Volume 2: Residence in the Capital Chapter 215: Everyone has their own preferences, teach according to their personality
If he was drinking tea at this moment, Zhang Shou guaranteed that he would have spat out a mouthful of tea.
Is Zhang Chen really determined to please Princess Yongping? Otherwise, why would he, a future Duke of Qin, learn to write eight-part essays?
Not only him, Zhu Er also looked at Zhang Chen sideways. Even though he had never heard of Zhang Chen's clamoring to marry Princess Yongping, when someone made such a request, even a fool would guess that way. Then, he couldn't help but think of how Lu Sanlang pursued Zhu Ying just for show, and now thinking of Zhang Chen's change of direction, he suddenly felt a fire rising.
Are you all using my sister as a cover?
He immediately sneered and said, "Zhang Chen, you want to learn eight-part essay? It's too late! Even if you learn it now, you may not be able to pass the examination to become a scholar in ten or eight years. If you want to use this to deceive beautiful women, you may not be able to succeed in thirty or fifty years!"
Zhang Chen was immediately furious, forgetting that this was not the street or anywhere else, but the Qianqing Palace. He angrily retorted, "So what? It's better than learning martial arts at such an old age! If I had known this would happen, I wouldn't have done it in the first place! When you were fishing for three days and drying the nets for two days, did you think no one saw you?"
Seeing that the two were getting more and more outrageous, Zhang Shou finally couldn't stand it anymore and coughed heavily. At this time, the two top noble sons who were staring at each other suddenly came to their senses, carefully glanced at the emperor who was sitting on the throne without showing any emotion, and immediately lowered their heads and stood with their hands hanging down, looking as honest as possible. Seeing this, he sneered: "You still know that this is in the Qianqing Palace?"
Seeing that neither of them dared to say anything, he said in a deep voice: "You two, what did Ada say about Aer? If you don't work hard when you are young, you will regret it when you are old. You are all the same! Zhu Erlang, you may not be able to learn any results by learning martial arts now, but it is better to learn than not to learn. It is better to have mediocre martial arts than to be completely powerless! As for you, Zhang Chen, what do you want to do by learning eight-part essays?"
"I..." Zhang Chen blurted out these words to Zhang Shou at the beginning. He knew that he couldn't hide his thoughts from Zhang Shou, so he just said, "I heard that Princess Yongping values those talented people who are good at writing eight-part essays the most..."
After this was said, not only Zhang Shou and Zhu Er, but even the emperor couldn't help laughing. But he didn't just stand there and watch Zhang Chen's joke. He patted the armrest and laughed and scolded: "Mingyue hosted the Yuehua Tower Literary Meeting. There were at least 10 to 20 talented writers who stood out, if not 30 to 50. Among them, there were always talented people with both talent and beauty. When it comes to eight-part essays, who is not better than you?"
Zhang Chen was speechless for a moment, and then he subconsciously looked at Zhang Shou. Noticing his gaze, Zhang Shou simply asked angrily and amusedly: "From what you said, you are applying for the election for Princess Yongping?"
"No..." Zhang Chen denied instinctively, but when he noticed that the emperor's eyes looked a little strange, he hurriedly explained, "I just wanted to give it a try, and I don't have any unreasonable thoughts... Really, I just... I just can't accept it..."
When he said the word "unwilling", Zhang Chen finally hung his head and whispered, "I heard what the young master said just now. Although I am very excited to think of being proud in front of my father, if this continues, how can I be better than my father... My grandfather is such a powerful person, but my father is just a nerd. I am not as good as my father. What should I do in the future?"
"If the Zhang family is really inferior to the previous generation, even if they have the empty title of Duke of Qin, wouldn't they just be useless people who rely on the legacy of their ancestors to eat and wait for death? What if I really have the talent to write eight-part essays, and in the future I can be like Mr. Zhu's teacher, Mr. Liu, who achieved great success at the age of 48 and passed the imperial examination?"
His voice was not loud, and he did not sound confident at all, but the emperor listened and gradually smiled: "If you came here for Mingyue, I wanted to remind you that those talented and beautiful men recommended by Mingyue have no connections with anyone yet. It is wishful thinking for you to win her heart by writing eight-part essays. But now..."
The emperor's smile deepened. "Now I have to say that you have a little ambition, but only a little. The teacher of Yingying you mentioned is Liu Zhiyuan, the former assistant minister of the Ministry of War, right? Do you think he is a late bloomer? You only know that he won the first place in the imperial examination at the age of 48, but did you know that he passed the imperial examination at the age of 14 and the imperial examination at the age of 25?"
