670 [In the name of filial piety, foot binding is prohibited]
"The new Jinshi was knocked unconscious by the fruit?" Zhao Han couldn't help laughing.
Song Yingxing said: "It's not that he was knocked unconscious by the fruit, but that he fell off his horse due to fright and fell to the ground."
Zhao Han asked: "Is it okay?"
Song Yingxing said: "Nothing has happened.
After the imperial examination was reinstated, the minds of scholars were settled. Even though many of them were not qualified to take the examination, they could educate their children. The gentry, noble families, and wealthy merchants all spent crazy money to cultivate their offspring.·
People across the country have also adapted to the new education system and official selection methods.
In their thinking, primary schools are the former social studies, primary school graduates correspond to children, middle schools are the former county schools, middle school graduates correspond to scholars. Universities are government schools and Imperial College, and university graduates correspond to juren.
The selection of officials is the same as before, except that they start from the eighth or ninth grade.
When selecting and appointing officials, they must be from Tongsheng or Juren, and they must take a public examination before they can take up the post. Civil and professional officials, regardless of their superiority, can be promoted upwards, and can even be promoted to officials.
It may seem like a small change, but it is actually very important.
The decline in the official status of Jinshi outside the country can make officials more capable of governing. The diplomas and examination requirements for officials have broken the control of local officials by the family of small officials, making it easier for the chief officials to govern, and also strengthened the court's control over local affairs.
control,
The price is increased administrative costs!
Many officials in the Ming Dynasty were not paid by the government. They relied on corruption, bending the law, and exploiting the people to make a living. Now they all need to be paid by the government, which adds to the salary expenses of countless civil servants.
In addition, each county has many primary schools, and grassroots education expenditures are also very large. Some poor counties have complained to their superiors about their poverty.
Li Banghua said: "An extra 10% of taxes at the county level should be reserved for local areas. Especially in poor and mountainous counties where business is not prosperous, rural primary schools and county and town officials have already been in arrears with their salaries. In some places, they have already
I have been in arrears for several years and only get three to five solid monthly salary payments every year. In this case,
It was reported by the anti-corruption inspector, and local governments at all levels did not report it to their superiors."
Zhao Han also read the report of the anti-corruption inspector and agreed: "Then leave an extra 10% of taxes for the local government."
Zhao Han took out another secret report, which was sent by Liaodong Xizuo. It was sent directly to the emperor, bypassing the court: "Dor Shen and Dai Shan are dead,"
Pang Chunlai opened his eyes suddenly: "Internal strife?
Zhao Han said with a smile: "Last winter, Daishan and Dorgon died of illness one after another. At the time when the fight between the puppet Queen Mother of the Qing Dynasty and Daishan was at its most intense, these two people suddenly died of illness, which made Man Dahai panic and lead his troops to flee to Hun.
River City became independent and independent. Of course, Mandahai did not openly rebel. He only listened to the puppet Qing court and did not listen to the propaganda. "
The territory actually controlled by the Manchu Qing Dynasty was already very small, and now it is divided into two. It is simply an explosion after the fall.
Pang Chunlai said: "Your Majesty, you can use troops in the Northeast."
Zhao Han said: "Let all the ministries in Liaoning prepare to go out as soon as the rainy season is over."
It is still March. It will take time to send orders to Liaoning, and it will also take time to transport military rations to Liaoning. Half a year is just right to prepare for the expedition.
Pang Chunlai said again: "When the Tatars are destroyed, please allow your majesty to allow the old minister to serve."
Zhao Han thought for a while, nodded and said: "When the time comes, I will send someone to escort the teacher back to his hometown."
Pang Chunlai has been in poor health for the past two years and really wants to go back to Liaodong to enjoy his old age. Although Liaodong is bitterly cold and not a place for retirement, he has been away from his hometown for many years and dreams of falling leaves returning to his roots.
Li Banghua then said: "Your Majesty, I am old and frail. After killing my son, I also requested to be appointed as an official and return to my hometown."
"Mr. Li is getting stronger and stronger, so please continue to work hard." Zhao Han expressed his wish to stay.
"Thank you for your consideration, Your Majesty." Li Banghua planned to apply three times and resign three times.
Firstly, he is indeed old, he is 76 years old this year. Secondly, he knows the emperor's thoughts. Pang Chunlai stayed to check and balance the Jiangxi officials. When Pang Chunlai left, it would be best for him, Li Banghua, to follow him.
