Ming Zhengzhi, I am Zheng Kezang

In April of the ninth year of Wucheng, Zheng Kezang toured Yidong and western Sichuan.

Because it was going up along the waterway, the first stop of Zheng Kezang's trip was naturally Jiangling, which was listed as the left-behind mansion.

After nearly ten years of self-cultivation, Jiangling has largely recovered. However, Zheng Kezang did not come to see the Jiangling market. His main purpose of coming to Jiangling after revisiting his hometown was to check the education situation in Jiangling.

Although the education system of the Huaxia Dynasty was divided into four levels: Mongolian school, county school, (state) school and imperial school, in fact, due to the serious shortage of teachers, the content of imperial education was repeatedly compressed, which did not fully meet Zheng Ke's requirements. Zang's original vision.Only in the last few years, with the increasing consolidation of the Huaxia Dynasty and continuous training of talents, have they become popular in Wuchang Mansion, Chengtian Mansion in the Eastern Capital, Qiongzhou in Nanjing, Chaozhou Left-behind Mansion, Taiping Left-behind Mansion, Jingzhou Left-behind Mansion, Jiangnan and Jiangxi Provinces and autonomous regions with relatively abundant financial resources, such as Hunan, Huguang, and Guangdong, have preliminarily perfected the four-level system.

Of course, elementary school in the four-level education system has always been undertaken by the people themselves, and the county and inspection departments are mainly responsible for supervision and inspection.Therefore, graduating from elementary school does not have any political treatment. The dropout students must go to the state government to take the exam and obtain a D-class diploma before they have the opportunity to enter the county school or become an official as the lowest level of foreign officials.According to the internal regulations of the Huaxia Ministry of Officials, those who become officials with elementary diplomas only have the chance to be promoted once every five years, and they may be promoted again when they reach the eighth rank. [

Therefore, the county school is actually the most elementary government-run education in the Huaxia Dynasty.

However, the county schools only teach general general education, such as the six arts of a gentleman, etc., and do not refine it. Therefore, after obtaining a third-class diploma in the assessment, the students who have dropped out of the county must either enter the (state) government school to continue their studies, or become an official. Depending on the chance, one can obtain a degree in the specialized schools set up by various ministries and yamen, otherwise, after becoming an official, he can only reach the top six grades.

The (state) prefectural school began to divide subjects, corresponding to the existing ministries and government offices of the Huaxia Dynasty. The (state) prefectural school set up subjects such as accounting (finance), agriculture (agriculture and forestry), engineering (construction), rites, law, and medicine. The dropouts usually work in various ministries and yamen. If there is an accident, they can generally achieve the fourth rank.However, in view of the unequal powers and responsibilities of the ministries and yamen, in order to prevent students from picking the fat and not wanting to take certain subjects, the difficulty of admission for each subject is different, so as to roughly guarantee the employment of the ministries and yamen.

However, there are some exceptions. Not all ministries and yamen will appoint (state) students who have graduated from prefectural schools.

For example, the Governor’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Countries Affairs is nominally assigned to the Li Ke, but it never directly accepts students who have graduated from the Li Ke from the schools in various places (states). The same is true for the Ministry of Punishment. Although its chief officials at all levels are all law graduates, its basic business personnel are trained from the provincial schools directly under the Ministry's direct control, and its students are even more numerous. They come from those groups who graduated from elementary school but could not get an elementary diploma.

Taixue is the most advanced school in China. It is established in provincial capitals and Zhili prefectures such as Wuchang.As the highest-educated person in the Huaxia Dynasty, these proud sons of heaven are trained as the backbone of the department. If they did not fall midway due to corruption or other accidents, the minister, minister, and governor would be the end of their careers. As for whether they can do it Cabinet ministers, cabinet ministers, this is mainly based on chance rather than academic qualifications.

It is precisely because of this that there are usually only a few or a dozen students in imperial schools in various places, and they will definitely graduate once they enter the university, so the difficulty of learning and the level of competition are far less intense than those in (state) government schools.

In this regard, Guo Kai, the minister of the Ministry of Education, objected: "There are so few students in various places, and they occupy the local manpower and financial resources alone. It is better to save them in the center and let them be managed by the Ministry of Education."

Zheng Kezang remained silent, and Guo Kai further said: "The students of the imperial court spend all day leisurely and study hard. These people are used to laziness. If they become officials, it may be detrimental to the future of the court. I boldly propose to change the academic system. Only those who have not studied in Taixue can be appointed officials."

Guo Kai's suggestion only involves changes in the academic system in name, but it fundamentally shakes the current employment system in China.In this regard, Zheng Kezang found it difficult.Guo Kai was a senior minister who followed the Zheng family for two generations. Of course, there was no way he had a different opinion. Then it must be that there was a problem with the school system that made him take the risk of offending Zheng Kezang to speak out.

Zheng Kezang thought about it for a long time, and slowly replied: "This matter is important, and the department will make a statement. I will think about it slowly."

Guo Kai's actions were very fast. On the day Zheng Kezang arrived in Kuizhou Mansion, he wrote the memorial.The reform proposed by the Ministry of Education is very simple. It is to cancel the existing third-class academic examination and resume the general examination.

