I’m the Farmgirl You Can’t Mess With
Chapter 868 - Chapter 868 Imperial Edict

Chapter 868: Imperial Edict Chapter 868: Imperial Edict Editor: Atlas Studios Scholars naturally knew more about scholars, so Qi Xiuyuan summoned the scholars of the Hanlin Academy to the palace to discuss how to write this imperial edict.

After writing the imperial edict, it wasn’t immediately sent out; Qi Xiuyuan needed an opportunity.

But before he could do anything, the people from the Cheng-Zhu school of thought started to cause a ruckus.

Among them, the Zhu family was the most furious.

Zhu Xi had only passed away a few years ago.

Although he had also been an official in the court, his official position was not high, but his influence on the Zhu family was not small.

Because of his annotations to the four books, he was respected as a sage in the Jiangnan area, especially among the students of the humble class.

When they mentioned him, they would address him respectfully as “Zhu Zi”.

His family had also benefited a lot, so they naturally did not want Zhu Xi’s status to be challenged.

Therefore, when the contents of the debate among the Hanlin Scholars spread, they were the most furious.

This was because in the debate, many of them belittled the book “Annotations to the Four Books”.

How could they not be angry hearing this?

However, the most highly-ranked official in the Zhu family was only a fifth-grade official and did not even have the qualifications to go to court.

Naturally, they could not raise objections in the court, so they encouraged the students to help them seek justice.

Those students who had always used the “Annotations to the Four Books” as a reference book were also afraid that the Imperial Court would now come up with “tricky” questions, so they agreed one after another.

The capital was in Jiangnan, so the Emperor immediately knew what was going on outside.

The imperial edict he had prepared came in handy at this moment.

In order to convey the decree more clearly, Qi Xiuyuan asked someone to read it again and again at the county government offices.

In the imperial edict, Qi Xiuyuan affirmed Zhu Xi’s contribution to the education industry, and acknowledged that Zhu Xi had indeed provided convenience to many students through his “Annotations to the Four Books”.

Some of the annotations were even very incisive, and even the contemporary Confucian scholars could not compare.

However, these were ultimately just the opinion of one person.

Some of the knowledge in the textbooks had fixed answers, but some had thousands of explanations which weren’t conflicting.

What Zhu Xi gave was only one of thousands of interpretations.

He hoped that scholars would also advance and take the initiative to think, not use ready-made answers to fool others and oneself.

As for the issue of examination questions that everyone was worried about, it was not a problem at all.

This was because other than policy theory, most of the questions would still be drawn from the Four Books and Five Scriptures.

Even the textbooks that everyone used and the annotations they learned would remain the same.

Due to everyone’s thought processes and literary styles being different, their answers would naturally be different.

The setters would not come up with strange questions for the sake of trying to be different.

This was the Imperial Examination, an examination to recruit the country’s talents, not child’s play.

However, the Emperor also said that if the answers for 99 of the 100 papers were similar, and only one was different, as long as the answer was not wrong, the examiner would preferentially give the latter a high score.

Therefore, he encouraged the students to apply their own understanding instead of blindly copying the annotations.

This imperial edict spread throughout the world, causing a vivid discussion among the students.

The Jiangnan students were especially shocked.

The Zhu family and the people from the Cheng-Zhu school of thought could not say anything because the Emperor did not say that Zhu Xi was in the wrong.

He praised Zhu Xi, and merely felt that everyone should not only recognize the annotations from a single book.

At this moment, the other factions stepped forward, suppressing the Cheng-Zhu school of thought’s resistance and eliminating the conflict between factions.

At the end of the day, it was because the Cheng-Zhu school of thought had just begun to gain prominence and had yet to gain a foothold when it was unintentionally taken down a notch by Mu Yangling.

Those who had used Zhu Xi’s book as a textbook were currently only students under the age of 25 yet to enter officialdom, so their power was limited.

What’s more, his book was only highly regarded in Jiangnan.

It had just started to gain prominence in other regions and had yet to become popular.

That was why this storm came and went quickly.

Still, Qi Xiuyuan paid attention to the scholars.

Although they didn’t have the troops to rebel, the chaos they could cause would still cause the country to suffer a lot of losses.

Moreover, because the scholars controlled public opinion, it was easy for them to create panic among the masses.

Even though Qi Xiuyuan had never been an Emperor, he knew that no one faction was allowed to have monopoly.

Otherwise, the imperial power would be easily restricted or eroded.

It was the same when it came to academics.

The Imperial Examination mainly focused on Confucianism, but Daoism also occupied a place.

Zhu Xi’s “Annotations to the Four Books” clearly respected Confucianism more.

So how could he let Zhu Xi have all the limelight to himself?

Therefore, Qi Xiuyuan called everyone into the palace, hinting that they could also write books on the topic.

If Zhu Xi could write annotations, so could others.

Those who could enter the Hanlin Academy were all people who had passed through rigorous examinations, and were confident of themselves.

When they heard this, their eyes lit up, but they were also vexed.

“With our limited money, I’m afraidaEUR|” Publishing a book required money, and the money would only come in after they sold the books.

Before that, they had to pay for the publishing of the book first.

It was precisely because of this that there were not many people who authored books.

Qi Xiuyuan frowned slightly and said, “I’ll talk to the Minister of Revenue about this and see if I can allocate a sum of money to you.” The Hanlin scholars retreated gratefully.

When Mu Yangling heard this, she hurriedly entered the palace and said to Qi Xiuyuan, “Big Brother, leave the publishing of the books to me.

You don’t have to ask the Ministry of Revenue to allocate additional funds.” Considering Qi Xiuyuan’s current frugal ways, he probably wouldn’t be able to allocate much money anyway.

Having already taken 99 steps, they couldn’t afford to make a mistake at the last step.

Most importantly, everyone in the Cheng-Zhu school of thought already knew that Mu Yangling was the one who started this and hated her for it.

No matter what, she couldn’t let there still be only one book of annotations on the market.

Anyway, she had her own bookstore, and it deployed the most advanced movable type printing.

Other than ink and paper, the workers and machines were all ready.

As such, it wouldn’t incur much expenses to print those books.

As long as the books could be sold, there was quite some money to be earned here.

Moreover, she could even gain the favor of the Hanlin Scholars through this.

Why not?

However, Qi Xiuyuan felt that Mu Yangling was suggesting this to share his burden and agreed happily.

He even said, “If you don’t have enough money, let me know.

I’ll get the Ministry of Internal Affairs to give it to you.” Mu Yangling nodded repeatedly, despite knowing she wouldn’t ask him for money.

Qi Haoran also said, “I bet Big Brother was just casually mentioning it.

He’s super stingy these days, holding the purse strings very tightly.

You mustn’t ask him for money, or else it’ll cause him heartache and he’ll take it out on me.” “Don’t worry.

Even if Big Brother stuffs the money into my hands, I can’t take it.” Qi Haoran asked curiously, “When did you become so self-aware?” “What do you know?

Those who are writing the books are all from Hanlin, and might be the ones who set the Imperial Examination questions in the next ten years.

How many people do you think will buy the books authored by them?” Mu Yangling snorted.

“That’s why I said that everything is based on benefits.

Just watch.

Once their books of annotations are out, Zhu Xi’s book will have to take a backseat.” “But if you price the books too highly, the humble class students won’t be able to afford it.” Smiling, Mu Yangling said, “Don’t worry.

My printing cost is only one-third that of other bookstores.

The price won’t be too high, but it can’t be too cheap either.

Otherwise, we might incur the fury of the other bookstores.”

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