After Zhu Yijun expressed his intention to build public libraries widely, Li Chengliang, Wang Xijue and other ministers were shocked.
Wang Xijue secretly sighed that the emperor was really willing to spend money to enlighten the people's wisdom.
You know, this is not a small expense.
Not to mention, the civil engineering work required to build libraries in various places is expensive in itself.
Just after the library is established, the annual management and maintenance fees and personnel costs of the library are not a small amount.
Even in the early stage, copying and printing books and distributing them to major libraries was not a small project. It would take tens of thousands or even tens of thousands of scholars to recruit and spend many years to do this major task.
Wang Xijue had to admit that His Majesty the Emperor really did not intend to save more money for future generations, but only wanted to use the greatest financial power to enlighten the people's wisdom.
Shen Yiguan also sighed at this, thinking to himself that the emperor was undoubtedly really doing this to let all kinds of useful knowledge that was previously only available to the royal family and officials and gentry fly into the homes of ordinary people and make it accessible to the general public.
Because in the past, only the royal family and noble officials could collect books.
Moreover, the collected books could only be accessed by the emperor and officials, and were not open to the outside world.
It would be better now to directly use state power to build public libraries and allow people to enter the libraries for reading. This will undoubtedly allow many civilians to have access to a lot of valuable knowledge and information.
That is to say.
As long as a commoner can read and is a Han Chinese who pays good taxes, he can enter the public library and learn all the rules and regulations of the country and all kinds of valuable knowledge, including the life experience left by some elites, instead of just In his lifetime, he will only have access to the Four Books and Five Classics, and he will no longer be unable to access valuable advice because of the restrictions of his own class.
And what are the consequences of this?
For Shen Yiguan, he could not imagine it.
But what he can be sure of is that this will definitely bring about earth-shaking changes in Ming Dynasty.
It can be said that the traditional techniques of controlling the people will only become more and more useless.
People who know more and more about the truth about governance will also have higher requirements for the governance capabilities of future monarchs and ministers.
In fact, as members of the Jiangnan scholar-bureaucrat class, Wang Xijue and Shen Guanyi were already experiencing this change.
This is because people in Nanzhi and Zhejiang provinces generally have high literacy rates, and there are many people who read books. They can read all national classics and market books, and many of them make a living by writing books and researching policies.
Therefore, people in these places like to litigate very much, and many professional litigants have also emerged, who make it their profession to help people litigate. As long as the people give them enough money, they will help them write complaints, teach them how to deal with the government, and explain various issues. Similar to Huang Ming's laws, it can better protect its own interests.
This gave officials in Nanzhi and Zhejiang provinces a headache. They lamented that there were too many unruly people, especially some officials who just wanted to pass their qualifications and not work. They hated the fact that the people always came to disturb them.
As a result, many officials who just want to survive their qualifications actually don't want to be local officials in Nanzhi and Zhejiang provinces because the people are too difficult to deal with, too difficult to fool, and too fond of looking for trouble.
However, Wang Xijue and Shen Guangxi had no intention to dissuade the emperor from doing so.
Because the changes caused by this opening up of people's wisdom will eventually lead to higher requirements for the emperor's ability to rule.
If the emperor is incompetent or lazy, it will not only be the bureaucrats, but also the people who will cheat, cheat, and even trick the emperor.
If the emperor makes any stupid decision, he will not only be laughed at and despised by the bureaucrats, but also by the people.
Back to the topic.
What Zhu Yijun is doing now is just caring about his own comfort, regardless of what kind of flood will happen if his descendants fail or are mediocre in the future.
But Zhu Yijun had no choice. If he didn't do this, his descendants would still encounter monstrous floods if they were not talented enough. They would either hang themselves in Meishan or be strangled to death with bowstrings by ministers who betrayed him.
It can be said.
The old ruling methods have indeed reached a dead end, which is equivalent to a person suffering from terminal cancer. He can only try new ruling methods. As for whether using new methods will accelerate the demise of the Ming Dynasty, for Zhu Yijun It was no longer important, he only knew that this would create a new possibility for this nation at least.
After Zhu Yijun requested the establishment of public libraries widely, he also ordered: "Of course, the books that can be placed in public libraries still need to be screened. This will be screened by the Ministry of Rites, and libraries at all levels will have bookkeepers to be responsible for management. library."
"In addition, all submitted books will be awarded according to their categories, including the Huangming Literature Award, the Huangming Arithmetic Award, the Huangming Physics Award, the Huangming Medicine Award and other awards. Once the author of a book or a collection of books The articles written by one of the authors should be of great benefit to the country and the nation, and they will all be awarded awards."
"The Huangming Literature Award will be recommended by the Second Assistant Wang Xijue, the Minister of Rites Shen Guan, and the Superintendent of Rites Bingbi Wang Shizhen."
"I have long heard about the prosperity of literature and education in Jiangnan. Now that I am in Jiangnan, I will discuss the literary prize first."
Zhu Yijun said and looked at Wang Shizhen: "Wang Shizhen!"
"The minister is here!"
Wang Shizhen replied quickly.
Zhu Yijun asked at this time: "You have always been the leader of the literary world. You must have read countless books. You must be able to recommend several excellent works and several great writers to me."
