The Tang Dynasty started from saving Empress Changsun

Chapter 148 Academic Affairs and Imperial Examinations

What Chen Jingke has to do is to give eye drops to the gentry and provoke conflicts between the gentry and Guan Long.The purpose is to make the knowledge universal through the struggle between the two schools.

As long as knowledge is popularized, the middle and lower classes who have mastered the knowledge will naturally find ways to fight for power for themselves, thereby breaking the existing world order.

Fishing in troubled waters, then he can take the opportunity to carry out reforms, and finally win more life for the people.

"The biggest advantage of the gentry is that they control the right to comment on learning, and thus have the right to speak."

"It's very simple for His Majesty to attack them, just to fight for the right to speak. If you want to fight for the right to speak, you must take back the right to interpret knowledge from them."

"In the past, it was limited by the difficulty of copying books, and the imperial court had no choice. But now with printing, the biggest problem has been solved."

"In the past, rattan could only be used to make paper, but now bamboo, wood and even weeds can be used to make paper, and with the shredder, the price of paper has dropped several times."

"In this way, the imperial court can print more books and sell them at low prices to those 'fools'."

"Although the grasshoppers are uncertain, they can tell who is strong and who is weak, and who can benefit them. As long as their hearts are toward the court, the gentry will gradually lose their right to speak."

"Actually, the best way is for the court to cultivate talents and establish a top-down academic and political system."

"Set up schools in townships and villages to teach good people who have no basic background to read. Then set up county schools in each county, and select the best from the township schools to enter the county school to study."

"Set up a state school in the state, and select the best students from the county school to study in the state school. These students have no background, and they have received education from the imperial court since childhood, and the only thing they can rely on is the imperial court."

"The imperial court can bypass the influence of the gentry and directly select officials from among them. This is the most fatal blow to the gentry."

Li Shimin frowned slightly and said: "Although the method is good, it is a waste of money and the imperial court does not have so much money and food to support this strategy."

Chen Jingke was also very helpless. He was very clear about the tax policy in the early Tang Dynasty. He did not collect commercial tax, did not engage in salt and iron monopoly, and exempted poll tax from time to time.

The only real tax that can be collected stably is the land tax, and the annual income is only more than 300 million yuan in money and grain.

That is to say, at the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the Fubing system was adopted, and there was no need to pay military salaries.Local officials do not pay wages directly, but adopt a job field system.

Job land is to allocate a certain amount of land in each place as the property of the yamen, and the salaries of officials and the consumption of the yamen are all paid out of it.

Otherwise, these two items alone can drag down Datang's finances.

But the establishment of a school-political system cannot be like this. Building a school to support so many teachers and students consumes too much, and it is difficult to establish a complete school-policy system just by dividing jobs.

Unless productivity is improved, the country's fiscal revenue is increased, and the cost of training students is reduced.

But Chen Jingke had thought of this a long time ago. It is impossible to popularize education by relying on the productive forces of agricultural civilization, and he was not naive enough to do this in Datang at this time.

However, local education can still be achieved: "It is indeed difficult to realize rural school and village school in the short term, but county school and state school can still be established."

"The main thing is to recruit children from rich families. If you want to study, you can pay. I believe that good families in Datang will actively send their children to school. There is no shortage of people who can afford to study in Datang. What is missing is the opportunity to study."

To what extent was the lack of reading opportunities in ancient times? Not only the common people couldn't afford to read books, but also many wealthy families.The landlord's family can't find anyone who can read and write, and whoever can read and write can take charge of the family business.

It's just that the poor can't afford to read books, and the wealthy families have no channels to read, because the opportunity to read is monopolized by the cultural group headed by the gentry.

We often see in film and television works that big landlords invite sour scholars to come to their homes to teach their children to study. This became a common phenomenon after the Song Dynasty.

At this time, it was still the Tang Dynasty, and the right to education was still monopolized in the hands of the gentry.

If it is not feasible to engage in compulsory education, then engage in commercial education.Establish schools and ask landlords and wealthy households to collect money so that they can send their children to study in schools.

Any landlord and wealthy household with a little foresight will not miss such an opportunity, so that the intellectual monopoly of the gentry can be pried open.

The next step is to find ways to increase productivity and promote social progress materially.

After thinking about it, Li Shimin finally nodded and said: "It's also possible, is there any more?"

Chen Jingke pondered for a while before saying: "There is also the imperial examination system, combined with the academic and political system, which is the real trump card and can completely end the era of the gentry."

"But the imperial examination system is a double-edged sword, and it will have a very serious consequence."

"Oh?" Li Shimin became interested immediately, and said, "Tell me in detail."

Now that he had spoken, Chen Jingke didn't hide anything, so he talked about the three-level imperial examination system of the county examination-state examination-Beijing examination.

"In the past, the gentry controlled the channels for studying, and ordinary people had no chance to study. In fact, the most recruited by the imperial examinations were the gentry students."

"If the imperial court establishes a system of education and government to cultivate a large number of talents, then these people can directly participate in the competition with the children of the gentry..."

"With such a two-pronged approach, the gentry will be pulled down from the altar and become an ordinary wealthy family. This method can even have an impact on Guanlong."

Li Shimin's eyes were frighteningly bright, but he did not express his opinion, but said: "You say that the imperial examination is a double-edged sword, so what are its disadvantages?"

Chen Jingke said: "The disadvantage is that a huge bureaucratic class of imperial examinations will be born, and they will form a huge interest group in the village. At that time, the imperial court will lose control of the village."

"Above the county level is under the jurisdiction of the imperial court, and below the county level is controlled by a large group of local gentry. This is the evil result brought about by the imperial examination."

This matter is not difficult to understand, at least it is not difficult for Li Shimin to understand.So his excited mood gradually calmed down, and it was difficult for him to make a decision.

But...he took a deep look at Chen Jingke.

The family behind him is too terrifying, and his understanding of the world is too clear.Not only can you think of countermeasures to break the situation, but you can also see through the consequences of these countermeasures.

Their eyes seem to be able to see through the future.

But at the same time, he was also curious about another thing, how those people managed to teach a mediocre person like Chen Jingke so well.

Thinking about it, it should have cost a lot.

It can be seen from this that Chen Jingke's identity in their family must not be simple, and he is probably a direct descendant.

In this way, in terms of status, she is also worthy of her own girl.

"I still need to carefully consider this matter. You must not tell outsiders what you said today."

Naturally, Chen Jingke would not make himself feel uncomfortable, and said, "Don't worry, I will tell you and my aunt about these things, not even the master."

He knew that Li Shimin's heart was moved, but the matter was so important that he had to consider it carefully, and he could even decide what to do after seeking the opinions of the relevant confidantes.

He wasn't worried that Li Shimin would abandon him. If he did, Li Shimin wouldn't be Li Shimin anymore.

In fact, Li Shimin didn't know at all that the popularization of knowledge would not only end the era of the gentry, but the whole world would be divided into two different eras.

A bad one may cause Datang to be terminated.

The power of knowledge is so great that it can change the world.

Seeing that the matter was discussed, the eldest grandson Wugou who was beside him also heaved a sigh of relief, and changed the subject:
"I've collected a lot of cotton seeds. According to what the flower farmer said, it's time to plant them. Jingke, do you know how to grow cotton? You can come and have a look."

(End of this chapter)