Becoming an Immortal from the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 85 The Academy
The newly built Changsheng Academy is located on the top of Xishan Mountain in the form of central axis symmetry.

The overall layout of the academy is contrary to the current architectural pattern. It abandons the long and deep form of multiple courtyards, and adopts a way that is more in line with the architectural concept of later generations of universities. It is built by many courtyards surrounding an open square.

It is like an enlarged version of a courtyard. Entering from the gate is a screen wall, separated by corridors on both sides.

Passing through the corridor, there are three-story small buildings, which are divided into about eighteen bedrooms from top to bottom.

Each dormitory is built according to the preparations for a dormitory for eight people. There are four wooden beds with bunk beds, and a spacious hardwood desk in the middle, ensuring that eight people can write and read at the same time.

Personal items can be stored in the wooden cabinet against the wall on the right side of the house. Different drawers have been divided and copper locks are installed. Each person has only one key.

Each of these three-story single-family dormitories can accommodate 140 or four people. Currently, eight buildings have been completed, and another twelve buildings are expected to be built. By then, the entire academy will be able to accommodate more than [-] students at the same time.

Walk back from the dormitory building, and you will arrive at a spacious square.

A layer of sand was sprinkled on the compacted soil layer, and several craftsmen took several days to flatten it one by one, and then laid fired stone bricks, and poured mortar into the gaps to ensure stability.

Considering that the students are young people who are full of vigor and vitality, there is also a Cuju field in the central area of ​​the square, and all kinds of signs are planned in advance with lime, so that they can come to a game when they are tired from studying.

In addition, there are many stone tables standing in the corners of the square, depicting the shape of a chessboard for people to use.

There are pines, cypresses and green willows planted around, full of vigor.

Passing through the large square, there are classrooms with high-hanging lecture hall plaques, in which futons and flat tables are used for people to read and study.

In addition, there are also quiet rooms, library rooms, self-study rooms, and the Supreme Hall in the academy, which are places for practicing or enshrining immortals.

At this time, a few days have passed since the opening ceremony of the academy, and more than a thousand students who have passed the selection have gradually gotten used to life in the academy.

Recalling this selection, many people still feel a little confused.

I still remember that when it was reported that the Taoist master was going to open an academy to recruit disciples, the public opinion in the sect was in an instant uproar.

From an eighty-year-old woman to a toddler, who wouldn't want a chance to become a Taoist disciple?

Although according to the notice, Zhangjiao Daozi will only serve as the head of the academy in name, and will not be responsible for specific teaching work.

However, even if this is the case, obtaining the qualification to enter the academy will undoubtedly increase the chances of getting in touch with the head teacher Daozi.

It's a pity that the age limit alone is enough to stop 80.00% of the believers in the religion.

The minimum age is 16, and the maximum is 25. There are less than [-] believers who meet this requirement.

After that, interested applicants will also receive a test paper.

The opening pages of the test paper are all simple questions, such as asking about their education level, family background, gender, level of understanding of immortals, and so on.

Other than that, the rest of the questions seem a bit confusing.

There are some questions about Confucian teachings, some farming tests, and how everyone thinks how the people should resist the invasion of demons to survive.

After the [-] test papers were collected, [-] students were eliminated directly through their family background.

These people come from prominent backgrounds, and their families are either powerful or wealthy businessmen.

This is quite normal, after all, in this day and age, literacy itself means having a certain social status.

The remaining 2000 people are much better. Most of them are from peasant households and small landlords, and the most prominent person is just the son of a county magistrate.

After all, in Zhang Yuqing's presupposition, these people were used as fire seeds, and they were the seeds to preach to the lower class in the Northern Song Dynasty in the future.

The purity of this group of people must be maintained.

It is not necessary for them to truly sympathize with the bottom class, at least they must not discriminate against the bottom class.

Otherwise, even if the knowledge is taught to them, it will be difficult to pass it on to the bottom through them.

In Zhang Yuqing's mind, it would be best to have the kind of peasant scholar who knows a few words.

Unfortunately, the number of such people is simply rare.

Even though Bianliang is already the most densely populated metropolis in the world, the number of scholars from simple farming families is far from satisfying Zhang Yuqing's appetite.

Careful selection can only select more than [-] people.

These people were the first to receive the admission notice, but in order not to leave the rest of the college seats idle, they adhered to the mentality that one sheep can be chased, and a flock of sheep can be herded.

Zhang Yuqing relaxed the admission scope again.

The children of some low-level officials can also come to the academy to study.

Yes, not only men, Changsheng Academy also recruits female students.

