I was compiling the daily records during the Wanli reign

Chapter 247 Rare Talent: The Accountant! Reviving Mathematics is an Urgent Task
At dusk that day.

Emperor Wanli quickly approved the memorial jointly written by Yin Zhengmao and Shen Nian, requesting 50,000 taels of silver from the imperial treasury to create agricultural and technological invention tools.

He felt guilty towards Feng Bao and did not want the officials of the outer court to focus on matters of the inner court.

In addition, since the request in this memorial was reasonable and could demonstrate the emperor's favor, it was readily granted.

They didn't know if Yin Zhengmao and Shen Nian knew the true origin of the ten cartloads of gold and silver, but their attitude clearly indicated that they didn't want the two to talk about it anymore.

The best stance on certain matters in the imperial court is to pretend not to know.

Shen Nian hid the account book at home, seemingly as if nothing had happened, but in reality, another item had been added to her list of new policy reforms: prohibiting eunuchs from interfering in politics.

At present, eunuchs are forbidden from interfering in politics.

In essence, it was about limiting imperial power and breaking the perception held by emperors of the Ming Dynasty that "the emperors treated their officials like slaves and the world like their private property."

To achieve this, it is useless to advise or impeach the eunuchs.

The key was to increase the power of officials, reduce the influence of eunuchs on government decision-making, and limit the power of the secret police and imperial guards.

This matter must be accomplished.

It's like walking on a knife's edge. A slight misstep could lead to being swept away from the top and plunged into the mire, just like the former Grand Secretary Gao Gong. We must plan carefully and proceed step by step.

……

In the blink of an eye, it was the end of February.

The young Wanli Emperor and the Prince of Lu had basically recovered from their rashes, but as a precaution, daily lectures, court assemblies, and other similar events would not resume as normal starting from the first day of the third lunar month.

During this period, Shen Nian spent almost all his time at the Ministry of Revenue handling official business.

As the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, he was primarily responsible for overseeing grain transport, warehousing, salt tax, and border defense.

These affairs, distributed throughout the country, were all handled by officials of the Thirteenth Bureau of the Ministry of Revenue.

After the first year of the Wanli reign, the salt tax was concurrently managed by the Shandong Provincial Administration, the grain transport and storage tax was concurrently managed by the Yunnan Provincial Administration, and the border levies were concurrently managed by the Shaanxi and Sichuan Provincial Administrations...

Shen Nian only needed to deal with the clerks, assistant clerks, and principal clerks of these departments to fulfill his duties.

Under the leadership of Yin Zhengmao and Liu Sijie, the Ministry of Revenue is now a cohesive unit with a very high level of enthusiasm for its work.

As the head of the Ministry of Revenue, Shen Nian did not need to do everything personally; he only needed to understand the overall situation of the business under his jurisdiction and ensure that no problems arose.

Although he could design convenient tools like coordinate systems, he only had a superficial understanding of mathematics at the time. He didn't even have the ability to calculate certain data by manipulating the abacus beads.

……

On February 27th, around noon, the sun shone brightly.

Ministry of Revenue.

After reading through a stack of documents, Shen Nian went outside and took a stroll in the front courtyard.

at this time.

Shen Nian suddenly saw Gao Zhen, the Assistant Director of the Yunnan Provincial Department of Revenue (a fifth-rank official) who had greeted him that morning, rushing out of a hanging flower gate not far away, carrying his official robe.

The instant he ran out the door.

A feather duster flew out from inside, missing Gao Zhen by only half a foot.

Immediately afterwards, another person rushed out from inside the hanging flower gate.

He picked up a feather duster and shouted angrily at Gao Zhen, "Gao Zhen, you scoundrel! Today, at the Ministry of Revenue, it's either you or me!"

Shen Nian took a closer look.

He recognized the man; he was An Ming, the Chief Clerk of the Shandong Provincial Office of the Ministry of Revenue (a sixth-rank official).

Gao Zhen is of medium build, somewhat obese, and is 52 years old this year; An Ming has gray hair and beard, and is slender, and is 53 years old this year.

Both of them were officials directly under Shen Nian's management.

Shen Nian had a very good impression of them.

The two men, who were always composed and orderly, were now chasing and fighting in the courtyard, which puzzled Shen Nian greatly.

While Shen Nian was still in a daze, the two of them had already rushed to the back garden not far away.

Shen Nian sensed that An Ming had the urge to kill Gao Zhen, so she quickly chased after him.

"Pfft!"

Shen Nian arrived at the back garden and suddenly saw Gao Zhen trip over something and fall to the ground.

An Ming seized the opportunity, ran up to Gao Zhen, and then took a feather duster and beat Gao Zhen hard while cursing him!
"Gao Zhen, you are utterly shameless! How dare you steal my man? How could you possibly take him away from Anming?"

"We've been colleagues for over ten years. Isn't what you're doing a really disgusting thing to do?"

"I never imagined you could be such a despicable and shameless person. Even if you are punished and dismissed from your post today, I will still teach you a lesson!"

……

Gao Zhen remained silent, using his elbow to block the feather duster while looking for an opportunity to stand up.

Just as Gao Zhen was about to get up.

