New Shun 1730

Although they are all considered a group of serious scholars, there is still a chain of contempt among them.

As a serious scholar and a high-ranking official, Lin Min actually agreed with Gu Yanwu's views.

And he can also distinguish clearly what is a gentry and what is a jin.

Either to look good or to speak nicely, or to habitually address people with respect, always saying "gentleman, gentleman".

In fact, how can a group of students be called gentry?

It's obviously just Jin.

To put it in his native dialect, it was just Shi Jiugong pretending to be Shi Ban.

According to Lin Min's inner thoughts, in fact, failing the two provincial examinations proved that his level was not good at all, so he should just stop bothering and learn how to make a living.

This problem is particularly serious in Jiangsu. There are not many places in Jiangsu Province, and the economic gap between the north and the south of the Yangtze River is huge. The south of the Yangtze River has almost monopolized the advanced admission places in Jiangsu Province by virtue of its economic advantages.

Many students in Yangzhou failed to pass the entrance examination.

There are just a few roads, almost all of which revolve around Yangzhou's special economic status. According to Liu Yu's plan, Yangzhou's original economic foundation will be completely destroyed. These students will have problems eating in the future. How can this be solved?

Gu Yanwu talked about the dangers of health officials, saying that there are three types of people who are sick in the world: they are called rural officials, they are called health officials, and they are called officials and assistants...

To understand it from the perspective of later generations, the deputies to the People's Congress of each county, or congressmen, all have tax-free privileges, which has led many people to transfer their properties to the names of these congressmen, thereby achieving the purpose of paying less taxes.

And they can beat the county magistrate and secretary at every turn. Even officials at the vice-premier level in charge of industry and commerce like Li Youzi were almost beaten to death by these county and township councilors when they were deputy governors, and then these councilors did nothing.

And in terms of employment.

Similar to how the country only admits 3,000 "college students" every three years, with an average of 1,000 admitted every year, there are 600,000 to 700,000 high school students across the country who repeat their studies every year.

And as long as you pass the "high school" exam, you will automatically gain the status of county councilor and many privileges.

Lin Min's idea is to increase the difficulty of qualifying for the exam, and repeat students are not allowed to continue to take the exam.

At the same time, reduce the benefits and privileges for high school students and force them to go to "technical secondary schools" to learn some skills and earn a living.

The "technical secondary school" here refers to studying astronomy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, surveying, navigation, agriculture, geography, natural history, and biology.

The university here refers to the classics.

Confucian scholars, including Huang Zongxi, who are known as great Enlightenment thinkers, have almost the same attitude towards this matter.

Good and bad fortunes among the people depend on Zhu Zi's "Family Rites". The common people may not be familiar with the system of mourning clothes, the size of the wooden frame, the style of the clothes, and the system of the palace. Those who work in the market will learn the officials and pay for it; if they live in settlements outside the city, they will learn the etiquette from the master to change the customs.

This is to govern the country with "teaching methods".

In the collection of works by contemporary people, the ancient writings are not based on the teachings of teachers, the quotations are not based on insights, the memorials are of no practical use, and the prefaces are not helpful to historians, so they are not allowed to be passed down and engraven. At that time, those who had written articles, novels, lyrics, music, and social events were all burnt.

This is to carry out cultural control by burning books and punish Shaozhengmao.

Including the conscription system and the inspection and promotion system proposed by Gu Yanwu, what will happen if this system is combined with the Confucian moral system? If you can be filial to your parents, I will lie on the ice and beg for carp; if you can lie on the ice and beg for carp, I will kill your son and adopt your mother.

So, this is not so much an Enlightenment thinker as it is the Reformation. The newness of Protestantism comes from the oldness of retrospection. It is just more fundamentalist, more retrograde, and more extreme.

School deliberation, restrictions on monarchy, local autonomy, the promotion of gentry, the rule of three generations, etc., are originally retro in the classics.

And it’s authentic retro.