And in the initial period of construction, the dormitory building was divided into male and female areas.

However, the number of women's dormitories is much smaller. For the time being, only two small buildings away from the men's dormitories are planned and located on the side close to the willow forest.

In this way, the full amount of 1000 people was barely enough.

The students who received the admission notice were very excited. According to the guidance above, they prepared mattresses, bowls and chopsticks, and a change of clothes, and rushed to the academy from all over the place to start the journey of study.

In the first batch of students, there were only 62 female students.

And each of them has overcome all difficulties, and because the academy does not charge tuition and tuition fees, they are able to persuade their parents to come here to study.

This also has to take into account the strong religious atmosphere of the Changsheng Academy itself. Every student's whole family is a believer in the Immortal God, so they can barely make up these dozens of female students.

Otherwise, such a precedent-setting co-education behavior would never have appeared in the Northern Song Dynasty.

More than 900 male students were almost stunned when they saw the dozens of smiling girls on the first day of school. Many young boys were unmarried. How could they meet so many young girls of the same generation? Immediately, his cheeks turned red.

The 1000 people were divided into ten classes according to age, with 100 people in each class.

Although there is a difference in age, the courses they have to accept are not different.

In the morning, I study various simplified characters and phonetic symbols, and in the afternoon, I study mathematics and Gewu.

The teaching teachers of each class are temporarily on the battlefield. In the first few days, the head teacher Daozi will teach once, and then turn around and start to teach the students these obscure and complicated knowledge.

Many students watched in confusion as the academy professor with two long beards wrote the word 'Longevity' with lime plaster on the wooden board called the blackboard.

"Teacher, the long word is spelled wrong."

Immediately, someone pointed out loudly that the upper part of the long character should be three horizontal lines.

"You're right." The academy professor nodded, put the 'chalk' aside awkwardly, and said, "This kind of font is called 'simplified Chinese'!"

"Simplified characters?"

The classroom was suddenly noisy and noisy. Many students were born in poverty. For them, knowledge is extremely precious and must not be easily changed.

However, the teachers in the academy are Taoist believers. Although they are over [-] years old, they are physically strong and healthy, far surpassing these young people.

He just snorted coldly, and the noise in the classroom was instantly suppressed.

All the students didn't dare to make any more noise, and turned to the academy professors one after another.

"You are all from poor families, and you should know that the opportunity to read and write is not easy to come by!"

When everyone heard the words, they all nodded.

"Do you know why this happened?"

Without waiting for everyone to answer, the professor of the academy gave a decisive conclusion: "It is precisely because of the complexity and chaos of Chinese characters!"

The image of Daozi in charge emerged in his mind, and the teacher of the academy stood with his beard stroked, imitating the appearance of Daozi in charge, explaining to the students:

"The so-called 'complex' means that there are many strokes! And chaos means that there are many variants of the same character! Therefore, it takes a lot of hard work to read and identify it!"

Speaking of this, the professor of the academy couldn't help but feel sorry for this phenomenon.

Speaking of which, before he came here, he was just an accountant in a restaurant.

Because the poor people in the lower class have very rare opportunities to receive education, even though he was very intelligent since he was a child, he could only recognize a few words by stealing.

I also taught myself how to keep accounts, and just now I got a job as an accountant with barely enough food and clothing.

Perhaps in this life, we will live a life that can be seen at a glance, entrusting all hopes to future generations.

Until the emergence of the Immortal Sect, he finally saw the hope of changing his destiny.

Without hesitation, he abandoned his belief in the Daxiangguo Temple, and turned into the embrace of the Immortal Venerable.

He has been working hard to preach to his neighbors, and finally one day when he was sleeping soundly, he suddenly learned the first part of the health regimen without a teacher, and became a Taoist believer.

In this way, his application for joining a teaching position was quickly passed, and he was transferred to this academy to serve as an academy teacher.

Now I finally have a monthly salary of fifteen guan, a rest every six days, and a day of etiquette every year and festival.

It is far more stable and reliable than working as an accountant at the beginning.

It can be said that in terms of his intelligence, if he had had the opportunity to receive education back then, he would have been able to avoid all these wasted years and come to the fore early.

The chaotic thoughts were fleeting, and the academy teacher calmed down and said, "You know why this happens?"

Many disciples and students heard the words, they all thought hard but got nothing, so they could only shake their heads and look at Teacher Xi.

"This move is to maintain the 'scarcity' of knowledge!"

"Scarcity?"

Seeing that all the students were as confused as he was back then, the academy professor smiled slightly: "Not bad!
The so-called scarcity is to artificially reduce the number of literate people. "

"To clarify this point, you must understand a fact."

