Idle courtiers

Chapter 205
As mentioned earlier, the duties of the Pedestrian Division include eight categories: [-]. Send envoys to the canonized vassal state; Fan; seven, envoys to places; eight, rewards by decree.

Confucius' birthday is October [-]th. Therefore, every year in the Ming Dynasty on this day, government schools all over the country held grand ceremonies to worship Confucius.

The ceremony of offering sacrifices to Confucius was an important means for ancient emperors to maintain feudal rule in history, but at the same time it also played a social role of advocating morality, repaying the foundation, and enlightening the society.

On the day of offering sacrifices to Confucius, local government and county officials, juren, scholars, and government officials all gathered in the Dacheng Hall of the Confucian Temple to worship Confucius.

Not to mention local affairs, Beizhili is directly under the jurisdiction of the central government, and if the pedestrian department sends someone to preside over it, it makes sense.

Although it is not a remarkable achievement, it can still cope with the six-yearly Beijing official exam at the end of this year.As long as there is no one comment: "Xiaxia", the black hat on Mr. Zhou's head will be kept.

"That's good, I'll go find Qin Sizheng right now."

"Hey... Pedestrian, Pedestrian... I haven't finished my sentence yet..." But Zhou Nan had already run away, and Guo Shuban shook his head helplessly.

After a while, Zhou Nan came back and smiled at Guo Shuban: "Old Guo, it's done. You and I will go to Beijing early tomorrow morning for business."

Guo Shuban: "Where are you going?"

Zhou Nan: "Don't worry, it's Yanqing Prefecture, it's only over 100 miles away from the capital, and you can get there in one day."

Guo Shuban stumbled: "Hey, pedestrian, you are just impatient, how can you get to Yanqing?"

Zhou Nan was puzzled: "Isn't it good to go to Yanqing? It's so close. It's very hard to travel far."

Guo Shuban said: "You and I go out on business, according to the rules of the department, we only approve two or two feet of money, what is enough?"

Zhou Nan: "It's enough, don't worry about the book office, there is a master who should spend a lot of money!"

"Is there any reason to pay for it out of your own pocket when doing business for the government? Pedestrian, you still don't understand the reason for this!"

"What's the truth in this, Guo Shuban, come and listen to me."

The official school of the Ming Dynasty was corrupt, and the quality of education was poor.Those who really have a family background and can study, either directly hire a famous teacher to go home as a private teacher, or send them to an academy for further study.Entering the official school is to mislead the children.

Therefore, even if the local students entered the school, they would only show their names when they received the granary rice every month.Only those who could not afford to eat, or students from remote areas lived in government schools.

To put it bluntly, the official school is a nursing home for miscellaneous officials, with limited funds.Usually, in order to maintain the operation of government schools, local officials have to subsidize them.

The amount of subsidy depends on the amount of local finance.

Not to mention the rich places in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, as far as Beizhili is concerned, the richest state capitals are undoubtedly Shuntian Prefecture and Baoding Prefecture.Zhou Nan in Shuntian Mansion is definitely not going to be able to catch it, and neither is Baoding.But Zhending and Hejian can still fight for it.

Going to these wealthy state capitals for business, according to the custom of welcoming the departure in the officialdom, the officials will have a gift of Cheng Yi after the work.When the sacrificial ceremony is held, some can be deducted as office expenses for officials.After this trip, Zhou Nan and Guo Shuban each had dozens of taels of income.

This is also the reason why Guo Shuban reminded Zhou Nan so kindly today to go out to Beijing to make money for his political achievements, all he wanted was to get some money for the New Year.

Don't choose a good place, Mr. Zhou just wants to go to Yanqing, isn't this confusing?
Where is Yanqing? It is a Zhili military prefecture, and more than [-]% of the territory is barren mountainous areas.The better ones are the Badaling Basin. The state government is very poor, so naturally it will not allocate funds to government schools.There is no money for government schools, so Zhou and Guo naturally have nothing to earn.

