Volume 5: Fellow Traveler Chapter 865: Submission or Dissatisfaction
The King of Goryeo, who had just ascended the throne for a year, suddenly died. The news spread quickly in the capital because of a Goryeo messenger's shouting in public. Although many people may not have paid special attention to where Goryeo was before the incident with the second prince, now everyone knows about it, and for a while they wanted to write two plays to sing about it.
The candidates waiting for the imperial examination this year, as well as the celebrities who gathered in the capital because of the enthronement of the Crown Prince, had a higher reaction than ordinary people.
Some people think that something really happened in Goryeo, so that the tribute ship was hijacked, and then someone sneaked in and even held the second prince hostage in the name of saving people. Some people think that the incident was originally instigated by the Goryeo king, and after the incident, the Goryeo king was killed to silence him. Others believe that the thieves in Goryeo were so powerful that they could kill the Goryeo king and put the blame on him.
But generally speaking, the Goryeo envoys and the King of the Mountain, who were living well in the South Pavilion in the capital, were ignored. Even though the Goryeo envoy had said that the King of the Mountain should go back to take over the throne, not many people took it seriously.
He was just the king of a small vassal state, what was the big deal? Think about how pitiful that young child was, at a time when the country was in turmoil, he had to go back to take over the mess - most likely to be the scapegoat or a puppet.
Therefore, when the follow-up news came, it was said that the emperor, the cabinet ministers and the ministers agreed that the weather was very cold, so Zhe Shanjun would be allowed to go on the road after February and into March. During this period, in order to meet the original intention of going to the capital to study in the Imperial Academy, Zhang Shou, the lecturer of the Eastern Palace, would be Zhe Shanjun's teacher.
When this news came out, it was even more explosive than the death of the Goryeo King! Especially since he was clearly sent to the Imperial College to study, even if it was in line with his original intention, why did he send him to the Imperial College? Why did he have to give him to Zhang Shou?
The reason why the word "塞" became the consensus of others was naturally because Zhou Jijiu and Luo Siye of the Imperial College were furious after learning about this matter, and several doctors were also indignant about it. One day, they revealed it when they were gathering with several celebrities outside. As a result, after the word spread, the Imperial College immediately faced a counterattack from Zhang Shou's student group.
A group of rich or noble young men directly booked the same private room in the same restaurant where the literati had gathered that day, and imitated those sour people and said some weird things. In the end, Sanlang Lu, the little fat man, simply slammed the table.
"How can a prestigious Imperial College be reduced to the point of complaining because of a Korean? It's just a month of study. If they are not convinced, they can just come and take the students away. Our teachers won't care! With their narrow minds and temperament, it's no wonder that the Imperial College is like this. The public school has invited famous scholars from all walks of life to give lectures several times, but the Imperial College has never given them a single lecture!"
After this was spread, the people related to the Imperial College were almost so angry that they vomited blood. The Imperial College had corresponding rules and regulations, and inviting people to give lectures was not something that could be done by the chief priest or the dean of the school. It had to be basically agreed by all the people above and below before the request could be made. How could it be so casual like a public school that didn't even have a proper name?
But they thought so, ordinary people didn't care about this, and no one even thought that Lu Sanlang and the other nobles were just bragging. Zhang Shou had already taught a prince, so why would he care about a mere Goryeo king?
What the people thought, Zheshan Jun didn't know, because the entire Goryeo delegation couldn't leave Huitong Nanguan, which was equivalent to being under house arrest. Moreover, when he learned that the Goryeo messenger who only brought a verbal message was not from the court, but was secretly sent by his mother Cuipin, he was even more angry and afraid.
I was angry because the messenger was so careless that such an important message was spread in public; I was afraid that if my mother was so anxious and her political enemies knew about it, it would definitely cause countless troubles. As a junior, my mother did not have much power in such an important matter of the king's succession. If she offended her grandmother, Queen Cisheng, it might have the opposite effect.
But no matter how he felt, the most important thing for Zheshanjun now was to work hard to recuperate, and then when Zhang Shou came to class as usual, he would listen carefully to Zhang Shou's lessons together with the Minister of Rites who accompanied him.
The two of them had originally worried that Zhang Shou, who was rumored to be proficient in mathematics, would tell them about those heavenly books, but Zhang Shou never mentioned it at all, and never brought any classics or history books with him every time. Instead, he just talked about them in a fanciful and exaggerated way.
