Early Ming Dynasty: Turning Clouds and Rains into New Learning Saints

Chapter 182 You came here in vain
So, he said to Zhu Biao: "Look, do you think these idle books are popular with the public?"

"That's not the case!" After hearing this, Zhu Biao nodded and said, "How many people would like to read a book that takes a lot of time to read?"

When Zhang Yifan heard this, he asked him again: "So if such a popular book tells stories about loyal ministers and good generals, will the people recognize loyal ministers and good generals, and use them as examples to learn from them intentionally or unintentionally? "

Zhu Biao originally had a joking smile on his face, but when he heard this, he immediately realized something, and then his expression became serious, and he nodded and said: "Yes, you are right, it seems that these idle books may not necessarily It must be useless!”

Zhang Yifan led Zhu Biao to a remote place in the backyard where the administrator rested, and sat down to continue chatting.

I heard him say to Zhu Biao: "In fact, this can actually be regarded as the control of public opinion. In the near future, it will definitely be easier for literati to control public opinion. When the time comes, whatever they say to the people will be what the people hear. .”

While talking, seeing Zhu Biao listening carefully, Zhang Yifan further explained: "Take the historical reform of Wang Anshi as an example. The Qingmiao Law he introduced at the beginning actually has similar functions to my bank. The intention was good. However, the officials below saw the opportunity to make money and misinterpreted the Qingmiao Law. They told the people that the Qingmiao Law was the Qingmiao Law they talked about, and it was not Wang Anshi's original intention. Since then, , the implementation of the Young Crops Law has been distorted. This is a typical example of the importance of controlling public opinion!"

Zhu Biao never expected that such a big topic would arise from just reading the book, and it might even be related to the national security.

Moreover, he also admitted that the example of Wang Anshi can indeed support Zhang Yifan's point of view.

So, Zhu Biao immediately became serious, and after thinking about it carefully, he asked: "Do you have any ideas in this regard?"

Although Zhang Yifan already had something in his stomach, he still pretended to think for a moment before replying: "I'm thinking that the control of public opinion must be in the hands of the imperial court and the father. Otherwise, From now on, the officials below will misinterpret the imperial court’s intentions and the emperor’s father’s intentions, but the people don’t know it, and the emperor doesn’t know it either. This is the best ground for them to deceive and conceal it!”

Zhu Biao nodded solemnly and listened carefully.

"As for the current channels for ordinary people to obtain information, because they are illiterate, they can only listen to what the literate people say. If the literate people speak rightly or wrongly, it will matter a lot. If they are all literate, then the literate people will There is no way to distort the true intention of the court. When everyone becomes literate, just like these idle books, the place where public opinion is controlled will shift. It may be popular books, opera, storytelling, etc. In fact, there are also religions, The one-eyed Yellow River Stone Man was also the same..."

Zhu Biao really didn't expect that public opinion control could be so complicated. Details that he hadn't paid attention to before could be a type of public opinion control.

If Zhu Yuanzhang were here, he would probably have a deeper understanding of the importance of controlling public opinion than Zhu Biao.

At this time, Zhu Biao listened to Zhang Yifan's talk.After Zhang Yifan finally finished speaking, he pondered for a moment, then looked at Zhang Yifan and said, "So, the first step is to make the people of the Ming Dynasty as literate as possible. In this way, can we ensure that the people will not be fooled by the officials?"

Zhang Yifan listened and nodded.

Reading and literacy in ancient times were actually monopolized.Those scholars do not want more scholars to appear.

In the earliest times, it was the exclusive property of wealthy and aristocratic families, and it was impossible for ordinary people to afford reading.

The so-called poor family is actually relative to the wealthy family, not ordinary people at all.

When the Sui and Tang Dynasties began to adopt the imperial examination system, this situation began to slowly change.However, reading still has nothing to do with ordinary people.

Even when the imperial examination system became the only one in the Ming Dynasty, there were still very few ordinary people studying.It is said that Hong Chengchou was young and his family was too poor to study, so he could only attend private schools and was appreciated by the teacher. But who knew that Hong Chengchou's father was a Yusheng student and his grandfather was a Gongsheng student.

People in China can only really study until later generations begin to universalize compulsory education.

What Zhang Yifan implemented in Xiangshan County is somewhat similar to compulsory education, but it is not compulsory and is induced with benefits.