Zhang Chen was stunned at first, then he took a breath of cold air. Zhang Shou was not surprised at all. You know, in the Ming Dynasty, it was common for young and ambitious candidates to fail the exam again and again.
Not to mention the famous Tang Yin and Tang Bohu, who won the top prize in the Nanzhili provincial examination but were involved in a provincial examination cheating case and were thus dismissed for life, let's take Xu Guangqi's mentor Jiao Hong as an example. He passed the examination for a scholar at the age of sixteen and a juren at the age of twenty-five, but he failed in the metropolitan examinations again and again until he was fifty years old and won the top prize. It is simply a miracle that he kept taking exams throughout his life.
When the emperor saw Zhang Chen finally revealed a dumbfounded expression, he said earnestly: "It is not so easy to write an essay on art. Many famous scholars have studied for a lifetime but still cannot get a place on the imperial examination. You should not compete with them for this stepping stone. As for Mingyue... Let me ask you, what do you like about her?"
Zhang Shou was relieved to see that the emperor had no intention of appointing Zhang Chen as his consort. He immediately asked, "Princess Yongping is beautiful and is known as a talented woman. Do you admire her appearance or her talent?"
Zhang Chen never expected that the emperor would be so direct... and Zhang Shou was even more direct than the emperor!
He subconsciously took a breath to calm himself, and then whispered, "I just want to marry a wife who is different from my mother. My mother is too obedient and always follows my father's lead, which is why my father does what he wants and has no ambition to make progress... I just hope that my future wife can be a little bit different... and of course she must be a rare beauty!"
Zhu Er wanted to curse. You chased after my sister because she was a unique beauty? You, are you doing this just to piss off your dad, or to show that you are different from him?
The emperor was pissed off by Princess Yongping yesterday, and today he couldn't help laughing when he saw Zhang Chen, a funny guy, even though He ignored Zhang Chen and looked at Zhu Er and asked, "Zhu Erlang, Zhang Chen was attracted by Mingyue's uniqueness, talent and beauty. What about you?"
Zhu Er didn't expect the topic to suddenly turn to him. After a pause, he instinctively said, "I am not as unrealistic as Zhang Chen. I just want a virtuous wife and filial sons, that's enough!"
Hoping for a virtuous wife is not an excessive request...but what's the point of hoping for a filial son when you don't even have a wife?
Zhang Shou was just about to complain, but the emperor smiled and said, "It's not too much to ask for a virtuous wife and filial son. But, Zhu Erlang, think about it, are you a filial son?"
Zhu Er was speechless. Compared with Zhang Chen, who had a father who didn't care about him, his family situation was much more normal. His father was strict but not overbearing, his elder brother was excellent but not overbearing, his stepmother used to live in a Buddhist temple, but now she was back and was pretty good to him, not to mention his grandmother, who doted on Zhu Ying but was always nice to his elder brother and him.
At most...at most no one gives him money...This is really a sad problem.
As for the problem of too little monthly salary, he just thought about it in his mind, and then whispered: "I am learning to be a loyal minister and a filial son. Isn't this just trying hard?"
The emperor looked up and down at Zhu Er, who was obviously feeling guilty, and then said with a smile: "Well, since you want to learn martial arts, I will agree to it. Your elder brother and Yingying are both good at archery, which is a martial art passed down from generation to generation in your family. You can practice it even when you are older. I will select an expert with outstanding archery skills and good martial arts to teach you, but there is one thing, you have to pay for the tuition yourself!"
Seeing Zhu Er's mouth suddenly open wide enough to fit an egg, he looked at Zhang Shou and smiled, "This is inspired by what Zhang Qing said in the past that books must be borrowed before they can be read. Things that are too easy to get are bound to be difficult to cherish. Therefore, if you want to learn martial arts, of course you have to pay the price yourself. I will tell your grandmother and Yingying not to give you money!"
"As for the tuition fee..." The emperor actually winked at Zhang Shou, "Mr. Zhang, do you know how much his monthly salary is?"
Zhang Shou had really heard Zhu Ying gossiping about her second brother's pitiful monthly allowance, so he immediately added insult to injury, "I remember it was five strings of cash. Now that he is going to attend classes at the Imperial Academy, the Madam specifically asked for another five strings of cash, so the total should be ten strings of cash. To prevent him from wasting money, his long-term attendant has always been the one to carry it. The money he has on him should be the New Year's money."
