Great Qing Dynasty talker

Chapter 534: Three-Tier Education System and New Civil Service System
Faced with the eager eyes of his ministers, Li Yu was silent for a moment, and was sure that the new official system could no longer be avoided.

I might as well take this opportunity to make it clear once and for all.

"I have decided to formally abolish the prefecture and provincial governments and implement provincial and county governments in the local area to ensure efficiency and avoid redundancy."

"In addition, under the Minister of Education, an examination bureau will be established to draft a new civil service admission system according to my wishes. The examination will be divided into two parts: practical and policy, each accounting for half of the score. The practical part covers poetry, mathematics, physics, astronomy, geography and other common sense. The policy is divided into two parts, one practical and the other ideal."

"There are two examinations every year. In spring, the first selection exam is held in each provincial capital. In autumn, the second selection exam is held in Suzhou. The specific number of places will be discussed later. Only those who pass the examination can enter the Dongshan Civil Service School. The study period is 3 years, and the tuition fee can be moderately raised on the existing basis."

Everyone was silent.

Your Majesty has been prepared for this and has planned it carefully.

……

The two-level flat jurisdiction system of province and county was groundbreaking. Its advantages were obvious, but its disadvantages were also obvious.

There is little resistance to changing it now.

Because Wu's current civil servants are mainly concentrated in prefectures and counties, most of the vacancies at the prefecture level are vacant, and there are even fewer at the provincial level.

With this change,
The few former prefectural-level officials were about to enter the provincial government directly.

There is no way they would object since they had gotten a great bargain.

And those county and city civil servants who have been waiting on the list of those who have performed outstandingly and are being prepared for promotion will also cheer and enter the province in one step.

One step faster, n steps faster.

However, the competition among the civil servants of the Wu State became fierce in the future.

It would be very difficult for a county magistrate to move up to a higher position, but he could be promoted to a civil servant and have his salary increased.

……

One stone stirs up a thousand ripples, and countless people are busy asking questions.

Soon, more details came out.

Everyone was shocked. What does His Majesty want to do?
New system:

Official education is divided into three levels: primary school, secondary school, and high school.

A primary school was opened in every county town under its jurisdiction.

The course lasts one month and the tuition fee is 100 wen.

The number of new students in each session shall not exceed 100.

Only Chinese characters and arithmetic are taught, accommodation and stationery are provided, but meals are not provided.

One month later, the teaching teachers will select the best students at a ratio of 5% and recommend them to secondary schools to take the entrance examination.

~
A secondary school was opened in the capital city, and entrance examinations were conducted on recommended new students, with the bottom 80% of students being eliminated.

The course lasts one year and the tuition fee is 10 taels.

Teach writing, poetry, mathematics, and simple physics.

Accommodation is included, but stationery and meals are not included.

A final examination will be taken one year later, and another 50% will be eliminated.

~
A high school was opened in the provincial capital, and students were formally introduced to the new official textbooks.

The course lasts two years and the tuition fee is 50 taels per year.

Accommodation, stationery and meals are not included, and textbooks need to be purchased by oneself.

Two years later, all students can take part in the first examination held in the provincial capital.

The Minister of Education will give the corresponding admission quota to each province every year. Those who pass the preliminary examination can go to Suzhou Prefecture to take the final selection examination.

The winner will enter the civil service school for a short period of one year, and read His Majesty's philosophy of governing the country every day.

Upon graduation, the quality of the thesis will determine your career path.

……

There are also some additional notes.

E.g,

The original five-year clerks were given an opportunity to directly participate in the provincial capital's preliminary examination.

If Luo fails the exam and still wants to take the civil service exam, he will have to start all over again in secondary school.

In addition, two bottom support options are provided.

After the five-year civil service period is over, if you fail the exam and don't want to study anymore, you can go to a senior school to be a practical teacher, or you can go to the army and start directly as a non-commissioned officer.

~
E.g,

Primary schools shall not set any other thresholds except age (under 12 years old) and admission shall be arranged in the order of registration.

