "Back to my boss, judging from the feedback I received from "Ban Yue Shi Lun", in addition to the problems mentioned by shopkeeper Tao just now, there are also fraud cases, especially those involving to the scandals of high-ranking officials in the imperial court.

According to the results of the questionnaire survey in "Ban Yue Shi Lun", the issues of buying and selling in the imperial examination were actually only secondary. The primary concern of scholars was that senior officials of the imperial court colluded with each other to obtain scholars from each other's nephews, disciples and other juniors. This kind of evil is the most serious attack. "

Gao Jingshi frowned slightly, pondered for a moment but made no comment. He just exhaled a breath and nodded heavily. After a moment of silence, he turned his attention to the last two shopkeepers.

Before he could ask this time, He Rong, the boss of "Yanjing Weekly" cupped his hands and said: "In addition to what my boss, Tao and Tong have said, the readers of "Yanjing Weekly" are also concerned about one thing. They think that nowadays Many public schools in the country are in ruins, and many students are unable to obtain the educational environment they deserve because of their poor family background.

In order to make progress, these students had to attend private schools in their spare time while managing their livelihoods. However, there are many people from well-off families who need to know the classics before they can hope to be named on the gold medal list. These students waste a lot of time and energy in seeking money, how can they compare with those who don't need to care about their livelihood? Therefore, many readers of "Yanjing Weekly" believe that if the imperial court wants to reform the imperial examination, it should start from schools in various places, and cannot allow all the students in the world to come from high-ranking families..."

When Shopkeeper He said this, he really didn't dare to say any more, and his voice became smaller and smaller - there was no way, the boss in front of him seemed to be a high-end and big-name company among the "high-end and big-name companies", and his words sounded like he was Breaking the pot while eating.

Gao pragmatic noticed his embarrassment, smiled magnanimously, waved his hand and said, "It doesn't matter, what you said is very good, I often worry about this."

As if he was worried that saying this was not sincere enough, Gao Pingshi stopped smiling and added seriously: "Don't you think that I am just showing off, I am really concerned about this matter.

I know that many aristocratic families want to dominate the Jinshi list, and hope that the world's scholars will not compete with them and their descendants, because in their view, this way they can monopolize power and maintain the family's never decline. But if this is really the case, the strength of this country... will be exhausted.

I had just returned from the Korean battlefield not long ago, and I was deeply touched by the control of government affairs by the two groups in North Korea, especially their control of official qualifications. If a court cannot be meritocratic and instead allows a group of powerful families to remain in power for a long time, corruption will be the inevitable result. This kind of imperial court is difficult to cure with hundreds of medicines, so once the Japanese pirates arrive, the so-called three thousand miles of country can only fall in an instant.

Fortunately for China, the imperial examination system was established during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and this gradually broke the old system of monopoly power of clans. However, the world's system is not immutable for hundreds of years. Times have changed and the world has changed. How can the system not change with it? Even if it is not a complete overhaul, it is still necessary to prune the branches and trim the edges and straighten the bones, so that this system can last for a long time and remain new.

As for what you said, many scholars are concerned about the neglect of schools in various places, and are worried that it will be difficult for poor families to produce noble sons... I think this is absolutely true! The essence of the imperial examination lies in meritocracy and class mobility. Let me tell you, no high-ranking family has been appointed by God to never decline! Any family, if its descendants only know how to rest on the merits of their predecessors and wait to die, then it deserves to decline. Only when the predecessors work hard and the descendants live up to their ancestors can they be worthy of enjoying the honor of family status.

As for the matter itself, although the related issues are quite complicated, the final analysis is that the imperial court was previously financially strapped, and many officials from various places only knew a few sage articles and had no idea how to manage politics, so they had no choice but to follow the old routine, and eventually everything became gradual. Waste.

However, now that the imperial court's annual income has increased significantly, it is natural that it has to do something real for the students all over the world. And the old shortcoming of officials not knowing about general affairs will have to be gradually corrected... This all depends on the reform of the imperial examination.

Everyone, although this matter probably has nothing to do with you personally, I think you also have descendants, and you also hope that your descendants can study in a better environment until they are named on the gold list and shine on the lintel, right? Therefore, I hope you will not regard this matter as just an errand assigned by my boss, but as a major matter related to your own family. Do you understand? "

This time, all four of them felt Gao Pragmatic's sincerity, and they stood up together, bowed their hands, and solemnly accepted the promise. None of the four of them have the surname "Gao", so it can be seen that they are all hired shopkeepers. In fact, these four are all well-known people - among them, shopkeeper Tao is a scholar, and the last three are also scholars.