…
A few days after the Qionglin Banquet, the examination for Shujishi began. From the 197 Jinshi in the second, third, and third grades, 15 people were selected. They first went to the cabinet to observe the government and familiarize themselves with the situation, and then became the lower-level Zhongshu Sheren, that is,
Ordinary clerical staff of the Cabinet.
From now on, all the people in Zhongshushe will be the number one scholar, the second person, the third most beautiful scholar, and the most successful scholar. Let them familiarize themselves with national affairs while working in a high-level position, and then be sent to other places to serve as deputy county-level officials, and then be promoted back to the central court step by step.
This is very different from the Ming Dynasty. The top scholars of the Ming Dynasty were thrown directly into the Hanlin Academy. The top three were able to compile books, read history, assist the cabinet or make government affairs, and give lectures to the emperor and princes.
And so on, and then wait for seniority promotion, and use Zhan Shifu as a springboard to be promoted to minister, minister, cabinet minister. The most powerful Shujishi of the Ming Dynasty are academic officials, and the second is seniority in the Hanlin Academy.
After entering the Sixth Ministry, the last step was to be sent to another place to serve as a magistrate.
Both Zhang and Zhang Juzheng were disgusted with this phenomenon. Among them, Zhang was particularly stubborn and once sent most of the common people of a certain class to local officials.
Then he offended a lot of people. As a result, Zhang became a villain in all kinds of ways, and even became a villain in "Those Things in the Ming Dynasty".
The Shujishi assessment is over, and the path of the new scholars has basically been finalized.
In order to express themselves, the first thing they did was to explain their affairs to the emperor and put forward their own ideas on national policies.
"This Cui Wenxiu is interesting," Zhao Han said with a smile. "A North Korean official insisted that North Korea has been the territory of China since ancient times, and asked me to take back the three roads south of the Yalu River first, saying that it was the homeland of the Yuan Dynasty. Haha, that's true.
Very loyal."
Li Xiangjun said: "The scholars of Fanbang should be more radical.
Zhao Han picked up another memorial and after reading only a few paragraphs, he frowned and asked: "Are many women's feet bound among the people?
Li Xiangjun replied: "When I was young, it was rare. I only heard that there were noble girls in my hometown who had their feet bound. Later, it gradually became more common, especially when they were sold into brothels. Many girls in brothels had their feet bound. When I was sold by my clan, it was already passed.
Even though I am old enough for foot binding, my mother still forces me to bind my feet.”
Zhao Han looked down and said, "I can't tell."
Li Xiangjun said: "It's not too hard."
"Take off your shoes and take a look." Zhao Hanyan was curious.
Li Xiangjun blushed and said, "Are you here?"
"Yes." Zhao Han nodded.
The female officials and maids next to them all hid their heads and snickered. Ding Shijing, who was in charge of daily living, quickly said,
Zhao Han asked the palace maid to bring a stool, and Li Xiangjun sat down and took off her shoes and socks.
Zhao Han stretched out his hand to pinch her foot, raised his little foot and took a closer look. The big toe was completely normal, while the other four toes looked slightly smaller and somewhat buckled in. Overall, it was not considered a deformity, and the base was even slightly smaller.
Some strange beauty,
Zhao Han asked: "Is today's foot binding the kind that hurts the muscles and bones?"
Li Xiangjun's face was already flushed with embarrassment, and her chest was tense. She replied: "I have indeed heard that some people make young girls bind their feet more intensely for the three-inch golden lotus. In severe cases, the bones will be sprained, or even dislocated and then allowed to grow abnormally.
."
Is this common?" Zhao Han asked.
Li Xiangjun shook his head: "It doesn't seem like much.
Zhao Han picked up the memorial and sighed: "Now there are more and more."
This memorial, written by Mao Lei, a Jinshi from Zhejiang Province, denounced the increasingly popular and increasingly popular phenomenon of foot-binding, and requested the emperor to order a nationwide ban on women's foot-binding.
The formation and spread of footbinding has nothing to do with Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism or the Manchu rule.
Zhu Xi never talked about foot-binding, but his disciple Che Ruoshui denounced the phenomenon of foot-binding among women, and said that foot-binding originated in the Han and Tang Dynasties is pure nonsense.
After the Manchus entered the customs, they also banned footbinding many times. As a result, the ban became more and more common, and finally it had to be left alone. By the late Qing Dynasty, even Manchu women began to learn footbinding.
The phenomenon of footbinding can be viewed through the perspective of Western missionaries.
Rimodus in the late Ming Dynasty was not surprised by foot binding. Perhaps foot binding in the late Ming Dynasty was not so deformed and was still within the acceptable range.
