Chapter 191: 189: Stepping Out of the Inner Chambers

Fei Chun has been truly busy these days — from last winter straight through to the spring planting season, without even a proper rest over the New Year.

And, not knowing which day his parents might arrive, he feared that being buried in work and forgetting their temperaments would lead to trouble.

On the way home, Madam Ling nagged the whole journey, complaining that her son had become such a high official yet did not even have a single sedan chair.

Fei Chun sighed helplessly, hailed some roadside porters, and called for two litter chairs so his parents could ride home on a mountain palanquin.

Many Confucian scholars past and present opposed the sedan chair, deeming it to treat common folk as oxen and horses.

Yet Zhao Han, who advocates equality for all, permits the existence of sedan chairs and palanquins — and even created an entire trade: the idle unemployed may register with the authorities, and by paying only a small license fee, they can earn a living carrying passengers on palanquins.

It can be understood as a rickshaw, or as a taxi.

It both generates revenue for the government and eases urban employment.

Fei Lin and Madam Ling, after living several decades, were being carried along for the very first time, and at once they felt considerably better.

Madam Ling said, "Chun, call one more litter chair — you are an official, how can you walk back? Don't be so shabby that people look down on you."

Fei Chun had no choice but to explain: "Mother, when it is not necessary, Brother Han also walks on his own. Brother Han has a great many rules: keeping household slaves is forbidden at home, and mistreating hired servants is also forbidden. Also, from now on you must not flaunt yourselves and stir up trouble — this time it was only a beating and a fine; a second offense will be punished one degree more severely! If anyone comes to the house seeking favors, no matter how large the gift, you must not accept it. Otherwise I won't even know the day my head gets chopped off."

Chopped off?

Madam Ling was so frightened she dared not speak.

Fei Lin asked, "You're on excellent terms with Brother Han — would taking a little money really get your head chopped off?"

Fei Chun said, "Embezzle a little and your land is confiscated and you are demoted; embezzle more and you go dig ore in the mountains; embezzle even more and your head is chopped off directly! It is the same for anyone."

Fei Lin muttered, "This won't do, that won't do, can't even keep a maidservant — what kind of rebellion are you people even staging?"

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Unable to explain it all clearly in a short time, Fei Chun could only say, "Father, Mother, just remember this: if you recklessly accept gifts, your son's official position will not be secure, and his head will easily move house. That is all."

The couple were truly frightened now, and even dared not speak carelessly anymore.

Back at home, Fei Chun naturally explained the rules in detail — what required special attention, what must not be violated — and brought out five taels of silver for his parents to buy clothes.

Madam Ling asked, "Chun, what is your salary now?"

"Twelve taels a month," Fei Chun answered.

Fei Lin grumbled, "This Brother Han is truly stingy. The head manager of the Fei Trading Company gets ten taels a month, plus a year-end bonus."

Fei Chun sighed, "Official salaries are already very high. I wish they could be lowered a bit more."

Why?

Because Fei Chun is in charge of grain and funds, and he has been driven to utter exhaustion.

Zhao Han set the salaries for officials and clerks high — Fei Chun's monthly salary of twelve taels of silver, converted at the grain price in Ji'an Prefecture, is equivalent to that of a rank-four principal official in the Great Ming court.

Of course, grain prices fluctuate; Ji'an Prefecture has had bumper harvests these past two years, so grain prices are relatively low.

If a year of major disaster were to strike, Fei Chun's salary, compared to a Ming official's, might drop directly from rank-four principal to rank-six principal.

Moreover, in winter there is a charcoal subsidy, and officials at County Magistrate level and above also receive a paper-and-ink subsidy.

In any case, so long as he does not live extravagantly, Fei Chun can support his whole family on his salary without problem, and can even hire several servants to do housework — but if he were to entertain guests constantly and keep a swarm of servants, he certainly could not afford it.

Compared to the Great Ming court, not only have official salaries risen, but the wages of clerks have also risen across the board.

This is also why Fei Chun has been complaining all along, saying he cannot afford to support so many officials and clerks, and repeatedly requesting that the town-level government offices be reduced.

Supporting that many officials and clerks — they all have to be paid!

