There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 202 Compulsory Education
Educational and cultural reform and compulsory education.

Nie Yu wrote these words on the paper, then thought for a moment and added: "Three-year compulsory primary school education".

The term "compulsory education" may seem like a modern invention, but in fact, the Germans had already begun implementing it a hundred years earlier.

However, their compulsory education teaches everyone to study the Bible, which is religious education and not compulsory education in the traditional sense.

The earliest form of compulsory education in China originated in the late Qing Dynasty. In a final effort, the Qing government implemented a five-year compulsory primary school system, requiring all children in ordinary families to complete five years of schooling.

The Republic of China continued to inherit and improve the compulsory education system until the People's Republic of China officially established the nine-year compulsory education model.

Nie Yu couldn't implement nine-year compulsory education, and even five years would be a bit of a challenge. So he decided to start with three years and let the people under his jurisdiction solve the problem of literacy first.

The initial plan for three years of compulsory education requires families to send their school-age children to the village primary school, and they must study for at least three years to graduate normally.

Tuition is waived for three years, and students do not need to pay tuition to their teachers. The government will cover the cost of meals in the first year, but families will have to pay for them themselves in the following two years.

Families who refuse to send their children to school will no longer enjoy the tax exemption policy under the new tax law for the land allocated by the government, and will also have to bear part of the public corvée labor without compensation (meaning the government will no longer provide food).

Nie Yu went to great lengths to ensure three years of compulsory education, even using his power as the King of Han to force people to send their children to school and learn to read.

Education and culture can revitalize the nation.

Nie Yu wholeheartedly agreed with this. To put aside the distant past, he had read about the rise of a certain African country before he transmigrated.

In just thirty years, the other country has transformed from one of the world's poorest and most dangerous nations into one of the most modern and powerful countries in Africa.

It relied on nothing other than persisting in implementing compulsory education for thirty years when the country was extremely poor and backward, successfully completing the nationwide literacy campaign and providing a large number of cultural talents for national development.

After establishing three years of compulsory primary education, Nie Yu then formulated a plan for subsequent education reforms.

In line with the rural community schools, all local county schools were renamed middle schools, while local prefectural schools were renamed universities.

After completing three years of compulsory primary education, those who graduate normally can directly apply to serve as local clerks or land allocation officials.

This is also the fundamental purpose of Nie Yu's promotion of compulsory education: to replace the old official class, provide the country with more grassroots talents, and break the knowledge monopoly formed by officials and gentry over the common people.

Students who completed compulsory education could either become land allocation officials directly or pass entrance exams to enter local middle schools to continue their studies.

Although the entrance examination is a school examination, it has some characteristics of the imperial examination. However, any student who cheats will be disqualified from taking the exam for three years, and any student who cheats twice will be banned from taking the exam for life.

Secondary school, like primary school, is a three-year program, but it is not compulsory and students must pay their own tuition fees.

If one completes three years of secondary school normally and passes the graduation exam, one can obtain a secondary school graduation certificate issued by the government and then go directly to the local area to serve as a town magistrate.

This starting point is much higher than primary school. After graduating from primary school, one is only appointed as a land distribution official. Although the title of land distribution official is an official, it is just a common name used by the people. The real job of a land distribution official should be land distribution clerk.

The town mayor is different. Although his name doesn't contain the word "official," he still wears official robes, has an official seal, and is a proper official.

Although it was only the lowest-ranking ninth-grade official, it was still an official with a certain rank, a qualitative leap compared to the land-dividing official.

No matter how well an official in charge of land distribution performs, he must first rise from the lowest rank to the ninth rank before he can gradually advance through the ranks based on his achievements and hard work to build up his seniority.

It wasn't that the Han army became corrupt so quickly; it was simply that there was too much infighting within the Han army, with everyone turning into a sycophant in their pursuit of official positions.

When the Han army first started, there were not many officials, or even not enough at all. Therefore, there was not much competition for promotion, and officials could rise quickly because of their achievements.

But things are different now. Although there are still not enough officials in the Han army, the overall number has become very large. If officials are to be promoted normally, the required achievements have been pushed to the sky by their colleagues.

You did a great job, I did a good job, he did a decent job, everyone is working hard, so in the end, everyone is still on the same starting line.

One could become a land allocation official after graduating from primary school, a town magistrate after graduating from middle school, and a county magistrate after graduating from university. The highest rank one could attain was assistant county magistrate.

The reason for not directly appointing powerful officials like county magistrates was a practical adjustment. Township heads and land redistribution officials could be appointed, but their power wasn't as great as imagined. With the peasant association and township clerks acting as a two-tiered control system, township heads didn't actually have much to manage; most of the time, they acted as central coordinators, making overall decisions. Land redistribution officials were even more different; they were immediately involved in the work, with experienced officials mentoring new ones, going to the countryside to redistribute land, resolve disputes among the people, and directly experience the hardships of the common people.

The county magistrate was completely different from the other two. The county magistrate had too much power. He was commonly known as the Marquis of a Hundred Miles or the Parent Official. He could manage too many people. Even the poorest and most remote county under the Han army had tens of thousands of people.