E.g,

The travel expenses, board and accommodation incurred by students recommended by primary schools to take examinations in secondary schools will be borne by the government.

E.g,

Those who fail the intermediate school graduation examination can be given priority to be arranged to become teachers in primary schools.

Those who passed the secondary school graduation examination but voluntarily gave up the opportunity to continue their studies due to poverty were all arranged to work as managers in various factories and mines, and big businessmen were also encouraged to recruit from among them.

~
E.g,

Every year, teachers at the top 10 primary schools with the highest pass rates in the provincial exams are given rewards ranging from 100 to 10 taels.

E.g,

Students are allowed to get married while studying in secondary schools.

This move is to leave a glimmer of hope for some poor and intelligent students, so that they can achieve the goal of continuing their studies through marriage.

The man is talented and the woman is wealthy.

It can be considered as resource complementarity.

Your Majesty is very open-minded.

But it’s hard to say clearly, it all depends on personal understanding.

……

Such a complex education system basically covers three aspects: literacy, vocational education and imperial examinations.

Tuition fees are very particular~
Primary school tuition is very low.

Even a farmer in the countryside could grit his teeth and send his most gifted child to a wealthy family, spending a few hundred copper coins and a month's time to give his family a chance to turn things around.

of course,

It's more for quick literacy.

It is stipulated that meals are not provided.

However, Li Yu instructed the Minister of Education Wu Ao to allocate an additional 500 taels of silver for food to each school, and to provide free steamed corn bread and pickles to students who really had no food to eat.

The school's public statement was that the money was taken from the teachers' own food money.

……

Wu Ting needs to allocate a large amount of funds to primary schools and a small amount of funds to secondary schools.

High schools do not need a penny of funding from the West.

There may even be a surplus.

After all, the tuition fee of 50 taels a year is scary, and there are textbooks for various subjects that start at 1 tael.

……

Li Yu designed it this way to create a threshold.

He didn't want everyone in the world to take the imperial examination, spend their whole lives studying classics and wasting their lives.

There are so many pitfalls.

It would be better to give up the world's thoughts at the very beginning, abandon the "Four Books and Five Classics", and turn your attention to other places.

Poor in literature and rich in martial arts.

The so-called entry into the scholar's life is nothing more than a pen, a pile of old books, and a roll of straw paper. In the humble house, they suffer in misery and exhaustion.

Why bother! Why bother!
Li Yu can conclude that with the great development of industry and commerce, all students who can enter secondary schools will have a bright future.

Large factories and large mines need their participation.

They will be the fruits of vocational education.

The future empire will need a similar large middle class to serve as a buffer zone between business owners and ordinary people.

……

The reform was earth-shattering and directly broke the original system.

For a while, it became a hot topic on the streets.

The intensity of the war was so high that it even exceeded that of the war on the Western Front.

After all, all things are inferior, only reading is superior. After all, most people think: What does the war in the southwest have to do with me in the south?
Many scholars cried loudly and were heartbroken.

At such an old age, they have to go to the county town where they are from and learn to read and write with a bunch of disheveled children?

It's insulting, it's insulting.

After the notice was posted,

There are more and more wronged souls in the water and lonely ghosts on the beams in various places. They died with their eyes open, and were helplessly crushed by the wheel of time.

……

Your Majesty, who is well aware of human nature, left a back door.

Enyin~
Ministers (corps lieutenants, governors) can recommend one person for admission every year and advance directly.

At the director level, one person can be recommended every two years.

The person recommended can be one's own family member or a close aide.

However, you still have to complete the course and cannot skip any hours.

This move,
Wu Ting was overjoyed and shouted that Your Majesty was wise.

Your Majesty has not forgotten those tycoon businessmen, and more than 200 tycoon families designated by Your Majesty have also received favors.

Their sons and nephews can enter the Naval Academy, and after serving for five years, some of them can enter the Navy Department and indirectly transfer from military officers to civilian officers.