"To be honest, the poetry and songs of this dynasty are no longer as rich as those of the Han, Tang and Song Dynasties, especially the kind of masterpieces that can be remembered for centuries. This will make the literary governance of this dynasty very poor. It seems that Chinese culture is declining in this dynasty."
"Perhaps poems, lyrics and songs no longer meet the actual cultural needs of this dynasty, but the newly emerged scripts can be regarded as meeting the actual cultural needs of people all over the world. Then these should reach a higher level in this dynasty. Only in this way can It seems that this dynasty is also prosperous in culture and education."
"Please rest assured, Your Majesty, I will definitely discover many excellent works and people with outstanding literary talent for Your Majesty."
At this time, Wang Shizhen cupped her hands and replied.
Zhu Yijun nodded.
"Tongkao of continuation of literature presented by Wang Qi, a Jin gentry in Qingpu"
"Wang Kentang of Jintan presented "The Complete Book of Ancient and Modern Medical Traditions"
"Xiuning Cheng Dawei presented "Algorithm Unification""
…
Because Zhu Yijun asked people from all over the world to donate books, and the Fan family Tianyi Pavilion was awarded an official position because of its rich collection of books, and the emperor also said that he would give generous rewards to outstanding book-related authors, so many gentry from the south of the Yangtze River came to donate various kinds of books. I thought it would be a book that would attract the attention of the emperor.
certainly.
In the Jiangnan area, culture and education were already prosperous, and there were many people who wrote and collected books.
Therefore, it didn't take long for Zhu Yijun to receive many books from the public.
"I congratulate Your Majesty. Many of these books are masterpieces that can be handed down from generation to generation. If they are carefully preserved for future generations, they will be enough to serve as a symbol of the cultural and educational prosperity of this dynasty!"
Wang Xijue started talking to Zhu Yijun that day, and said: "Especially this "Extended Wenxu Tongkao" has more than two hundred volumes, which can be called a big book! The era is connected with "Wenxu Tongkao", starting from the Jiading period of the Southern Song Dynasty , go down to this dynasty."
"Moreover, compared with the "Wenwen Tongkao", this book has six more exams including Jieyi, Academy, Clan, Liushu, Daotong, and Fangwai. Each exam is divided into paper headings. However, the Tian Fu exam adds the Yellow River, Taihu, and Sanjiang. and rivers and canals; maritime transportation was added to the national examination; academies and free schools were added to the school examination.”
Speaking of which.
Wang Xijue raised his hand to Zhu Yijun and said, "Your Majesty, this book can be used in conjunction with the dynastic proceedings of this dynasty."
At this time, Shen Yiguan also smiled and said: ""Algorithm Tongzong" presented by businessman Cheng Dawei is also a wonderful book on arithmetic. Its "leaving the first multiplier" and "reduction and division method" are wonderful, and it can be called a masterpiece of abacus! The proposed 'measuring walker' is even more magical and will be of great benefit to measuring fields, greatly improving the world's measurement efficiency."
As Shen Guanyi spoke, he raised his hand and said, "I think this person must be the winner of the Huangming Arithmetic Award."
Cheng Dawei, whom Shen always mentioned, is indeed quite famous in the history of mathematics in later generations, and is known as the father of the invention of the abacus and the father of the tape measure.
However, because Zhu Yijun is not a professional in this field, he doesn't know this person very well. Now he can learn about it from Shen Yiguan. Therefore, he took over the "Algorithm Tongzong" and specifically turned to the "Measuring Wheel" section. He took a look and said, "This thing might as well be called a tape measure."
Shen always said yes.
At this time, Wang Shizhen also followed up and said: "Your Majesty, the "Return of the Soul" written by Tang Xianzu, a family member of the Tang family in Linchuan, has been presented to him. Although it has not yet been published, it can be regarded as the work of a great talent. It is said that although Tang Gong had already intended to write it This book is a song of new etiquette, but I originally planned to write it after resigning from office, but now that I am in prison again, I simply wrote it in advance and sent it back to my family, asking them to find someone to publish it."
After hearing this, Zhu Yijun took the "Return of the Soul" presented by Wang Shizhen in his hand. After reading it, he found that it was the famous "The Peony Pavilion" in later generations, and said: "This is the work of a great talent."
Then, Zhu Yijun said: "These books must be included in the "Wanli Dadian"! Call on all the literati in the south of the Yangtze River and ask them to copy these books quickly to prevent these books from being lost in the future."
"yes!"
It is really the prosperity of the country that allows Zhu Yijun to dare to be so generous now.
For a time, literati throughout Jiangnan participated in the construction of the "Wanli Dadian" and public libraries.
Many down-and-out literati who were proud of themselves but did not want to do ordinary labor work, and who were short of money, took this job and copied and revised books in various public buildings.
As a result, the entire Jiangnan region experienced a boom in the paper industry and the city was filled with the fragrance of ink. At the same time, a large amount of money also flowed into the hands of these literati from the inner treasury and the treasury.
"Did you really find a living?"
In Songjiang, Mrs. Hou, whose spinning income had been greatly reduced due to the boom of steam spinning, was pleasantly surprised to see her husband, Tongsheng Shen Maoxiao, come back with a handful of silver coins, and asked in surprise.
Shen Maoxiao nodded: "It's the job of copying books for the imperial court, and I was given a salary of thirty taels a month. Because I write well and am responsible for the final copying, the salary is higher." (End of this chapter)
