Chapter 54 Society
Chapter 54 Society
When Xu Qing heard the words "timely rain", he couldn't help but twitch his face.
It's unlucky.
He was silent for a while, which made Yan Shan feel uneasy. He didn't know what he said was wrong. Then Xu Qing slowly said, "Brother Yan, I was just thinking about the article and just came back to my senses. Just tell me, what do you want me to help you with?"
Yan Shan breathed a sigh of relief. It turned out that Xu Xuqing was distracted, which scared him.
I have to say, after not seeing Xu Qing for a while, he has grown a lot taller, and his body is visibly "tougher" than when he took the college entrance examination.
It is not uncommon for young people to develop suddenly and rapidly. Although Yan Shan was surprised, he did not dwell on it.
He slowly told the purpose of his visit.
It turned out that the imperial court selected scholars based on the eight-legged essay. In order to improve their writing skills and seek fame, scholars sought out teachers and friends and formed societies.
This kind of custom was particularly common in economically developed Zhili prefectures such as Southern Zhili.
Everyone knows that club activities require funding.
Especially at poetry and literary gatherings, a famous courtesan would always be invited to liven up the occasion.
Therefore, at some literary gatherings, a certain scholar would write poems and articles to attract the attention of a beautiful woman, and spend a night of romance with her. It seemed that he didn't spend any money.
In fact, the club organizing the event had already given it before people came to the literary meeting.
This is called appearance fee!
Of course, if the society is well-known and there are real celebrities among the scholars participating in the literary gathering, some courtesans who want to raise their status may also take the initiative to waive their appearance fees.
Recently, Yan Shan joined a community in Qingshui County.
This was a study society composed of a group of poor local scholars, funded by a chicken farm.
The students in the prefectural and county schools were divided into three categories: students on government stipends, additional students, and attached students.
Students on government stipends were students with excellent academic performance in prefectural and county schools, who were entitled to public food and local financial subsidies. Students on government stipends were students with academic performance second only to those on government stipends, but who received no financial subsidies.
A student who has just passed the academy examination is called a dependent student, but has not yet taken the examination at the prefectural or county school.
Therefore, even though Xu Qing is a junior high school student, he is now considered a parasite.
After that, only those with excellent results in the provincial school examination could become students on government stipend and eat public grain.
In addition, if a scholar wants to take part in the provincial examination, he generally needs to pass the examination presided over by the education commissioner and obtain a passing score before he can take part in the provincial examination.
In addition, there are other ways to take make-up exams, such as recording the subjects and recording the remaining subjects. If you are qualified, you can also participate in the provincial examination.
In fact, to put it bluntly, this system, strictly speaking, is a way for the Education Commissioner to experience authority. At the same time, it also generates income for the Education Commissioner's office through these examinations. In fact, as long as you are willing to spend money, you can qualify for the provincial examination.
Talented scholars can also obtain the qualification by passing the examination.
At the same time, the number of people taking part in the provincial examinations can be limited to avoid overcrowding and to reduce the workload of the chief examiner, co-examiners and others.
The academy that Yan Shan joined was on the verge of disbanding because the scholar who provided the funding had a chicken farm at home that had been doing poorly recently and had stopped funding for activities.
In fact, this matter was also Xu Qing's fault. Because the chicken farm jointly owned by Xu Qing and Dong Dahai now basically occupies more than half of the market in Qingshui County, with low prices and fast sales.
At the same time, the chicken farm also took the initiative to deliver chickens to the county school and the prefectural school, and had a good reputation among scholars. Therefore, the original chicken farms had to follow suit and lower their prices even further in order to sell them.
What's even more hateful is that Xu Qing's chicken farm actually paid the chicken farmers, which naturally made the original chicken farm more demoralized! Yan Shan was a young man who joined the academy for the first time and was very popular.
As a result, the club was disbanded after only a few days of enjoyment. You can imagine how huge the gap was.
The remaining scholars knew that he was a member of the Yan family and thought that Yan Shan must be very rich, so they asked him to take over. But Yan Shan was only a member of the Yan family, and now he was just a scholar. The family could help him study, but there was no funding for him to set up a club.
Yan Shan is now being pushed into a difficult position. If he fails to get funding, he will definitely be ridiculed in the future and won't be able to hold his head up in the county.
In this era, a bad reputation for a scholar is somewhat fatal. If it gets to the ears of the Inspector General, he might be punished, which would be disastrous.
Yan Shan studied in another place before and didn’t have many friends locally. After much thought, the only person who could help him was Xu Qing.
So I had to ask for help at their door.
Hearing this, Xu Qing thought about it and felt that it might be a good idea to set up a club.
After all, the influence of scholarly opinion is visible to the naked eye.
If hundreds or thousands of scholars could be gathered together for a parade, even the governor would be nervous.
In this regard, the pinnacle of the ancient dynasties should be the Donglin Party in the late Ming Dynasty. During its peak period, the party was spread all over the country and could gain widespread support.
"As the ancients said, if one studies alone without friends, one will be ignorant and uninformed. Since you guys are in trouble, I will definitely help you. But I have one condition."
"Brother Xu, just give me your orders."
"I want to restructure this club. Mainly because from what Brother Yan described, it seems that everyone doesn't know why they join the club. They just exchange poems and eat and drink, but there is no clear purpose."
"A clear purpose?"
At this time, let alone social groups, even the political parties in the court rarely had clear purposes.
If we have to say there is a clear purpose, then the goal of the scholars and officials in the court is to fill the court with righteous people.
As for what is meant by "the court is filled with upright officials", that of course only counts if they themselves have come to power. If they have not, it must be that the high positions in the court are occupied by treacherous officials!
Xu Qing: "We are all scholars with a certain status, but we are not officials and cannot serve the country. So we formed a society with the purpose of studying eight-part essays together and applying them to the world as soon as possible."
Yan Shan: "Yes, yes, we all think so. Brother Xu's writing skills are second to none in Jiangning Prefecture. With your guidance, we will definitely make rapid progress."
Xu Qing smiled and said, "Brother Yan, you are too kind. I think we should focus on this, exchange knowledge and improve our character, instead of just talking nonsense. We should also understand people's livelihood on a daily basis to prepare for the future."
Yan Shan felt that Xu Qing's words immediately raised the level of the club. He praised: "Brother Xu's words are like clearing away the fog. Our club was originally called the Wenji Club, which refers to the hard work of getting up and dancing when hearing the cock crow. Now it seems that the name is not very suitable. Brother Xu, why don't you give our club another name."
Xu Qing pondered for a moment: "Eight-part essays, if traced back to their origins, come from ancient learning. We should focus on reviving ancient learning, and when we become officials in the future, we should take it as our responsibility to save the world and the people. Why not call it 'Fushe'?"
Yan Shan: "This is what the scholars of the world say."
He keenly realized that this society, through the development of Xu Qing, might really create a huge momentum in the future.
As the second-in-command, I might even go down in history with my name.
Hard work in life is important, but choices are also important!
I have a serious cold. I drank a little water today. Please give me a day to rest. I am really sorry.
(End of this chapter)