Zheng Kezang read this memorial very carefully. He found that Guo Kai did not intend to completely deny the four-level education system. In one sentence, it is "enrollment expansion"-after Mongolian students complete their studies, they can go to the county to take the government examination. Those who pass the exam can be admitted to the county school for free; county students can enter the prefectural capital city to take the provincial examination after three years of study. If they pass the provincial examination, they can enter the prefectural school for free. If they fail the examination, they are allowed to repeat the county school for three years. , abolish their qualifications to study in the county school for free, and give a certificate of completion of the county school. With this certificate, they can apply for admission to the specialized schools of the Ministry of Punishment or the governor's office;

After the (state) students have studied for three years, they are allowed to go to the provincial capital to take the departmental examination, and if they pass the examination, they will be admitted to Taixue; Certificate of completion of prefectural school; Tai students will be assessed every three years. Those who pass the test once will be awarded the official rank of ninth rank by the Ministry of Officials, and will be distributed to various ministries and offices. Those who pass the test twice will be awarded the rank of ninth rank by the Ministry of Officials. Those who pass the customs will be served in the first class;

In addition to the way for Tai students to enter official positions, those who have a county school completion certificate or a (state) school completion certificate can go to the provincial capitals to take part in the general examination every three years. Those who pass the court examination can be reported to the Ministry of Officials (partial department of officials in each province) by the various ministries and yamen to grant out-flowing official positions, and then they can be promoted through investigation;

For those who do not have a (state) prefectural school or county school completion certificate, the Ministry of Education holds a course system in the capital (Xingzai) every six years. Those who are admitted by the examination will enter the colleges opened by the various ministries and government offices according to the subjects, and will be awarded after passing the college examination. serve;

The above three ways can be called the right way, the difference is that Tai students can directly achieve the third and fourth grades without any obstacles, if those who come from the general examination and system department do not have the qualifications for further education in various ministries and colleges , his official career can only be blocked at the fifth or sixth rank

After Zheng Kezang read it, he handed the memorial to Li Jing, the former minister of the Audit Office and now the governor Yidong and other local ministers of the Shangshutai: "I am a little confused. After reading it, please give me a suggestion."

This was originally not in line with the system, but Li Jing, who was flattered, could not refuse, so he had to take the memorial and read it quickly, then pondered for a while, and then reported to Zheng Kezang: "I think Mr. Guo is an old man. In the view of the country, this dynasty does not set up imperial examinations, so that the scholars in the north are more inclined to build captives. Instead of allowing these people to help the Qing captives and abuse them, it is better to change the policy and draw the bottom of the salary against the Qing captives” [

Zheng Kezang asked: "Is it possible for local finances to support the expansion of tertiary schools?"

Li Jing replied honestly: "It is indeed difficult for the locality, but I think that if we only distribute food, pen, ink, paper, and books to the third-level students, the cost will not be much."

Zheng Kezang nodded: "Your words are quite correct. In this dynasty, schools were used to replace imperial examinations. Many scholars were dissatisfied with it. Moreover, this dynasty implemented a tax exemption policy for meritorious officials. The gentry and officials benefited from it. Dare to say, so it should be more political to let them breathe a sigh of relief, but this matter involves various ministries, so we must be cautious."

Zheng Kezang ordered: "Come here, send this memorial back to Xingzai quickly, and let the cabinet discuss it."

Just as the servant was about to come up to take the memorial, Zheng Kezang waved his hand suddenly: "Wait a minute."

The servant immediately stood still, only to hear Zheng Kezang ask: "Li Qing, now a provincial official is no more than the third grade, isn't it a bit low?"

Li Jing's hair stood on end immediately, and he didn't know how to answer. It took him a long time to say: "The Holy Master Mingjian, the ministers of the Qing Dynasty in the north are all first-class, but they have no power. It's better to have the name and the truth of the dynasty."

"But it's still low after all." Zheng Kezang stood up with his hands behind his back. "Three lords and three orphans are the first rank, and the East Palace and the East Palace are the first rank. The Zongzheng, the prime minister of the cabinet, the Zhengqing of the Supervisory Yuan, and the Zhengqing of the Supreme Court are the second rank. The left and right clansmen, cabinet ministers, ministers, ministers, The ministers of the yamen associations are from the second rank, and there is no problem with these. The governor only has the third rank, which is a bit low, and the lower the lower the level, the lower the level." Zheng Kezang's words made Li Jing heave a sigh of relief. It turned out that Zheng Kezang It is from Guo Kai's memorial that we can see other problems. "The fifth class out of the country is not worthy of the name. Li Qing, what do you think of the restoration of the Tang system?" The [-]th rank of the official system in the Tang Dynasty is different from the Chinese official system after Song Yuanfeng in that it is divided into upper and lower ranks below the fourth rank. two steps. "Can this be used to realize the integration of officials and officials?"

"Your Majesty, county magistrates and other people-friendly officials in this dynasty are generally from the sixth rank, the lower magistrates from the three prefectures of Taiping, Jingzhou, and Chaozhou are from the fifth rank, and the magistrates of the four prefectures of Wuchang, Chengtian, Qiongzhou, and Henan are even the fifth rank, which is not low." Li Jing remonstrated. "What's more, the common people are already familiar with the ranks of officials. If they are changed, they are afraid of chaos."

"That's true." Zheng Kezang thought maturely, and when he heard Li Jing's advice, he immediately changed his course. "Let's put it away first." Speaking of this, Zheng Kezang circled a few strokes on Guo Kai's memorial, handed it to the servant waiting at the side, and ordered. "Send it immediately!"