For these new rural areas that Su Yonglin inspected, life now is really different from before Su Yonglin led the troops to liberate them.
In the past, it was difficult to have a full meal, but now having a full meal is no longer something to be envied and praised.
Su Yonglin inspected the production status of these villages, farmers' living standards and literacy achievements, and was quite satisfied with the results he saw.
The president of the farmers' association and the instructor of this village accompanied Su Yonglin to every corner of the village, allowing Su Yonglin to see the whole picture of the village.
After walking around, Su Yonglin learned that the cultivated land in the village is now 40% more than before the founding of the Ming Dynasty. In recent years, many new children have been added, and the population of the village has increased.
Because of the implementation of Su Yonglin's welfare policy of light corvee and low taxes, farmers have accumulated a relatively large amount of food, and basically they will no longer go hungry. Eating food to satisfy themselves is not a big problem.
The national grain reserve system has also been implemented here. Before the start of the tax season every year, specialized personnel from the county go to the countryside to collect grain. At the same time, farmers are paid some copper coins according to the market price, and then the tax collectors come down to collect the copper coins directly.
In this process, farmers' currency reserves were increased, and farmers began to have the ability to save and consume.
The road construction plan promoted by Su Yonglin has also been implemented in this county. Dirt roads leading to the county town from several villages have been built. Compared with the past, it has greatly eased the difficulty for farmers to go to the county town.
While it was convenient for villagers to go to the county town for consumption, some people in the village also responded to the imperial court's poultry breeding plan and sent the excess poultry purchased by the imperial court for the army to the county town for sale.
"In the past two years, more and more people have come to the county town to buy things or do small business. The old Ma family and the old Liu family at the head of the village went to the county town to sell chickens and ducks and made a lot of money. Now they give their children to I went to the county school to study.
The mother-in-law of Zhao's family at the west end of the village is good at crafts. She often makes small things and lets her family members carry them to the county town to sell, and she can also exchange some money back. In short, many people can exchange money back, and many people go to the county town to buy things. It's quite a lot, which I couldn't even dream of before. "
The president of the farmers' association smiled and reported the changes in the village to Su Yonglin. Su Yonglin nodded repeatedly, very satisfied with this.
Then he looked at the village's instructor, Li Hao.
"The work in the village is doing well. In addition to production, I am also more concerned about literacy. How is the literacy going? Are adults and children in the village able to read?"
Li Hao nodded.
"His Majesty said that literacy is a very important thing, so after the village stabilized a little, we discussed building a shed, which can also be protected from sun and rain, and use it as a classroom, so that the villagers can learn literacy from common words. .
Children learn faster, adults learn slower. They can spare more than half an hour every day to read a few characters, write and draw with us. After a few years, everyone in the village can almost recognize the characters. Generally speaking, The official documents of the imperial court are no longer dyslexic. "
Su Yonglin was very satisfied with this and reached out to pat Li Hao on the shoulder.
"well done."
Li Hao's face turned red with joy.
"For adults, because they are busy with farming, teaching them how to read is the limit. For young children, we can teach them how to read and read at an elementary level to increase their cultural level. Nowadays, young children in the village are basically The farmers are very happy to learn and read in our sheds."
"No, it wasn't easy to read and read in the past. Only the good families in the village could save a little money and send their children to private schools for a year or two. After they knew a lot of words, they came back. The main reason is to be able to understand the official documents of the imperial court and avoid being deceived."
Wang Erhu, the president of the Peasants' Association, looked frightened: "Your Majesty, you don't know that the gold thieves and officials here back then were bad, bad to the core. They tried their best to deceive us because we couldn't understand the official documents of the court.
Later we found out that the court was going to increase taxes, and it was only thirty or fifty cents. But when it came to our heads, it turned into two hundred cents. How much food did those bastards defraud us? "
Su Yonglin was also deeply touched by this, so he also patted Wang Erhu on the shoulder.
"Yes, if you don't know how to read, you can't avoid being deceived. If you don't read, you won't be able to understand more truths. Unfortunately, I can't make you all read and understand the truth. I can't help you. "
"I dare not say that."
Wang Erhu's face turned red with excitement: "It's a great blessing for us muddy men in the fields to know a few words and fill our bellies. I don't dare to think about it anymore. These are all given to us by His Majesty." Yes, we know it well."
"This is what you deserve. It's just that some bad guys took these things away from you in the past. Now I'm taking these things back, returning them to you, and guarding you."
Su Yonglin smiled and said: "Despite this, you must strive for yourselves and be more courageous. If there are still people who want to take these things back, you must dare to show them the knife and protect what you deserve. Don't shrink back." .”
"Hey! I know! I know! Whoever dares to take away our land, we will fight with them!"
Wang Erhu rubbed his hands excitedly.
"Okay, take me to that shed. I want to see how the children study."
Of course they would not refuse Su Yonglin's request, so the two of them led Su Yonglin to the teaching shed.
After walking for a while, Su Yonglin heard the sound of children reciting from a distance.
[The sun and moon shine down for the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty loves me, and I love the Ming Dynasty]
[Some people say that a country is made up of one tile roof and a family is built. They say that the country is very big. In fact, a family is filled with the country with one heart and supported with one hand. A family is the smallest of a country, and a country is composed of thousands of families.]
[The country is my country, and the family is my home. Without a strong country, how can there be a rich family?]
After listening for a while, Su Yonglin stepped forward and stood a little further away looking at a simple rain shelter. A group of young children gathered around a young man. The young man wrote one by one on a slate with a charcoal pen. words, and then lead the children to recite them.
He taught the children how to read it word by word, then read it sentence by sentence, five, six, seven or eight times, and then explained the meaning of each word to the children.
After explaining, let the children pick up paper and pen and start writing on the paper. He looked at them one by one and tutored them one by one, very seriously.
Su Yonglin nodded slowly.
Su Yonglin considered the Three-Character Classic as an enlightenment textbook for young children and felt that it was a very good enlightenment textbook.
However, he then thought that the Three Character Classic is full of Confucian moral and cultural requirements such as loyalty, filial piety, loyalty, and even foolish loyalty and filial piety. It requires young children to follow the Confucian set of hierarchical concepts from an early age. Instilling this kind of thing into children from an early age can only educate a group of people. A Confucian literati who shook his head and focused on the concept of hierarchy.
This does not meet the needs of the Ming Dynasty in the future.
Therefore, Su Yonglin presided over the relevant persons in charge of the revival meeting and compiled the Ming Dynasty's own enlightenment textbooks, integrating the concept of family and country, which was very important in the future construction of the Ming Dynasty, into the elementary education textbooks, breaking away from the traditional Confucian enlightenment content.
As for some positive and good moral education, they are listed separately and have no connection with the Confucian system.
Beautiful moral qualities such as filial piety, friendship and brotherhood are the natural pursuits of human beings. They naturally exist in human society and have no necessary connection with Confucianism. It would be a bit unreasonable to involve these beautiful qualities with Confucian values.
