Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

"The people who live there are all descendants of immortals and saints, and countless people fly to and from each other day and night... The emperor was afraid that he would wander to the West and lose the residence of the immortals and saints, so he ordered Yu to force Ju Ao Fifteen to raise his head. And wearing it..."

In the Taixue classroom, students are reciting the text.

As the dean of students, seventeen-year-old Zhu Ming patrols the courtyard every day to inspect the academic style.

But the teaching content he occasionally heard made Ju Ming feel funny.

For example, at this moment, the teacher is teaching Liezi.

The expansion of Taixue enrollment was Cai Jing's hard work, and it also contained Song Huizong's ardent hope.

If you don't rely on nepotism and graduate from Taixue purely on talent, you will definitely be able to defeat the imperial examination candidates.

Because the courses are so rich!

Poetry and Fu, which were canceled in the imperial examination, were compulsory courses in Taixue and accounted for a very heavy proportion of credits.

Courses such as "Three Biography of the Spring and Autumn Period" were not tested in the imperial examination, but were also compulsory courses in Imperial College.

Song Huizong himself liked to practice Taoism, and he also stuffed Taoist books such as "Laozi", "Zhuangzi" and "Liezi" into the Taixue classroom.

By the way, Song Huizong also liked mathematics and ordered the establishment of a special arithmetic school.

Therefore, arithmetic is also a compulsory course in Taixue.

If you learn all these courses thoroughly, how awesome will Taixue graduates be?

"Dang-dang-dang!"

The school bell rang and students rushed out of the classroom.

Seeing Zhu Ming passing by outside the classroom, a student rushed the fastest and bowed solemnly: "Students have seen Zhu Xuezheng!"

Ju Ming nodded and said, "Okay."

This student's name was very popular, Goulong Ruyuan, and Ju Ming remembered it after hearing it only once.

What a waste of a good name.

Goulong Ruyuan respected Ju Ming very much and even seemed to be trying to flatter him.

At first, Ju Ming was a little happy, thinking that he had another little fanboy. It soon turned out that this guy was just trying to flatter himself, because it was a little too obvious.

Historically, this person flattered Zhang Jun to come to power, and later he crazily clung to Qin Hui.

He made no secret that he was a villain, and even Zhao Gou couldn't stand it. He commented: "This person has bad intentions."

Goulong Ruyuan took out the tissue paper from his arms and said, "The student has a geometry problem that he couldn't solve last night. Please give me some advice."

Zhu Ming took it and saw that it was Dao Chu's second geometry, and it was not very complicated. He seriously suspected that Gou Long Ruyuan's so-called request for advice was purely to get close to the school leaders.

Because this guy is very smart, a real top student, and is excellent in every course.

"Draw an auxiliary line here..." Ju Ming pointed casually.

Goulong Ruyuan immediately exclaimed: "Learning Zheng's arithmetic is really extraordinary and admirable!"

Ju Ming smiled and said no more.

He didn't know how Gou Long Ruyuan would behave in the future, but based on the current situation, he could still understand his behavior.

Gou Long Ruyuan's great-uncle was Gou Longshuang, the royal painter of Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty. He was also a close friend of Su Shi's hometown and was once implicated by Su Shi. And he himself was recommended for admission by Zhang Shangying, Cai Jing's mortal enemy.

Most of the school leaders were members of the Cai Party. Gou Long Ruyuan was suppressed and had no choice but to hold on to Ju Ming's thigh.

At least Ju Ming can give him a normal promotion.

Ju Ming patted him on the shoulder and encouraged: "Just study hard and don't worry too much. As long as you pass the private examination, I will let you be promoted. If you pass the public examination, no one can suppress you. I I guarantee you will be promoted!"

Goulong Ruyuan was startled when he heard the words, and suddenly felt a little ashamed. He bowed solemnly and said: "I will follow the righteous teachings of Xuexue!"

Private examinations are quarterly examinations, and those who pass are promoted to higher grades.

The public examination is an annual examination. As long as you accumulate enough credits and pass the annual examination, you can be promoted to an internal school.

There is also a placement test. If you have enough credits, you can be promoted to the upper level.

"I've seen Xuezheng!" Several more students came over.

There are student opinion leaders Chen Dong and Zhu Xi’s biological father Zhu Song.

These imperial students often listened to Chen Yuan's lectures before, and they especially liked mathematics.

Among them, there are many people who are quick-thinking and want to please the emperor with mathematics, and maybe they can be promoted directly to the top.

Because Song Huizong also liked mathematics, after a special arithmetic school was opened, there was an upsurge in arithmetic research among the people. Some flatterers even proposed moving the Yellow Emperor (the founder of arithmetic) to the Confucius Temple for worship, but Song Huizong gave it up because it was difficult to arrange the place.

"Zhu Xuezheng, Zhu Xuezheng!"

Xuelu Xie Lun rushed over, panting: "The Ministry of Rites sent an official document, and the officials ordered to add taboo words. Lord, Lord, Dragon, Heaven, Wannian, Wanshou, etc., all need to be avoided. Imperial students should also abide by it. We, the servants here, need to learn how to supervise and avoid taboos."

Ju Ming asked: "Does the surname need to be taboo?"

Sherron said: "I want them all!"

Ju Ming found it unreasonable: "Does everyone in the world have to change their surnames because of this?"

"Exactly," Sherron said.

Zhu Ming was speechless for a moment and said to Gou Long Ruyuan: "From now on, you can only be called Gou Ruyuan."

Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty was really crazy. He didn't know which Taoist priest he believed in. He thought that those with the words "lord", "lord", "dragon" and "heaven" would rob or share his luck.