A single misjudgment by a county magistrate could severely impact the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people. Therefore, officials appointed by the university could not directly appoint county magistrates, but rather assistant officials with little real power.

Let them follow behind the yamen to observe and learn for a year or two. Once they have learned enough, they can be officially appointed as county magistrates to preside over the affairs of a county and truly take responsibility for their work.

Thus, primary school, middle school, and university each take up three years, totaling nine years of education.

After finishing "Educational Reform and Compulsory Education", Nie Yu took out several textbooks, namely "Mathematics", "Physics" and "Chemistry".

After thinking about it, I picked up my pen and added mathematics, physics, and chemistry to the list of subjects for educational reform. Mathematics was designated as a compulsory course in primary school, middle school, and university, and it was also included as a key subject in entrance and graduation exams.

How can someone who doesn't know math and arithmetic know how many people are under their rule?

How many acres of land can ordinary people cultivate, what is the harvest, is the growth of population and food normal, and are there any gentry and landlords deceiving their superiors and concealing population and annexing land?

Mathematics is a compulsory course, while physics and chemistry are temporarily set as elective courses, but there is a blank space left at the end. The specific details of this blank space still need to be discussed with the various ministries of the Cabinet.

From the perspective of current interests, physics and chemistry are not very useful to the Han army. Physics is okay, at least it involves steam engines and steelmaking furnaces, but chemistry is almost completely useless.

Therefore, we need to find a way to encourage students to study these two subjects. For example, we could establish official positions related to physics and chemistry, without real power, but rather honorary positions similar to those in the Hanlin Academy, to generate students' interest in these areas.

After all, the imperial examinations in ancient times were extremely difficult. If you really wanted to become an official through the imperial examinations, it was as rare as a fish crossing a river, and it was as difficult as climbing to heaven!
Nie Yu closed the unfinished draft of the education reform charter and picked up a memorial he had previously set aside.

This is a memorial submitted by Gu Jing, the Minister of Rites. The content is very simple: scholars from Hunan and Hubei request the Prince of Han's Palace to hold an imperial examination to select officials!
The scholars from Hunan mentioned here do not refer to all scholars from Hunan, but only a portion of them, mainly concentrated in Yuezhou and Changsha prefectures.

Most of them were occupied by the Han army relatively early, but they did not immediately join the Han army. Perhaps they felt that the Han army's influence was short-lived, or perhaps they felt that the Han army's offer was too low, requiring them to start as civil officials, which was simply an insult to their scholarly status!
Things are different now. Nie Yu has proclaimed himself King of Han, and the Han army has truly become a force to be reckoned with, even showing some promise of achieving great things.

There are also rumors that the King of Han received the Imperial Seal of the Ming Dynasty from an immortal in his dream, and that the King of Han is the true dragon who has received the Mandate of Heaven.

Many scholars who heard the news couldn't sit still any longer. They were too ashamed to start as low-level clerks, and besides, it was already too late to do so now.

The Han army is still short of manpower, but the infighting among the civil officials is almost insane. These scholars, who are powerless, do not believe that they can outcompete those veteran civil officials, so they set their sights on the imperial examination.

When the King of Han was still a Grand General, his position was not legitimate, and holding civil service examinations would only make him a laughing stock. But now that the King of Han is the Great King, holding civil service examinations is in line with the will of Heaven and the people.

To ensure success, these scholars even jointly wrote a petition from the people, which they had the local governments of Yuezhou and Changsha present to the King of Han.

The petition was then intercepted, by a joint effort of local officials from the two prefectures. The prefects of Changsha and Yuezhou knew about it but tacitly approved it.

In the end, it was the guy who spearheaded the petition among the scholars who realized something was wrong. Instead of causing trouble at the government office, he went alone to Jingzhou and resubmitted the petition to the Prince of Han's residence.

Nie Yu flipped through the memorials from the Ministry of Rites and was surprised to find that local officials and local scholars had such a big conflict.

Ultimately, it was all caused by the imperial examination system. Even Gu Jing, in his memorial to the throne, although not defending it, also felt that it was too early to start the imperial examination system now.

Although everyone was a scholar who had passed the imperial examinations, most of the Han army officials, including Gu Jing, were only Xiucai (a lower-level scholar) or Tongsheng (a lower-level scholar), with the highest being Juren (a higher-level scholar), and their numbers were very small.

Gu Jing, the Minister of Rites, was just a scholar who passed the imperial examinations. He rose to the position of Minister of Rites by simply working his way up in the countryside and dividing up land.

Now, the hundreds of scholars from the two prefectures are trying to persuade the King of Han to hold an imperial examination and obtain land with just a few words, so that they can climb to the top and rise above them in one step.

Why?
Nie Yu thought for a moment, then picked up his pen and wrote an instruction: "It is too early to hold the imperial examinations. We should wait until Huguang is unified before holding the imperial examinations!"

After writing this sentence, he added: "Li Chen, the prefect of Yuezhou, and Xie Yanchen, the prefect of Changsha, concealed the petitions of scholars and failed to report them. They shall each be fined three months' salary and shall not obstruct the channels of communication again."

(End of this chapter)