Top Scholar

Chapter 216 Getting what you want

As the last 'ㄍㄨㄛˊ' sound faded, Prefect Jia clapped his hands and laughed heartily, saying to Military Commissioner Huang, "In all my years as an official, I have never seen such a magnificent sight! Two thousand children reciting the phonetic symbols in unison, it's like a thousand birds singing in spring—a truly spectacular sight!"

Huang Bingxian, his eyes gleaming, looked at the still-childish faces below the stage and nodded, sighing, "With such a wonderful method, how can we worry about the lack of education? The scene of 'the sound of scriptures being recited in the streets and all manners being observed in the villages' will no longer be just our fantasy."

"Haha, yes." Upon hearing the praise from his two superiors, Magistrate Lu's bones melted instantly, and he smiled broadly, saying, "This humble official often fantasizes about the scene that the Military Commissioner described."

"Magistrate Lu has done immeasurable good deeds," Huang Bingxian nodded in praise.

Next, Magistrate Lu ordered someone to demonstrate 'dialect pronunciation translation'—

Several children first pronounced the three characters 'wind, rain, and flower' in Sichuan dialect, Cantonese dialect, and Wu dialect, respectively, naturally resulting in different pronunciations.

Then, the instructor wrote the three Mandarin phonetic symbols 'ㄈㄥ、ㄩˇ、ㄏㄨㄚ' on a cardboard and led the children in pronouncing them in standard Mandarin. Several children followed suit and pronounced the words, which naturally corrected their intonation and they all switched to Mandarin pronunciation.

Ordinary people might not feel anything, but officials like Huang Bingxian and Jia Zhizhou, who had served in many places, were all delighted and immediately understood what Magistrate Lu meant.

"Old Yin's method is brilliant! Our Great Ming Dynasty has a vast territory, with all sorts of accents from the south and north. For us officials serving in other places, speaking to the people under our jurisdiction is like talking to a brick wall," exclaimed Prefect Jia.
"The common people were illiterate and could only rely on clerks to relay messages and communicate with the local gentry. In the end, many of them were sidelined."

"Let alone the differences between the North and South, even within the Jiangnan region (Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong), accents can vary drastically within short distances. This naturally divides the people into small, isolated communities, preventing them from communicating with the outside world. Everyone says imperial power doesn't extend to the county level, but that simply doesn't exist," Huang Bingxian echoed, deeply agreeing.

"When Qin Shi Huang standardized the width of carts and the written language, he solved some problems, but not all of them. This is why Emperor Taizu (Qin Shi Huang) strongly promoted the Hongwu Zhengyun."

"But the Hongwu Zhengyun is still too difficult, and it is too strenuous for ordinary people to learn. Your set of phonetic symbols for the Hongwu Zhengyun can greatly reduce the difficulty of learning, which is truly a great achievement!"

Huang Bingxian stroked his beard and praised, "In the past, people from different places could not understand each other's language as if it were a foreign book. Now, they can communicate by these symbols. This is truly a convenient and effective method for the people!"

~~
Finally, Magistrate Lu invited the two officials and the distinguished guests to move to the Minglun Hall, where Su Lu gave them a lesson on phonetic symbols.

With Su Lu's teaching skills and the two adults' ability to learn, Huang Bingxian and Prefect Jia grasped the basic principles of phonetic symbols in just half an hour, and even learned basic pronunciation.

In the final classroom assessment, Su Lu pasted a passage of text with only the phonetic symbols on, intending to ask a 'student' to try to read it aloud.

Originally, this segment was supposed to be done by a shill, but Huang Bingxian was so enthusiastic that he insisted on trying it himself.

Seeing this, Prefect Jia had no choice but to risk his life to accompany him...

Magistrate Lu and his entourage immediately broke out in a cold sweat. If the two officials were to embarrass themselves, all their previous efforts would be in vain.

