When Zhu Jingyuan was considering the reform of political institutions, it was natural for him to consider the future status of the royal family.
The royal family, a de facto ruling family, is already too large, and like the emperor, it cannot be directly invisible.
Then we can only become as ordinary as possible and become ordinary people as much as possible.
Zhu Jingyuan also began to formulate a reform plan for the family system, planning to find an opportunity to discuss it with his father before implementing it.
The direct approach is to conduct a complete separation in name only, minimizing the directly exposed scale as much as possible.
All remote clans that no longer have any title status will no longer be named according to the ancestral teachings of Huang Ming.
The clan government no longer interfered with the naming of their children.
When children register their household registration, they must first go to the ordinary household registration management department, go through the same procedures as ordinary people, and receive a unique identity number.
On this basis, I will get my identity number and report it to the Zongren Mansion for registration.
You can go to the clan school in the future.
Apart from this, you can live a normal life as an ordinary person and do not enjoy any extra privileges of any kind.
But when you really encounter difficulties and unfair treatment, you can directly seek help from the agencies under your branch, which is equivalent to having an additional appeal channel.
The actual welfare benefits are basically unchanged, except that there are no iconic words in the name, and the household registration is no longer specially registered by the clan government.
The welfare of these peripheral clans is actually the free education provided by the royal family, which is completely affordable by the royal consortium.
For clans with titles from the Ming Dynasty princes and below, after the 20 generations set by the Hongwu Dynasty are used up, the next generation of clans will all be divided into a new ancestral household.
These clans need to decide on the new generation names of their own branches. After confirmation, they will be sent to the clan mansion for archiving and will be activated after the original generation names are used up.
All princes of the Ming Dynasty, including princes of the ancestral line other than the emperor's family, have different generational names unified by the clan government.
It was also used after the Hongwu Dynasty had used up the twenty-digit number, and the generational characters could not be repeated between the princes' lineages.
Of course, the emperor is special, so his descendants use a separate set of generation characters, and they no longer use the same generation characters as other ancestral clans.
Zhu Jingyuan now has a grandson, who is the first generation, and the great-grandson is the 20th generational generation in the ancestral line. In the future, the great-grandson will have to reorganize the seniority separately.
It seems that the Ming Emperor does not need to continue the generation classification immediately.
But the Ming Emperor had a higher seniority in the family, because several generations of emperors were children of their fathers who were thirty years old.
The eldest sons of emperors and princes were usually born before their father was twenty years old.
Therefore, there are many clan branches with lower seniority than the emperor, and the seniority characters set by the Hongwu Dynasty have long been used up.
It has become a daily task of the clan mansion to assign seniority names to different clan clans.
Most of the subsequent generation names of the prince branch have actually been compiled.
However, there are now too many clans in the Ming Dynasty. Some of the number of brother clans in the same line and the same generation has exceeded the total number of Chinese characters.
It is no longer enough to choose characters according to the five types of attributes.
Before the Renwu Dynasty, new characters were often created for clan names, but now they are not allowed to create new characters.
We can only allow the de facto duplication of names to occur.
It's just that there are too many people in the clan, and there are few opportunities to see them in person, and it basically won't affect their lives.
Moreover, clans with the same name are all brothers of the same generation, so there will be no mistake in seniority.
It's been a long time coming.
But sooner or later it will be a problem if this matter continues like this.
There are definitely more and more people with the same name.
Therefore, the largest number of non-titled clans were allowed to name themselves, and the clans with titles were also divided into more branches to determine their own seniority.
It is already a very necessary choice.
If Zhu Jingyuan's idea is to be implemented, he will have to reorganize all the princes of the ancestral line and rename some of the already named clans.
Zhu Jingyuan is the emperor but not the clan leader. This kind of matter was originally managed directly by the Supreme Emperor.
So Zhu Jingyuan discussed it with his father.
Zhu Jingyuan wrote down his thoughts clearly and asked Niu Jian to send it directly to Shuntian Mansion's father, the Ming Emperor Zhu Jianyan.
Zhu Jingyuan received a response quickly. His father felt that the clan should indeed be reformed, and the clan management system could be split in this direction.
On this basis, Dad also asked another question.
In fact, the clan has full compulsory education, so should universal compulsory education be implemented among the people?
After Zhu Jingyuan read it, he fell into thinking again.
Education does require attention and planning in advance.
Zhu Jingyuan does not like compulsory education, at least he does not like the compulsory education in later generations in Europe and the United States.
