A powerful minister of the Song Dynasty

Chapter 5: Let them work and receive re-education
Yan Shu didn't even think about it and blurted out:

"A month's worth of food, don't be too bad."

"Hahaha."

Song Shou couldn't help laughing a few times and nodded repeatedly.

Just now, Yan Shu gave me the priceless jade pendant as a gift, but now he wants to bet a month's food with me.

However, Song Shou also understood that the Yan brothers had lived a simple life since childhood and had never changed even when they held high positions.

It seems that he values ​​the student named Song Xuan very much, but Song Shou doesn't think he will lose.

Because he valued Zhang Fangping, a genius whom he had long recognized, more, he nodded happily:
"Okay, I accept this bet."

The people of the Song Dynasty loved gambling from top to bottom, but this restriction was only relaxed during major festivals.

Yan Shu and the other two looked at the flowing water on the river, giving Song Xuan and the other two more time to answer.

The students of the Song Dynasty at that time had not yet summarized the procedures for policy essays.

However, Song Xuan was able to get into university only after going through a sea of ​​test questions.

He has a certain foundation in reading comprehension, not to mention the number of times he has written argumentative essays.

First of all, the paper should be neat and the handwriting should be clear.

You have to state the topic at the beginning.

Let the examiner see it.

After all, a composition can be decided in just one minute.

The marking work is so heavy, how can the teacher have so much time to carefully examine your writing style?

Next comes the lengthy introduction and argument. The ending should continue from the beginning and return to the topic, and then an examination essay is ready.

not long time.

Song Xuan and Zhang Fangping each handed in their papers.

Yan Shu was not in a hurry to watch, but let Song Shou watch first. After all, he was bound to lose.

Song Shou naturally looked at Zhang Fangping's test paper first. Perhaps he wrote it in a hurry, and there were ink spots on the paper.

He believed that scholars and officials should consciously strengthen their moral cultivation, draw more moral principles from Confucian classics, and resist the social atmosphere of rampant materialism and stick to their own inner moral bottom line.

In addition to strengthening moral education, we must also improve the selection system and improve social atmosphere.

Song Shou thought that what Zhang Fangping wrote was quite standard, but now was a time of peace and prosperity, and there was no trouble in the world.

The emperor allowed all officials to choose beautiful places for banquets, and the scholars and officials had their own banquets and gatherings, so much so that the taverns in the city buildings set up large tents to provide convenience for banquets and entertainment.

But sudden change is unrealistic.

As long as you pass the imperial examination and become an official, everyone can continue to play music and dance. Wherever you go, you will be looked up to and praised by people everywhere.

It is difficult to change the current atmosphere in official circles, and those with vested interests cannot agree to it.

Song Shou handed Zhang Fangping's policy paper to Yan Shu and began to read the policy paper of Song Xuan, who Yan Shu had high hopes for.

Yan Shu looked at Zhang Fangping's answer sheet and felt that he looked too bookish.

Many scholars had a good life after passing the imperial examination and being granted official positions, but few people were not affected by the environment.

The monthly salary of many officials is equivalent to a farmer’s hard-earned harvest for a year or even several years.

Do you really think that everyone can become a saint?

That is impossible!
Yan Shu looked at the neatness of the paper again and thought that Zhang Fangping still needed to work on his mentality.

If you get too easily upset when encountering things, it will be difficult for you to survive in the officialdom in the future.

Song Shou looked at Song Xuan's paper again, and there were no ink spots.

The calligraphy is not as graceful as dragons and phoenixes, but it is a bit sloppy.

Song Shou forced himself to read on, and was shocked by the argument given in Song Xuan's first sentence.

To curb this malpractice, officials should personally participate in labor.

Because they live too comfortably. After many officials study hard and pass the imperial examinations to become officials, many of them indulge themselves.

Even when he was an official, he was treated like a star, had no idea of ​​the farming season, and couldn't even tell the difference between leeks and wheat seedlings.

If this continues for a long time, the country will be peaceful and the military will be weak. The Liao Kingdom and the barbarians in the northwest will attack the border, and the people who can no longer survive due to natural disasters and man-made disasters will rebel.

Can the Song Dynasty survive for long?
Especially since the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun were not in our hands, the northern ethnic minorities could ride south and attack Kaifeng at any time.

Just like curbing the rebellion of warriors, one thing will gain while the other will lose, and by that time.

Can the literati continue to live in comfort?

The final outcome can only be becoming a slave of foreigners. They don't think that a scholar-official who can't even herd sheep can be more useful than a farmer.

What's more, the imperial court has distributed official land to officials, and they all just sit back and enjoy the fruits of the labor. Who would still think about sympathizing with the farmers?

Under the final system of hereditary punishment, the number of officials in the Song Dynasty will increase, while the land belonging to the people will decrease.

During the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, due to the population growth, it was impossible to allocate enough land to each person.

Could it be that the Song Dynasty had more territory than the Tang Dynasty?
Even if the official family becomes rich because of the court's preferential treatment, who can guarantee that the wealth will last for more than three generations?

Every wealthy man calculates before his death that his wealth is enough for dozens of generations to eat, drink, and have fun, but does that mean that none of his descendants will starve to death?

In order to pass down the nobility from generation to generation, Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang, conferred the title of marquis on more than one hundred people.

Just less than a hundred years later, probably during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, of the more than one hundred families of the founding heroes of the Western Han Dynasty, only less than 20% were still able to retain their titles.

As for the family tradition of poetry and literature, after the core figures of that generation of the family were killed, the family's cultural heritage was broken, and it would naturally be difficult for it to rise again in the future.

To pass on the family tradition of farming and studying simply means that the family farms and studies at the same time.

Such families often own a piece of land.

Most of the family members usually farm and study at the same time.

This mode seems to be nothing special and is far inferior to the other modes. It is more technically demanding, but there will be probability problems.

A farming and reading family may have dozens or even hundreds of descendants.

Among these people, there will be at least one smart person who is good at reading.

And when this smart younger generation appears, the family will do its best to train him, let him study hard, and then embark on a career as an official.

Even if the official was involved in a rebellion, generally three generations of his direct descendants would be killed, and it was rare for all nine generations of his family to be executed.

Therefore, people within this family and those beyond the three generations of this rebellious official can continue to farm at home and live an honest life.

The clan forces that emerge will either work together to resist foreign enemies or work together to oppress the villagers. Compared with the above situations, passing on the family tradition of farming and studying is the safest.

Therefore, the official's participation in labor is not only to educate himself, but also to set an example for his descendants and to influence the officials around him.

Over the past thousand years, there have been occasional political corruption, military collapses, and disasters in the country, but as long as there are people who maintain the right path, the historical lifeline of China will not be broken, and historical civilization is nothing more than a few harvests of wheat.

After reading Song Xuan's shocking essay, Song Shou was speechless for a moment. He handed it directly to Yan Shu who had been waiting for a long time.

Yan Shu felt very strange.

Why did Song Xuan's policy paper stay with Song Shou for so long?

When he took it, he looked at the paper and found it neat and looked very good.

But the handwriting is illegible.

No.

This character still needs practice.

Then Yan Shu looked at what Song Xuan said and narrowed his eyes.

Very novel point of view.

It's really audacious and presumptuous.

But there is also a hint of fantasy in it.

(End of this chapter)