For a time,

The Naval Academy is overcrowded.

Without any hint, the Navy Department received an extra 1-2 million taels of silver. Because His Majesty was also the Minister of the Navy, the people in charge were not worried at all and collected the money calmly.

……

In short, Li Yu took another small step forward.

Education is the foundation!
Now, under the extremely tight financial situation, it is not easy for him to squeeze out more than 200 million taels to develop systematic education.

The timing was perfect and the rules were perfect.

The resistance is relatively minimal.

Civil servants, the military, and business owners all had no objections. Only some old intellectuals were filled with hatred.

……

But it doesn’t matter. The old intellectuals in the south can no longer cause any waves.

From the very beginning, Li Yu had no intention of letting them get on the boat. It didn’t matter whether a group of people struggling in the water were satisfied or not.

You don't like me, and I hate you too.

The emperor is not a gold ingot, how can everyone like him?

I didn't kill you, not because I was soft-hearted, but because I didn't want to inject the gene of inexplicable bloodlust into the budding new dynasty and destroy the rules.

The remaining southern gentry groups, which had been severely weakened, no longer posed an overt threat and could only make small moves that had no practical significance.

The northern gentry had a complete system.

Li Yu planned to hurt them severely in a way that no one in the world could expect, making them suffer so much that they would die naturally.

……

Education Minister Wu Ao is extremely busy as he needs to build a complete three-level school system as soon as possible.

Choose a school building~
Hiring teachers~
We must urge the county government to spread your majesty's kindness to the villages to recruit students~
Do more if you can.

Wu Ao is a realist, as can be seen from his initial promotion of "cheap medicine".

Therefore,
It's no surprise that he is valued by His Majesty.

In essence, His Majesty is an "ideal realist" who is kind but not excessive, and idealistic but not radical.

Xiaoxiaosheng once said:
Ideals are beautiful, but most of the ideals in the world are worthless and ridiculous.

……

In a few days,

An imperial decree was issued from the palace to open a girls' school in Suzhou, Songjiang, Jiangling and Hangzhou.

Admissions requirements:

Under 8 years old, with pretty face, clean family background, well-educated and sensible.

Closed management is implemented and uniform uniforms are required.

It is said that the funds for opening these four girls' schools were allocated by the Empress from the imperial treasury.

Although it was not widely publicized, it attracted great attention in a small circle.

Competition for admission is very fierce.

Everyone was certain that this was a preparation for the future selection of concubines, and Prince Zhenyi of Jiangning was a good example.

Your Majesty is not an ordinary person, you have noble tastes and like to play with cultivation.

Over time,
These four schools were known as "His Majesty's Garden" in the local community, and even the students themselves believed that they would enter the palace to apply to become empresses when they grew up.

In fact, everyone has misunderstood Your Majesty.

Your Majesty is merely preparing for a rainy day and wants to train a group of new-style women for future use.

……

The "ban on foot binding" order also came out.

Provisions:

After five years, all civil officials above grade three and military officers above second lieutenant were not allowed to take women with bound feet as wives or concubines, otherwise they would be dismissed from their official positions.

The trend has always come from top to bottom.

The royal family's preferences will gradually sink and spread.

For example, the new style of clothing was promoted in the first month of the year, and the Wu Palace took the lead in purchasing it for the female officials and palace maids to change their clothes.

after that,

Since then, there have been many good men from Suzhou and Songjiang going out on the streets.

Jiangning and Hangzhou are not willing to lag behind and are even going one step further.

The conservative old scholars have high blood pressure when they go out on the street. They lament in a low voice that "the world is going downhill" while carefully considering things with their eyes fixed.

Criticism is criticism, but if you really encounter it, you still have to open your eyes and appreciate it.

After all, the essence of Confucianism is:

They say one thing and do another.

You can lie to others, but you can’t lie to yourself.

……

New problems also come one after another~
First, the brothel industry in Jiangnan followed suit and was more radical than that of Liangren. The specific manifestation was that the skirts were shorter, narrower and the fabrics were thinner.