At this time, he took this opportunity to educate Zhu Biao, the future emperor, about the benefits of education for all, and at the same time, he also told his father-in-law.If possible, I hope that Lao Zhu can take further steps in his sociological policies so that they can benefit more people in the Ming Dynasty.

There is no doubt that Zhu Yuanzhang attaches great importance to teaching, otherwise, he would not have issued an order to launch social studies on a large scale.

At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict: "Since Hu Yuan came to China, the barbarians have polluted China, the schools have been neglected, and human discipline has been lost. Since the war, people have been accustomed to struggle and lack of etiquette and justice. Now I have unified the world and restored our In the governance of China’s first kings, it was appropriate to vigorously revitalize the Chinese style and promote governance and education.”

However, Zhang Yifan believed that this was not enough. His promotion of sociology was only of some use when he was in power. Zhu Di launched the Jing Revolt, which destroyed sociology at once and set back a lot.

During the Chenghua period, Yang Jizong became the prefect of Jiaxing and promoted social studies. He ordered that "if the children of the people do not become scholars at the age of eight, their parents will be punished." This kind of system can only be binding if it is formed.It's just a pity that this was just ordered by a certain prefect himself.

At this time, Zhang Yifan heard Zhu Biao mention the topic of compulsory education, and reminded him: "In this regard, it is best for the court to provide subsidies, otherwise, some families really cannot afford to go to school. The court invested With this money, there will be many more talents in the future, and the benefits will be endless.”

After hearing this, Zhu Biao nodded and said: "With Xiangshan County as a reference, I know it in my heart. When I get back to the capital, I will discuss it with my father."

Hearing this, Zhang Yifan was very happy.

Once the two of them reach a consensus, it means that the system of the two emperors since the founding of the Ming Dynasty will remain unchanged.After the compulsory education of two generations of emperors, the future achievements of the Ming Dynasty will reach a peak that cannot be reached in history.

Later, I heard Zhu Biao continue to say: "Second, it is necessary to control public opinion, including but not limited to the review of idle books, operas, storytelling, etc..."

Hearing this, Zhang Yifan reminded Zhu Biao: "Actually, if the literacy rate of the people in the Ming Dynasty was high, they could run a newspaper, which is a collection of papers reporting various news, interpreting the latest court policies, commenting on some things that happened, etc. etc., it will be easier for the court to control public opinion and prevent others from being led astray!"

"You can have this!" Zhu Biao said with interest after hearing this.

Zhang Yifan looked at him and continued to give suggestions: "This is just propaganda. It is more popular and easy for people to understand. It would be better if it can be entertaining and educational."

When Zhu Biao heard this, he immediately thought of something and asked Zhang Yifan: "You mean, are you right to promote your vernacular sayings and punctuation marks? Isn't this correct?"

"Yes, it's best to be like this." Zhang Yifan also thought of something after hearing this, and said to Zhu Biao: "By the way, and, I think the current literacy teaching is still too slow and not efficient enough. You Look, can you invent a set of pinyin, which is to explain how to read Chinese characters, and set a set of standards. In this way, as long as students master the usage of this set of pinyin, they can recognize and read unfamiliar characters by themselves, you What do you think?"

"Hey, your idea is good!" Zhu Biao was overjoyed when he heard it, and quickly asked, "I think it's good, then you can come up with something, and I'll give my father advice later?" Zhang Yifan immediately shook his head and said: "I don't have the time, unless I'm not the county magistrate and don't assign me other jobs, then I can do it!"

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Mandarin was actually left over from the previous dynasty, and Zhu Yuanzhang paid attention to this aspect.

If you were to give a set of pinyin at this time, what would be the standard?Zhang Yifan couldn't make the decision, so Zhu Yuanzhang still had to make the decision.

The pinyin set in later generations is definitely not suitable for this era.However, the pinyin idea can be used.

According to the current actual situation, it is definitely a nerve-wracking thing to come up with a set of pinyin.

Under all these circumstances, Zhang Yifan would not be stupid enough to take over this time-consuming and mental-intensive job.

After Zhang Yifan refused, he thought of something and suggested: "Aren't there two people in the reading room next door who have read poetry and books? Just let them do it later!"