An Ming suddenly straddled Gao Zhen, who quickly knocked the feather duster aside, while An Ming raised his fist and punched Gao Zhen.

At this moment, the two were fighting like street thugs.

If the officials of the Sixth Division see this, they could impeach them, and the two would almost certainly be fined three months' salary.

Shen Nian was not far away and could see clearly, but could only hear vaguely.

“An Ming claims that Gao Zhen stole his man. Could it be that Gao Zhen cheated on An Ming? Two men over fifty years old, still having affairs? It seems the officials in the Ministry of Revenue are still not busy!” Shen Nian muttered, slightly pursing her lips.

"Stop! Stop it! Is this a place for fighting? Do you know what crime it is to intentionally defile an official's robe?" Shen Nian approached the two and reprimanded them loudly.

Upon seeing Shen Nian, the two immediately stopped fighting, stood up, and bowed, saying, "Shen Youtang!"

Shen Nian said with a dark face, "Brush the dirt off your clothes and then come with me!"

If word of their fight were to reach the Ministry of Revenue, the two would undoubtedly be punished. Shen Nian still needed their services, so he wanted to resolve the matter behind closed doors.

……

A moment later, in the office of the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.

Shen Nian sat at the table, while Gao Zhen, an assistant director of the Yunnan Provincial Department of Revenue, and An Ming, a principal of the Shandong Provincial Department of Revenue, stood facing Shen Nian with their heads down.

"Gao Wai-lang and An Zhu-shi, you are both veterans of our Ministry of Revenue. How can you chase and fight each other in the yamen? If those censors see this, they will impeach you. It will not only be yourselves who lose face, but also the entire Ministry of Revenue!"

Shen Nian looked at An Ming and said, "Master An, you are the one who chased after the assailant, so you speak first."

Anming sniffed twice, looking aggrieved.

"Shen Youtang, this Gao Zhen is really too much! He actually poached three of our senior accountants without even consulting me. These three are the backbone of our four departments (the Department of Civil Affairs, the Department of Revenue, the Department of Finance, and the Department of Granaries). Now that he's gone, how are we going to handle our accounts and complete our performance evaluations? This will delay many things in our department, including the tasks you entrusted to me. I've been in the Ministry of Revenue for many years and I've never seen a colleague so shameless as to do this. He... he... he's really gone too far..." "Three senior accountants?" Shen Nian had thought the two were fighting over a woman, but he hadn't expected their brawl to be over three senior accountants.

Shen Nian looked at Gao Zhen, who was clearly unconvinced, and said, "Gao Wai Lang, you speak."

"Shen Youtang, I've been wronged!"

"The three old clerks in the Shandong Division were all over sixty years old. They started to resign at the end of last year, but Chief An was unwilling and kept delaying them. At the beginning of this year, the three submitted their resignations again, preparing to go home to retire. Chief An still delayed them, not wanting them to leave. In the end, it was Li Langzhong of the Shandong Division who signed and stamped their resignations, and they became free in early February."

"After I learned that they had resigned, I went to them and hoped that they would come to my Yunnan Department. They still refused and told me that it was too hard for them to work as accountants in the Ministry of Revenue. They no longer had the physical strength to do the job."

"I told them that if they went to the Yunnan Department, they would only need to teach the accounting clerks below, and would not need to do the accounting anymore. In addition, I promised to use my connections to arrange stable jobs for their sons and nephews as well. Furthermore, I would give them subsidies out of my own pocket. Finally, they were moved by my sincerity and said that they would only come to the Yunnan Department after informing Chief An and obtaining his consent."

"These three old clerks were recovered at great personal difficulty by me; there is absolutely no way I will return them to him!"

"Just half an hour ago, I was about to inform Steward An about this matter, but I didn't expect that after only two words, he would fly into a rage and almost kill me!"

“Shen Youtang, you don’t know, the first tool he used to hit me in the Shandong Provincial Government was not a feather duster, but an inkstone. If that inkstone had actually hit me on the head, I would have been completely finished!”

……

After hearing Gao Zhen's explanation, An Ming picked up the feather duster in his hand again.

“Shen Youtang is a despicable man. If he can give those three old clerks the benefits, so can I. These three have been with me for nearly ten years. What he’s doing is poaching them!”

"They are already free, how can I be considered to have stolen their wives? Is a woman who has divorced you still your woman? Anming, even if this matter goes to His Majesty, you will have no grounds for argument!"

……

Seeing that the two were about to start arguing again, Shen Nian immediately said, "Shut up!"

After hearing the whole story, Shen Nian suddenly realized that the Ministry of Revenue still had a very serious problem: a lack of accounting officials.

At the grassroots level of the Ming Dynasty's officialdom, those who actually did the work were all clerks and clerks.

For example, in the Ministry of Revenue, the people truly responsible for accounting and compiling records were all accountants.

The officials weren't lazy; rather, their abilities in this area were far inferior to those of the accounting clerks.

Mathematics is a discipline whose level can only be improved through continuous practice.

The older you are, the more sought-after you become.

An excellent accountant needs at least ten years of experience to become a good accountant.