Back when Zhu Yuanzhang was building his enterprise, and even in the early years after the founding of the Great Ming, he could not afford to pay official salaries. So he devised a provisional policy: with abandoned fields everywhere at the end of the Yuan, he directly granted land for officials to reclaim, and the grain they harvested served as their salary.

Pang Chunlai, Fei Ruhe, Fei Chun, and the others all hoped to strike back into Yanshan County as quickly as possible.

Because they knew that Yanshan County had open-pit copper mines!

During the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song, the largest coin-minting center in the whole realm was called the "Yongping Mint," located in Yongping Town in Yanshan County, where copper ore had been mined since the Western Han period.

Furthermore, the Yongping Mint's raw materials for coin-casting came from two sources: one was the Yanshan site (Yongping Town), and the other was the Dexing site (Dexing County).

And the Dexing copper mine, after more than a thousand years of mining, remains the largest open-pit copper mine in Asia!

Zhu Yuanzhang's earliest coin-minting institution was the Jiangxi Baoquan Bureau, with its minting site located in Yongping Town, Yanshan. Because the Yongping copper mine was over-exploited, and the Dexing copper mine was too far away and deep in the mountains, coin-minting gradually ceased from the mid-Ming period onward, and was not resumed until the founding of New China.

So long as Zhao Han occupies Yanshan County and Dexing County, there will certainly be no shortage of raw material for casting copper coins.

Jiangxi even has large-scale well-salt deposits, but unfortunately they are buried too deep and require modern prospecting techniques to discover, which is why Jiangxi was unable to produce its own salt in ancient times.

……

On the fifth day after settling in Ji'an Prefecture, Zhao Zhenfang slung her book bag over her shoulder and went joyfully to find Fei Rumei; the two girls set off together for the northern outskirts of the city to attend school.

Several decades ago, after White Egret Isle Academy was destroyed by floods, its campus moved to Benevolent Longevity Temple in the south of the city. The Benevolent Longevity Temple campus was later converted into the Luling County School, and White Egret Isle Academy moved to the northern outskirts. After White Egret Isle Academy was rebuilt, the school on the northern outskirts was turned into a private academy, and now it has been converted into a girls' school.

Zhao Han's universal four-year compulsory education, which requires that girls must also attend school, greatly displeased the gentry.

Although they are only children, still, men and women must not touch hands in passing.

Moreover, compulsory education is utterly absurd — the teaching content is extremely crude, and the quality of teachers is wildly uneven. In many village schools especially, the teachers are actually mere child students who have not even mastered the Four Books and Five Classics, and can only teach students to read and to learn arithmetic.

So some gentry requested that they be allowed to pool their own funds to establish girls' schools, without the government spending a single cent.

Zhao Han naturally agreed to such a good thing, with only one condition: certain passages in the "Four Books for Women" must be excised or revised!

For example, the first chapter of "Admonitions for Women" was altered by Zhao Han beyond all recognition.

The "On Humility and Weakness" chapter was changed to "On the Virtue of Kun"; outrageous phrases like "Make clear her humility and weakness, she is subordinate to others" were changed to "The virtue of a wife is to manage the household with skill." The teaching that a newborn daughter should be placed beneath the bed, while a son is placed upon the bed — all such hierarchical distinctions were completely deleted! The "playing with jade" and "playing with tiles" passages were also entirely removed!

Zhao Han personally wrote a preface for "Admonitions for Women," which read:

"A nation's prosperity lies in its people; a family's prosperity lies in its members. To establish the nation, first establish the people. To establish the people, education must be promoted. She who is a mother is the beginning of all instruction — this cannot go unexamined..."

The gentry could do nothing about this; they could only let their daughters study the new edition of "Admonitions for Women" at school, and then learn the old edition after returning home.

Yingchun and Dongfu, already restored to free status, still worked as maidservants in Madam Lou's household.

They led the two girls to the northern-suburb girls' school to register and begin their studies.

Along the way, Zhao Zhenfang and Fei Rumei chattered incessantly, finding everything they saw fresh and curious, filled mainly with fanciful imaginings about attending school.

Yingchun then said quietly to Dongfu, "On the third day of the third month they're arranging marriages — are you going?"

"I'm not going. It's too embarrassing," Dongfu said, her face red.