Zhou Nan felt a little annoyed when Guo Shuban finished explaining the clues, and said to himself: So there is such a saying, so how do you know?It's all because of that old fox Qin Liang, who deliberately sent me an errand in Yanqing Prefecture.I was also greedy for the proximity of the place, and it was easy to go back and forth, but I missed the opportunity to make a small fortune.

It's a done deal, and it's too late to say these things.Zhou Nan could only comfort herself in her heart: Anyway, I am going to get political achievements, if I don’t have money to get it, I don’t have money to get it!
Early the next morning, Zhou and Guo first went to Changping by boat.He asked for a carriage at the local post station, and spent the night in Juyong.On the morning of the second day, he entered Yanqing Prefecture and entered the official school.

Today they came at an unfortunate time. After entering the official school, a servant said, "My lord, the school is teaching. If you are not young, call here."

According to the establishment of government schools in the Ming Dynasty, prefectural schools had one professor and four instructors; prefecture schools had one professor and three instructors, and county schools had one instructor and three instructors.

Xuezheng from Yanqing Prefecture was a student of the Imperial College. He is in his early fifties this year. His surname is Jia, a ninth-rank official, and he is one level lower than Zhou Nan. It would be fine to pass him on directly.

However, the state school is a place where all the students are scholars and intellectuals are piled up.In any era, scholars are the most difficult to get along with, you don't know where you will offend them.

Zhou Nan came to Yanqing to preside over the Confucian Memorial Ceremony this time, so he needed to learn to cooperate, and naturally he couldn't put on airs.He smiled and said: "Don't disturb the students' studies. I have heard for a long time that Jia Xuezheng is a well-educated person. It is a rare opportunity for him to teach in person today. I will go to sit in on it. Maybe there will be something rewarding."

Under the guidance of the yamen servant, Zhou Nan and Guo Shuban came to the Piyong Hall of the Confucian Temple, but there were about twenty scholars sitting in it, and an old man in a green nine-rank official uniform was giving a lecture, no need to ask. , this person is Jia Xuezheng.

Zhou Nan still bears the name of a student in Andong County, but he has never studied for a day, and he is also very curious about the official studies of the Ming Dynasty, so he found a corner and sat down to listen attentively.

Jia Xuezheng didn't know where he was from. He spoke a thick dialect, and the students below probably couldn't understand it, and they all looked listless and drowsy.

Lao Jia is probably a good-tempered person, and he is not angry.His face was calm and clear, according to the scriptures: "... If you are not solid, whoever is smart, sage, and virtuous, who can know it...meaning, if it is not a person who is smart, wise, and moral, who can understand the sage?"

"Guzi, interpreted as Shizi. Tiande refers to the theory of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom. Zisi summed up the above and said: the function of sincerity, if it is so prosperous, it is not easy to understand. If it is not practical and smart..."

Zhou Nan suddenly got excited: This is teaching "The Doctrine of the Mean", but I understand it completely.

Some time ago, he memorized all day long, and even swallowed Zhu Xi's annotations and stereotyped model essays. He was still a little confused about what it meant.

Listening to Jia Xuezheng's explanation today, the messy knowledge was sorted out.

It is also a good thing to have the guidance of a famous teacher, at least it can save you from detours.I was very resistant to going to study with Wang Shizhen at first, it seems that I have to calm down and ask him for advice, Zhou Nan thought.

For a while, I heard it in the alley, and I didn't know how time had passed. In the blink of an eye, Jia Xuezheng began to explain the last question: "Only the benevolent man exiles, enters the barbarians, and is not the same as China. This is called, only the benevolent man can love others and can hate others." .”

This sentence comes from "Great Learning", which means that only benevolent people paint and exile those who are jealous of the virtuous and capable, and drive them to the land of barbarians.It's the truth that you are close to a virtuous minister and far from a villain.

At this time, a scholar suddenly came up against the case and shouted: "The country will be misunderstood by treacherous villains, why don't your majesty and the gentlemen in the court exile the exiles, but let them form slanderous parties and trap good people?" ? Today, the villains are in the court, can your majesty not see or hear it?"