"Things in the world are always limited, but people's greed is endless."

"Those who have read books to understand things will inevitably have more greed than ordinary people. Moreover, they also have the ability to devour more things!
If the speed of 'knowledge' dissemination is not controlled, the gold and silver that everyone who has read the book will be able to share will continue to decrease! "

"..." Everyone was slightly taken aback, with a little hesitation on their faces.

'Is such a rebellious statement also a truth that can be told in public? '

Seeing the fearful expressions on the faces of the people, the academy professor couldn't help but shook his head and smiled, pointed to heaven and said, "You don't need to be alarmed, you should know that we are all the people of immortals, and there are real immortals watching from heaven!"

"Even if someone among you wants to report it, you have to weigh whether he can bear the great crime of turning against the Immortal Sect! In the future, if he enters the underworld, he may regret it too late, let alone talk about longevity, and sooner or later his soul will be gone!"

Such a thorough speech from the academy teacher opened everyone's hearts, and the faint sense of mutual wariness lingering in the classroom disappeared instantly.

"You are all from poor families, so you can break this truth and explain it to you one by one. The reason why His Highness Daozi imitated Cangjie's creation of characters is precisely to break this 'scarcity'!"

Hearing this, someone among the students immediately asked: "But Professor Xi, although I have seen this kind of simplified characters in ordinary life, if I write them in the imperial examination room, I will definitely be dismissed."

The professor of the academy glanced at him with his hands behind his back, and said, "What's the worry? Now that you have entered the Immortal Sect, don't you want to follow the old path of waiting for the imperial examination to become an official?"

"This……"

The man scratched his head. To be honest, there were quite a few people among them who wanted to take the imperial examination, but almost none of them were sure to get fame.

Again, the scarcity of 'knowledge'.

If you want to take the imperial examination, you can't do it just by studying hard.

It is necessary to keep collecting the latest test papers of various subjects and continue to study, but anyone who has a little knowledge will try to go to the Imperial College to supervise the students, or continue to participate in various poetry and literary clubs to accumulate talents and contacts.

There is no one who does not burn money one by one.

"Since you have joined the Immortal Sect, and you are fortunate enough to be under the leadership of Taoist Master Zhang to practice this latest knowledge of the Immortal Family, naturally you will not be useless!
As long as you study diligently, you will not have to worry about a step to advance after you have achieved something in the future! "

Seeing that Mr. Jiaoxi almost made his words clear, everyone had nothing to say.

I had no choice but to learn the simplified text word by word.

The next class is also simplified Chinese characters, but this time they have to learn standard Luoyang Mandarin first.

Dialects in the Northern Song Dynasty were rampant, and the pronunciation of fonts in different places was different, so a standard had to be formulated.

Zhang Yuqing does not intend to go against the trend of the times and insist on promoting Mandarin. Since people now use Luoyang dialect as the official standard, then everyone can speak Luoyang dialect for me.

In order to avoid the need to learn the local dialect when preaching in various places in the future.

There are two classes in one morning, one class teaches simplified characters, and the other class teaches pronunciation.

At noon, the back kitchen of Guanzhong prepared the meals, sent people to fill them in large wooden buckets, and transported them to the academy, and each student took turns queuing up to cook.

After eating, you can rest for an hour.

In the afternoon, I will go to class, mathematics.

This stumped a lot of intellectuals in the Northern Song Dynasty. Although "Nine Chapters of Arithmetic" had already been circulated at this time, scholars since the Tang Dynasty no longer listed mathematics as a compulsory subject.

They only learned basic arithmetic in childhood, but did not involve deeper theoretical knowledge.

Stay at the level of knowing what it is and not knowing why it is.

After all, everything learned in childhood is so general, such as clothes and crowns, speech steps, reading and writing, and even cleaning and cleaning.

Mathematics with the same status is just like daily etiquette, as long as you master the basics of arithmetic, it is enough.

Now what I am learning all at once involves difficult problems such as calculating area, quadratic equation in one yuan, filling a pond while storing water, and chickens and rabbits in the same cage.

So except for those students who love to count, the rest are complaining.

But after tossing for half a month, everyone's math level is also rising.

And finally began to gradually abandon the counting chips, and instead use Arabic numerals to calculate addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Once they got used to this calculation method introduced by people from the Western Regions during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, they gradually understood the beauty of it, and overcame the original obstacles, trying to use Arabic numerals to enumerate the formulas in every calculation.

After all, although counting chips are easy to use, they are more difficult to learn and use than Arabic numerals.

(End of this chapter)