Also, the phenomenon of wearing the same clothes can be seen everywhere.

Garment factories have too few styles, and they produce thousands of sets of each style. There is an economic problem here: the more styles there are, the thinner the profit, and vice versa.

Serious homogeneity has led to an extremely serious phenomenon of wearing the same clothes.

For example, a light green dress with a white corset is very popular among women in the south of the Yangtze River.

Commoner A bought a set for his wife and happily took her out shopping. Then he looked back and found that the streets were full of light green dresses, all of which looked like his wife.

The careless citizen A just pulled the slimmest one, causing unnecessary casualties.

This is not a big deal.

What’s even more terrifying is that brothel regular B mistook the handsome man on the street for a girl.

For a time, there were many troubles caused by wearing the same clothes in various places.

……

Anyway,

Your Majesty's starting point was good, but the garment factory failed in its execution.

finally,
Through the Textile Chamber of Commerce, we coordinate the sale of clothes from various factories to each other to ensure the diversity of styles.

but,

The problem of prostitutes and their lovers wearing the same clothes is still difficult to solve.

The sisters in the brothel firmly defend the freedom of clothing~
The news reached the palace, and the decree was issued:
You can wear it in brothels and taverns, but when you go out, you must hang a bright red ribbon diagonally to distinguish yourself.

In addition,

When welcoming guests at the door, you can also wear your own Manchu costumes.

Wearing Manchu costume to welcome guests is very eye-catching.

Anyway, with the change of dynasties, there are no taboos. Unscrupulous businessmen simply ask tailors to make patterns for the costumes of Qing princesses.

……

The welcoming girl at the door stepped on the bottom of the flowerpot, raised her handkerchief, squatted slightly, and said, "Sir, good luck to you", and the experience was instantly maximized.

The guest smiled so hard that his mouth stretched all the way to his ears.

Lianhuo:

"Reward, reward."

Soon, competition became increasingly fierce and many people followed suit.

Zhou Shuren once said:
If every family wears Manchu clothing, it means that no family wears Manchu clothing.

The bearded old horse said:

For 100% profit, these people can trample on everything.

……

This is a competition with no winners.
In order to make money, merchants are busy making magical changes.

It was changed so much that no one could recognize it.

The waistcoat and leggings are no longer needed, the bottom of the flower pot is raised, and the small slits on the four sides are changed to large slits on the eight sides.

Repeatedly breaking the lower limit.

The forks are so wide that they reach the elbows.

Anyway,

Smoky.

However, it has created an inertial memory among the people of Wu State - Manchu clothing≈
……

Your Majesty, the instigator of this incident, has no time to deal with such trivial matters. It is just a trial for future cultural exports.

inside the palace,
Minister of Industry Du Ren and Minister of Foreign Affairs Jia Xiaozhen sat on the left and right respectively.

Du Ren was embarrassed but still polite:
"Your Majesty. I am a lawyer by profession, and I am old-fashioned and not flexible enough in dealing with people. I am afraid that I will not be able to do a good job as the ambassador to Europe and fail your Majesty's trust."

Jia Xiaozhen hesitated for a moment and said with a smile:

"I am not bound by any professional constraints. If Your Majesty does not mind, I am willing to give it a try."

……

Li Yu leaned back in his chair and nodded:
"In that case, I will confer upon Lord Jia the title of Jiaoxibo and have him accompany the Saxon fleet to London."

Jia Xiao was really frightened.

Li Yu waved his hand:
"The poor family is rich in wealth. I gave you a title and a large amount of funding to increase your bargaining chips in Europe. You will understand when you go there."

After thinking for a while, he added:

"By the way, confer the title of Earl of Loyalty on Prince Shenglie of Tongren. The Pan brothers of Gusu, Pan Wen is Marquis of West Lake, and Pan Wu is Marquis of Yangcheng. Liu Zhen of Hangzhou is a lady of the first rank."

"Let the world know that I remember our old friendship."

(End of this chapter)