The grand scene that Fang Xiaoru had been looking forward to had arrived. Almost all the literate people in Yingtian City crowded in front of the gate of the Imperial College, keeping Fang Xiaoru and the remaining students of the Imperial College busy. Touch the ground. Fang Xiaoru's hands were shaking when he was writing the list. He felt that all the words he had written in his life were not as many as the names he had recorded this morning.
The popularity of Enke's registration gave birth to a profession in Yingtian City, that is, the second-level dealer responsible for purchasing on behalf of others, who was now called "Xiao Dao". Enke was recruiting tax ministers, and the imperial edict also clearly stated that the arithmetic content of this scientific examination would account for a large part. What are you waiting for? Hurry up and make up for it!
Among the many bookstores in the city, various classics on arithmetic, such as "Nine Chapters on Arithmetic" and "Zhou Bi Suan Jing", etc., were all swept away by literati. In the past, some literati only knew a few classics and knew nothing about arithmetic, but they could not buy books, so they had to buy them at high prices from second-hand dealers. And most of those second-rate dealers are not literate, and they only know how to hoard books that seem to be related to arithmetic on a large scale, so much so that they made a joke. Some unrelated books are just because they have the word "shu" on them, such as "Dong". Xuanzi's "Thirty-Six Hands in the Room" and so on were also swept away.
Lao Zhu's imperial edict was so expensive that the second-rate dealers and booksellers made a lot of money.
There was also an episode. After some students who dropped out of the Imperial College went through all the arithmetic classics on the market, they were shocked to find that none of these obscure arithmetic books was more concise, clear and popular than what the gentleman in the Imperial College taught. Understandable.
In the past, they felt that Zhu Su was insulting them by asking Li Jinglong and Xu Yungong, the second-generation ancestors of the noble family, to teach the students. They thought that Wu Xun was not worthy of teaching them these reading skills. Now the opportunity to reach the sky in one step is before them. They could have been one step ahead of others, but they cut off their own way. So all of them regretted it and gathered in front of the Imperial College gate, praying to Zhu Su to put them into the gate wall again.
From their point of view, the Imperial College is now extremely short of vacancies. As long as they lower their profile and give the young Highness enough face, the young Fifth Highness will have no reason to reject them.
Zhu Su didn't say anything about this, but just sent a boy and told these people that as long as they could beat this boy in classics and history, the Imperial College could put them back into the gate.
The scholars thought that Zhu Su was embarrassed, so they deliberately set up this humiliating step for them to step down. But now that the scientific examination is coming, they don't care anymore. This kid doesn't look amazing, with rough skin and calluses on his hands. He doesn't look like he's from a scholar's family. Could he really be better than those of us who have been studying since childhood?
Unexpectedly, although this child may seem ordinary, his talent and learning are really terrifying. In a few words, he often reveals the flaws in these students' opinions, refuting everyone's opinion that individuals are imperfect.
This group of students all had earth-colored faces. After contributing another folk joke after Mei Ziyi and Qi De, they all hid their faces and left.
This child was Tie Zhong's younger brother and the future famous minister of the Ming Dynasty, Tie Xuan. Seeing these scholars retreating, he was quite puzzled. He privately found Zhu Su, who was rarely taking a break from his busy schedule, and asked: "Master, since you don't want to take them back to the door, why didn't you refuse them explicitly from the beginning, and instead asked the disciples to To humiliate them?"
"After all, they have also learned arithmetic in prison. Compared with the Confucian students outside who have never been exposed to arithmetic, the chance of passing this subject is undoubtedly higher."
"You tell me that now that the Ming Dynasty is in the process of reform and innovation, it should be twisted into a rope and unite all the forces that can be united. Only in this way can we achieve great achievements that our ancestors and sages have never achieved."
"But why do you want to shut them out and let these scholars who may be in the imperial class in the future feel resentful towards you and make enemies out of thin air? Aren't you afraid that they will hate the new students in the future and hold us back?"
Zhu Su was reviewing Song Lian's fresh article at the time. Hearing this, he put down the article in his hand and looked back at this disciple who had not been with him for a long time, but was extremely eager to learn and devoted himself to new learning. He opened his mouth and said to Tie Xuan: "Xiao Xuan, there is a saying in Taibo Chapter of The Analects of Confucius, 'The people can follow it, but they cannot understand it'. What do you think of this sentence?"
Tie Xuan was obviously stunned for a moment when his master suddenly asked him a question. He lowered his head and thought for a while before replying: "My disciples thought that Cheng Zhu's explanation of this statement was very appropriate. Cheng Zi once said: 'A sage's teachings are not intended to be known to everyone, but they cannot be understood. But you can make it happen. If the sage does not let the people know it, it will be a trick of later generations. Isn't it the intention of the sage?'; Zhu Zi also said: 'The people can make it because it is a matter of course. You can't make them understand why.'"
Cheng Zhu's explanation of this sentence criticized the "stupid people theory" that was popular before the Han and Tang Dynasties, and believed that Confucius did not think that the people were stupid and uneducable. Rather, he believes that the original intention of the sage is "It is possible to let everyone move along the road, but it is impossible to let everyone know the road."
Although Zhu Su's new learning opposed Cheng Zhu, the academic dispute was not a party struggle, and it was not a matter of life and death. As a member of the new school, Tie Xuan could frankly admit the merits of Cheng and Zhu's knowledge, which made Zhu Su quite happy.
"You are right." Zhu Su touched Tie Xuan's slightly yellowed forehead. "You have to remember what Confucius said. To do something, you don't have to wait until everyone understands and agrees with you before you can do it."
"If you want to accomplish something, you should certainly have a lot of friends and a few enemies. But you can't pursue this so-called friend. Everyone is of the same mind as you and agrees with your ideals and ideas. . How to make more friends? The 'quantity' of friends is obviously more important than the 'quality'."
Tie Xuan was thoughtful, but after all, his experience was still shallow, and his eyes were still filled with doubts. Zhu Su smiled and continued to teach him:
"As a teacher, I have never advocated over-worship of sages and saints. Counting romantic figures depends on the current situation! However, we must also selectively absorb the valuable experience of the sages. We cannot be arrogant and think about overthrowing everything and starting over."
"Even in the court, many people, or even the vast majority of people, cannot actually see too far. Even if they are taught the principles of saints and sages, etiquette articles, for them, they are only used as a way to get ahead. It’s just a level.”
"Thousands of years ago, Confucius knew that the people were 'impossible to understand', not 'difficult to understand', but 'impossible to understand'. This shows that sages also deny whether they can educate everyone. "
"So, do we have to ignore the vast majority of these people? Do we have to exclude them from the great cause of national revitalization? Think about it, what should we do with these people?" Zhu Su was good at tempting.
(End of chapter)