It’s not that this thing is bad. If Dashun does this, it can really evolve spontaneously. It’s just that this is a process of A, B, C and D. This is obviously B, but we can’t necessarily say it is C.

First, the restoration movement broke the shackles of distorted Confucianism, returned to its origins, and found the essence of Confucianism before the Song Dynasty through textual research. Then the Enlightenment movement emerged due to changes in the economic foundation.

In this case, serious scholars have a very clear distinction between the concepts of officials and officials, gentry and Jin.

Currently, there are about six to seven million students in the country. If this trend continues, it is estimated that in a few decades, the number will exceed one million.

As for the number of people in the country who are truly established, not including petty officials, but only officials, and excluding those in the military, there are only 20,000 people who are actually receiving official financial support from the central government.

And there are many subordinate jobs that these scholars cannot do, or do not want to do.

On the one hand, the imperial court was unable to provide employment for serious scholars with a bonus of one million yuan; on the other hand, with the development of industry and commerce, especially in southern Jiangsu and other places, there was an urgent need for some professional "technical secondary school" talents.

This problem seems to be easy to solve, just like Yan Yuan's idea, wouldn't it be enough for local government schools to implement separate fasting education?

But the question is, if the country does not test those "miscellaneous subjects" at all when selecting bureaucrats, will anyone take the initiative to learn them?

If you have this time, why not read more test-taking essays?

Theoretically, it's not impossible to solve.

That is to make selection more difficult at the bottom level. If there is no hope of taking the "right path", they will be thrown into the "miscellaneous studies" early on.

Those who felt promising to pass the imperial examination were thrown into the "top class" and only studied the classics.

Those who feel that there is no hope and cannot win the exam are thrown into the "ordinary class" early to learn such things as mathematics, physics, astronomy, and accounting.

The separate education envisioned by Yan Xizhai was turned into "separated class" education, and the "high school entrance examination" was not allowed to be compulsory.

However, if you do this, I'm afraid there will be big trouble again.

Moreover, in order to do this, education reform must be carried out from the top down across the country.

Even if it doesn’t happen across the country, it should be done within one province at least.

Otherwise, northern Jiangsu has implemented the education reform of dividing fasts, but southern Jiangsu has not. In the final provincial examination, the knowledge of dividing fasts was not tested at all. This is because northern Jiangsu and southern Jiangsu have deep conflicts because of the fixed number of quotas within a province. , can this lead to more big things?

If there is really going to be a fuss, this will not be a small matter like today with six or seven hundred students clamoring for it.

I am afraid that there will really be a revolution involving 20,000 to 30,000 students across the province, smashing the Jiedushi Yamen, besieging the Fuyin Yamen, and beating the Jiedushi.

Lin Min was very concerned about the reform of the students. He also believed that if it was done, although it would offend many people, it would indeed gain a great reputation. In other words, looking at the emperor's current state of reform, it might be possible to simplify the reform. In the heart of the emperor.

"Do you think His Majesty's reform of the Yuan Dynasty is all about the new? How new should it be? If the reform is implemented, even if it is within a province, will His Majesty be happy with it?"

The staff had long thought about this issue and said: "Sir, before this dynasty, there was a lot of turmoil. We had to stabilize people's hearts and march north and south, so we were unable to make changes. We are still recovering and stabilizing people's hearts."

"Since His Majesty personally conquered the Rakshasa and Wala. Duke Xingguo conquered the Japanese country and captured Nanyang. In fact, it is only in these years that the imperial court will have the power to change."

"Besides, be prepared for a rainy day. If you don't change it now, you may be like Wang Jinggong and Zhang Taiyue, who will change again when the court is weak. By then, you may have the will but no power."

"Your Majesty not only changed the Yuan Dynasty but also made new things, abolished the canal, and colonized Southeast Asia, I think he wanted to change it. But this reform should be within a province."

