Daming: Apocalypse of Longevity

Chapter 180 Local Academic Officer
Although the result was not satisfactory, it was still within the acceptable range of Qian Longxi and Liu Hongxun. After all, even if they could push one of their own to the position of Minister of the Ministry of Industry and into the cabinet, they still would not be able to influence the emperor. His will was still obedient to the emperor's decision.

But what makes Qian Longxi feel strange is, why did the emperor specifically adjust the positions of several people?Although the emperor said it nicely, in order to let everyone do the work they are good at, the work of the six ministers is actually very similar. For people who can get to this level, which position cannot be handled?
Could it be that just to make Sun Yuanhua the minister of the Ministry of Industry, everyone's positions were adjusted to make way for Sun Yuanhua?

This is also the most reasonable explanation that Qian Longxi can think of at present, but he still feels a little uneasy, and his intuition tells him that things are definitely not that simple.

Xu Guangqi's textbooks were quickly sorted out. Because there was an outline of the knowledge system provided by Zhu Tianqi, the rest was just "manual work" and there was no difficulty at all.

Now that the road has been paved, it is time for the reform of the imperial examination to officially start.

The first step in reform is to reform the education system.

Because of the need to reform the imperial examination and change the content of the examination, the resistance encountered not only comes from officials at the upper level, but also from the lower class scholars. After all, the candidates have read the Four Books and Five Classics for several years or even decades. , and now suddenly tell them that the exam content has been changed, who can accept the change?
And those who are already Tongsheng, Xiucai or Juren, they are even more unhappy. Is it possible that they have to start over from scratch?

These are all problems. If they cannot be properly handled, the imperial examination reform will never be implemented.

So since we want to reform, we must first find a way to get the scholars all over the world to accept the new imperial examination. As long as the scholars support the new imperial examination, then even if this thing is successful, it will be meaningless no matter how many officials in the court oppose it.

To solve this problem, Zhu Tianqi's plan is divided into two parts. The first is to provide free educational convenience and support to candidates, and the second is to grant certain examination privileges to candidates who have already achieved fame.

The so-called educational support is somewhat similar to the compulsory education in later generations. The imperial court allocated funds to repair county schools, and all students could study in county schools for free.

And train the heads of schools in each county, that is, the teachers in each county, so that they have the ability to teach candidates and teach according to the textbooks every day.

At the same time, textbooks are also distributed free of charge by the court, and candidates do not need to spend money to purchase them.

Such a policy was absolutely shocking and tempting to scholars of the Ming Dynasty. You must know that although the county school was originally run by the imperial court, people who had no previous fame were not eligible to study in the county school.

In terms of books, many scholars from poor families could not afford to buy books. Books in the Ming Dynasty were still very expensive. Many scholars were "rejected" from the imperial examinations just because they could not afford books.

Now this reform is equivalent to giving equal opportunities to all scholars who want to obtain fame. They can not only attend the county school for free to attend classes and study, but also get free textbooks. How can scholars in the world not support it?
Granting certain exam privileges to candidates who have already achieved fame does not mean lowering the threshold for exam admission, but removing the threshold from the exam level.

For example, candidates who are already children do not need to take the county exam again, but can directly take the prefectural exam. Candidates who are already scholars do not need to take the county exam and prefectural exam, but can directly take the provincial exam.

As for the Juren, it is slightly different. Naturally, they cannot directly enter the university with their status as Juren. After all, they will not be able to learn anything after entering the university based on the subset of classics and history they studied and their ability to write eight-legged essays. Therefore, they are only retained as Juren. The privileges of status and the qualifications to be an official, but if you want to enter university, you still have to take the provincial exam again.

Of course, if a child has to skip the county exam and directly take the prefectural exam, it means that he has to learn both the county exam content and the prefectural exam content in one go. Otherwise, it will be difficult to pass the prefectural exam. The same goes for scholar and scholar. , it is necessary to make up for all the knowledge before the provincial examination.

However, for some smarter candidates, it may be possible to master the content of the county and prefecture examinations within a period of time, but it is not realistic to master the content of the provincial examination within a period of time.

