Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 400: Jia's Practical Learning Debuts

When Jia Lian taught Jia Rui a lesson, he had no intention of correcting his behavior. He was already fourteen years old, his character was set and there was no hope for him.

Saying these words now is nothing more than establishing a reputation for foresight.

When others see Jia Rui as a useless person, they will think of Jia Lian's comment. It was a good lesson, but it was a pity that the child did not change.

The children Jia Lian really favored were six-year-old Jia Jun and four-year-old Jia Lan, who had not yet begun to learn.

After being taught a lesson, Jia Rui went down in disgrace, and Jia Lian simply continued the previous conversation in the classroom.

"Dai Rugong is old and should not work too hard. From now on, the clan school will be in charge of the overall work, and two external teachers will be hired for specific teaching. The students will be divided into two classes according to their age."

Since Jia Lian said so, the matter was settled. If someone else had said so, Jia Dairu would have dared to show off his seniority, but since Jia Lian said so, he really didn't dare to refute, for fear that his grandson Jia Rui would suffer in the future.

"In the past, we invested too little in clan education. We will increase investment in the future and strive to make achievements for the next generation of clan members to study."

Jia Lian led the way, and Jia Rong followed behind, saying that the Jia family had no shortage of classrooms, so dividing the classes was easy, and so were two meals a day. The difficult part was inviting a teacher, so Jia Lian had to step forward.

The school was temporarily suspended for three days, and the workers came in early the next morning to repaint, clean up the benches and desks, etc. Jia Rong also confirmed the time for the clan school cafeteria.

And according to Jia Lian's standards, each child must have an egg and a bowl of porridge for breakfast, which can be fish or lean meat porridge. Students can choose not to eat, but they must have it. Lunch has one meat and two vegetables. Even in winter, Jia Lian guarantees the source of vegetarian dishes. Even if the adults can't eat, they can't delay the children.

This move caused a huge response in the clan, because it was organized in the name of Jia Rong, who had not yet officially taken office as the clan leader, but had already taken the lead. When the clan members who were from Jia Zheng and Jia She's generation saw that Jia Rong had Jia Lian's firm support, they also stopped thinking about becoming the clan leader. As for the Jinling branch, no one dared to think about it.

On the day when school reopened, the children arrived at school early one after another. They were not in a hurry to attend classes and ate breakfast first.

Jia Lian actually managed to get the gentleman's matter done. During the spring examination, some candidates were financially strapped and stayed in the capital instead of going home. With Ni Er's information, Jia Lian personally came forward to invite them and got the matter done with a monthly salary of thirty taels.

Monthly salary is only one aspect. Teaching in the Jia Mansion guarantees a guaranteed standard of living. There is also a maid to serve, and a woman to sweep and wash. Daily expenses are all covered except for going out for social events. The most important thing is Jia Lian's status as a well-known official. The two gentlemen will become officials in the future. With this relationship, their starting point is much higher than their peers.

As for Jia Lian’s reputation, is it a problem for someone who aspires to become an official?

After finishing the tribal studies, the manuscript for the new issue of Minsheng Daily has been submitted. There are two new quiz questions. One is about friction generating heat. Use your imagination to find the answer. The other is about an iron ball and a stone ball of the same size falling from the same height. Which one will hit the ground first?

Li Heng sent someone to pull Jia Lian out of his office and handed him a stack of answers: "Look, in the last answers, none of the standard answers to the first question were correct. But many of them were correct for the second question. Look at how this one was answered. There must be an invisible hand of a ghost or god blocking the cup. This one is even more outrageous, saying that a spirit is blocking the cup. Confucius does not talk about ghosts, gods, or monsters! I am going crazy."

In fact, the second question has more correct answers, but it is not the standard answer, it can only be considered close. After all, the steam pushing the lid open is far from the real principle, so it can only be said to be half right.

However, many of the respondents had never been exposed to the concepts, so naturally they were wrong. Jia Lian's purpose was to establish concepts and set standards.

In the end, Jia Lian still selected a number of answers that were related to the question as the correct answer. Those who answered "ghosts and gods" and "spirits" were also selected by Jia Lian.

However, when the answer was announced in the next issue of the newspaper, Jia Lian gave a popular science explanation. Ghosts and spirits do not exist. But there is an external force supporting the paper, so the water will not spill out. Therefore, the direction of these two answers is still correct. The correct answer is announced below... The same is true for boiling water in a kettle. It is indeed the steam that pushes open the lid. The correct answer is...