It's okay for scholars. Many failed scholars are too poor to make a living. It's not surprising that they join Jinghua's disciples to find a job. Strange shopkeeper Tao.

Theoretically speaking, it is generally impossible to live without a stable life after receiving the title of Juren in the Ming Dynasty, because the Juren already has certain privileges and can reduce tribute, taxes, and corvee within a certain amount. Even if you don't engage in those well-known tax evasion methods, as long as you accept a few rich people from the mainstream, you can live your life easily and comfortably.

But shopkeeper Tao accepted Jinghua's recruitment as a juren and became a "shopkeeper". This is very surprising - although juren may not be able to become an official, he is still a "candidate official". If he is lucky, Coming? Haven't you seen that Hai Rui and Hai Qingtian are just a scholar?

[Note: Therefore, the first official position that Hai Rui held in his life was to teach in Nanping, Fujian Province, which was equivalent to the director of the County Education Bureau (in the Ming Dynasty, Nanping County was the seat of Yanping Prefecture. Well, it was the Yanping Prince of Yanping County) . If he was a Jinshi, even if he was the last one in the top three and was sent to another place, he would have to be a county magistrate no matter what, and he would definitely not just be a county magistrate. ]

The reason why Shopkeeper Tao was so stubborn was because he couldn't help it. His family was originally a businessman from Zhejiang, and his family conditions were quite good. He was at least a moderately wealthy businessman's family. But a few years after he passed the examination, and was about to work harder to get a spot on the gold medal list, tragedy happened: his old father suddenly ran into bad luck and went bankrupt - two of his family's ships encountered hurricanes in Nanyang, and the ship was destroyed. All goods are gone.

The boat is our own, so even if it sinks, it will only be a heavy damage. The family still has some possessions and a chance to make a comeback. However, not only did his family run their own ship that time, more than half of the capacity of the two ships was carried other people's goods, and they were very expensive - mostly silk, and some special porcelain.

[Note: During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, China did accept special porcelain. For example, the White House in the United States has a collection of porcelain from China, which is a plate. The edges of this plate are typical blue and white, and in the middle is a painting of a Western angel flying in the air, holding... well, I forgot what I was holding, but I was very impressed by the angel's appearance. profound. The owner of this plate, if I remember correctly, is Washington. ]

Now it's better. Not only has my family gone bankrupt, I even owe a lot of debt. After all, a businessman is a businessman. Although creditors will not be too harsh on a juren, Zhejiang has a strong commercial atmosphere, and the juren is not a Jinshi after all. If someone presses you and you have no money to pay back, and if you press you and you still have no money to pay back, your attitude will naturally change from sunny to cloudy.

Shopkeeper Tao was furious, but he also knew that he had to deal with the loss first. He happened to hear from a friend that Jinghua was recruiting newspaper managers. Not only was his salary generous (no matter how generous it was, it was not enough to pay off the debt), but the key was that if he did it well, he would be rewarded with generous incentives. Therefore, I entered Beijing at once.

It is precisely because of this that he was the most conscientious in the process of running the newspaper. Finally, under the crazy involution of the highly pragmatic "nurturing gu" style, the "Jinghua Weekly" he was responsible for became the best in Beijing.

Gao Jingshi learned about his family's affairs when he met him, and with a wave of his hand he paid off the huge debt of more than 70,000 taels owed by his family - of course, it was not Gao Jingshi who paid the more than 70,000 taels directly. Instead of receiving a reward, he paid off the debt on his behalf. After deducting the reward, the creditor of the remaining amount was changed. Now he owed tens of thousands of taels to his boss Gao Yuanfu.

As for the advantage, it is that Gao Yuanfu said at the time that there would be no reminders or interest calculations, and it was entirely up to Tao Tingyan himself when to pay back the money.

Now, the three shopkeepers have all told what they know. The last shopkeeper, Shi Yang, did not ask pragmatic questions. He just felt his boss's eyes on him and took the initiative to speak.

"Boss, the readers of the "Economic Tenth Anniversary" have begun to discuss that the new imperial examination system should test some knowledge on how to develop business in the local area. However, they are not sure what kind of knowledge this knowledge should be... …”

Gao Pragmatic's eyes suddenly lit up and he almost stood up with excitement!
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