"Thanks to Xing Gong's power to collect money, Jiangsu Province is a major financial and taxation center. It has undergone many reforms and taxes have increased instead of decreasing. In southern Jiangsu, which is the most difficult, Xing Guo Gong has changed a bit."

"That's what I think about this matter."

"If I don't bother the students, what else can I do for myself?"

"If there is a change, it can only be done in Jiangsu. The key is to learn from the experience of change, not to change itself. After Xingguo Gong reformed in southern Jiangsu, the finances were strong and he could support many students even if he remained unchanged."

"The Duke has not changed at all. Maybe he feels that he is not from the imperial examination. If he changes, he will easily provoke opposition. It seems that the nobles will take away the benefits of the civil service examination."

Lin Min also knew how sensitive this matter was. After thinking about Liu Yu's changes in Southern Jiangsu, he was indeed too thief.

What if there is no preferential treatment for students and gentry?

In fact, after the reform in southern Jiangsu, the preferential treatment of these students and gentry still existed.

But this kind of existence is different from the previous existence.

In the past, the categories of exemptions and exemptions were stipulated in advance, so there were endless cases of donations and deceptive mailings.

But now, it is all taxed.

After the tax is collected, tax refunds and exemptions will be provided according to the quota of students and gentry.

What it relied on were the many secondary officers appointed by the emperor, the Wude Palace and hundreds of officials allocated by the new learning system.

And, after the canal was abandoned, the canal rice collection was abolished, and the grain and cloth transporters were abolished, the recruitment was really implemented.

As well as the name and prestige he gained through years of fighting, the other side didn't dare to move.

In addition, some sweet dates were given, and the money and grain owed before were not settled. Finally, the emperor changed the Yuan Dynasty and waived the arrears.

And this is yet another eye drops for the emperor.

Because of the annual "tax refund" to the gentry and students, Sunan added up to about 1 million taels. That’s about the amount of money it costs to build four new battleships every year with all the artillery. The reason why there is so much money is that in addition to tax rebates, there is also money every year such as banknotes, tuition fees, schools, and Confucianism temples.

These 1 million taels are usually shipped to the household government first, and then they can be applied for through the normal process and then distributed.

It has always been a pleasure to collect money in, but not a pleasure to take money out.

I don’t know how long this tax exemption and refund will last.

It seems pretty good.

But in fact, do the gentry have this "legal" exemption?

As long as a hole is opened, the grassroots can tear it into a dike. In a place where students frequently beat up government and provincial officials, can the lower-class gentry really be "legally" exempted?

Liu Yu is purely pursuing a one-size-fits-all policy, and will refund taxes after all cuts are made.

It not only guaranteed the face and dignity of scholars in name, but also completely raised the land tax.

As for dissatisfaction, Liu Yu was able to suppress it, and also gave them some sweet dates to invest in industry, commerce, and overseas trade, and increased his efforts to bribe lower-income students.

And...the army loyal to the emperor in the hands of the emperor.

Therefore, regarding the political privileges and quantity of students, Liu Yu actually did not do anything in southern Jiangsu, but only touched the land tax.

Anyway, Southern Jiangsu has a developed economy and supports a group of about 20,000 people who are basically useless. Who can give them the value of united front?

And some accountants, tax collectors, customs, stamp duty employees, etc., students will basically not apply for the exam, because they can't afford to lose that person, and a gentleman is useless.

Besides, you basically can’t pass the exam. These expenses are calculated separately.

Therefore, Lin Min thought that if he could "save money", the emperor would be very happy.

In addition to saving money, it is also a good thing to find a way for these students north of the Yangtze River, especially those in Yangzhou Prefecture, to make a living in the future. After all, most of the students in Yangzhou Prefecture really rely on salt merchants and the original special status of the canal to eat leftovers. After the reform, the court can't give out hundreds of thousands of taels every year to guarantee the original living standards of Yangzhou students, right?

Can these students be allowed to do the jobs that receive local financial expenditures?