The Minister of Rites thought that Zhang Shou was just talking nonsense, just to perfunctorily handle the task entrusted by the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty; but Zheshan Jun tried to figure out the other party's purpose from this nonsense. So, after listening for a few days, Zheshan Jun, who was originally mentally immature, found that what Zhang Shou said were various truths in history.
Moreover, unlike the final comments of those who wrote the national history, Zhang Shou would often suddenly express it from the perspective that the scholars of that era avoided or did not acknowledge when talking about the words and deeds of certain emperors and generals.
For example, Li Shimin and Wei Zheng acted together in a good play of being open-minded and accepting advice. Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi, was not a weak and incompetent ruler who was obsessed with Empress Wu and let others take control of the situation. Zhangsun Wuji was a relative of the emperor, so he was envied. Emperor Gaozong was just using Empress Wu's knife to kill people...
In the past, Zhang Shou would not easily instruct the Third Prince on the great principles of governing a country. After all, it would be easy for others to find fault with him if he instilled heresy into the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace. But when facing Zheshan Jun, he felt no pressure at all.
Therefore, using the past to criticize the present and using China to criticize North Korea is the least of his faults. He even pointed out bluntly that North Korea's extremely rigid class constraints have made the situation worse. On the one hand, they set up the imperial examinations in a hypocritical manner, but on the other hand, they only allowed people from the two classes to participate, and the rest could only participate in miscellaneous subjects. There were no strategies to show fairness, such as copying the names of people under false pretenses. In the end, it was just selling dog meat under the guise of sheep.
On this day, when Zhang Shou left Huitong South Hall, he left a sensational statement to Zheshan Jun.
"If this continues, Goryeo will be ruined. Either it will be destroyed by a rebellion by the people, or it will be destroyed by the powerful ships and guns of the outside world."
Zhang Shou didn't need to look back to know what kind of ugly faces those two people behind him were. Scolding a bald monk in front of a monk was a taboo. Moreover, if the scolding awakened the national consciousness of the monk, and he really regrouped and carried out drastic reforms after returning, maybe looking back, it would be like the lion beside the bed awakening...
Of course, he knew very well that it was absolutely impossible!
Even if the problems were really put in front of the future king, even if he was ten years older, or even if it was Lee Seong-gye himself, there would be very little he could do, because the Lee Dynasty of Joseon grew up on the humus soil of the Wang Dynasty of Goryeo, and without going through a process of complete breakdown and reorganization, there would naturally be no talk of rebirth from the ashes.
Even if it weren't for the protection of the Ming Dynasty in front and the Qing Dynasty behind, the Joseon Dynasty would have perished long ago!
Now, since the current emperor intends to station troops on Jeju Island because of a momentary anger, there must be an excuse, right? Although sending troops from North Korea to attack the possible pirates or rebels on Jeju Island would probably be enough to give the army of the Joseon Dynasty a hard time, it is not impossible that the pirates would flee upon hearing the news and Jeju Island would be safely recovered.
In this case, why not let this little king go back with countless right or wrong knowledge and make some changes? It would be a pity not to make some changes to a country that is even more corrupt and rigid than Wang's Goryeo.
Although the Third Prince was very curious about what Zhang Shou had taught the Mountain Lord, the Emperor never mentioned it, as if he had completely trusted Zhang Shou to do it. He was also very sensible and restrained the eager Fourth Prince from leaving the palace. He then tried hard to control his curiosity and not to ask Zhang Shou who came to Ciqing Palace to give lectures.
However, he could hold back, and the Fourth Prince could hold back when he was forced to do so, but that didn't mean that other tutors could hold back. For example, the two tutors who were originally students of the Imperial Academy held back again and again, but one of them finally couldn't hold back any longer one day.
Ignoring the future, which was something that could be predicted, and deciding not to care about the Crown Prince's disgust, he asked directly: "Excuse me, Mr. Zhang, I heard that Mr. Zheshan has been feeling better these days and has gone to the public school to listen to your lectures, instead of you giving him lectures at the Huitong South Hall. May I ask what courses you gave him? History or mathematics?"
"For something like arithmetic, a child who has no foundation and probably no talent may not be able to achieve any results even after studying it for one or two years, let alone one or two months, so of course I can't teach him."
Zhang Shou stopped the fourth prince from shouting and said calmly, "As for history, I told him a lot of stories from ancient times to the present, but more importantly, I told him that his motherland was plagued by illness. If not , there wouldn't be a lot of pirates hiding on Jeju Island that they didn't know about at all."
At this point, the conversation could have stopped for a while, but the former imperial student was newly selected in the twelfth lunar month, and his stubbornness kicked in, so he couldn't help but continue asking, "May I ask what the serious illness that Master Zhang is talking about is?"
