Wentang

Chapter 786 The New School Splits

Wang Ji came to Yue Shan's house angrily, slapped the table and said angrily, "Yue Cuilan, what are you trying to do?"

Yue Shan wasn't angry either, and brought a cup of tea in front of him: "Don't be so arrogant, what if you get angry."

Seeing him being so polite, Wang Ji's anger dissipated a lot, but Yue Shan changed the subject and said, "If you are really impatient, at least you have to wait until Lao Tzu's notes are finished before you die."

"Bah, if I hadn't been old, I wouldn't be able to beat you to death. You want me to be mad, but I'm not as good as you. I'll live a good life and scold you every day." Wang Ji said.

"Is that right? Only a fat heart and a fat body can live long." Yue Shan laughed.

"Okay, don't gossip with me. Can't you wait for the imperial examination if you have any big plans?" Wang Ji reprimanded:
"It's good now, the students don't study anymore, and they are arguing about this matter every day. There are still many people who actually start fighting, how decent it is."

Yue Shan sighed and said: "This matter can only be broken in this way, otherwise the imperial court will have to pay a thousand times the price."

Seeing that Wang Ji wanted to refute, he stretched out his hand to stop him and said, "Don't worry, listen to me. Young scholars are the best swords to break the situation. Do you have any objection to that?"

Wang Ji nodded in agreement.

Yue Shan continued: "The strength of a single scholar is very weak, and no one will listen to his voice."

"Only by gathering their strength together can they attract enough attention, make this knife sharper, and break this situation."

"But it is too difficult to gather so many scholars at one time. Only the imperial examination can do it. So I have to do this during the imperial examination."

"This is one of the reasons, and there are more critical reasons."

"In the past, the powerful and the bureaucrats were one, and they were twisted together so that the court dared not act rashly."

"Because of the opportunity of closing the country, the fundamental interests of the two parties have been torn apart, forming two completely independent systems."

"The court used the feudal state to take back most of the privileges of the rich and powerful, such as food towns and tax-free privileges."

"These dignitaries have just lost their privileges, so it is inevitable that there will be some imbalance in their hearts. This imbalance can easily be channeled into dissatisfaction with the bureaucracy."

"Our privileges are gone, why can you keep them? If you continue to provoke interests, you can temporarily move the two sides to the opposite side."

"And the bureaucracy must have prejudices against the powerful becoming princes and kings. To put it bluntly, it is jealousy."

"We were all the same at first, but suddenly you became a vassal king and surpassed us. You can build a ancestral temple for your own family, and you can let the family pass on for a longer time. Why?"

"If they see the princes and kings and want to use their tax-free privileges in reverse, the prejudice in their hearts will deepen."

"We set up a bureau in private so that the powerful and reformist students can come together to fight against the bureaucratic factions, and we can achieve our goals at the least cost."

Wang Ji didn't quite approve of his method, saying: "The closure of the country will last for several years, so there's no need to dare to take the imperial examination, right? Even after the imperial examination."

Yue Shan shook his head and said, "There are still two reasons."

"One, everything is developing and changing. The bureaucrats and the emerging princes and kings will not be hostile to each other forever. Soon they will find that combining together is the most beneficial to both parties."

"At that time, no matter what the imperial court wants to do, it will face the princes and bureaucrats, and the trouble will only become greater."

"So no matter what plans we have, we have to take advantage of this period of time when the relationship between the two parties is torn apart."

"Time waits for me."

"The second reason is that after the imperial examinations, those who won the rankings were elated and prepared to become officials, while those who failed the rankings were depressed and prepared to continue studying hard and retake the exam next year. Everyone was in no mood to pay attention to these trivial matters."

"Only before the imperial examination, everyone is full of confidence and wants to be famous before the examination, so that the nobles in Beijing and China can hear their names."

"This is the period when their combat effectiveness is at its strongest. They only need an introduction and a reason to mobilize their enthusiasm."

"Especially now that what they have done has caused such a big commotion, and even the rich and powerful have stood up to support them, which gives them the illusion that they are in control of the world."

"Only in this way can they stir up enough waves to stir up this stagnant water and break the situation."

Wang Ji shook his head and said, "Then you shouldn't play with the future of so many scholars."

