Because the emperor insisted on carrying out the imperial examination, Yu Bailu had no choice but to continue the examination.
This made her quite discouraged and frightened.
A few days later, the answer sheets from Sun Ying, Yu Bailu and others arrived at the Queen's Palace.
After seeing it, the queen started reviewing it together with Concubine Yang, Concubine Liu, Xu Weizhen and Princess Yongning.
"Indeed, several of them answered well. They are considered talented women."
"But there are quite a few who turn in blank papers."
When Queen Du was reviewing these answer papers, she expressed some emotion.
At this time, Xu Weizhen said: "I am sorry to say that this is because many girls who are participating in the election cannot write, but can only recognize Chinese characters."
"That's not surprising. If you meet stubborn parents, you might not even recognize them."
Queen Du said something after hearing this.
Concubine Yang and Concubine Liu both agreed.
Next, the review will continue.
It was not until the review was completed that the queen and the two noble concubines sent the answer sheet to Zhu Yijun.
"Congratulations, Your Majesty. Among the girls who entered the palace this time, there are quite a few talented ones. They also have a high understanding of new rituals. They are considered to be both beautiful and smart."
Queen Du said this with a smile after seeing Zhu Yijun.
Concubine Yang and Concubine Liu also looked at each other and smiled.
"It's good to have it!"
Zhu Yijun also stood up from the platform with a smile, walked to the middle of the fragrant first and second concubines, took the answer sheet from the queen's hand, and then walked into the corridor of the main hall, taking advantage of the light through the window. Summer sunshine, look at these answers.
The first and second concubines followed behind gracefully, with their long tulle skirts dragging the ground and their slender white necks raised high. They all stared at Zhu Yijun's back, waiting for Zhu Yijun to comment on the answer sheets.
"You did a great job marking it!"
"The pearl is not covered in dust, but what makes me happy is that the Wanli Dynasty is really new. Even some of these little girls who are no more than 10 years old are enlightened."
"This will not really make future generations laugh and say that talented women in this dynasty can only find prostitutes from the Qinhuai River."
Zhu Yijun smiled and said, "Queen!"
"My concubine is here."
Queen Du responded at this time.
Zhu Yijun then ordered: "Let Tian Yi tell the people in the women's school to focus on cultivating the first and second grade girls here. In the future, they will be given priority to work with you and me. Don't give up on the rest. Let them spend these days in the palace." If you learn something enlightening, you won't be blind when you go back in the future and become a slave to the old rituals."
Queen Du folded her hands and bent down to say yes.
Women's studies.
Located in the east of the Forbidden City, a place called Yonghe Palace.
It is far away from the outer court, but it is very quiet. The trees are lush and green, most of them towering into the clouds. Even in summer, it is cool to the bones. When the breeze passes, the dragon sings softly, which is suitable for reading.
Because Zhu Yijun set up a girls' school here, there are no other furnishings here.
There are tables and chairs inside and outside the entire hall.
The adjacent Jingyang Palace has also become an affiliated library and dormitory, specializing in storing various books and bunk beds for teachers and students to consult when resting and studying. Even the garden outside the palace has been transformed into a pulpit.
Yu Bailu was assigned to study in Class C here.
The so-called Class C is naturally the third class. According to the arrangement of girls' school, it is an enlightenment class with no knowledge of literature, mathematics and mathematics.
This means that Yu Bailu needs to start her education from scratch.
no way.
What she received from the old society was only domestication in old rituals, not education, so although she knew a lot of truths, she understood very little knowledge. Even this domestication made her lose the ability and motivation to actively accept knowledge. .
This requires the court to take the initiative to reform a girl like her who is deeply influenced by old rituals.
In fact.
If Zhu Yijun hadn't put forward the new idea of "seeking truth from facts" in the name of Zhang Juzheng and the economic and military foundation brought by the early Longwan-Wan reforms, and Yu Youding and others were influenced by him to put forward the concept of "new etiquette" .
Many scholar-bureaucrats in this era have begun to be influenced by the old rituals and become self-contained. They feel that if they study Confucian classics well, they don't need to read other books. Some even go to the extreme and believe that knowledge comes from their own inner feelings and they only need to sit around and talk about their character. , you can understand the principles of the world, and be able to achieve success regardless of whether you are leading troops or assisting in government.
Not to mention women.
First of all, it is the idea that "a woman's lack of talent is a virtue". The more aristocratic the family is, the more it suppresses women's aura and does not allow women to read miscellaneous books and learn all kinds of knowledge. Instead, it is for prostitutes to satisfy the needs of scholar-bureaucrats looking for interesting souls outside. , and was cultivated various knowledge of music, chess, calligraphy and painting.
Therefore, it is really not surprising that Yu Bailu is in this situation.
Of course, not all families will cultivate their daughters in this way, actively suppressing their daughters' personalities and preventing them from becoming knowledgeable and wise.
There are also enlightened people.
There are also some who are so open-minded that they actively join Western sects.
Anyway.
In the Ming Dynasty of this era, there were both liberals and conservatives, and each had its extreme examples.
But before the new rites were implemented, there was no doubt that the conservatives eventually defeated the liberals.
Especially in history, after the Manchus entered the customs, they followed the old-fashioned and self-contained faction and completely gained the upper hand.
