According to the situation at that time, the real poor did not have enough to eat at home.
At that time, the poor people had to work hard just to find food to survive. Who had the right to sit at the table, study, and take exams?
Not to mention how they will obtain books, pens, ink, paper, and relatively expensive tuition fees.
When a person is hungry, he can't do anything. Eating is the first need, let alone reading and studying, which consumes a lot of energy.
Moreover, even if the family is wealthy and has not been engaged in production, study, and exams for many years, it is inevitable that the family will fall into decline.
Just like the famous Sansu father and son.
The Su family was originally a wealthy family in Sichuan. However, after the two Su Shi brothers were nominated for gold medals and went home to attend the funeral because their mother died of illness, the family was already in a miserable state [the house was in ruins and the fences were leaky, like a family fleeing].
In order to take the imperial examination, all the property owned by the Su family, which was considered a wealthy person at that time, was spent on it. In the end, he passed the imperial examination, but his biological mother was gone, his hometown was gone, and the family fortune of several generations was gone.
This is still good. At least they passed the exam and have a promising future. It is also foreseeable that they can earn a new family business and come back. They can be considered rich and powerful, and they have recouped their costs. They are not losing money, and they can even make a profit. . .
But there are many more people who lost their wives and soldiers, wasted their whole lives in the examination room, but failed to pass the exam. In the end, their hair turned white, their families were ruined, and in the end they did not pass the exam and could only take the exam with them. With endless regret and despair, he was unwilling to leave this world.
All the costs they invested were wasted, all they invested, made outstanding contributions to the vigorous development of the imperial examination economy in the Song Dynasty, and then were swallowed up by the historical trend.
Taking the imperial examination costs a lot of money, which makes it almost impossible for ordinary people to change their destiny and reach the peak of life through the imperial examination.
Unless the national policy changes, using national power to support the lower class, investing astronomical amounts of money, and decentralizing educational resources so that ordinary people can receive high-quality and cheap education, then the status quo can be changed.
This was impossible for the Song government to achieve.
A lot of money?
Why use it for education?
What good does it do to a ruler to make his ignorant people wise?
Wouldn’t it be great to build a palace for the Supreme Emperor?
If the ignorant people become smart, they will immediately ask Zhao Xun for more official positions and money, and then they will not dare to think about anything else they want in the future!
Therefore, it is impossible to popularize education. It is impossible to popularize education in this life. It will only let the people find their own way to solve the problem. Only in this way can the exploitative rule of the dynasty be maintained.
Therefore, according to the background of the times, the protagonist in Su Yonglin's works is the "poor man" based on Fan Zhongyan.
He was the lowest-ranking person in the imperial examination system who could hope to pass the imperial examination. He was a middle-class person in society, not an absolute poor person.
Through his perspective, he observes the various behaviors of scholars after the imperial examination system was basically stabilized in the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty.
Observe the elation of people who have passed the Jinshi exam, and observe the low self-esteem and painful sensitivity of those who failed in the scientific exam.
Even he himself has to go through such a journey.
Su Yonglin had indeed seen this kind of thing when he was young. He had seen the proud attitude of those who passed the Jinshi examination, and he had also seen the painful, desperate and self-prepared look of those who failed in the examination.
Thinking about it now, the memory is still fresh.
Therefore, the experience of the protagonist in his novel is also quite bumpy.
From being despised and even humiliated before he passed the Jinshi examination, even his family looked down upon him, to after he passed the Jinshi in the mid-term exam, all the people who had previously despised and humiliated him came to curry favor with him, and even his family members were servile and servile to him. status.
But he is not Fan Jin. He has a strong heart and has his own ideals and pursuits. After long-term mental and physical torture, he not only did not sink, but became stronger and stronger.
He held his breath and insisted on passing the Jinshi examination to prove his knowledge.
As a result, after passing the Jinshi examination, the huge contrast between the people and things around him greatly stimulated him, making him begin to doubt the legitimacy of the existence of this system.
