Chapter 348: Minister of Rites (VI)
The news of the upcoming reconstruction of the Ministry of Rites began to spread in the Chinese court. In Chinese history, although the Ministry of Rites has a long history, it has never been a very powerful government office. The real power of the Ministry of Rites is only the management of the imperial examinations, and this task is not exclusive to the Ministry of Rites.
The Ministry of Rites was only responsible for schools, such as the Imperial Academy. The chief examiners of the imperial examinations were recommended by the ministers and appointed by the emperor.
When this job was completely taken away and the Ministry of Education was separated, the importance of the Ministry of Rites was probably only its name.
So at first, this news was considered nonsense. Especially when the news about the reconstruction of the Ministry of Rites came out, many people believed that this news must be wrong.
Kong Bugeng listened quietly to his elder brother-in-law's comments on the news, "Brother, some people say that the emperor will also join the Ministry of Rites, and that both the emperor and soldiers can become members of the Ministry of Rites. There is no distinction between high and low in the new Ministry of Rites. Who is so bold as to make up stories about the emperor?"
Hearing this, Kong Bugeng said nothing. The elder brother-in-law thought that the news he heard was fabricated, but Kong Bugeng knew very well that it was absolutely true. According to what Gong Yu and Weber said, the new structure of the Ministry of Rites was indeed somewhat horrifying.
For example, anyone who wanted to become a member of the Ministry of Rites had to have an introducer. This introducer had to be a member of the Ministry of Rites. As Huo Chong was the initiator of the new Ministry of Rites, he was of course the first member of the Ministry of Rites. According to the system of the Ministry of Rites, the members of the Ministry of Rites must be a very close circle.
There is also some news that my brother-in-law doesn't know. There is also a review process for those who apply to become members of the Ministry of Rites. In addition to the evaluation of ability, knowledge, and work results, there is also an assessment of concepts, and the impact and change of these concepts on personal behavior.
Finally, if one wants to become a member of the Ministry of Rites, one must be voted through by members of that level.
This vote involved the core of the Ministry of Rites system that my brother-in-law had ridiculed.
Are all members of the Ministry of Rites equal?
If all members of the Ministry of Rites differ only in their positions, there is no such thing as high or low status. In other words, the vote of Emperor Huo Chong in the Ministry of Rites is just Huo Chong's personal vote. It is no different from the vote of Kong Bugeng who will join the Ministry of Rites in the future. The votes of Huo Chong and Kong Bugeng will not be different from those of ordinary soldiers who will join the Ministry of Rites in the future.
With this foundation, the new Ministry of Rites system can be logically self-consistent. The foundation of the Ministry of Rites system is a group of people who gather based on common ideas. There are only differences in positions within this group, but no differences in status.
At this time, the elder brother-in-law was still talking nonsense, and Kong Bugeng was very impatient. And the elder brother-in-law brought only this little fresh news, so he asked: "Brother, I wonder why you came this time?"
"Brother, can you please say hello to the people who collect the animals?"
"Why, the livestock are not well fed?"
"No, no, no, it's well-raised."
"Why wouldn't someone who collects animals collect good animals?"
"Hey, brother, why don't you just talk to them?"
Kong Bugeng already felt that his brother-in-law, who kept up with the situation and devoted himself to the new agriculture, must have messed something up. The new agriculture that Huo Chong was promoting now was to abandon the simple planting industry and realize the model of parallel farming and animal husbandry.
To this end, Huo Chong even ordered the cancellation of the long-standing ban on killing cattle. Now cattle are legally slaughtered. He even encouraged specialized farms that make a living by selling beef. If those who buy livestock are unwilling to buy them, it means there must be something wrong with the livestock.
Kong Bugeng gave his brother-in-law a suggestion, "Brother, why don't you ask the technicians who teach livestock breeding for advice?"
The eldest brother-in-law said angrily: "I asked for advice, I specifically asked for advice. But those people are useless, they are all useless!"
Kong Bugeng did not have a high opinion of his brother-in-law. Although he also felt that the technicians who taught the breeding techniques might have problems, he still felt bad about his brother-in-law.