But now, because Emperor Zhu Yijun supports Xinli and intends to change the model of the entire country from internal exploitation to external exploitation, he also takes the initiative to open up the people's wisdom, not only for men, but also for women, especially the younger generation. girl.
Yu Bailu didn't know yet that she had met a good emperor and a good era that no longer domesticated her as a slave.
She just feels disappointed now. She is disappointed that she was not treated differently because she boldly questioned the examination system, but she was still reduced to Class C, and was characterized as the worst among the selected girls.
"Yu Bailu!"
"I read your information. Your father is a Qianhu official, but why don't you even know about Li Du? You are so good-looking!"
Princess Yongning, a professor of female studies, suddenly walked up to Yu Bai and saw that she was still looking at her papers, so she came over and called her.
Yu Bailu blushed on the spot, lowered her eyebrows and lowered her head.
"This is Her Royal Highness Princess Yongning!"
The maid next to Princess Yongning hurriedly introduced her.
Yu Bailu said "Ah" after hearing this, and then quickly knelt down and kowtowed.
Princess Yongning hurriedly supported her: "It's not appropriate to kneel down now, because the new etiquette promotes the friendship between compatriots. As for you, you should be lucky that you are Han and a military child. Otherwise, based on your actions that day, you will be the first to be arrested. You are the one who is expelled from the palace!"
"Remember, don't be so smart in the future that you want to maintain the old etiquette while using the new etiquette to break the rules that are not good for you. There is no such good thing in the world."
Yu Bailu had no choice but to stand up straight again and began to look at the royal court where she was in surprise.
"Next, you must study hard. Brother Huang means that in principle, you will not give up teaching any of your compatriots to be wise. But if you are stubborn, you should know the consequences when the time comes!"
After Princess Yongning said this, she put her hands behind her back, twirled the teaching stick in her hand, then raised the frameless glass clasp on the bridge of her nose and entered the classroom.
Yu Bailu said yes, looking enviously at Princess Yongning's cool, confident and generous appearance.
After that, Yu Bailu studied hard and even forgot about the sun and the moon.
The same goes for Sun Ying from Class A, who worked tirelessly to absorb knowledge that she could not get in the private sector.
She has even applied to join the mutual aid club hosted by the Queen, which is intended to help palace residents with weak learning abilities, and has begun to participate in some palace affairs.
Shi Yusi.
The place where the ruling ministers meet to discuss affairs.
But the emperor didn't come here often. Sometimes he would be lazy, hanging out with the concubines and people in the back garden, or meeting relatives and friends, putting aside government affairs.
This time, even more so.
Because the First World War in Luzon had ended, and an edict had been issued to exempt the world from corvee service, the world seemed to be fine for the time being, and the emperor took some time off.
Therefore, in the Imperial Palace recently, there are basically only a few ruling ministers here to discuss important matters.
As for Zhu Yijun's education of new girls entering the palace in the inner court, it was natural that Shen Shixing, Qi Jiguang, Wang Xijue and other ruling ministers knew about it.
"In Yuan Fu's opinion, your Majesty ordered the maids to study. What is the purpose of this?"
On this day, Wang Xijue took the initiative to ask Shen Shixing in the Shiyu Department.
Shen Shixing did not answer.
At this time, Shen Li said first: "In my opinion, he intends to leave the palace to patrol the world in the future!"
Qi Jiguang and Wang Xijue both looked over.
Shen Li then said: "The emperor attaches great importance to geography, and has specially ordered the Ministry of War to make more accurate maps, and even accurately map overseas places, and even write down the mountains and landforms for him to know. It shows that His Majesty has great concern for the outside world. He has been fascinated by it for a long time. But before leaving the palace, he must first let the people around him understand that leaving the palace is not an act that would burden the people and make the emperor ignorant, so he must first educate the palace people to understand."
"I think that's what it means too."
Wang Xijue agreed at this time, and then said: "But I don't want your Majesty to leave the palace!"
Shen Shixing stopped writing at this time, picked up the folding fan to fan the wind, and looked at Wang Xijue: "Tell me, Mr. Ge, why you don't want His Majesty to leave the palace."
"That's right! I want to listen to Mr. Wangge's opinion."
"It stands to reason that now that the national treasury is full and internal funds have been increasing year after year, if His Majesty wants to go out to visit the country, as long as he is willing to use internal funds to support the people, he can take the opportunity of the tour to spread wealth among the people and promote the sale of goods and the prosperity of transportation. "
Qi Jiguang then asked.
Wang Lin, the Minister of Civil Affairs, echoed: "Yes, with the recent development of Luzon, more than 3.67 million kilograms of chalcopyrite and more than 1.59 million kilograms of gold mine have been shipped back! "
"So, it is possible to mint copper coins to facilitate people's transactions!"
"If His Majesty leaves the capital, it will be a good opportunity for more traders to prosper and allow more newly minted copper coins to circulate!"
"In addition, there is more gold. It is also suitable for Your Majesty to use gold as a stacking capital to try to issue some large-denomination new treasure banknotes and circulate them among the royal family and the government first. In the future, large-scale transactions will not need to carry a large number of heavy silver coins. , which is conducive to the prosperity of trade routes."
(End of chapter)
