Chapter 757: We Must Lead Little Brother Fulin Astray

Little Fulin is none other than the Shunzhi little Emperor.

Over the past two years, Jin Dongzhu has kept up a close correspondence with Shunzhi — and this, of course, was all Zhu Cilang's idea!

Jin Dongzhu, that is, Princess Dong'e, is now Shunzhi's nominal elder sister, and moreover she holds a certain degree of sway over the Shunzhi Emperor's studies.

So Shunzhi had no choice but to patiently exchange letters with this top-student sister of his, and he often hinted in his letters that Jin Dongzhu should stop sending French textbooks to Beijing — French was simply too hard to learn!

Besides, the three top students Nalan Mingzhu, Songgotu, and Gao Sai were all far better at French than Shunzhi. Every time Aunt Bumbutai saw the four of them's exam papers, she could not help but give Shunzhi a scolding.

Shunzhi also often boasted in his letters to Dongzhu about how good his arithmetic grades were — addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, he knew them all! This Shunzhi was probably lopsided in his studies: good at arithmetic, so-so in language, and absolutely dreadful in French.

But in the letter Dongzhu had just received, Shunzhi no longer complained about French being too hard, because Shunzhi was about to prepare for his grand wedding, so there had been no classes during this period.

His Imperial Ama Dorgon and Empress Dowager Bumbutai had chosen for him a beautiful Mongol cousin named Meng Guqing, the daughter of Bumbutai's elder brother Wu Keshan, but Shunzhi did not seem to like this woman very much.

In addition, Shunzhi also told Dong'e that he had already become a father! His concubine Lady Bishishe had borne him a son, named Niuniu, but Niuniu's health was poor and he was always falling ill.

Finally, Shunzhi also urged Dong'e in the letter to hurry up and marry into the family, and to strive to bear a son for Zhu Cilang as soon as possible!

Right now the Zhu Emperor still had no son by his empress, so a son of Dong'e's would still have a chance!

After finishing the letter Fulin had written, Zhu Cilang glanced at Dongzhu (Dong'e), whose face was a little flushed, and said with a smile, "You're still young, and your body hasn't finished growing. It's not yet time for you to be a mother."

"Oh." The little girl's face instantly turned as red as an apple.

Watching her bashful, coy look, Zhu Cilang felt a sudden urge to take a bite out of her, but he held himself back.

He had brought Princess Dong'e to his side not for the convenience of taking a bite, but for the convenience of leading Shunzhi astray!

Zhu Cilang knew that Dorgon had fallen gravely ill last year, and had only recovered slightly after being sick from the eighth month all the way to the eleventh. But he had not improved much, and these days he was still recuperating in Beijing; it did not look as though he would last much longer.

And once Dorgon died, the Great Qing would immediately be thrown into a heaven-shaking upheaval!

If Shunzhi could seize back power in the midst of this upheaval, then the turning point of the Great Qing's decline would have arrived.

So these days Zhu Cilang had been using Princess Dong'e to influence the Shunzhi Emperor in Beijing, striving to lead him down the path of reducing the feudatories and centralizing power.

Centralization of power can sometimes strengthen a state, and sometimes severely weaken it. What exactly happens depends on the circumstances.

And as for those circumstances, the first thing to look at is whether the monarch doing the centralizing is enlightened enough! If one encounters an enlightened ruler like Zhu Cilang, then a bit of centralization is naturally fine. But Shunzhi would not do!

Secondly, one must look at whether the non-centralized feudal or collegial system of government is functioning well. If it is functioning well, that shows the system meets the needs of development and progress, and rash reform will inevitably backfire. And the system of "a strong regent plus the Nine Banners council" that Dorgon built for the Qing dynasty has so far functioned well. Although great power was not concentrated in Dorgon's hands, it also avoided internecine slaughter within the Manchu Eight Banners. The Eight Banners had few men; if they fought among themselves once, a good many elite soldiers and fierce generals would surely die.

Even if a slaughter like the "Tianjing Incident" did not occur, after Shunzhi seized power he would certainly purge the two White Banners and the Plain Blue Banner, and would also move against the banners beyond the passes controlled by Dodo — the nine banner garrisons beyond the passes had already formed their own system, and could even be regarded as an independent banner. Dorgon relied on the Plain White and Bordered Green Banners, which he personally controlled, the Plain Blue Banner and the nine banner garrisons beyond the passes controlled by Dodo, and the Bordered White Banner controlled by Ajige, to maintain the Great Qing state under the council system very well.