Moreover, the Chinese court was very opposed to such abuse of power for personal gain, especially when Huo Chong wanted to establish a new Ministry of Rites. In Huo Chong's philosophy, science and democracy were the core. From a scientific point of view, raising livestock was a scientific process in itself. It was only that the current level of technical research was insufficient, and there was no mysterious force that determined the results.
Kong Bugeng was determined to become a member of the new Ministry of Rites, so naturally he did not give others any excuse to stop him.
If you can't criticize others, then you can only start with your own brother-in-law. Kong Bugeng asked patiently: "Brother, since you have consulted the technicians, you must have some experience. Why don't you tell me?"
The elder brother-in-law hesitated and spoke incoherently for a while. Kong Bugeng soon understood, "Brother, do you want to make money, or do you want to raise the livestock first and then sell them to make money?"
"Is there a difference?"
Kong Bugeng understood clearly, "Brother, how about this? You stop running this business. I'll help you find someone to take it over. What do you think?"
The eldest brother-in-law showed a happy expression and finally breathed a sigh of relief. However, Kong Bugeng continued, "You won't lose money by taking over this business, but if your livestock is not good, you won't make much either."
As if being pricked by a needle, the elder brother-in-law immediately became excited, "That's wrong! You are such a high-ranking official, how dare someone not listen to you?"
Kong Bugeng thought to himself, isn't the disobedient person right in front of me?
However, since his brother-in-law was unreliable, Kong Bugeng did not want to cause any more trouble. Huo Chong was not a sarcastic person, but he was not someone who could not see the situation clearly. If Kong Bugeng did this now, someone would definitely expose the matter, or at least write it down. Xuzhou was now under the emperor's feet, and Kong Bugeng would have to deal with even more troubles at that time.
Kong Bugeng would not live for his brother-in-law, so he continued to work. A few days later, the department distributed benefits, and everyone was given two enamel pots.
Kong Bugeng was not a person who had never seen the world, but he was still surprised when he held the enamel pot. The weight of this thing in his hand was not very light, but it was too thin. It was strong enough, the surface was smooth, and the enamel was a bit strange.
In the end, Kong Bugeng still didn't understand how the enamel pot was made, so he gave up trying to figure it out. He just thought it felt good to use.
Just as he put down the enamel pot, someone came over. It was Weber. Seeing Kong Bugeng's pot, Weber smiled and said, "This thing needs to be brushed a few more times, otherwise it will smell."
Kong Bugeng didn't care about it. It would be ridiculous if Weber came here just for such a small matter.
Weber has continued: "I heard that His Majesty has recruited more than a dozen people into the Ministry of Rites. Commander Qian is among them."
Qian Qing was obviously an important signal. Kong Bu was more certain that the establishment of the Ministry of Rites was inevitable, so he asked Weber, "What about you?"
Weber did not answer the question, "Luo Yiren has also joined."
"Oh?" Kong was stunned. Luo Yiren was familiar with Gong Yu before, and it was the two of them who started the discussion of rebellion. But at that time, Yongzheng came to power and began to crack down on officials. Everyone didn't dare to make trouble anymore and quickly dispersed.
Then things got really weird. No one knew who said what outside, but the government was paying attention to everyone. Kong Bugeng and others were so scared that they went to other places to hide. Fortunately, Yongzheng was ruthless in dealing with officials, and those officials who were suspicious were suddenly dismissed and imprisoned. This saved everyone.
However, it also caused a rift among the group. Everyone thought that someone else had betrayed them, but there was no evidence of who had done it.
However, Luo Yiren suffered the most in Huo Chong's uprising, because his relatives were officials in the Qing Dynasty, which led to the clean confiscation of his family's land. Huo Chong actually brought a guy like Luo Yiren into the Ministry of Rites as one of the first members, which was really strange.
Kong Bugeng felt uneasy, so he asked, "Have you gone to ask Luo Yiren?"
Weber shook his head. "He is currently undergoing training at the Ministry of Rites. I heard he is taking some kind of class. We won't be able to see him."