Most people themselves actually understand that there is definitely a substantial difference in the IQ of different people.
Putting all the children together and forcing them to learn the same knowledge is a last resort.
It is torture for those who do not have basic talents, and it is just a waste of time when sent to high schools and universities, and it will also affect the learning of others.
For those who are gifted, they will also have to slow down their learning speed because the teaching pace must accommodate others.
The compulsory education that Zhu Jingyuan experienced in his previous life, as well as the compulsory education in Europe and the United States that he knew about, are no longer compulsory education based on fundamental principles.
The earliest compulsory education was implemented by the Prussians in order to obtain soldiers with basic reading and writing skills.
Improve the Prussian country's competitiveness on the European continent.
"Prussian education needs to cultivate students' character of patience, diligence, discipline and loyalty to the country."
European and American countries began to implement compulsory education after industrialization in order to obtain a labor force with a higher level of knowledge.
Because further industrialization requires a higher level of labor.
However, if a factory wants a higher-level workforce, why not train it itself?
The factory considers its own interests and first feels that the cost is too high.
Among the essential reasons why Americans abolished slavery was the fact that it was more expensive to train slaves as workers than to use free workers.
The more important reason is that the speed of training a middle school-level worker from scratch is far behind the speed of factory expansion and the speed of market development and changes.
At the same time, when the labor market is a buyer's market, the factory can put forward the condition "I won't take it if you don't have the skills."
The factory decided to let workers spend time and money to train themselves before they can compete for job qualifications.
But they soon discovered that it was too inefficient for workers to train themselves.
The factory wanted a high school student to be responsible for keeping accounts, but none of the workers even went to junior high school.
The factory is not looking for high school students, not even junior high schools.
You can only choose one from the primary school students.
Therefore, through the medium of state institutions, the overall task of training workers was taken over.
Of course, compulsory education generally improves the knowledge level of all citizens, thereby increasing the productivity of the entire country.
In the end, it can in turn improve the living standards of ordinary workers themselves.
So compulsory education is a good thing.
However, in later generations, compulsory education in European and American countries gradually moved in various unexpected directions.
This is determined by the basis of their social organization.
After the Age of Enlightenment, the core of the universal values formed by Taipei is that all people are born equal, or that all living beings are equal.
It can be derived from this that everyone has the same qualifications to participate in any possible affairs.
The national institutions established on this theoretical basis in the European and American countries are obliged to provide the same services to all citizens and open the same social permissions.
Based on this understanding, if Prussia, England or the United States want to implement compulsory education, they must also achieve equality for everyone.
Therefore, there will be opposition from the American people who are not allowed to grade their children, and are not allowed to say that my child is too stupid and therefore not qualified to go to high school or college.
Coupled with the influence of the increasingly white and left-leaning social public opinion in the United States, there is also the continuous promotion of stakeholders in the education-related industries in the United States.
The United States and other European and American countries continue to extend the time of compulsory education in their countries. At the same time, they continue to accommodate the students with the lowest standards and continue to lower the overall education level.
Folks in the United States even have a weird saying that difficult math test questions are discriminatory against people who are not good at math.
As a result, public compulsory education in the United States eventually became the so-called "happy education."
The American court spent money on normal education, but most of the students it ultimately produced failed to meet their requirements.
The education model Zhu Jingyuan participated in in his previous life actually combined training and selection into one.
Through examinations at different stages, smarter people will be screened out and sent to industries and positions that require sufficient knowledge and mental foundation.
Put relatively average people through several different examination stages to engage in jobs that don't require much knowledge.
Essentially, it allows people with different talents and abilities to do jobs that they can adapt to.
This kind of design is of course good, but it is just a tradition left over from the classical era. It means that everything is of inferior quality. Only those who are good at reading hope to stand out through reading.
There is no popular, relatively decent way out for children who are not good at reading.
This ultimately led to extremely fierce competition within the system.
The current situation of the Ming Dynasty is different from that of any country in the previous life. Of course, we cannot directly refer to any country's plan.
Ming Dynasty now has the ability to gradually implement free compulsory education for more than ten years.
But no need to do it.
Everyone is illiterate, so everyone has to compete together.
Everyone is a top student, so everyone must compete together.
Letting everyone become top students and then get easy and decent jobs is of course the best thing in theory, but it is simply unrealistic and inconsistent with objective laws.