Seeing his attitude soften, Yue Shan heaved a sigh of relief, knowing that he was persuaded by himself: "It is gold that always shines, and truly outstanding people will not lose their future because of this incident."

"On the contrary, I will learn a lot of things from this matter that cannot be learned in books, and I will be able to be a better official in the future and better benefit the people."

Wang Ji said: "Now you can say whatever you want, the matter has come to this point, if I say anything else, it's over, and you can't stop."

Yue Shan said solemnly: "Even if we want to stop, these scholars will not be willing, do you believe it? They finally got such a chance to stir up the situation, how could they give up so easily."

Wang Ji said bitterly: "You are young and ignorant, and you don't know that you are being used by others."

Yue Shan said: "I prefer to say that newborn calves are not afraid of tigers, and dare to be the first in the world. It is because of their passion that the world will progress and become better."

"I hope so." Wang Ji said with a little disappointment: "I came to you not only for this matter, there are many people who want to ask you what the court means through me, and many of them are famous figures of my new school. .”

Yue Shan said with a headache: "Just say that I don't know anything when I'm writing a book in retreat."

"They won't believe it."

"It doesn't matter if you believe it or not, it's just an excuse."

"Aren't you afraid that they will split the new school?"

Yue Shan looked solemn, and said, "Do you think the new school won't split if I don't do this?"

Wang Ji was silent for a while before saying, "I see."

The split of the new school was inevitable.

Its composition is too complicated, but most of them are grouped together to resist the monopoly of learning by the academic clan headed by the Shandong gentry.

Not everyone agrees with Yue Shan's philosophy. Many people's so-called "new" is only relative to the ancient school, but in fact they are no different from the ancient school.

The internal contradictions that were put down only because of the pressure of the ancient school were barely combined.

Now that the ancient school is in decline, without external pressure, the new school will inevitably split.

For this kind of situation, Yue Shan had long been psychologically prepared, and was even happy to see it happen.

If it weren't for suppressing the Shandong gentry to seize the right to speak, he would not make false claims with those people.You must know that in order to take care of those people's emotions, he didn't take out how many ideas he had.

Take the history of the changes of Chinese civilization that he has devoted himself to studying in the past few years as an example. There are too many subversive and advanced things in this book. If it is really published, it will have a huge impact on the entire cultural world.

Not to mention the ancient school, many schools in the new school will suffer a fatal blow.

On the one hand, it was for the sake of stability, and on the other hand, he didn't want the new school to split up so quickly, so he kept procrastinating on taking out this book.

Now it is better for these people to separate from the new school, and he can throw out his views without any scruples.

At that time, whoever dies and who lives will depend on his own ability.

Anyway, he holds the fundamental strength of the eight academies and the academic and political system, and he is not afraid of any challenges.

The admission of the princes and kings changed the nature of the petition, which was originally initiated by some scholars, and became a major event that spread across the country.

The bureaucrats who didn't take scholars seriously at first and thought they could be suppressed easily had to take this matter seriously.

They began to mobilize their own forces to suppress this matter.

Lobbying is naturally inevitable, and prime ministers like Ma Zhou and Sun Fujia have become their main targets of lobbying.

Sun Fujia was born as the No. [-] Scholar, and the only military achievement he can get is the Xuanwumen Incident. He once waved the flag for Li Shimin and was named a baron.

It doesn't matter whether the lowest title of baron is mentioned, anyway, it will be gone when he dies, and there is no way for his descendants to inherit it.So strictly speaking, he is also a pure bureaucrat.

Although Ma Zhou had not participated in the imperial examination, he was also a civil official who became an official after Li Shimin ascended the throne. He had no military merits and was not conferred a knighthood, so he was also a pure bureaucrat.

The bureaucratic class opposed to the elimination of tax-exempt privileges naturally hoped to persuade both of them to take the lead in opposing the matter.

With two prime ministers taking the lead, the momentum will be even greater.

However, these people didn't think about it at all. Ma Zhou's family was poor, and he was very clean after becoming an official. Li Shimin even bought the house for him with money.

Counting on him to come forward to fight for the interests of the rich, I don't know which muscle is wrong.