Even elders like his father-in-law, who had always looked down upon him, had to be cautious and even a little humble towards him after he passed the Jinshi exam. Everyone in the family did not dare to speak loudly in front of him. Is this system really legitimate?
He wanted to be respected, but he felt that what he got was even awe from them.
Can the words of the saints he read really be able to rule the country and bring peace to the world?
If so, why was he not respected or even cared for by his family when he was full of knowledge, but he was respected and even improved after passing the Jinshi examination.
His family members all began to fear him, and they treated him with respect and did not dare to offend him in the slightest.
What is more important, the study of a saint or the status of a Jinshi?
What do they really care about is me as a person or my status as a Jinshi?
Who are they living with?
I?
Or Jinshi?
who I am?
Disciples of saints?
Jinshi of the imperial dynasty?
Or myself?
He felt confused and miserable about it.
Under great pain, he accidentally got a strange book called "A Certain Family's Political Commentary". After reading it, he was greatly surprised. He read it non-stop for three months in a row, and for three months he didn't know the taste of meat.
He watched it dozens of times, and then he came to a complete realization. He understood the evils of this cannibalistic system, what happened to him, and the deep logic behind it.
Finally, he resigned and left to start the next journey of his life.
He wants to completely change this changing system and work with his comrades to achieve complete change.
Su Yonglin added fuel and jealousy to it, filled it with private goods, and even created a fantasy linkage.
This is Su Yonglin’s version of The Scholars.
While inheriting the content of the original book's criticism of Confucian scholars and the imperial examination system, it did not turn around and go back in the subsequent content, but rushed directly in the direction of breaking up the great establishment in one breath.
In order to write this book, Su Yonglin used up all his spare time, and with the professionalism of an old scalper, he turned his thoughts into ammunition and loaded them into the cannon called "The Scholars" , just waiting for that powerful launch.
Su Yonglin believes that once this book is written, it will have a huge impact on people's thinking, especially those Confucian students who suffered from the imperial examination system.
Even Su Yonglin knew very well that under the imperial examination system, only a small part of the millions of literate people could obtain the imperial examination, and among this small part, only an extremely small part could go one step further and obtain the Jinshi title, thereby obtaining the title of Jinshi. As an official, he became a supporter of the Southern Song Dynasty.
And those who fail to succeed after repeated attempts are actually very depressed.
In fact, most scholars have been trapped in the first level of the Southern Song Dynasty's three-level imperial examination all their lives. They have never been able to pass the second level throughout their lives and are rushing towards the third level.
The social involution brought about by the imperial examination is very, very serious.
Watching others obtain Jinshi, honoring their ancestors, being glorious and praised by thousands of people, but I can only sneak away from the dark alley to avoid becoming a foil to others, just like a mouse crossing the street, afraid of being discovered.
That feeling is very unpleasant and uncomfortable.
If this kind of discomfort only occurs once or twice, it's okay to say that it can be resolved over time. After becoming an official, he will cherish it more and support the dynastic system more and more.
But if you keep failing in the exam, the feeling of despair will make people awaken to a certain extent, causing doubts about the imperial examination system and the society, which will lead to rebellious emotions and do some anti-system things.
For example, write some small articles that are easily banned by the rulers and can only be circulated secretly among the people.
This is actually the limit that Confucian scholars without guidance can achieve. They have no organization and no other abilities. It is not easy to do this. But if they can be given some guidance and organization, these people will also explode. Expose powerful force.
Before the Ming Dynasty was ready to go south, Su Yonglin would devote part of his energy to guiding and improving the cultural field of the Ming Empire, consolidating the foundation of civilian culture, and using satire to attack the Southern Song Dynasty to promote their civil strife.
With their bureaucratic system and work efficiency, it was impossible to prevent Ming Dynasty books from being spread to the Southern Song Dynasty. So it is really hard to say to what extent the Southern Song Dynasty's ideology and culture would be hit and dispelled in these three years.