Looking at it from another perspective, if a large number of people can live comfortably and comfortably without working hard to learn advanced knowledge, then why do they have to learn it?
Not everyone is suitable for learning complex knowledge, and not all jobs require mastering complex knowledge.
There should be a relatively comfortable way for ordinary people to live without having to work hard.
The level of productivity after the Second Industrial Revolution, as well as the proportion of resources and population now controlled by Ming Dynasty, clearly have the ability to achieve this.
But on this basis, we should also create a relatively fair and broad path for advancement for those with their own abilities and ambitions.
Let them enter the court and become pillars, instead of sitting idle among the people or even becoming a factor of instability.
Zhu Jingyuan wanted to design the education system of the Ming Dynasty based on this purpose.
First of all, the word compulsory education is not mentioned directly.
The imperial court built universal public schools and gradually provided free primary education, or general and moral education, throughout the world.
The teaching activities themselves are completely free, and free lunches are also provided.
The parents of most families in Ming Dynasty would not refuse this kind of service, which is like free childcare.
The basic requirement for primary school is literacy. It is enough to be able to listen, listen, read and write. There is no need to learn too complicated knowledge.
What is more important is to understand basic social common sense and accept the universal moral system planned by the imperial court.
After graduating from elementary school, he can become the most ordinary worker and soldier when he grows up.
Free primary schools also require daily assessments to screen out gifted children.
Let the children themselves and their parents know whether the children can do well and whether there is any significance in continuing to go to middle school and college.
You need to pass an examination to enter middle school, and all normal education above middle school is free of charge.
But scholarships are given to students with excellent academic performance.
The scholarship is enough for them to pay their tuition fees, and the rest is enough for their living expenses.
Covering at least 20% of middle school students
It is equivalent to providing free education and subsidies to children with excellent academic performance.
Allow gifted children to continue attending middle school without placing any burden on their families.
At the same time, families who have money and are willing to go to school have to pay for it themselves.
The imperial court only bears the education costs for a small number of students, reducing the financial pressure on the education system.
Middle schools teach more practical knowledge and can easily be transferred to specialized crafts schools, and graduates can only work as technical craftsmen.
Now in the Ming Dynasty, primary and secondary schools last for five years, and secondary schools are not divided into junior high schools and high schools. After graduating from middle school, you can go directly to college.
At the same time, Ming Dynasty college students had the status of students after graduation, that is, scholars, which is equivalent to a bachelor's degree in later generations.
Therefore, the Ming Dynasty's university entrance examination is actually equivalent to the scholar qualification examination.
However, the examination method adopted now is similar to that of the college entrance examination in later generations.
After arriving at university, scholarships will be issued as generally as in middle schools, and they will still cover 20% of students.
Students in the top 20 will have the opportunity to attend college for free.
Small craftsmen who graduated from specialized craft schools can also improve their salary through assessment and promotion, and can enjoy the same benefits as officials.
In this way, the status of craftsmen in the entire society is improved.
The direction proposed by Zhu Jingyuan is based on the current education system of Ming Dynasty. The biggest adjustment that needs to be made is to distribute money.
The methods and content of education do not need to change; they are all the directions originally planned by Emperor Shizu.
Before the industrial age, the imperial court did not have enough money.
There is no way to achieve universal free primary education, or to provide scholarships to outstanding students.
However, sending money itself is not a trivial matter. If it is not sent well, it is a pure waste of money.
The fairest possible solution is the exam.
Examinations of the highest possible specifications and standards.
With reference to the college entrance examination model, all public schools in each province will organize unified examinations regularly every year.
Factors other than direct test scores are not considered.
No points will be added or deducted based on family background or special abilities.
Also try to avoid matters that are greatly affected by the will of the examiner's supervisor, including but not limited to interviews and private prosecutions.
Basically, it was the same exam plan as in my previous life.
Zhu Jingyuan knew that this kind of system could not be absolutely fair, but obviously it could only be planned with the goal of being as fair as possible.
Compared with students who are smart but work very hard, and children who are very smart but don't work hard enough, perhaps the former can achieve higher results.
Various assessment results and scholarships are rewards for the former's special efforts.
At the same time, teachers in schools with good test scores will also receive more rewards and promotion opportunities, encouraging them to work hard to screen out good students.
Zhu Jingyuan himself put forward ideas one by one and asked Lin Zexu to sort them out and submit them to the academic department.
Let the school department continue to make detailed plans.
(End of chapter)