In other words, this so-called examination privilege can actually help candidates save some time, take fewer exams, and take fewer exams for several years.

But even so, I think the candidates are satisfied with this. After all, for exams, it is natural to take one less exam, and one less exam will save you from passing a hurdle.

Although these two policies fully consider the situations of all types of candidates and try their best to meet the needs of all types of candidates, Zhu Tianqi also knows that it is impossible to satisfy everyone, and there will definitely be many people who will not. If you buy it, you will still oppose and resist the imperial examination reform.

Moreover, Zhu Tianqi also knew very well who the main force was among those who opposed the reform. Needless to say, they were naturally those from aristocratic families.

These people can afford books and have dedicated teachers at home to provide one-to-one or even multiple-to-one educational guidance. They are also not interested in going to county schools to study. The educational support provided by the court is meaningless to them. .

On the contrary, the reforms of the imperial court made all their hard work and dedication over the years in vain. If they wanted to learn new knowledge and participate in the new imperial examination, they had to go to the county school to get textbooks and crowd with the poor. It’s surprising that they are happy to attend class!

But even though Zhu Tianqi knew that it would cause dissatisfaction among this group of people, he did not intend to introduce any remedial measures, because his reform of the imperial examination was aimed at this group. They are the main force causing unfair education and imperial examinations, and How many of these people have achieved fame through their true abilities?
Nowadays, in these so-called aristocratic families, almost all the children of the family have fame, but they only rely on someone in the court to take care of them and spend money to find connections in exchange for fame!
Of course, Zhu Tianqi does not deny that there are indeed some serious scholarly families in these big families, but Zhu Tianqi also believes that these people who study the Eight Classics seriously and gain fame through strength will not dislike them. I went to the county school to be classmates with those scholars who came from mediocre or poor families.

In short, the main focus of the imperial examination reform and education reform is "fairness". Let everyone in the world have the equal right to receive education and participate in the imperial examination. This is the meaning and goal of the reform!
Of course, talking about fairness and human rights in this era is indeed a bit nonsense. Zhu Tianqi also knows that it is impossible to achieve absolute fairness and justice, but at least relative fairness and justice must be achieved!

Now that Xu Guangqi has officially taken over the Ministry of Rites, the management of national education and imperial examinations is in his hands, making it much easier to get things done.On the one hand, Xu Guangqi arranged for the printing of the textbooks revised by Zhu Tianqi, and on the other hand, he summoned local academic officials from all provinces, prefectures and counties across the country to the capital for centralized training.

According to the system of the Ming Dynasty, provincial-level educational administration work was responsible for the chief envoys of each chief envoy department. There were professors in the government schools, xuezheng in the state schools, and teaching envoys in the county schools.

Although the chief envoys of each chief envoy department are in charge of the province's educational administration work, they mainly do macro-management work such as inspections and supervision, and are not responsible for specific education work, so they are not included in this centralized training. Inside.

In this way, the subordinate three-level academic officials of prefectures and counties are just in charge of the education work of the three-level scientific examinations of county, prefectural and provincial examinations. That is to say, county schools are equivalent to primary schools, state schools are equivalent to junior high schools, and prefectural schools Equivalent to high school.

Because the Ming Dynasty currently has 140 prefectures, 190 three prefectures and 130 eight counties, the number of local academic officials involved is still very large. It is also a very complex and difficult task to educate and train these nearly [-] personnel. Work.

And the key is that there is no one who can provide them with education and training. Even people like Xu Guangqi, who are called "Ming Dynasty scientists", do not have this ability. Xu Guangqi's profound knowledge is compared to his contemporaries in the Ming Dynasty. In other words, in modern times, much of the knowledge that a junior high school student might have is beyond the reach of Xu Guangqi, let alone a high school student.

Therefore, this education and training problem still has to be solved by Zhu Tianqi, and his solution is also very simple and crude-video lessons.

Zhu Tianqi directly purchased a complete set of video courses corresponding to elementary school to high school courses from the Krypton Life Store, and also specially purchased courses that only showed courseware and did not feature teachers.