And once Dorgon died, the only person who could succeed him as Shunzhi's "new Ama" was Dodo. If Dodo became Shunzhi's new Ama, then Zhu Cilang's northern expedition would not be easy to fight!

Besides inciting Shunzhi to reduce the feudatories and centralize power, Zhu Cilang also wanted, through Dong'e, to get Shunzhi to pick up the civil examination system again.

"Dongzhu, didn't you say last time that Fulin wanted to know how the Imperial Academy examinations are conducted here?"

Jin Dongzhu was taken aback. Did I say that? No, I didn't! Why would little brother Fulin ask about such a thing? He hates exams the most.

Zhu Cilang smiled. "Dongzhu, We have already ordered Bi Jiucheng to put together a set of our Great Ming's Imperial Academy examination methods. Later you can copy it out and send it to Fulin. Hasn't our Great Ming been flourishing these past two years precisely because of this set of civil-examination methods for selecting talent?"

In fact, the Great Ming's Imperial Academy examinations and the official examinations were two entirely different things. Passing the Imperial Academy examination did not mean one could become an official, and the difficulty of the official examinations was far lower than that of the Imperial Academy examinations. If one merely wanted to land a ninth-rank petty post, the best choice was to take the official examinations at the provincial, prefectural (departmental) levels, or the Ministry of Personnel examination at court.

Of course, in the future, officials with credentials from the Imperial Academy, the Capital Academy, the Military Academy, and the Naval Academy (they still had to take the official examinations to become civil officials of the Great Ming) would have far better career prospects than officials without those four diplomas — the Capital Academy, the Military Academy, and the Naval Academy had all been running for several years now, and graduates had begun entering government service one after another. But the Imperial Academy had not yet formally opened, because the examinations and the teachers (the Grand Secretaries) were all still teaching themselves.

According to plan, the first Imperial Academy entrance examination and Grand Secretary examination would be held next year, that is, in the second month of the fifth year of Great Ming Hongxing. Besides the basic Four Books and Five Classics, the examination content consisted of the "Zilun Gewu Pian" and mathematics. In addition, Imperial Academy students also had to be assessed on the Six Arts.

This Imperial Academy was actually not established to train officials, but to train scholars — though of course it did not oppose the principle of "excel in learning and then enter officialdom."

But in the Great Ming civil examination methods that Bi Jiucheng had compiled, the Imperial Academy examination was equated with the civil examinations, and the official examination was equated with the clerk examination.

That is, the Imperial Academy examination would be used to select talented scholars, have them study in the Imperial Academy for three years, and after passing the graduation examination, they could be assigned official posts. Basically, it was adding three years at the Imperial Academy after the civil examinations — a kind of reformed civil examination.

The reason Zhu Cilang wanted to sell this "reformed civil examination" to Shunzhi was to promote the sinicization of the Great Qing. In fact, centralization of power and sinicization were linked together, because the essence of sinicization was Confucianization, and after one or two thousand years of transformation, Confucianism had already become a school (or sect) of learning that upheld the monarchical system in terms of worldview, values, and outlook on life.

The regency-plus-council system that Dorgon was currently implementing in the Great Qing was actually developed from Manchu tribal politics; it was a Manchu tradition, not a Confucian tradition.

If Shunzhi wanted to change the "Imperial Ama plus Nine Banners council" into imperial centralization, then he would have to abandon Manchu ways and adopt sinicization, and while purging the six old Manchu banners (excluding the two Yellow Banners), he would also have to make heavy use of Han Confucian officials.

As far as Zhu Cilang knew, over on the Great Qing side, quite a few Han Confucian officials had already entered government service through the channel of the Bordered Green Banner.

While Dorgon lived, these people were of course men in the Imperial Ama's pocket, but once Dorgon died, Dodo, who had long been supervising the army in the northeast, might not be able to smoothly take over the Bordered Green Banner's assets. If Shunzhi could now show a posture of "venerating Confucianism and honoring Confucius," then the Bordered Green Banner would swing to Shunzhi's side after Dorgon's death. With their support, plus the base of the two Yellow Banners, Shunzhi would be able to put up a fight against Dodo!

Thinking of this, Zhu Cilang said to Dongzhu again, "Dongzhu, We have had Qian Qianyi and the others compile a 'Zizheng Houpian,' summarizing the successes and failures of governance over the Song, Yuan, and our own dynasty's more than two hundred years. It is well worth reading, and you may also recommend it to Fulin."

Regardless of whether the contents of the "Zizheng Houpian" compiled by the great Confucian Qian Qianyi were correct or not, as long as Shunzhi made a show of holding it and reading it, that would demonstrate his stance of valuing Confucian officials!

(End of Chapter)