During the Qianlong period, when the British envoy Macartney visited China, the British man seemed very shocked. After investigation and inquiry, he learned that foot binding was a fashion among upper-class women, and very few lower-class women had their feet bound for the convenience of working.
, and it is similar in the northern and southern provinces, but the closer you are to Beijing, the more ordinary women have foot binding, which has become a behavior that pursues status and fashion.
From Macartney's records, two points can be inferred: First, footbinding had not completely spread to the middle and lower classes during the Qianlong period; second, at least since the Qianlong period, footbinding had spread to middle- and lower-class women, and
It is a symbol that the family has entered the upper class.
Only a few decades after Macartney's visit to China, the phenomenon of footbinding in the late Qing Dynasty had become widespread, and even the daughters of rural landlords had small feet.
In other words, it only took a few decades for foot-binding to be popularized from top to bottom. Don’t talk about foot-binding being anti-Qing Dynasty. There may be such factors in the beginning, but the great development of foot-binding was in the middle and late Qing Dynasty.
It absolutely has nothing to do with the anti-Qing movement.
Zhao Han carefully read the memorial and found that the specific situation was not clearly stated, so he asked Mao to come for an audience.
"Your Majesty, Mao Fan, pay homage to your Majesty!" Mao Fan bowed his hands and was very excited. Unexpectedly, he was summoned for requesting a ban on foot binding.
Zhao Han asked: "Are you from Zhejiang?
Mao Fan replied: "Your Majesty, I am a native of Jiashan County, Jiaxing Prefecture. I graduated from Hangzhou University and my current ranking is sixteenth among the top three."
Zhao Han suddenly smiled. He liked the scholars cultivated by the new education: "There are many women with bound feet in Jiashan?
Mao Fan replied carefully: "Jiashan County is located between Jiaxing Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture, and the county seat is located on the edge of the canal. After Shanghai opened the sea and built a port, countless goods from northern Zhejiang had to be transported to Shanghai through Jiashan, so the business increased.
There will be prosperity, and many people will become rich due to business. Those who are rich will
Then he imitated the gentry and bound their daughters' feet, and followed this as a high-class tutor, "
Well, there will be trouble if you have too much money.
Mao Fan continued: "I don't know where it came from. The binding of feet became tighter and tighter. These wealthy businessmen were very concerned about face and thought that the smaller they bound their daughters, the more authentic they would be, so they all learned the new foot-binding method."
Mother-in-law binding has also appeared in the county. Rich families paid a lot of money to bind their daughters' feet. I once saw with my own eyes that a young sister of a classmate had her foot bones completely dislocated and her feet were red, swollen and pus-filled. Instead, her father used it to
Show off his strict upbringing and elegant family background."
"How abominable!" Zhao Han said angrily.
Mao Fan said: "It is an elegant thing to bind feet, w; everyone loves the little feet of golden lotus, but it can hurt the bones and muscles, not only ruin the scenery, it is simply disgusting!"
The mainstream foot-binding methods in the Ming Dynasty were divided into two schools, the North and the South.
In northern foot binding, you don't even need to bend the toes, they just need to be wrapped more slenderly. In southern foot binding, you need to snap the four toes inward, which is slightly deformed, but still does not damage the body.
The wrapping method that hurt muscles and bones began in the late Ming Dynasty and spread widely in the mid-Qing Dynasty.
Zhao Han asked: "What reasons do you think should be used to ban women's foot binding?"
Mao Fan said: "It will harm Tianhe."
Zhao Han shook his head: "Have you not read the "Book of Filial Piety"? The hair and skin of the body are received by parents and dare not be damaged. The beginning of filial piety is the fragrance of the king!"
"I'm here," Li Xiangjun stepped forward.
Zhao Han said: "Any woman who is ordered to bind her feet to the point of damaging her body will be regarded as an unfilial daughter. She will not be allowed to study, be an official, or marry an official! Her husband will not be able to obtain a franchise license, and it will be taken away immediately upon discovery!"
Zhao Han likes to use magic to defeat magic. He uses Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism very smoothly, and he also uses Confucian classics very smoothly.
The "Book of Filial Piety" says so, of course it is an unfilial daughter who binds her feet, even if her parents allow it.
Nowadays, foot binding is still limited to wealthy families. Once a girl with bound feet is not allowed to study, work as an official, marry an official, or even marry a businessman with a franchise, do you think those bastard fathers still dare to bind their daughters' feet?
Moreover, if they are labeled as unfilial women, it will be difficult for them to get married.
As for the women who have had their feet bound and become disabled, they have no choice but to live with them. Fortunately, there are only a few of them at this time.