The sales of the last issue of the quiz with prizes exceeded 7,000 copies. After the answers were announced and new questions were given, the sales of Minsheng Daily increased significantly again, reaching 9,000 copies. The last time this sales volume was reached was when Jia Lian's novel was at its hottest.

The bonus was actually paid out. Even if you didn't get the standard answer right, but you were close to it, as long as your thinking was correct, you got the money.

This influence is not a small one!
The name of Jia's practical learning came from the top scholar Jia Lian, which has the meaning of founding a new school.

Apart from other things, many people are willing to spend money to buy a newspaper and participate just for the prize money. What if they get the answer right? Right? The investment is not worth mentioning.

The Minsheng Daily once again caused a stir in the capital because of its quiz with prizes, making other newspapers jealous.

Okay, let's do something else, right? I'll do it too!
Other newspapers followed suit, but their topics were more limited, either literature or history.

Literature and history are still too far away for ordinary people. Even for educated people, there are few opportunities to read books on literature and history in this era.

The reason is very simple, because everyone is learning eight-legged essays. There are really many scholars who rarely touch Tang poetry and Song lyrics. They are all around the Four Books and Five Classics. History is still good, after all, there are still many historical stories in the "Spring and Autumn Annals". Speaking of the "Spring and Autumn Annals", it must be said that Confucius started a trend that is not sure whether it is good or bad, and wrote history selectively. Confucius took the lead, and Sima Guang was just a follower.

The incident of Cui Zhu killing the historian never happened again in later history. The moral bottom line of historians became flexible, and Confucius made great contributions to this.

That is why Sima Qian was so great. He endured castration to finish writing "Records of the Grand Historian". Fang Xuanling's rejection of Li Shimin was also recorded in great detail by the historians.

It can be said that we should promote what we lack.

There is a reason why "Records of the Grand Historian" has the highest historical status. Just look at the "Book of Jin" that came after it, it's really eye-catching. When it comes to the "History of Ming" compiled in the Qing Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang's face is so ugly.

Clearly [strange facial features] were a self-mythologizing operation of ancient emperors, so how did it become a shoe-horn face?
I am not telling you not to read history books, but I am encouraging you to read them. The records in history books are a mixture of true and false. The vast majority of historical events are true, and the details are manipulated.

As for things like strange visions on the face, just take a look. According to the "Historical Records", Liu Bang was conceived by his mother while she was sleeping under a tree in the wild.

At this point, if you think about it again, Xiang Yu wanted to cook Liu Taigong, and Liu Bang wanted to have a piece of the pie, can you understand it?

So, isn't it reasonable that during the Qin and Han dynasties, people were open-minded and often had happy encounters in the fields?
From Liu Taigong's perspective, more boys in the family means more labor, which is not a loss. Jia Lian's first withdrawal from the so-called practical learning and his attitude as a founder not only affected the capital, but also the academic circles of the entire Great Zhou Empire.

Since the middle and late Ming Dynasty, there have been many different theories in the academic world. Not to mention Neo-Confucianism, which is still the official school of thought, the School of Mind has a great influence, and Wang Yangming is called a saint. The School of Mind is divided into many schools, including the Taizhou School, which takes refined self-interest to the extreme, the School of Practical Achievement, and even Li Zhi, who was considered a heretic at the time.

If it were normal history, after the Qing Dynasty entered the pass, they would have put a knife on their necks and killed anyone who dared to resist, and the rest would have become slaves.

Although the Great Zhou of this time and space still chose Neo-Confucianism as its mainstream school and still promoted Zhu Xi as a semi-sage, it did not have too many restrictions on other schools of thought. As long as they did not rebel, they would be fine.

There are many schools of thought among the people, but the truly influential ones are the orthodox Neo-Confucianism and Wang's School of Mind. The Qingyun Academy and the School of Practical Achievement are not actually academic studies, but political positions.

For example, the Taizhou School was once quite influential, but was later attacked by the Taizu of this dynasty, who said that they were all selfish villains.

From then on, things fell into decline.

In the eyes of many folk schools, Jia Lian's practical learning is not heresy, but going against the will of heaven.

What practical learning, learning for application. What studying the principles of the universe, look at what you can do. Today you dare to establish a school of thought, tomorrow you dare to think about passing the imperial examination, and the day after tomorrow you dare to shit on the head of Confucianism.

This is absolutely intolerable, we must strike hard and severely.

Other newspapers in the capital started the charge, labeling him "a traitor to the saint's teachings". Some even shouted "dishonesty to the master and ancestors" and demanded that everyone should be killed.