Now only the names of people need to be avoided. In a few years, even the names of places will have to be changed, such as Longquan County to Quanjiang County. Moreover, in the imperial examination, the words "lord", "lord", "dragon", "heaven", "ten thousand years", etc. are not allowed in the article, which will drive the candidates crazy.

Ever since, the first thing Zhu Ming handled after going to work was to urge students in this grade to change their names.

After lunch, Ju Ming called Chen Dong over.

"You are the Zhaishiren (squad leader), and the name change must be carried out seriously," Zhu Ming warned. "If you do well in this private examination, I will let you be the outermost minister (first-year student council president)."

"yes!"

Chen Dong accepted the order and couldn't help but said: "The avoidance this time is really too much. How can we avoid all surnames? Among the Imperial Academy, there is someone named Long. People have had the last name for hundreds of thousands of years, but they are forced to change it. , the officials are too overbearing."

Ju Ming warned: "You can say this kind of thing in front of me, but you can't say it anywhere else."

"I know." Chen Dong muttered.

Zhu Ming took out Chen Yuan's manuscript again: "After copying it, return it to me and study it in private without making any announcement."

This manuscript includes "Wo Ben", "Fang Mo", "Tao Yong", "Gang Chang", "Agriculture", "Mathematics", "Physics", "Geometry" and other contents.

In particular, agriculture, mathematics, physics, and geometry took up the most space. If Chen Yuan did not write clearly, Zhu Ming also wrote to make up for it.

For the agricultural chapter, I directly copied Zhu Guoxiang’s agricultural manuscript.

There are three cover authors, in order: Zhu Guoxiang, Chen Yuan, and Zhu Ming.

Chen Dong got the manuscript and quickly flipped through the contents. He immediately felt like he had found a treasure: "This is a book that truly helps the world!"

Ju Ming warned again: "Before the copying is completed, do not show off and return the original to me as soon as possible to avoid the traitor party ordering the burning of the book."

Chen Dong nodded solemnly: "The student only invites two or three trustworthy people to copy the book at the same time, and finish the manuscript as soon as possible."

In the middle of the afternoon, 1,500 first-year students reported their changed names in class units.

There are nearly a hundred people who are forced to avoid taboos, and most of them have the characters "jun", "lord", "tian" and "dragon".

Ju Ming called Xie Lun: "Make a new copy of the student roster and give it to me for review."

Xie Lun went back and called the student again: "Make it again."

There is no need to do trivial matters by himself. Zhu Ming sits on a chair and reads a book. His daily work is so leisurely.

He has been reading Liezi for the past two days, purely as a novel.

I also plan to study "Three Biography", "Laozi", and "Zhuangzi". Anyway, they are compulsory courses in Taixue, so you can occasionally stand outside the classroom and listen.

After reading for half an hour, Ju Ming left the office and rode his horse home from get off work.

Passing by a government-run coal store, I saw a long queue outside the store. Many people came to queue up with baskets to buy coal.

what's the situation?

Even if coal is sold at half price, there is no need to do this.

Ju Ming immediately dismounted and asked a commoner who was queuing up: "Why are you all here to buy charcoal?"

The common people did not know Ju Ming, so when they saw that he was wearing official uniform, they replied: "The charcoal shop is closed. If we don't collect more, I am afraid that in the future, even if you have money, you will not have charcoal to burn."

Ju Ming pointed to the government-run coal shop: "Isn't this open for business?"

The common man said: "The official stores are still selling, but the private stores have closed. I heard that charcoal ships from other places will not come to Tokyo again, and all the charcoal merchants will stop their operations."

Zhu Ming got on his horse and ran towards Zhouqiao. As expected, the doors of Zhang's and Che's coal shops were closed.

If businessmen are forced to have no way out, they will have to go on a collective strike.

The strike action was led by trade unions.

The commercial guilds in the Song Dynasty were very powerful. They set unified prices internally and prohibited members from lowering prices or offering discounts at will. Industry regulations will also be formulated and members must strictly abide by them.

But its real function is to hold each other together for warmth.

That is to unite the strength of all merchants to fight against the wanton exploitation of the government.

Faced with the tax allocation, you can bargain with the government to minimize the businessmen's losses. If you encounter difficulties, everyone will share them together.

For example, in the sixth year of Xining, Tokyo butchers were exploited excessively, and Xu Zhongzheng, the head of the butcher shop, wanted to go on strike in order to win negotiations with the government. The imperial court even promulgated the "Exemption Law" because of this, allowing major guilds to pay exemption money on time, so that they no longer have to provide materials and labor to the government in the future.

This time Tong Guan led his army to conquer Xixia, which also triggered a market strike in Chang'an.

During the Northern Song War, if there was a shortage of military supplies, the Ministry of Household Affairs (formerly the Accounting Department) would allocate cash and then use the money to purchase from local merchants.

A few days ago, the Ministry of Revenue ordered two merchants in Shaanxi to cut prices by 40% and sell various materials to Tong Guan for military supplies.

Merchants could not bear to be exploited, and all businesses in Chang'an were suspended to show their determination to resist.

Ju Ming impeached the Carboniferous Department and only brought down a few minor officials.

Cai's party vented its grievances on merchants and took the opportunity to order merchants to lower prices, hoping to force more coal merchants into bankruptcy. It also prohibited coal transporters from selling coal to private shops.

Merchants in coal shops and coal transporters from other places certainly did not want to sit still and wait for death, so they actually joined forces to go on strike.

All private coal shops in the city closed down, and coal ships from other places no longer passed through the tax yard, but shipped back shiploads of coal intact.

Generally speaking, merchants will not choose to go on strike.

Unless the government has forced them to survive!

Ju Ming looked at the long queues of people queuing up to buy coal, and smiled in his heart. The bigger the noise, the better. Otherwise, where would he go to buy coal?