When Zhu Biao heard that he mentioned Master and Disciple Song Lian, he immediately laughed, let Zhang Yifan go and said, "Okay, I'll talk to my father about this later!"

After he finished speaking, he looked at Zhang Yifan with interest and asked: "Tell me, if you have any other ideas, tell them all at once!"

"Where do I still have it?" Zhang Yifan shook his head after hearing this, "No more!"

Zhu Biao didn't believe it, and asked again: "Think again, it's rare for me to come here once, and I will tell you everything I think, so that my trip will not be in vain!"

"You came here in vain?" Upon hearing this, Zhang Yifan suddenly looked contemptuous.

How many ideas were put into practice in Xiangshan County in later generations, but Zhu Biao has already made a lot of money, and it was all in vain!

When Zhu Biao heard this, he immediately laughed and said: "I just said it casually, of course it was not in vain!"

However, after his request, Zhang Yifan really remembered something and said to him: "By the way, I remembered it. A few years ago, didn't I hold a literacy competition to get money? At that time, my fourth brother Then I discovered a problem, because those who want to participate must be able to write their own names. But you don’t know, many people in the county asked to change their names, and the names changed were almost the same!"

When Zhu Biao heard this, he was a little surprised, but also interested, and immediately asked: "What name was changed?"

Zhang Yifan looked at Zhu Biao and replied: "Zhang [-], Zhang [-], Zhang [-], Liu [-], Liu [-], Liu [-], Qian [-], Qian [-]..."

Zhu Biao: "..."

After being speechless for a while, he asked curiously: "Why is this happening?"

"Because it's easy to write! I asked them that it took them a long time to memorize those complicated characters, let alone write them." Zhang Yifan replied, "From this incident, I think, is it Our Chinese characters should be simplified as much as possible. In this way, the difficulty of students reading and literacy should be reduced, which will help the people of Ming Dynasty to be literate, what do you think?"

There are real-life examples, and it sounds reasonable. After hearing this, Zhu Biao nodded in agreement and said: "This idea seems to be possible, and I will also mention it to my father. Is there anything else?"

Zhang Yifan thought for a moment and realized that this time it was really gone. At least he couldn't think of any other measures that could be used in popularizing education at the moment. He shook his head and said, "It's really gone!"

After hearing this, Zhu Biao stopped questioning him. He seemed a little satisfied and got a lot of useful suggestions, so he stood up with a smile and said: "In that case, let's go see what the two of them are doing? "

Seeing how much he had gained, Zhang Yifan was also happy, so he stood up and took him to the reading room where Master and Disciple Song Lian was.

As a result, what the two of them didn't expect was that after the two of them passed by, Master and Disciple Song Lian would get together to discuss it, so that they didn't notice it even when they were behind them.

"Master, I feel that this algorithm seems wrong. Does A only need this little strength to lift such a heavy thing?"

"Teacher, looking at Prince Consort's explanation process, the student thinks that this is possible."

"..."

After Zhu Biao heard this, he turned to look at Zhang Yifan and said with a smile: "So we are discussing your book. This is not an idle book, right?"

Hearing the sound, Master and Disciple Song Lian finally came to his senses and quickly saluted the two of them.

At this time, Zhang Yifan had already spotted it, and said with a smile: "So you are discussing the physics related to the pulley block?"

The book on their desk was the physics knowledge that Zhang Yifan had written in his spare time, involving the calculation of pulleys and levers.

Nowadays, the functions of pulleys and levers are already being used at the docks in Xiangshan County.For this reason, Zhang Yifan wrote down this part of physics knowledge, hoping that interested people would be interested in learning it after seeing it.

Unexpectedly, master and apprentice Song Lian actually discussed it.

At this time, Fang Xiaoru smiled and explained to Zhu Biao: "The knowledge of the consort is always very practical. Over at the dock, because of this, loading and unloading cargo is much faster. There is a reason here. Explain and take a look."

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, most literati were practical people who applied what they learned, rather than utopianists. Therefore, most people did not reject the so-called miscellaneous learning.

According to records, Fang Xiaoru despised the knowledge of literary writing and took it as his own duty to proclaim the way to govern the world with benevolence and righteousness and to achieve peace in the world, which inevitably led to the emphasis on practical application in the world.

(End of this chapter)