"Yes." Another scholar stood up and shouted loudly: "Xiaosheng heard that due to the tension in the southeast war recently, Hu Zongxian asked the imperial court to send mine supervisors to collect mine taxes on the grounds of insufficient military pay. It is ridiculous. I think His Majesty is also in a daze. , actually listened to the villain’s words and harmed the common people. Xuezheng, I’m going to write to the imperial court to sue eunuchs for harming the locality. Why haven’t we heard back yet? By the way, eunuchs are slaves of the emperor, and eunuchs also serve as mine supervisors. Eighty percent of the taxes collected go to the royal coffers. How can there be such a greedy emperor in the world, and he looks like a king."

After hearing all the students' discussions, Zhou Nan was startled, what are these scholars going to do?Talking about state affairs, and pointing the finger at the emperor, is this a rebellion?
Who gave them the guts?
They really have the guts.

The Ming Dynasty opened up its way of speaking widely, and scholars could not help discussing state affairs.Not to mention writing letters, even if they pointed at the emperor's nose and scolded their mothers, the emperor probably would have nothing to do with them.The officials in the court did a lot of this kind of thing.

Jia Xuezheng still had the same expression of sitting in the court and watching the flowers bloom and fall, and said indifferently: "It's not proper, don't talk about it, today's class will be taught here, let's go away!"

A scholar shouted: "This is an evil government. The people of the world and the people of the world rule the world. Everyone can say it. Is the teacher trying to block the way of speech? If so, the students are afraid that they will write a letter to Xuezheng."

"Yes, brother Li is right." Someone shouted loudly: "Xuezheng, as a ninth-rank academic officer, forbids scholars to speak. He is so stupid that he is deeply disappointing. How can he be a teacher for my generation?"

Jia Xuezheng still didn't care about it: "Everyone really wants to file a lawsuit against the old man, it's okay, let's break up."

He walked off the podium with a smile.

Zhou Nan admired him in his heart, this Mr. Jia has a good temper, which I can't do.

He hurried forward to show his identity and explain his purpose.

Jia Xuezheng let out an "ouch" and said, "So it's Zhou Xingren, and the next official only received the official letter from the Xingren's Department early this morning to know that you are coming. It's not easy to sacrifice to the most holy master of Dacheng. Let me wait until the day is ready. It can be held. But..."

Zhou Nan asked, "But what?"

Jia Xuezheng said, however, the funds for state schools are limited, and the sacrifice of Confucius this time is not small, and I am afraid that it is beyond our capabilities.

"If you don't have money, what should you do?" Zhou Nan asked anxiously.According to the court etiquette, this grand ceremony will cost more than a hundred taels of silver. Judging by the shabby schools in this state, it is estimated that they will not be able to pay for it.Time is running out, if it is delayed, Confucius' birthday will be over.Not only can't get their own political achievements, but they have to bear the responsibility.

Jia Xuezheng said slowly: "Pedestrians, don't worry. I told the prefect about this matter, and the prefectural government is willing to pay."

Zhou Nan breathed a long sigh of relief: "That's good, that's good."

"but……"

Zhou Nan's heart tightened again: "But what?"

Jia Xuezheng: "However, Zhizhou said that if pedestrians come, he will hold a banquet to cleanse the pedestrians, please be sure to honor them."

Zhou Nan: "I'm coming to Yanqing, so of course I'm going to pay a visit to Zhizhou. Mr. Jia, you can't wait. If you have anything to say, just pour the beans into the bamboo tube and finish it."

"However..." Jia Xuezheng pondered: "However, I don't know what kind of taboos or tastes pedestrians have, so the cook can make arrangements early."

Zhou Nan had a feeling of collapse: "It's nothing special, just feel free!" This old man is really wordy!

"Then, please invite Zhou Xingren to come with the officials and go to the state mansion for resettlement."

Zhou Nan looked at the more than 20 scholars in the school who were enthusiastically writing love letters asking the emperor to stop setting up mine supervisors, "close to virtuous ministers, far away from villains", and suddenly felt a little uneasy in his heart.

Don't cause mass incidents here, just disturb my Confucian sacrifice ceremony.

(End of this chapter)