Su Lu shrugged and said, "Huang Bingxian just transferred them one by one. What can I do?"
As the two adults consulted the phonetic symbols and stumbled through the text, Su Lu then uncovered the text, and everyone saw that it was indeed what the two adults had read.

"Excellent! Excellent!" Thunderous applause erupted, and Magistrate Lu breathed a long sigh of relief. Thank goodness! He quickly offered flattery: "You two are truly amazing! You've learned it so quickly!"

“This is no challenge for you two gentlemen!” County Magistrate Cao and the others quickly echoed.

"Ah, it's because these phonetic symbols are simple, and of course, Hongzhi taught them well too," Prefect Jia said modestly.

"Indeed, Hongzhi's phonetic symbols are easy to learn, easy to remember, and easy to use," Huang Bingxian stroked his beard and praised.
"With these three symbols, even an illiterate person can read primers or government notices."

“What the military magistrate said is absolutely right. If children use it, they can open the book in a month or so. If old farmers use it, they can read the proclamations themselves,” Magistrate Lu hurriedly agreed.

"Excellent!" The two officials praised it highly, completely captivated by the phonetic symbols.

"This concludes the morning's report. Please, Your Excellencies and Mr. Zhu, move to the back hall to rest for a while. In half an hour, we will go up to the city gate tower to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival with the people." Magistrate Lu then invited the two officials inside to be served tea.

"Okay." The two adults were in a good mood and let him make the arrangements.

~~
After everyone was seated in the inner hall, servants served fragrant tea and snacks.

Prefect Jia took a sip of tea to moisten his throat and asked with a smile, "Sir, your trip wasn't in vain, was it?"

"No." Huang Bingxian shook his head and said, "When my brother recommended Hongzhi's method to me, to be honest, I didn't take it seriously. I always felt that even if his ideas were ingenious, they were not very useful at such a young age."

As he spoke, he put down his teacup and smiled at Su Lu, who was sitting at the end of the table:

"I apologize to you. It is indeed true that 'talent does not need to be old, while a hundred years is wasted without ambition.'"

"You flatter me, sir." Su Lu quickly stood up and said respectfully, "These phonetic symbols are by no means the work of this junior alone. You are unaware of the details, so your thinking is perfectly reasonable."

"Oh?" Huang Bingxian asked with interest, "Then whose contribution is it?" "My lord, please allow me to explain from the beginning... This phonetic symbol originated from when I was still learning to write and wrote too slowly. In order to keep up with the teacher's speed, I had no choice but to use some symbols to simplify the recording." Su Lu then said loudly:
"Later, my teacher, Mr. Zhang Yanqiu, saw this and encouraged and helped me to completely perfect the phonetic symbols... Without his guidance, it would have been impossible for me to achieve such perfection with my current level of expertise."

In any case, he couldn't do without Mr. Zhang...

After a pause, Su Lu continued, "Later, when the magistrate visited Taiping Academy, it was Mr. Zhang who presented this phonetic notation scheme to him."

"Oh, is that really so?" Prefect Jia looked at Magistrate Lu.

“It was indeed that Mr. Zhang who presented the phonetic notation scheme to me on behalf of Hongzhi.” Magistrate Lu nodded and said, “At the time, he did not mention his own contribution at all, only saying that it was done by Hongzhi.”

He said with some emotion, "Later, when I summoned Hongzhi, he refused to show up. But Hongzhi is a grateful and sentimental boy. Just like today, he did not take credit for himself and reported Mr. Zhang's contributions in detail."

"Well done! Like teacher, like student. Hongzhi has met a good teacher. Mr. Zhang has taught a good student!" Huang Bingxian couldn't help but praise, and his gaze towards Su Lu softened considerably.

"Then why didn't you call Mr. Zhang along?" Magistrate Jia asked.

“That man is too stubborn. He doesn’t want to take credit for the students’ work, so he refuses to show his face again.” Magistrate Lu said with a wry smile, “I sent people to visit him three times to invite him to the county, but I was turned away each time. He sent someone to tell me… if you really want to thank him, please don’t bother him anymore. He just wants to teach and educate people in peace.”