According to current customs, the royal family would mint a batch of gold and silver coins during festivals to reward officials, and wealthy families would also use molds to mint some gold and silver coins themselves and give them to young children as New Year's money. Therefore, although gold and silver are not used in daily circulation among the people, merchants are usually happy to accept gold and silver coins from these noble children.
So, when Zhu Er heard Zhang Shou reveal his last bit of knowledge, he wailed in his heart. Sure enough, the next moment he heard the emperor say, "Well, let's set it at five strings of cash per month. With such a high tuition, even if it's once every three days, those masters will surely be eager to teach you and will be dedicated when teaching you. And since you feel bad about spending money, you should be able to study hard."
Seeing Zhu Er's face as pale as death, Zhang Chen couldn't help but laugh out loud with gloating: "Your Majesty is wise!"
However, he immediately saw the emperor looking at him, with a smile on his face that frightened him. Sure enough, the emperor continued with a smile: "Mingyue, don't count on it. She is too picky. If she doesn't like you, I will only make you two unhappy if I match you up randomly. But since you said you want to learn to write eight-part essays, I will help you and send you a teacher."
Zhang Chen was so shocked that his scalp went numb. He wanted to learn to write eight-part essays in order to see if it was possible to win the heart of Princess Yongping. Now that there was no possibility, he was just writing that kind of thing!
But before he could make a bitter face and try to refuse, he heard Zhu Er shout loudly: "Your Majesty is wise!"
Seeing the two guys sabotaging each other again, Zhang Shou was too lazy to scold them this time. He bowed to the emperor and said directly: "Your Majesty is wise. Sending two teachers, one literary and one martial, will help them temper their tempers. One is to practice martial arts secondly, but strengthening the body is the most important thing. The other is to learn the art of making and contemporary literature secondly, but studying classics and history well is the most important thing."
"After all, as a doctor of the Imperial College, I am only teaching the most basic things in Banshan Hall, which can only prevent them from being so blind that they become a laughing stock."
At this point, Zhang Shou said sincerely: "Therefore, I beg the emperor to hold a comprehensive examination in Banshan Hall at the end of this year to thoroughly test everyone's background. Those who are ambitious, those with decent qualifications, those who are good at mathematics, and those who are good at other things... I hope to screen out all kinds of people, and then select teachers accordingly to teach them according to their aptitude."
"If they continue to be mixed together like this, it would be a waste if some of them have undiscovered talents. After all, most of them are still young. Even if they have been muddle-headed for the past ten years, they still have a chance to make up for it."
The emperor did not expect that Zhang Shou would say such a thing after he had chosen the last two noblemen with the highest social status. He looked at Zhang Shou in surprise for a moment, then laughed and said, "According to what you said, you will not be their teacher at that time?"
Zhang Shou smiled nonchalantly and said, "I am good at mathematics, and I have also dabbled in nature. I will also teach them some classics and history based on what I have read. But the latter is superficial after all. Although the students in Banshan Hall seem to be very obedient to me, there have always been people in the Doctoral Hall who have some complaints about my teaching method. If they find their own strengths, learn well, and become talents in the future, it will be much more suitable than for me to stay in Banshan Hall as a teacher."
Seeing Zhang Chen was stunned and about to object, he gestured to him and said in a deep voice, "The most important thing is that the Third and Fourth Princes are too young after all. At this age, it is okay to take classes with other students who are at least sixteen or seventeen years old in Banshan Hall in the short term, but in the long run, there will inevitably be differences in progress. Which side should I take care of?"
The emperor suddenly clapped his hands lightly, then smiled and said, "I accept what Mr. Zhang said. However, the Banshan Hall will still be there and will still be under your management. However, according to your previous elective course model, a large number of people's classes can be taken separately. As for the problem that the Imperial College does not have so many lecture halls... Most of them are rich, so their families can donate money to expand the Imperial College by a dozen rooms."
As he spoke, he smiled at Zhang Shou and said, "I heard from Yingying that you asked Lu Sanlang to organize the "Le Shu" scholarship for the students of Banshan Hall, and then use it to reward and subsidize the students with good character and academic performance in the other six halls, and even provide housing? It's a good idea, but you can also include classes in it. In the future, the classes of Banshan Hall can also be attended by students from the other six halls of the Imperial College."
"I believe that your method of teaching students in accordance with their individual needs and inviting famous teachers to teach them is still effective. If you can't find a famous teacher, let Teacher Ge come forward. If you still can't find one, I will help you!"
Isn’t this the true essence of the later university system of dividing classes into different classes and inviting celebrities to give lectures at any time?
Zhang Shou immediately smiled, then stood up and saluted, saying, "Thank you, Your Majesty!"
