Both Zuo Yude and Shidu were from the fifth rank, but the Hanlin Academy belonged to the emperor's secretarial staff, while the Zhanshifu was an institution that taught the prince to learn political administration. Although it seems that the Hanlin Academy has a higher status, it depends on who it is for.
Gao Pragmatic was the same age as the prince, and it was obvious that the emperor had trained him in advance to assist the prince. Anyone could see this.
Although in the Ming Dynasty, the first condition for being able to truly assist the prince in the future is to be highly pragmatic and to be listed on the gold list. However, since the publication of "Long Wen Whip Shadow", most people have been optimistic about this. After this Henan Road In the test, the high pragmatic students scored three small yuan in a row. Judging from the high pragmatic test papers released by the Henan Superintendent's Yamen, we basically concluded that this child's future in high school is a high probability event.
In this way, Gao Jingshi, a close minister of the Crown Prince, can basically guarantee that he will be a close minister of the Emperor in the future. Therefore, it is better to call him Gao Yude now than Gao Shidu - it can better reflect the special relationship between him and His Highness the Crown Prince. Well.
However, Gao pragmatic himself was very open-minded about this. Anyway, whether he was a bachelor or Zuo Yude, he was only a temporary official and not a real official.
In the future, even if he passes the Jinshi examination, he will still have to first strive to pass the Shujishi examination, enter the Hanlin Academy for a period of time, and gain qualifications. He will still have to start as a seventh- or eighth-rank petty official. Nowadays, these official positions begin with the word "fake" , but it’s all just a false name.
Of course, just because it has a false reputation doesn’t mean it’s useless at all. At least, with this temporary official position, he can do many things that the common people cannot do.
For example, Shang Shu.
On the second day of the sixth lunar month in the fifth year of Longqing's reign, the prince accompanied him, and he was a bachelor of the fake Hanlin Academy. Zuo Chunfang of Zhanshi Mansion, Zuo Degao, pragmatically wrote "Shu Yi Lu Shu" to the court. The full name was "In order to comply with the original intention of the ancestors, please clean up" The post station is used to relieve the post and the road is sparse."
At the beginning of the essay, it is said that "since ancient times". It is said that the Celestial Empire has been a vast country since ancient times, "spreading across the sea to the east, to the quicksand to the west, to the south of Shuo, and to the four seas."
And our Ming Dynasty has a vast territory, "from Korea in the east, to Annan in the south, to the desert in the north", and even the "thousands of miles of Changsha and thousands of miles of stone ponds" in the South China Sea are also included in the territory, with 11,750 miles from east to west. Li, 10,940 li from north to south, but "those who are not ordered to register by official, and who are under the control of marquis and lieutenants are not included in this number." ——This number is actually accurate, but he is probably the only one in the Ming Dynasty who knows this accurately.
Of course, no fool will jump out and say that his data is wrong, after all, no one has measured it.
Then Gao Pragmatic began to review the way that various dynasties have ruled such a vast territory from ancient times to the present, that is, the way information is disseminated. "Building beacons and setting off beacon smoke; driving horses and oxen and running on foot; improving roads and setting up post stations", etc., I won't go into details here.
Then the theme was introduced, saying that among the vastly different ways of transmitting information in different forms, the role played by post stations deserves special attention. In his essay, he said that "post stations are the ones who, as the country's thread, cannot be blocked", and he also said, "Postal transmission Life, like the blood of a human body, cannot be wasted in a day." It can be seen that it plays a decisive role in the communication of government orders. Finally, it points out that all dynasties in China have centered on the capital, built post roads extending in all directions, and set up numerous, fully functional post stations on them, with post guards stationed there, in order to effectively transmit political, economic, military and other information.
Shuwen then began to talk about this dynasty, saying that since Taizu "lived in a mixed area", in order to consolidate his rule, the post station was the most urgent matter for the military and state affairs. Since the day he ascended the throne, he has controlled water, dug mountains, built roads, built bridges, prepared horses, set up carriages and ships, and "set up water and horse stations everywhere."
