Chapter 1226: Means of Preemptive Avoidance

Seeing such pursuits and such realizations, Ju was also very gratified, because he saw the transformation of these people, from savages into Huaxia people.

This kind of pursuit of power cannot be generalized, saying that it is bad, that it is a kind of greed, a base instinct of human nature.

But one must also find the good, the commendable parts within it, such as the willingness to be an official, or even the willingness to execute such dangerous tasks just to become an official, simply to obtain an opportunity to learn.

It not only makes an ordinary savage willing to struggle and strive, but it also promotes everyone's enthusiasm; if everyone were like this, how could Huaxia worry about a lack of talent?

Moreover, he is even willing to learn now; in the past, Huaxia gave them opportunities to learn and forcibly arranged for them to go, but they were unwilling to go. Look at them now, they are begging to go themselves, how wonderful.

However, Ju could only offer a little advice; he had no ability to help Ma, and let alone him, even General Yishang probably couldn't do it.

Ordinary schools are simple, especially primary elementary schools; as long as you don't feel embarrassed, you can be arranged to sit in and audit with a group of children at will.

As for subsequent schools, it is a bit troublesome, after all, the management is very strict; back then, a group of people were even dealt with because of this matter.

Official Schools are even more impossible; these are established to cultivate officials. If anyone could interfere, wouldn't Huaxia's officials be everywhere?

Furthermore, if I am the one who pushed you into the school, then after I graduate and become an official, wouldn't I have to consider your favor, whether it should be repaid, whether I should look after you?

Of course, it is impossible to say that those below would look after those above, but it would certainly lead to the formation of cliques for private interests, so Huaxia would not open this door from the very beginning.

Huaxia's nobles can be nobles of wealth, but they cannot be nobles of politics, military, or education. These things must be monopolized by the Royal Family, including things like salt, iron, and tea, which must also be monopolized by the Royal Family.

In the books Baifeng left for the children, it is written that in the future, these can be state-monopolized, with the Royal Family letting go and allowing everyone to operate them together to reduce errors, but they must absolutely not fall into private hands, and cannot be taken over by any one person or any tightly-knit group.

This is a matter concerning the destiny of the entire country and must not go wrong; after all, Baifeng has the mirror of history.

The imperial examination is a good thing, but at the beginning, it also served the nobles and the scholarly families. Later, a man named Huang Chao discovered that it was easier to fight his way into Chang'an than to pass the exam into Chang'an, and he incidentally slaughtered the noble families once over.

From then on, China did not move toward a caste system like Asan; everyone was equal. Regardless of whether you were from a great clan or not—although certain surnames did indeed still have a certain influence, such as the Zhangs of the South and the Kongs of the North, one being a religious leader and the other an educational leader—their influence remained huge.

It is a pity that by the Jin and Yuan periods, the Northern Kongs had already been replaced by Menggu people. As long as the dynasty changed, they were the first to surrender. Baifeng remembers one Duke Yansheng who married a Southeast Asian woman in a country across the ocean; other than the surname, it had long since had nothing to do with "Kong".

They are not the benchmark for scholars, nor are they idols; they should be called a disgrace.

The Southern Zhangs were slightly better, but after crossing the strait, their heritage was also considered broken. The religious leader completely became history, and even if the new successors changed their surnames, they could not convince the public. All they could occupy was a mountain and the ancestral graves of the Zhang family.

Later, when everyone talked about it, who among their ancestors wasn't a famous person? As long as you were willing to look, you could always find yourself a good ancestor, a powerful ancestor. When Zhao Kuangyin became Emperor, he had to find himself an ancestor.

After piecing things together, he found himself an ancestor from the State of Zhao, a person who wore yellow clothes and shouted that he had been harmed terribly, and it turned out he was a relative of the First Emperor. Although the credibility was almost zero, that dynasty was also called the Tianshui Dynasty.

Baifeng now wants to prevent this situation from happening; it cannot exist in the future. As long as there are surnames and clans, they are noble, and the most noble are Youchao and the Suiren clan.

But historically, the "clan" was gradually lost, leaving only the surname, and now Huaxia simply grants surnames directly.

Everyone surely thinks the surnames of the founding nobles are powerful, but it is enough to have a surname oneself. What Baifeng wants to do in the future is to make everyone's surname the same rank, with no distinction between high and low, except for Bai.

Education and the imperial examination must be firmly in the hands of the state and cannot be monopolized by scholarly cliques. But as long as basic education is fully opened and persisted in, scholarly cliques will naturally be difficult to emerge.

Regional integration and various types of integration can reduce the probability of cliques and factions appearing.

Baifeng believes the only thing he cannot solve is the problem of collusion between officials and merchants. He has no way to deal with this, and the many famous scholars and masters in history did not solve this difficult problem either.

The hierarchy of scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants is definitely not allowed; professional discrimination must be eliminated. Of course, he cannot be so advanced as to say that workers and farmers should lead a country, because society is developing, and it is still a long way from stepping into a unified Feudal Society.

Unless one could have an endless supply of food, inexhaustible resources, infinite wealth, and advanced technology fall from Heaven, then one could completely perform a triple jump from primitive society.

After all, it had been successful back then; the ethnic groups in the deep mountains of the Southwest region, isolated from the world, were still in the appearance of primitive society, and those in the Northeast region, didn't they also perform a multi-level jump?

But Baifeng does not have that confidence or ability to develop into a Capitalist Society within two thousand years and complete primitive accumulation. Baifeng can proudly say that the route he planned and the initial framework he built are very successful and very awesome!

Because he wants to start eliminating the influence of some historical inevitable factors from the very beginning, or rather, minimize the influence. Collusion between officials and merchants and official integrity are a major difficulty.

It won't work for Baifeng to say he will restrict merchants from taking the imperial examinations, because they will cultivate, fund, and support some promising young people, and they will bribe powerful high-ranking officials.

One can only say to try one's best to achieve the separation of politics and business and strengthen supervision. The Ministry of Justice, which appeared many eras ahead of time, was for this purpose, but who will supervise the Ministry of Justice? It can only be the masses, but mass supervision is not necessarily enough, so this is a problem that needs many, many years and many generations of people to slowly resolve.

Returning to the topic, in any case, the Official School is a place where outsiders will never be allowed to interfere. But Changle is not an outsider; how many people are there in the entire Royal Family? Whatever Changle wants to do is just a matter of a single word; it just depends on whether he is willing or not.