Hearing this, Kong Bugeng felt very disappointed. Everyone had discussed rebellion when they were young and hot-tempered, but how come Luo Yiren was doing better?
If Luo Yiren knew what Kong Bugeng was thinking, he would definitely disagree. However, at this moment, Luo Yiren had no other thoughts at all, and was trying his best to give a lecture to the group of candidates for the Ministry of Rites.
"…So-called feudalism is divided into many levels. The foundation is the level of productivity. In ancient times when roads were not accessible, there were naturally states. If everything was managed by the court , let alone whether the court had enough people to manage it, the speed of communication alone would not be able to keep up. The court could only divide the country into fiefdoms, and let each country govern the local areas. It also ordered the Qin Dynasty to establish a unified central government, build roads, and establish postal services. The productivity of the Qin Dynasty was indeed much higher than that of the Zhou Dynasty, which laid the foundation for a unified country. However, the early Han Dynasty still failed to continue the great unification, but adopted a feudal system. This led to many things that happened later..."
Luo Yiren was very confident in his abilities and talents. He was even more confident when performing in front of everyone.
Luo Yiren was not very satisfied with the performance of the audience. The students were not able to keep up with the reaction to this matter.
Fortunately, there was a record, and Luo Yiren quickly entered the real world.
"How do people establish social relationships? It's through physical contact. If children can't be taken care of, they will not survive. So, we instinctively make ourselves more able to follow the surrounding environment. This is why we must stick together with the people around us."
"Teacher Luo, the children are crying so loudly that it's really annoying," a student asked.
It seemed that many of the people attending the lecture had children, and when they heard this, everyone laughed.
Luo Yiren also has children. Hearing this, he sighed, "Alas. Although children are annoying, they may cry because they are hungry or feel uncomfortable. Are there really adults who beat children to death? I haven't seen it."
After hearing this, everyone agreed that this was the truth. Luo Yiren then stopped talking about theory and started with performance. He communicated to everyone the many group reactions that humans have developed since childhood.
After both sides had reached agreement on the basic points with the Ministry of Rites personnel, Luo Yiren took a step forward, "So the feudal system is not only a court system, but also determined by human needs. This is a kind of biological projection in a social sense. For example, how can we allow others to sleep beside our bed? We will not allow strangers to sleep beside our own beds. Even if the stranger is harmless, we will not agree. What do you think?"
Most of the officials in the Chinese court were not from wealthy families and were not well educated. However, this famous saying, "How can I allow others to sleep peacefully beside my bed?", was very true in history, although people did not know it.
This is not based on historical knowledge, but on physical reaction.
Luo Yiren did not relax, but continued to follow up, "So our training is to train everyone to become knowledgeable and skilled people. The next class is about the scope of contact with people. get out of class dismissed."
Sure enough, the next class was a drill course. The instructor here started teaching how to be a dangerous distance.
This danger includes the degree of danger from fists, kicks, and weapons. What everyone needs to learn is at least how to keep an appropriate distance when making contact. After the course, they will learn how to "refuse", that is, push.
The so-called pushing and shoving means ensuring that the other person is outside your safe range.
Many people have not learned these things, but after learning them, many people have gained many new insights.
Luo Yiren worked hard to complete his courses. When he didn't have his own courses, he participated in various group projects including outdoor training.
There are safe distance and refusal courses including pushing and shoving. There is cooperation training in group action.
After such courses on both positive and negative aspects, the Ministry of Rites School proposed training on “distinguishing between friends and enemies, and distinguishing between enemies and friends.”
As for who is a friend and who is a comrade, such things need to be discussed, but how to understand them is also a level of self-understanding.
Naturally, there were people observing these members who volunteered to join the Ministry of Rites, and their performance was recorded and summarized.
After that, there were other courses. The drill training taught everyone how to maintain a "reasonable and polite" distance. Luo Yiren and others' courses talked about the course of history and the three perspectives.
Luo Yiren adjusts the course every day based on the students' performance. The more he adjusts, the more he realizes the importance of having a clear basis for communication.
If everyone has experience with the same problem, it will be easy to solve. But if there is no such foundation, it will be like talking to a deaf person.