In the capital, the clerks in charge of compiling and calculating accounts in various government offices were called accountants. In local prefectures, accountants were often respectfully called money and grain clerks, while accountants in merchants' shops were called accountants.

Accounting is a skill.

In the past, the Tang Dynasty had a special subject called Ming Suan Ke in the imperial examinations, and the Three Departments Commissioner in the Song Dynasty was called Ji Xiang, which shows the importance that each dynasty attached to mathematics.

However, in the Ming Dynasty, there was no subject specifically for mathematics in the imperial examinations.

Only the Imperial Academy offered a basic mathematics course, but it only taught the essentials and was far from sufficient to train accountants of the caliber required by the Ministry of Revenue.

Shen Nian was well aware that mathematics was the foundation of many disciplines and even determined the upper limit of various inventions in commerce and engineering in the future.

At present, with the revival of commerce in the Ming Dynasty, scholars proficient in mathematics are extremely rare.

Some mathematicians used to bribe their way into becoming accountants in the capital's government offices, but now the situation is gradually changing.

Becoming a bookkeeper for a shop is not only less busy, but also pays more per month.

Shen Nian paused for a moment, then looked at An Ming and Gao Zhen and asked, "Are all departments currently short of accountants?"

“Our Ministry of Revenue has a fair number of accountants, but we lack capable ones. These three veteran accountants are worth ten people, while some other accountants are just average!” An Ming said.

Shen Nian nodded slightly.

"Gao Wai Lang, although your actions were somewhat impolite, you were in the right. You may take two of the three senior accountants with you, and leave one for Chief Clerk An. Keep their treatment the same and don't let them work too hard!"

"Your humble servant obeys!" The two men bowed simultaneously.

"As for the problem of the lack of capable strategists in the court, it cannot be solved in a short time. Leave this problem to me!"

As the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, Shen Nian's main task was to solve these difficult and complicated problems.

……

Half an hour later, in the office of the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.

Shen Nian appeared before Liu Sijie and reported to her the problem he had discovered: "a serious shortage of capable accounting officials in the Ministry of Revenue."

Shen Nian spoke directly: "Liu Zuotang, there is a serious shortage of mathematical talents at present. I am thinking that we should join forces with Grand Secretary Yin to build a new accounting college, with the same standards as the Imperial Academy, to train professional accounting talents and allow some mathematical talents to be promoted from clerks to officials. What do you think?"

Liu Sijie gave a wry smile, then said to Shen Nian, "Ziheng, wait a moment."

After saying that, Liu Sijie went to the back room.

About fifteen minutes later, Liu Sijie came over with a stack of memorials and handed them to Shen Nian.

Shen Nian looked puzzled as she carefully began to peruse the book.

"Although the thirteen departments of the Ministry of Revenue are responsible for money and grain, most of them are graduates of the imperial examinations, specializing in classical texts, and completely ignorant of the principles of Pythagorean theorem, multiplication and division, equal distribution, and balance. Whenever taxes are audited, the task is delegated to clerks, and when the treasury is inspected, it is left to unscrupulous people. Abuses and malpractices are rampant, and the treasury is depleted day by day. Therefore, if we want to clean up the finances, we must first cultivate specialists; if we want to cultivate specialists, we should establish specialized schools."

"I humbly request that an 'Accounting Academy' be established next to the Imperial College, under the supervision of the Ministry of Revenue, and that experienced accountants from the Ministry of Revenue and skilled mathematicians from the general public be hired as instructors. They should study arithmetic principles in the morning, practice writing documents in the evening, take monthly math tests, and review the accounts quarterly, so that learning and application can be combined."

"In addition, official positions could be established for scholars of mathematics in the imperial court, such as accountant and mathematics doctor."

……

After reading these memorials, Shen Nian was somewhat stunned.

Liu Sijie had thought of everything he had thought of, and she had also thought of things he hadn't thought of.

Furthermore, Liu Sijie submitted these memorials during the Jiajing and Longqing reigns, as well as in the second and third years of the Wanli reign, but all of them were rejected.

Shen Nian asked, puzzled, "Why did the court reject such a good plan?"

"Ugh!"

Liu Sijie sighed and said, "There are three reasons."

"Firstly, everyone in the world believes that mathematics is not the proper path for the imperial examinations. It only trains people to do accounting, and their future prospects are nothing more than accounting clerks or bookkeepers. If an academy is established, very few people will learn it, so it is not worth establishing an academy at all!"

"Secondly, the imperial examination was for becoming an official, while mathematics was merely about manipulating an abacus. The two were worlds apart in status. The court believed that including mathematics in the imperial examination was a desecration of the examination and of Confucianism."

"Thirdly, mathematics emphasizes the integration of learning and calculation, and even more so, practical application. The current training method is mostly family-style, father to son, son to grandson, and the establishment of academies, which is simply unable to cultivate excellent accountants."

"Therefore, Your Majesty, the Cabinet, and the Six Ministries almost all disagree!"

After hearing this, Shen Nian frowned.

Judging from the current level of respect that people have for mathematics, it is indeed somewhat unrealistic to set mathematics as a separate subject in the imperial examinations.

If he wants to revive mathematics, he has to find another way.

(End of this chapter)