Wanli 1592

Chapter 406 Conditions

Among other things, the more than 100 million Han people under Xiao Ruxun definitely have enough to eat and live. They have nothing else to ask but to live a stable life. It would be even better if they could send their children to study.

Xiao Ruxun also thought about it, but there were not many people under his command who could read and write, and even fewer who could understand Confucian classics. He only had three orthodox scholars under him, the Yuan family father and son and Chen Longzheng. If you do, you will never find time to teach the children of these common people.

In other words, their days are full of food and they will not be hungry, but there is still some distance between their parents supporting a scholar. The Ming Dynasty paid more attention to the imperial examination than the Song Dynasty, but it only supported 30 students. member.

Scholars need money and food from the state to support them. You can get Lumi from the state if you pass the entrance examination. Although it is small, multiplying it by 30 is an astronomical figure.

This is an investment from the state, and private scholars themselves also need to invest. In government-run institutions, you can only enter the study after you are admitted as a student, but before you are admitted as a student, you need to enter a private school for enlightenment, called Enlightenment, and the government does not care about your education. Yes, elementary school in the local area is mostly donated by the gentry, or the tribe pays to hire students to be teachers to teach disciples in the tribe to read.

Without exception, these people are all rich. They have no money and can’t afford to read at all. A peasant family can be counted as a family of three. The father counts as a labor force, the wife counts as half, and the children count as half before they grow up. That is to say, two laborers, more than ten acres of land are necessary to feed three people after paying exorbitant taxes, but one laborer cannot complete so much farm work.

When children are about seven or eight years old, they will start to work in the fields, and when they are eleven or twelve years old, they will have a whole labor force. If you suddenly let children go to school without agricultural production, wouldn’t that exhaust their parents?

So now, even with the planting of potatoes and corn, plus the benefits of three crops a year and no tax payment for six years, the life of farmers is indeed much easier. After a stable life, a baby boom will follow.

The census officials sent by Xiao Ruxun years ago reported that the number of newborns in recent years has been increasing year by year, and many families have three or four children. Quantities are offset.

Apart from the farmers' own problems, Xiao Ruxun's own small money is not enough. If farmers want to accept their children to study, they must at least provide their children with lunch, a school building, pens, ink, paper and inkstone, and teachers. , there must be a cook, and this sum of money can't be done without a few 10 taels of silver.

The money of the Ming Dynasty was indeed valuable, but education itself was a waste of money, and there was no economic return. It was hoped that more scholars would serve the country.

But then again, Burma Town is considered a military town, and the imperial court has never mentioned the establishment of academic officers in Burma Town, allowing residents of Burma Town to take the imperial examination. Regarding the issue of students, it is inevitable that there will be intersections with civil officials. Xiao Ruxun does not want to have intersections with civil officials yet, so the matter of education has been postponed.

The plan was put forward, but due to economic and political considerations, Xiao Ruxun felt that it would be better for Burma Town to continue to be small and transparent these years. His wings were not yet fully developed, and no scholars were willing to join him and help him build Burma Town. With Yuan Huang's name in his hometown, Chen Longzheng was recruited, and one can imagine how those scholars despised Xiao Ruxun.

Maybe there are scholars who are willing to come, those old sour scholars who will never pass the exam for the rest of their lives, the kind of old sour scholars who have no hope for themselves, and just work as elementary school teachers in sociology and ethnology, teaching to survive , this kind of person is probably willing to come to Myanmar to teach, Xiao Ruxun must pay more, where is teaching not teaching?The problem is that these people can only teach and can't do anything.

But then Xiao Ruxun also figured it out, not to mention cultivating scholars, making the people under his command literate is a very important and meaningful thing, so Xiao Ruxun sent people to some strong imperial examinations a few months ago Frustrated old scholars and old students who are not in Juren, ask them if they would like to go to Myanmar Town to teach children literacy, and the wages must be more than they are now.

There is no news at present. If there is news, Xiao Ruxun thinks that we can start to arrange the construction of elementary schools in the villages around Bagu City, step by step. The purpose is not to cultivate students and scholars, but to cultivate students who can read and write. Literate people, the literacy rate of the common people is a very important indicator. The level of literacy rate represents the strength of the country's infrastructure.

This kind of school-run education stall, I let you Catholics come here to preach and confuse people, why am I?I'm sick?After finally getting rid of the Confucian literati, now you want to invite the Christian uncle to make yourself happy?What am I thinking?

Of course Xiao Ruxun was not happy.

Matteo Ricci probably knew the whole story, but he believed that General Xiao, who was educated by Confucianism, did not like Christian teachings due to the influence of Confucianism. This was a kind of ideological confrontation at the religious level, so he kept trying to change Xiao Ruxun. Not only did he not succeed, he almost caught himself.

So Matteo Ricci had nothing to say, so he could only translate the original words to the bishop. When the bishop heard it, his complexion was not good. He obviously thought of the Chinese people who lived and worked in peace and contentment.

These people who are very satisfied with their lives, people who have no gaps in their hearts, are the least likely to be bewitched by religious thoughts. A person can only be bewitched by religion when he is most vulnerable, so religion is always deep-rooted in war-torn areas, peaceful Regional religious power is always inferior to government power.

Regarding a peaceful China, the bishop didn't know how to persuade Xiao Ruxun. He only knew that if Xiao Ruxun didn't allow it and Christianity preached here, let alone China, he wouldn't be able to enter other small countries either. The monarch will shake three times.

However, the reason why he was sent as an envoy by the Pope is because he knew that he should use secular interests to achieve his goals under the premise that he could not fool people with religious reasons.

The pope's price tag is that as long as the Holy See can afford it, he will agree to the Chinese general. The Holy See needs a Chinese base and a group of Chinese believers!
"Since this is the case, then I won't say much else. General Xiao, what do you need us to do to allow us to preach here? As long as we can do it, we will do our best to do it."

(End of this chapter)