Ma Zhou did a great job. Originally he kept silent on this matter, but after being annoyed several times, he immediately wrote a memorial expressing his support for the abolition of bureaucratic tax-free privileges.

Now those people stopped.

Sun Fujia is rich and rich, and his attitude towards this matter is rather ambiguous.I didn't want to speak up at first, but I was so anxious that I had to go to Yueshan to inquire about the situation.

Yue Shan knew what he was thinking, and gave him eight words: up to now, high salary and honesty.

Sun Fujia understood, and thanked the guests behind closed doors after returning.Whoever asks him about this matter will refuse to participate on the grounds that the judicial officer does not ask the administration.

In desperation, these people can only turn to connect with other bureaucrats, which is bound to keep their privileges.

On the reformist side, the support of the dignitaries made these students very excited, thinking that their reforms were just, and they had the support of the big figures in the DPRK and China.

These dignitaries were also willing to pay their bills. At first, they were only in solidarity, but later they simply ended up in person.Invite the backbone of the reformists to be guests and explain to them the necessity of reform.

He also paid for organizing literary conferences to make the reformers famous.

Some scholars’ families are poor enough, as long as you support the reform and have relevant articles and proof from friends, you can receive a certain amount of money from the powerful.

Of course, they didn't use Hongguoguo's money, which is too embarrassing.Scholars pay attention to face, and things can't be so ugly.

Pen fee is the best reason, write me an article supporting reform, and I will give you money.

Ever since the Weishui Journal was pioneered, retouching fees have been accepted by people all over the world, and it is a normal labor income that is not shameful.

In this way, more children from poor families were encouraged to join.

The reason why the reformists are so loud is that Li Shimin and Yue Shan are behind the scenes.

It can be said that this was not a fair contest from the very beginning. Even the referee came off the field to support it. How can you win?Failure is only a matter of time.

In this quarrel, the imperial examination began.

The Beijing exam is very strict. After entering the exam room, you can't come out for three days until it starts and ends.

What is different from the history is that Yueshan's setting is more humane. For example, candidates do not need to bring their own food, and the Ministry of Rites will provide food uniformly.

Even pens, ink, paper, inkstones, clothes and quilts are not allowed to be brought in, all of which are provided by the state. Another purpose of doing so is to prevent cheating.

When the candidates were concentrating on the exam, the imperial court finally held a meeting because of the reform, and even Yue Shan, who hadn't been to the early imperial court for half a year, was called over.

The reason for the opposition is repeated over and over again: "It has been explained like this since ancient times, how can it be easily changed."

"Besides, preferential treatment of scholar-bureaucrats is a policy that has been implemented in all dynasties. It has already been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. If it is changed, it may lead to chaos in the world."

There is no need for Yue Shan to stand up, and supporters will immediately come out to refute:

"Has it been right since ancient times? For three generations, only the nobles could enjoy rituals, music, reading and literacy, and be able to become officials. If it doesn't change, you people are qualified to appear in the court?"

"This method has been practiced in all dynasties, so where have all the dynasties gone? The scholar-bureaucrats have not helped those dynasties pass it on forever."

"Since this method doesn't work, we should make changes. No matter how rigidly we stick to the old ways of the previous dynasty, it's just a way to die."

"You insist on not making changes, not for the sake of the country, nor for the people, but for your own self-interest."

"Are you worthy of the sage books you have read and your conscience? You are not worthy of being an official."

"You dare to blackmail the saint with the chaos of the world. The old birthday star eats arsenic and is impatient with you. Anyone who is not afraid of death dares to mess around. The old man personally took a knife to the battlefield and wiped out your whole family."

The more these people talked, the more excited they became, and they simply cursed afterward.Those who opposed the reform were furious. If they hadn't worried that this was the court, they would have prepared to fight on the spot.

But quarreling can only be used as a means and cannot solve the problem, Yue Shan is very clear about this.

After the reformers yelled at him, he pretended to stand up and make adjustments:

"Everyone, don't be so angry. Can everything be discussed? There is nothing that cannot be discussed. If you fail to negotiate once, you can come up with a solution twice or three times."

"I have a little immature suggestion, I wonder if you would like to listen to it?"

(End of this chapter)