Chapter 61 Ming Dynasty's distinctive social system
Chapter 61 Ming Dynasty's distinctive social system
The idea of renovating the palace's water system came to Zhu Zaigui when he first bathed in the palace's bathroom.
It's a pity that the palace was in financial distress at the time, and Zhu Zaigui was unfamiliar with the place. Although he managed to temporarily stabilize the base with his loud performance at the beginning, he was still rather insecure inside.
Having been Prince Yu for several months now, Zhu Zaigui has become accustomed to the feeling of being superior, and also to the feeling of ordering people around and giving them orders.
Therefore, taking advantage of the palace's current financially abundant conditions, Zhu Zaigui decided to renovate the palace's water supply system.
The current palace bathroom system should be developed according to some standards of modern life in later generations.
The first thing Zhu Zaigui wanted to renovate was the interior design of the palace bathroom.
The original bathroom in the palace looked large and luxurious, but Zhu Zaigui thought its facilities were too backward.
So in Zhu Zaigui's idea, the new bathroom in the palace should at least have a decent dry and wet separation design.
Also, there should at least be a decent toilet and washbasin in the bathroom.
These may be unprecedented in the Ming Dynasty, but for Zhu Zaigui these are the most basic standards.
Therefore, Zhu Zaigui's plan to renovate the bathroom was not a small project that could be completed in three to five days.
The related drainage and water supply systems must also have a certain sense of design.
Although it may not be able to enjoy the enjoyment of 24-hour hot water supply.
But at least when you need a hot water bath, you can get it ready within a quarter of an hour.
After all, the strength of the royal palace still allows this condition.
"Your Majesty, do you think this design is okay?"
Zhang Tianci, a designer from the Ministry of Industry, drew the bathroom plan described by Zhu Zaigui.
Zhu Zaiqi took a look and pointed to a certain position on the drawing and said, "Add a vent here. I will install an exhaust fan here in the future."
Zhang Tianci looked at Zhu Zaigui in confusion. What is an exhaust fan?
In the past two days, Zhang Tianci has heard a lot of strange new terms while drawing blueprints in Prince Yu's Mansion.
For example, Zhu Zaigui could name some terms and things that he had never had any impression of before, such as shower head, toilet, etc.
And everything is still vague.
Fortunately, these things were made by other craftsmen and Zhang Tianci was only responsible for drawing the drawings, otherwise Zhang Tianci would not know what to do.
After the final rendering came out, Zhang Tianci looked at the design drawing of the new bathroom in the palace with great surprise. He never thought that a small bathroom could be designed with so many ideas.
Not only is there a rain shower area that he can't understand, but there is also a bathing area that he can understand.
Of course, these are not the things that confuse Zhang Tianci the most.
What puzzled Zhang Tianci the most was the existence of a cold water pool and a sauna room.
This cold water pool is easy to understand. It is nothing more than a bathing pool with cold water.
But what the hell is a sauna?
And that’s not all. In this bathroom, Prince Yu even wanted to install a “ground dragon”, which is the floor heating system familiar to later generations.
However, the floor heating of this era is different from that of later generations. The energy required for the "ground dragon" heating of this era is supplied by the heat from burning the kang. This consumption may be a luxury for ordinary people, but for the rich and powerful royal palaces, it is just a standard enjoyment.
However, this kind of enjoyment is usually concentrated in the backyard of the palace and the bedroom where the prince lives, and is rarely available in other places.
But this time Zhu Zaigui installed a floor heating in the bathroom, which made Zhang Tianci think in his heart that Prince Yu might be a mediocre and idle ruler who only knew how to enjoy himself.
However, Zhang Tianci was not an official who had passed the imperial examination in the Ministry of Works. He was just a technical officer in the Ministry of Works. So even if he thought in his heart that Zhu Zaigui was a prince who was addicted to enjoyment, it was just a thought.
Moreover, the bathroom that Zhu Zaigui wanted to design was at most novel. Compared with other designs he had made for those nobles and high-ranking officials before, Zhu Zaigui's designs were still very simple and economical, and the entire project could be completed with less than 100 taels of silver.
He is not like some nobles and high-ranking officials who have to use the best of everything, so that the materials alone may cost thousands of taels, not to mention some luxurious items such as calligraphy and paintings, rare stones, etc. in the room for the sake of pretentiousness.
So it is untenable to say that Prince Yu’s new bathroom is luxurious.
Prince Yu’s new bathroom is at most novel in design and avant-garde in style, with a focus on enjoyment.
Finally, with Zhu Zaigui's approval, Zhang Tianci finalized the draft.
Zhu Zaiqi looked at the finalized drawings by Zhang Tianci and praised him, "Master Zhang is truly a genius. Do you want to follow me in the future? My Shunyi Industrial Park will continue to expand. If you are willing, I will hire you as the chief designer of the industrial park. How about ten taels of silver a month?"
Zhu Zaigui became interested in Zhang Tianci, a little-known small-time official in the Ministry of Works. The reason why Zhu Zaigui dared to poach him was that he was just a hereditary technical official, not a formal official who came through the imperial examination system.
There won't be any problem if we dig deeper into this kind of official, and no one will say nonsense like Prince Yu has private relations with foreign officials.
After all, this kind of official has no political value or political influence.
Among the officials who came from the imperial examination system, they were actually no different from lowly craftsmen.
If we really want to talk about the difference between them, we can only say that their ancestors were lucky and got a hereditary stable job.
This messy hereditary official system is also a major feature of the Ming Dynasty.
All kinds of jobs and professions have hereditary official positions or civilian households.
Although this kind of artificially confining some people by occupation existed in every dynasty, it was the first time that the subdivision was so detailed as in the Ming Dynasty.
Although this method also provided great assistance to the court in mobilizing technical talents, not all of these hereditary technical talents were reliable.
For example, among medical households, some of them are truly passed down from generation to generation and have some skills.
Most officially certified doctors do not have any medical skills.
Moreover, once a major war or disaster occurred, the imperial court would directly conscript these medical households to serve as military doctors or perform temporary labor to treat disaster victims.
If we rely on these people to cure diseases and save lives, we would be lucky if they don't kill people directly.
Therefore, when Zhu Zaigui was recruiting talents for his Shunyi Industrial Park, he also had to conduct actual tests. It was impossible for him to accept everyone.
Otherwise, what Zhu Zaigui ran would not be an industrial park, but a charity.
When Zhang Tianci heard that Zhu Zaigui wanted to poach him, he immediately became excited. Ten taels a month! That would be one hundred and twenty taels a year, right?
Unlike traditional civil servants, Zhang Tianci would not shy away from the formalities of declining first and then accepting. He bowed excitedly and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness!"
Zhu Zaigui chuckled, "Okay, then it's settled. You will hand over the work to Meng Chong later. After the renovation of my bathroom is completed, you will go to Shunyi Industrial Park to supervise the work. I will give you an extra two taels of silver every month."
(End of this chapter)