Horse post refers to land post, which "uses horses, donkeys, carts, and human beings" to deliver mail. "Eighty, sixty, or thirty horses may be installed at key points." "The rest are not important and are also used for passing roads." , or suppose there are thirty, ten, or five horses”;
The water post is made up of boats, "for the main route, there may be twenty, fifteen, or ten boats", and for the rest traveling on the side roads, "there are also seven or five boats". It can be seen that depending on the importance of the location of the post road and the number of pedestrians, the number of water and horse carriages, boats, boats and horses used by the post varied. There are generally "ten people on the main roads, five or four people on the remote roads".
Then he explained that the postal institutions of this dynasty, in addition to inns, also had delivery offices and express shops. However, compared with the latter two, inns were not only spread throughout the hinterland, but also widely distributed in Liaodong, Gansu, Duogan, Uzang, and Song Dynasty. Fan, Sichuan, Yunnan-Guizhou, Guangdong and other remote areas. By the 28th year of Jiajing reign, there were 1,295 water and horse-riding stations of various types across the country.
It is obvious that the Ming Dynasty post stations spread all over the country. They can be said to be the main artery of waterway transportation and information dissemination. It is precisely because of the ubiquitous inns that the national transportation network was created.
The post station was full-time "delivering messengers, flying military reports, and transporting military supplies." It was busy with affairs, had a wide range of uses, and had the heaviest load. Therefore, it shouldered a major responsibility and played a huge role in communicating politics, economy, culture, and military affairs in various places. Therefore, the post station naturally became the main channel for the dissemination of official information in the Ming Dynasty.
After talking about the importance of the post station and the great importance Taizu attached to the post station, Gao pragmatically changed his direction and began to talk about the current problems.
Gao Pragmatic's essay said: "The laws and regulations established by Taizu in the post were originally appropriate. However, as time passed and circumstances changed, all the regulations were abolished."
Then he began to give examples: For example, on this post road, the average distance between stations is sixty to eighty miles. This is the distance that the postmen are expected to travel in one day. This can ensure a quick return without causing excessive Tired and "the horse collapses and the man falls".
Also, because most of the documents delivered by the post station are documents related to national security, the post soldiers work under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War, and the regulations for the management of post posts are accordingly included in the relevant criminal law volumes of the "Da Ming Code" to show the importance of the post station. importance and the particularity of post work.
Although the Ming Dynasty law imposes severe penalties on couriers for delays, the courier may be exempted from or mitigated penalties when the journey is delayed due to flood obstruction or incorrect address. At the same time, Ming laws strictly prohibited officials from abusing the post stations and scolded and whipped the post workers. On the contrary, if a postman uses the post station for personal gain, he will be punished double.
These systems are both strict and take full consideration of rationality and feasibility, making them very appropriate. However, according to Gao Pingshi, "When I returned to my hometown the first time, I passed through dozens of inns, went deep into the inns, and questioned all the officials, and I realized that his feelings were completely wrong."
Gao Pragmatic not only gave examples of the post stations he passed by, how many of them were in disrepair, how many of them lacked carriages and horses, and how many of them lacked postmen. He also pointed out in particular that many of the postmen were using public affairs for personal gain, and some court officials (actually... The vast majority of them, Gao Yingshi did not dare to say it, have been repeatedly prohibited from using and using the station for private purposes, which has caused the station to be overloaded and in a state of semi-paralysis. This in turn resulted in the inability to transmit political and military information up and down in a timely manner, causing the court's administration to fall into a vicious cycle.
"If the post roads are open, the country will be strong; if the post roads are stagnant, the country will be weak." Therefore, Gao Jingshu shouted in his essay that the disorder, disorder, and decline of the post system seriously violated the original intention of Taizu's ancestral precepts!