When the course was halfway through, Luo Yiren went to the military academy to find Huo Chong. Huo Chong was very strict with the training at the military academy, after all, the military was a more suitable organization for selecting members of the Ministry of Rites.
Seeing the lively atmosphere in the military academy, Luo Yiren felt that the candidate members of the Ministry of Rites who came from civil service positions still seemed to be lacking in energy.
Huo Chong was talking to someone at this time. The person he was talking to was not wearing a military uniform. Hearing Huo Chong calling him "Brother Feng", Luo Yiren thought that the old man in front of him should be Feng Yukuan, who was almost retired.
Feng Yukuan was talking about import and export. "Brother Huo, can't you export more of these enamel jars?"
When Huo Chong heard this, he felt that Feng Yukuan really knew what he was doing.
Enamel has a long history, originating from glass decorating metal. It first appeared in ancient Egypt, followed by Greece. In the 6th century, inlaid silk enamel, carved enamel, relief enamel, translucent enamel, and painted enamel were introduced in Europe. China began to develop enamel in the 8th century, and by the end of the 14th century, enamel craftsmanship had become increasingly mature. The products made during the Jingtai period of the Ming Dynasty in the mid-15th century were particularly famous, so they were called cloisonné.
However, Huo Chong did not use the technology used for handicrafts, but instead adopted cast iron enamel.
When the Qing Dynasty abandoned the capital, they took away officials and important members, but not all the craftsmen.
Huo Chong, who was famous for his superb craftsmanship, took the opportunity to send people to Beijing to recruit craftsmen from Liulichang. Most of the craftsmen did not dare to come because they were afraid of being beheaded by the Qing Dynasty. But some people still came. And as the livelihood in Beijing became worse and worse, more and more people came.
With the joining of these people, and the addition of Jiangnan porcelain craftsmen, Huo Chong laid the foundation for the production of enamelware from handicrafts to daily necessities.
Of course, this was also due to the progress of the heavy industry of the Chinese court. After the iron that had been placed for more than a year was stress-relieved, it was processed into machine tools. The machine tools produced punch presses that could directly process wrought iron. Wrought iron could finally be processed into a round cup shape.
"Brother Feng, what can I say? I will have people increase production as soon as possible." Huo Chong advised.
"Brother Huo, this is a good opportunity. Let's export enamelware vigorously. I see you have made a lot of other enamelware. The big ones are exported to Japan..."
"That one is for medical use. It's used to store surgical instruments." Huo Chong explained quickly.
With the new enamel, metal processing has also improved. Huo Chong tried to use this industry to promote the continuous updating of refractory materials, kilns, and enameling technology, so as to accelerate the development of the enamel industry.
But many things have to have a good use, for example, Europeans can understand putting surgical instruments on enamel trays. However, Japan does not have surgical technology, and sending this mass-produced cheap product to Japan is really a bit of a self-humiliation.
"I can't argue with you, so I want to say, Brother Huo, you have to help me. Otherwise, those guys will come to me every day, and I can't stand it."
Enamel is an inorganic glass enamel applied to the surface of a metal base. Enameling metal surfaces can prevent metals from rusting, prevent the metal from forming an oxide layer on the surface when heated, and resist corrosion from various liquids. Enamel products are not only safe and non-toxic, but also easy to wash and clean. They can be widely used as eating utensils and washing utensils in daily life.
Huo Chong also selected this as a breakthrough new variety for export to Europe among many industries. In fact, he didn't really want to sell it to Japan.
However, Feng Yukuan's words were so pitiful. Huo Chong had no choice. After thinking for a while, he replied: "Brother Feng, I can only give you some small teacups. Like this."
After saying that, he showed Feng Yukuan a piece with a diameter of about ten centimeters.
Feng Yukuan thought it was okay, but he was a little confused, "Why can't I give you a bigger one?"
"The Japanese are really better than us at these delicate works. It's easier for us to paint on small cups. It's also more beautiful."
Hearing Huo Chong's detailed explanation, Luo Yiren was truly impressed. He didn't expect Huo Chong to have so many knowledge points!