If we read their articles, I'm afraid Jia Lian will be dragged to the Meridian Gate tomorrow and beheaded in public to apologize to the world. In fact, it's just the newspapers that are making such a fuss, while the officials are calm and watching from the sidelines.

Starting from the capital, the influence of the incident quickly moved southward along the canal, and only after entering the Liangjiang area, a place where culture and art converged, did it truly explode like a big bomb.

Jia's theory of practical learning really angered the rats in Jiangdong.

That's right, what right do you have? Jiangnan is a wealthy place with many scholarly families and generations of scholars. How can you, Jia Lian, who comes from a noble family, dare to establish your own school?
Various calls for fighting and killing started from the south of the Yangtze River and spread northward.

But the thing is, where there are opponents, there must be supporters.

The academic environment in the Great Zhou is relatively tolerant. Since you are against it, please provide evidence.

Let's put it this way, some of the so-called literary leaders who are now successful will naturally want to kill Jia Lian. But many unsuccessful writers, when they see this, think, oh, this is a new thing, we can try it!
Then, in order to get some exposure, they took the initiative to jump out and confront the successful people. You said Jia Lian deserved to die, so what else do we need the government for? What else do we need the court for?

In short, the matter was a big deal. Jia Lian's school was still in the preparation stage, but there was a big quarrel along the canal from Jinling to the capital.

As for other places with inconvenient transportation, the quarrels would start later. For example, in Huguang, people would naturally rush there from Liangjiang along the Yangtze River.

In provinces like Shanxi and Shaanxi, the academic community has little influence, so of course there will be noise, but it won't be a big deal.

In the newspapers of the capital, Jia Lian used the Minsheng Daily as a base and began to confront some literati.

This time, Lord Jia will not change his name or surname. He will not use a nickname and will just use his real name.

[What Confucian traitors? It is obvious that the later generations misinterpreted the meaning of the saints. May I ask if the Jia family's practical learning is reasonable and legal? On the contrary, some people misinterpreted the saints' understanding of etiquette and came up with the so-called "ruling by sitting back and watching the emperor", running towards the empty monarch. This is treason and they should be killed! ]

[The correct meaning of "investigating things to gain knowledge" lies in practical learning. What's wrong with finding the principles of things through observation and experiment? ]

【The Six Classics explain me, and I explain the Six Classics. Haha! How many words of saints have been distorted by later generations? The learning of Yang Zhu in the Western Han Dynasty is a classic example. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were also the Yue clans who monopolized knowledge. The result of calling for the killing of others was that they were defeated by foreign monks. The two Chengs, Zhus, and Lushun revived Confucianism, but later generations were not up to the task, and Wang Yangming emerged. Scholars who cannot keep up with the times will be eliminated sooner or later, either by Jia or by new foreign monks. Wake up, people of the world! The world is big, and there is a lot of knowledge. We must learn from all schools of thought, learn from the strengths of all schools, and constantly innovate.】

[I asked the question, who can give the correct answer? If you can't explain it clearly, you will call for killing. Which law did Jia violate? Those who make false accusations when they are not as knowledgeable as others are ignorant of the law. False accusations will be punished. Don't be happy now, be careful to be on the list in the future! ]

In short, Jia Lian absolutely does not admit the nickname "Traitor of Confucianism". Not only does he not admit it, but he turns the tables on others.

Jia Lian's purpose was very clear, to establish his reputation through debate. Those who accepted or did not accept it should be put aside for the time being.

There is a very important issue, which is that when it comes to science subjects, right is right, wrong is wrong, understanding is understanding, and not understanding is not understanding.

There are absolutely no blurred boundaries!

For the same article, some people praised it, while others criticized it. But you can't say that one kilogram of water is only half a kilogram, right?
There is another key point. The questions that Jia Lian asked in the contest with prizes are all tangible and visible things that can be seen around us at any time.

This received a very good response from the public. Many children from ordinary families took the newspaper cutouts and answered the questions, even if they were incorrect, as long as they were related, they had a chance to win the prize.

Therefore, even though people in the cultural circle shout loudly, it really has no impact among the common people, and they can barely sell many copies of newspapers.

On the other hand, Jia Lian was not promoting rebellion, and the authorities could not convict him. Some scholars in the society with decent IQs could see that what Jia Lian said was really reasonable and plausible. For example, the three forms of water do exist. So, Jia Lian's theory about the temperature of the three forms is tenable.

Freezing water is at zero degrees and boiling water is at 100 degrees, there is nothing wrong with that.

There are also various experiments, where two balls of different weights actually land at the same time. This is very shocking!
(End of this chapter)