Yingchun laughed. "I want to go have a look. I'm twenty-three, a year older than you. If I don't marry soon, I won't be able to marry at all."

Dongfu teased, "You're just pining for a man."

"Pining for a man it is," Yingchun said, all smiles. "Even if we'd stayed in Yanshan, I should have been betrothed by now. Coming here to Brother Han, I don't have to be a household slave anymore. Marry an officer, and maybe my sons can become officials too. A good thing like this — I never even dreamed of it before."

Dongfu was quite stirred, but she said stubbornly, "I'm not marrying. The mistress treats me well; I'll serve her all my life."

After walking a stretch, Dongfu suddenly asked, "What's a matchmaking gathering?"

"You haven't heard?" Yingchun explained. "Every year on the third day of the third month, the soldiers get leave. The propaganda officers organize a matchmaking gathering for the unmarried ones. Any unwed woman can sign up, even widows. The women pick the ones they fancy first, and if the man is willing too, they all go on a group spring outing outside the city. If no one has second thoughts after the outing, the marriage is settled."

Dongfu's face reddened. "Aiya, that's so embarrassing. Unmarried men and women going on a spring outing — isn't that ignoring all propriety between the sexes?"

Yingchun laughed. "It's not like they're letting you have a secret rendezvous. There are loads of people on the outing together that day."

"Who did you hear this from?" Dongfu asked curiously.

Yingchun said, "From that maid called Yang Cai in Young Master Ruhe's courtyard. She said she was too shy to sign up last year, but another maid did and married a young officer. That officer even had a few years of schooling. She quit her job as soon as she married — the husband's family paid a sum to buy out her contract. I hear she's about to have a child now."

"That soldier must have been a high officer, to afford the contract buyout money," Dongfu said.

Yingchun laughed. "He performed great deeds. It was reward silver."

"Good fortune for her, then," Dongfu said, a little envious.

"Are you going?" Yingchun asked.

Dongfu bit her lip and said, "I could go and see. But I won't quit my job. I can ask the mistress to change my contract, come to work a bit earlier every day, and go home in the evening to live my own life."

Yingchun teased, "And you said you didn't want to go — you've already planned out your married life."

Dongfu was too embarrassed to speak and just trudged on with her head down.

In Zhao Han's territory, there was no need to worry about public order. The extortion gangs and beggars had all been banned. These were all labor power, not to be left idle and wasted. The three weapons workshops alone could absorb many of them, and plenty of the rough work required no particular skill.

Before they even reached the school, Zhao Zhenfang ran into a schoolmate on the road. She had no idea which family's young lady it was, escorted by two servants, a man and a woman.

There was a plaque at the gate of the girls' school. Zhao Zhenfang looked up and saw four large characters: "Swept-Brow Academy."

"What does 'Swept-Brow' mean?" Fei Rumei was a bit puzzled.

Zhao Zhenfang laughed. "Have you forgotten? 'By the Wanli Bridge, a woman editor of texts; amid the loquat blossoms, she dwells behind closed doors. How many swept-brow talents have there been? None can command the spring breeze as she does.' We studied this poem. A swept-brow talent means a talented woman."

Fei Rumei recalled it at once and exclaimed, "Aiya, that allusion comes from Xue Tao, and Xue Tao was a woman of the music registers."

"My second brother abolished the music registers," Zhao Zhenfang said, pointing at the plaque.

Fei Rumei looked closely. The four characters "Swept-Brow Academy" had been inscribed by Zhao Han himself.

Whether male or female servants, all were stopped at the school gate. Yingchun and Dongfu had come to register a child, so they were specially permitted to enter.

Inside it was quiet, secluded, and elegant. One could occasionally glimpse girl students.

Even the teachers were women from prominent households. Not a single male creature could be found in the entire school.

"Hehehehe…"

A peal of silvery laughter rang out. Zhao Zhenfang passed through a covered corridor and looked — it was several girl students kicking a shuttlecock.

Fei Rumei said happily, "I like it here. There are so many playmates to have fun with."

Zhao Zhenfang said with a smile, "It is lively, far more interesting than staying at home."

Zhao Han did not shout slogans about equality between men and women now. He simply did what he could to let women step out from their boudoirs.

(End of chapter)