"Truly a model teacher, of noble character and integrity!" Huang Bingxian praised again, and Prefect Jia echoed:
“Everyone has their own ambitions. If he doesn’t want to come out, we won’t force him, but we can commend him.”

He then instructed his advisor, "When you get back, have the prefecture send him a plaque, reward him with a hundred taels of silver, and record it in the prefectural annals."

"Yes, sir." The staff member indicated that he had made a note of it.

"The same applies to the military commissioner," Huang Bingxian instructed his entourage.

Su Lu quickly expressed his gratitude on behalf of Mr. Zhang, and felt much better afterward.

"Tell me about anyone else who contributed," Magistrate Jia said with a smile.

"Of course, it is mainly thanks to Your Excellency's discerning eye and the efforts of all the officials and teachers in the county to promote this that we have achieved what we have today. Therefore, I have only made a start and dare not take credit for it!" Su Lu hurriedly cupped his hands and said.

These words put Magistrate Lu, Assistant Magistrate Cao, and others in high spirits, and they hurriedly said, "Hongzhi, you flatter us. Anyone can do our job, but starting from scratch is always the most important step."

"Hehe, under Magistrate Lu's guidance, Hejiang County has become quite humble and courteous, showing signs of the virtues of ancient benevolent people." Magistrate Jia was very satisfied. Any leader would be in a terrible predicament if they saw their subordinates vying for credit.

“But Hongzhi overlooked a very important point: after only listening to the report, the old magistrate overruled the objections and allocated two thousand taels of silver to the county. Otherwise, with the county’s tight budget, how could we have built a hundred community schools all at once and promoted the phonetic symbols so widely?!” Magistrate Lu added solemnly.

"Yes, yes!" the crowd responded enthusiastically.

"Yes, of course." Prefect Jia was even more satisfied now, grinning from ear to ear. "It's a major matter of educating the people, and the prefecture will definitely give it its full support. Besides, Old Yin's judgment is certainly not wrong."

"It turns out that you two have excellent judgment." Even a strict person like Huang Bingxian couldn't help but chime in.

"Hahaha!" The adults' laughter was particularly loud.

~~
After the official mutual flattery ended, Huang Bingxian said to Lu Zhaoye, "Lord Lu, I'd like to make a request. I'd like to borrow ten of your phonetic instructors so that I can teach my soldiers to read."

"Of course, of course." Lu Zhaoye was more than happy to agree. "I will select twenty outstanding candidates and send them to the military commissioner for selection."

"How about we also offer twenty of them to the prefecture?" Prefect Jia also laughed and said, "Didn't we agree that after the pilot program in Hejiang County is successful, it will be implemented throughout the prefecture?"

"Yes," Lu Zhaoye replied immediately. "Back then, my father fully supported the county, and now the county will definitely fully support my father."

"Excellent! Old Yin is wise and considerate of the big picture!" Prefect Jia gave a thumbs up and said, "The great prosperity of education and culture in this prefecture is just around the corner!"

As he spoke, he exchanged a glance with Huang Bingxian and then uttered the promise that Lu Zhaoye had longed for:
"Once I return to Benzhou, I will report to the Provincial Administration Commission and request commendation for Old Yin!"

“Indeed, Magistrate Lu is dedicated and hardworking, and has made great contributions. He previously helped suppress bandits, and this time he has demonstrated his virtue in educating and guiding people. I will report this to the Censor and ask him to reward you properly!” Huang Bingxian said in a deep voice.

"Haha, with Huang Bingxian saying so, Lao Yin's promotion is just around the corner!" Prefect Jia laughed.

"This humble official thanks Your Excellency, sir," Magistrate Lu suddenly knelt down, kowtowed, and said in a tearful voice, "Thank you so much, Military Commissioner..."

(End of this chapter)