This time, Zhang Shou did not answer. He looked at the other person carefully, and then asked calmly: "Since you ask me this, let me ask you, do you know what kind of country Goryeo is where Zheshanjun is?"
At this point, not only was the former imperial student stuck, even the Third Prince was a little hesitant. On the contrary, the Fourth Prince, who had learned a lot from Zhang Shou because of his previous assignment, shouted impatiently, "I know, I know..."
"I didn't ask you." Zhang Shou smiled slightly, choking back the Fourth Prince's words. He then continued calmly, "Do you know what kind of system the Goryeo Dynasty has, how the imperial examination system selects talents, what classes the royal family is divided into, and how is it different from our country's system?"
Seeing that the other party was unwilling to accept the defeat but kept his mouth shut, not knowing what to say, Zhang Shou smiled and said, "So, if Zheshan Jun stays in the Ming Dynasty for three to five years, he can study in the Imperial Academy for three to five years and learn the most respected Neo-Confucianism in Goryeo, and then return to his country. That would be enough."
"But since there is only one month, what can the Imperial College teach him? Let him master one of the Four Books and Five Classics in one month? Which doctor has such ability? Except for knowing about Goryeo, a country right next to Liaodong, are all the people in the Imperial College like you? Even if there are great sages who have a vague understanding of the Goryeo court system, they don't know how the people in their country live?"
The student was speechless after being told this by Zhang Shou. He struggled for a long time, but finally couldn't help asking, "Could it be that Master Zhang is such a learned man that he knows all this?"
"Of course the teacher knows!" The fourth prince finally jumped out this time. After retorting, he said smugly, "The teacher told me that the country of Goryeo is just a Confucian country. They are actually divided into different classes..."
Now that the Fourth Prince had opened his mouth, the Third Prince knew that it would be wishful thinking to try to shut it off, so he simply did not bother to stop him and just listened while shaking his head. However, as he listened, he found that the Fourth Prince spoke in great detail, from which classes there were in the country, to what the imperial examination system was, to how the two-class nobles were later demoted to official slaves for crimes.
So, when the Fourth Prince's spit-filled explanation came to an end, the Third Prince, the Crown Prince, immediately spoke up: "Teacher has always been well-versed in both Chinese and foreign knowledge, and has a good understanding of the history and systems of various countries. So, my father asked you to teach the Mountain Lord, which can be regarded as a fulfillment of his long journey to study. This is a wise eye for pearls and a keen eye for the smallest details."
"As for what happened to Goryeo, that's their own business. Our dynasty has already sent people to investigate. Let's wait for them to give an explanation first."
As a crown prince, he certainly couldn't comment on other people's systems like Zhang Shou did. But after frowning, the third prince couldn't help but whispered, "How can a country that oppresses its people last long?"
Zhang Shou shook his head secretly. Your Highness, you are wrong. If this is the Joseon Dynasty in history, the country's life span is really equal to that of the Ming and Qing dynasties combined, and it lasted longer than any other unified dynasty in Chinese history!
Wang's Goryeo Dynasty used the strategy of being a vassal to survive under the iron hoof of the Yuan Dynasty , while Lee's Joseon Dynasty used this strategy more perfectly and successfully escaped two catastrophes. However, the two dynasties that were inherited from each other could last for such a long time. In the final analysis, apart from some luck, it was because of their location, where there were few foreign enemies.
Therefore, Zhang Shou did not comment on the Third Prince's words, intending to end this topic that should not have been discussed in Ciqing Palace. However, at this moment, the Fourth Prince suddenly blurted out: "Teacher, my father issued an edict today to grant 35 kinds of Goryeo Confucian classics."
Zhang Shou suddenly remembered that during the Song Dynasty, it seemed that for a long time, all kinds of books were prohibited from leaving the country and entering countries like Xixia. Of course, he could not remember whether there was Goryeo. Now Goryeo was known for governing the country with Confucianism, and even emphasized Confucianism and suppressed Buddhism. He even heard that monks were also considered pariahs... In this case, it would be nothing to throw a few carts or even a few boats of Confucian books over there.
As for mathematics books, should he report them and prohibit them from leaving the country?
But on second thought, he chuckled, nodded calmly and said: "Since Goryeo is known for valuing Confucianism, the emperor's move is naturally very good. You can also choose two books on solid geometry to give to the emperor." He had the emperor's support, but it was so difficult to promote mathematics and physics, not to mention the Lee Dynasty of Korea where there were crazy party struggles at every turn and all national laws were like waste paper?