In this kind of video, there is no vivid explanation by the teacher. The course with only courseware and background voice narration is very rigid. In future generations, it will be the most inferior and least popular video course. However, in order to prevent these Ming Dynasty People were frightened, so Zhu Tianqi could only buy this kind of low-quality video course, and euphemistically called it "shadow puppet teaching."

In order to ensure the quality of training, Xu Guangqi first divided these local academic officers into thirty classes, with about fifty people in each class. For this purpose, Zhu Tianqi specially purchased thirty sets of projection equipment at the Krypton Life Store, and also purchased supporting equipment. The battery powered the projection equipment, and it took a total of nearly 300 years of life, which is probably the number of lives that Zhu Tianqi can accumulate in [-] days.

It can be said that Zhu Tianqi invested a lot of cost and energy in this matter, including Xu Guangqi, who has been busy working on this matter for more than a month, but the specific results are still uncertain.

In Zhu Tianqi's imagination, the education and training of these local officials may not be too smooth. These people are old scholars, more stubborn, and may not easily cooperate, put aside those subsets of classics and history, and accept these new knowledge.

However, what surprised Zhu Tianqi was that when Xu Guangqi informed the local academic officials who were summoned to the capital, no one stood up to object except for being a little surprised.

Xu Guangqi was not surprised by the cooperation of these people. He explained to Zhu Tianqi that nowadays the imperial examinations are corrupt and the court also pays little attention to local education. These local academic officials are not of high grade. As learning becomes increasingly decadent, their lives become even worse.

Moreover, the maintenance funds for these prefecture and county schools mainly come from the school fields. However, as of now, the school fields in many places are due to poor management or official corruption. Even the local school officials cannot support themselves, let alone spend extra funds. Come to repair the college and provide food for the students.

Especially among the lowest-ranking county school teachers, many live in poverty and have no dignity at all.

So now these people don't care whether the imperial court reforms the imperial examination. As long as the imperial court pays more attention to them and the prefectures and counties, they will have no complaints about anything they do!
After Zhu Tianqi learned about these reasons, he even asked Xu Guangqi to tell these local academic officials that the imperial court will invest more funds in the schools in various prefectures and counties in the future, and will also increase their income levels and treatment. , provided that they also meet the assessment and requirements of the imperial court.

As soon as they heard this, these local academic officials immediately became more motivated and started learning new knowledge that they had never been exposed to before. They were so hungry that they forgot to eat and sleep.

Because these local academic officials will be responsible for teaching candidates from various places in the future, Zhu Tianqi naturally has very high requirements for them. Not only must they participate in education and training, but they must also pass exams and assessments.

County school teachers have lower requirements. After completing the primary school curriculum, they will take a final exam. A score of [-]% on the [-]% test paper will be considered a pass. After passing, they can return to their respective counties to carry out education work.

Xuezheng from state schools must complete junior high school courses and obtain a total score of 80.00% in order to pass and return to the state to carry out educational work. Professors from government schools must complete high school courses and obtain a total score of 80.00% in order to be qualified. After passing the exam, he returned to the government to carry out educational work.

As a result, it is very difficult for the Xuezheng of the state school and the professors of the government school to obtain passing grades, and it will also take a long time to complete, but who said that their official positions are better than those of the county school? If you have a higher education, you will have a higher status and a higher salary. Naturally, you also need to have higher knowledge and abilities.

Furthermore, this junior high school curriculum and high school curriculum are different from the other junior high school curriculum. After Zhu Tianqi's deletions, both the amount of knowledge and the difficulty have been greatly reduced. For a person who could serve as an academic official in the Ming Dynasty, Their learning ability is fully capable of mastering this knowledge, and it is only a matter of time before they pass.

Moreover, the reform of the imperial examination has not yet begun, and they still have enough time to study. Even if the reform of the imperial examination is implemented soon, the first to bear the brunt will be the primary education work responsible for the county school, the state school, and the middle and high school professors of the government school. Educational work can be carried out later and it will not delay the candidates' study.

All in all, the first step of this reform is going very smoothly, and the learning situation and results of the local academic officials are very good!

(End of this chapter)