I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 123 Qizhou Experience (V)
"Let's go! Let's go and take a look!" Zhu Houzhao stood up and was about to leave.

Jiang Bin was very reluctant. He was also fascinated by the story, so he quickly caught up with Zhu Houzhao and said, "Sir, let's finish the second chapter before leaving."

"What's the point of listening to the second chapter? Why don't you understand it as well as the two people just now?" Zhu Houzhao looked at Jiang Bin dissatisfiedly, "Remember this shop, and find this storyteller to tell us a story in private tomorrow morning."

Jiang Bin sobered up a little, and dared not say anything more, and hurriedly followed Zhu Houzhao's footsteps.

The night school that Zhou Erwa mentioned was not far away. There were five or six rows of houses. There was basically no decoration outside the houses. Each row of houses had three classrooms. Each classroom was brightly lit and packed with people, most of whom were workers wearing blue work clothes.

There were teachers teaching in most classrooms, but the classroom Zhou Erwa went to was a study room where there was a teacher on duty. However, most people remained quiet, reading and practicing on their own, occasionally asking questions to the teacher on duty. There was also a small bookshelf at the back of the classroom, which was filled with books.

Zhu Houzhao curiously walked around outside several rows of classrooms, only to hear that most of the classrooms were teaching reading, while a small number of classrooms were teaching mathematics and something called physics.

He was not interested in learning to read, and he did not understand much about mathematics and physics.

But what shocked him the most was that there were quite a lot of middle-aged people sitting in the classroom, and quite a few of them had gray hair. Most importantly, it was obvious from their looks that they were not scholars, but manual laborers.

Even peddlers and hawkers come to study?

Zhu Houzhao's fifth impression of Qizhou: Qizhou people are studious.
"Qizhou is really rich. There are so many lights in so many classrooms." Jiang Bin suddenly said.

Zhu Houzhao looked and saw that there were dozens of oil lamps in each room. Although they were a little dim, they did not affect the reading. However, what interested him was the shape of the lamps in the classroom. They were all covered with transparent glass covers with openings on them.

"Is there any explanation for this? I saw candles were lit in the palace." Zhu Houzhao didn't know much about what was going on.

"Candles are naturally the best, but they are relatively expensive, and only the rich can afford them. The next best is the oil lamp, which usually uses rapeseed oil and cottonseed oil as the lamp oil, which is not cheap either, and ordinary people can't afford them at all. Those who can afford them usually make the wicks very short, so that the flame is only the size of a soybean, which is enough to illuminate the room. But it's different here." Jiang Bin explained in detail. He used to live an ordinary life. He was the kind of person who couldn't afford candles and felt bad if he used too much lamp oil.

Zhu Houzhao nodded. He understood. The wicks of the lamps here were very long, the flames were very big, and so many lamps were lit at once. Moreover, no one in the classroom cared about the consumption of lamp oil. It seemed that Qizhou was indeed prosperous.

"Let's go in and take a look!" Zhu Houzhao quietly walked into the study room, and the people in the study room were unaware of their entry.

As soon as Zhu Houzhao entered the study room, he smelled a pungent odor and quickly covered his mouth and nose with his sleeves.

"The smell of lamp oil," Jiang Bin reminded in a low voice.

Zhu Houzhao then understood why the windows in the classroom were still open even though it was early winter and the temperature was not high. It turned out that it was for ventilation.

Fortunately, the smell of lamp oil was not strong, and Zhu Houzhao quickly adapted to it.

He walked to the bookshelf at the back of the classroom. The bookshelf was very neatly arranged and divided into literacy area and mathematics area. There was a sign next to it, which read: Read at will, cherish books, read indoors, and do not take books away.

This surprised him because in this era, the cost of acquiring knowledge was very high, but these books were placed here for anyone to read.

The atmosphere in this classroom made him want to find a book to read. He looked towards the math section. He just didn't understand the math being taught outside the math classroom, and he felt that he should be able to find the answer here.

He found a book called "Basic Mathematics" and sat down in an empty seat with the book. Jiang Bin also picked up a book and sat next to him.

Zhu Houzhao could tell from the book in his hand that it had been read frequently, and the cover had frayed edges, but it was still well protected.

Zhu Houzhao was definitely very smart. History records that he "was well-versed in Buddhist scriptures and Sanskrit." He later learned Portuguese, studied music and drama, and personally composed "Killing Music." So he just went astray in his skill tree.

The book was written in plain language, so Zhu Houzhao didn't need a teacher to teach him. He taught himself by referring to the numerical symbols and explanations in the book. He became more and more excited as he studied, and soon finished reading dozens of pages of the book.

"It's very simple! But these numbers are quite interesting." Zhu Houzhao said with lingering interest.

Then he picked up a book called "Elementary Geometry" and fell in love with it after reading a few pages. He scratched his head at various figures and became inexplicably excited after solving the answers.
"This is a good method that benefits the country. Many algorithms are more convenient than the current ones. Officials in the Ministry of Industry should learn it."

"Your Majesty is wise!" Jiang Bin couldn't concentrate on reading and could only flatter him whenever he wanted.

Zhu Houzhao had been in the classroom for an hour without realizing it. It was already dark, but there were still many people in the classroom.

He put Elementary Geometry back and decided to look at another book.

This time he decided to look at the books in the literacy area. He picked up a book at random and took a look. He saw the words "Gu Wen Guan Zhi·Song Pian" written on it.

He casually opened it and saw "Red Cliff". The title piqued his interest because he liked Romance of the Three Kingdoms and was very familiar with the Battle of Red Cliff.

As for the author Su Shi, I seem to have some impression of him.

Zhu Houzhao started reading like this, and was fascinated as soon as he finished reading. After finishing it, he felt that the book was full of profound emotions and profound ideas.

There are such good articles in the world!

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but flip to another article, "Yueyang Tower Inscription" by Fan Zhongyan.

The more Zhu Houzhao read, the more shocked he was. This article was so good, yet he had never read it before. It turned out that the words that the ministers always said came from here.

He couldn't help but continue reading a few more articles, some of which were vigorous and unrestrained, some were handsome and fresh. Although the topics were wide-ranging, they were all substantial in content and sincere in emotion. After reading them, he felt as if he had had a conversation with those sages across hundreds of years of time and space.

It was much more interesting than the profound ideas he heard in the imperial lectures.

Some people may wonder, Zhu Houzhao was the emperor and had the best educational resources in the world, so why didn't he even read the famous articles of the Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties?
This has to start with the literary atmosphere of the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, it all comes down to one reason: because there is no imperial examination.
(End of this chapter)