Chapter 113: The Magistrate Strikes Gold

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Zhang Yanqiu then told County Magistrate Lu about Su Lu’s admirable habit of enthusiastically guiding his classmates so that they could all improve together.

“Good, very good indeed.” Yet after hearing him out, Magistrate Lu was somewhat disappointed. Such quiet, unheralded good deeds were impossible to turn into a model achievement for public praise...

What they needed were accomplishments like “passing the academy examination after one hundred days of study” or “rising from last place to first in the entire school in six months”—something that could serve as a rallying point for subsequent publicity.

Who would have thought that Zhang Yanqiu had merely been laying the groundwork? He now drew a folded sheet from his sleeve and said, “Su Lu also felt deeply that the mountain regions suffer from a shortage of teachers, and that children like him have no timely access to basic education, causing far too many talents to go undiscovered. He therefore devised fifty phonetic symbols for the Hongwu Correct Rhymes, perfectly replacing the traditional fanqie spelling method and greatly reducing the difficulty of teaching children to read.”

“Oh?” Magistrate Lu’s eyes lit up again. There was the rallying point he needed! Whatever the thing was, a gimmick was all that mattered for building momentum. He accepted the folded sheet Zhang Yanqiu offered him, but at first glance he was utterly bewildered. What were these strange characters, chopped into bits and pieces?

Still, that was hardly surprising. Phonology was incomparably complicated, with countless schools and traditions, and had always been enough to give anyone a splitting headache. It was like the gentleman’s way, which was “costly to follow and difficult to perceive.” Even illiterate people knew a little about it, while not even the most learned scholars could explain every aspect clearly.

No matter how highly one praised a fourteen-year-old boy as a prodigy, it was impossible for him to replace the eight or nine hundred fanqie characters in the Hongwu Correct Rhymes with a mere fifty symbols!

Even so, Magistrate Lu was habitually cautious. Before passing judgment, he asked Zhu Liu, “Brother Dejia, have you examined these symbols?”

“Yes. Mr. Zhang showed them to me yesterday, and I am still deeply astonished.” To Magistrate Lu’s surprise, Zhu Liu replied with a face full of admiration. “With a mere fifty symbols, they can perfectly represent the seventy-six rhymes and twelve thousand two hundred and forty-six characters in the Hongwu Correct Rhymes.”

“Moreover, they are far simpler and more rational than the fanqie method. One need not recognize so many characters, one will not make mistakes while splitting sounds and thus spell pronunciations incorrectly, and the system conveys the finer details of speech with even greater precision!” He spoke with an expression of disbelief. “It is truly difficult to imagine that such a system came from a fourteen-year-old boy!”

“When I first saw it, I too found it impossible to believe. Yet this phonetic system is genuinely unprecedented. A child from the mountains could hardly know more than all of us...” Mr. Zhang’s face was filled with emotion. “At the time, his proposal was still incomplete, with only some thirty phonetic symbols. Later, I encouraged him to expand the set to fifty. He refined it step by step until the day before yesterday, when it finally became flawless, without the slightest shortcoming.”

“See? Heaven itself knew that my lord was coming and therefore allowed such a priceless treasure to be born!” Assistant You, without bothering about the particulars, promptly delivered his flattery.

“Hiss...” Hearing this, Magistrate Lu wondered whether he had misjudged the boy yet again. He picked up the folded sheet and began examining it closely.

Zhang Yanqiu apologized for the interruption, rose, and explained the system to him. He even demonstrated on the spot how to combine the phonetic symbols into pronunciations. At last, Magistrate Lu and everyone present felt the advanced nature of the system. It was nothing short of revolutionary!

“Su Lu also composed a mnemonic verse to help children memorize them,” Zhang Yanqiu continued, strongly recommending the system. “Bo, po, mo, fo; de, te, ne, le; ge, ke, he; ji, qi, xi... With only half a day’s effort, a child can memorize all fifty sounds.”

“Then teaching young children to read would become much easier, wouldn’t it?” Magistrate Lu’s eyes rolled rapidly, and his heart pounded with excitement.

The greatest problem with the fanqie method was that it did not allow students to teach themselves. They first had to spend an entire year under a teacher’s guidance, learning all eight hundred or more fanqie characters. Only then could they use the method to recognize additional characters.

With phonetic symbols, the difficulty of teaching children to read would be drastically reduced! Would that not mean...

He exchanged a glance with his aide, Assistant You. They both understood at once that they had reached the same conclusion. This phonetic system was a fortune dropped straight from heaven!

~~

The matter had to be explained from the beginning, though fortunately it was not complicated.

After founding the Ming dynasty, the court established community schools throughout the realm. It invited learned teachers to instruct the children of ordinary families in the laws of the new dynasty, the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, and the proper rites for coming of age, marriage, funerals, and sacrifices. These schools were regarded as an important means of eradicating the lingering poison of the Yuan dynasty and restoring the civilization of the Han people.

During the Hongwu era, when administrative efficiency was exceptionally high, community schools became so numerous that there was nearly one for every fifty households. But as the fiscal crisis worsened, the unworthy descendants of the founding generation could no longer bear such enormous expenses, and the community schools gradually fell from their former prosperity.

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The court nevertheless continued to hope that the community schools could be revived and restored to their Hongwu-era glory. In the first year of Chenghua, Emperor Xianzong ordered the provincial education commissioners and the officials of every prefecture and county to support and supervise the schools. For a time, it was even decreed that students of outstanding conduct and learning could be exempted from the examinations and appointed as licentiates!

Although this policy soon came to nothing, it clearly demonstrated the court’s eagerness to revive the community schools and civilize the people.

The present Hongzhi Emperor had likewise issued repeated edicts expressing concern for the schools. At the beginning of this year, the court once again ordered every prefecture, department, and county to establish community schools according to regulations. It further stipulated that all children under the age of fifteen in the common population were to be sent to these schools to study.

It was, in effect, the Ming version of compulsory education...

Nor was the emperor the only one enthusiastic about the matter. The three grand secretaries, Liu, Li, and Xie, also attached great importance to this “revival of the community schools.” They issued proclamations throughout the prefectures and counties, announcing that the results would be recorded in the officials’ evaluations.

If someone managed to achieve something noteworthy at a time like this, it would be very easy for the court to hold him up as a model and promote him!

But before today, Magistrate Lu could only dream of such a thing. Hejiang was poor, and more than half its people lived in the mountains. Where could he establish community schools throughout the county and find teachers to staff them?

Of course, Hejiang still had quite a few educated men. If he gritted his teeth and undertook a little performance project, assigning one teacher to every town, or even every village, he might be able to keep it going for a year or two.

But the court had thought of that long before he had. It was not enough merely to establish the schools. They also had to be “highly effective” before the effort would count...

What qualified as highly effective? At the very least, the students had to be able to recite the Three Character Classic, the Hundred Family Surnames, the Thousand Character Classic, and the Classic of Filial Piety. That required them to recognize at least two or three thousand characters...

Most of the students in the community schools were wild mountain children, while the teachers were only mediocre. Under normal circumstances, they would be unable to meet the standard even after several years of study. That was the truly fatal problem!

He could, of course, boast and bluff. But before the censor responsible for evaluating the prefectures and counties awarded him an exceptional rating, the man would certainly come to Hejiang in person to inspect the results. If the deception were exposed then, forget about promotion—his official cap would be stripped from him as well.

With this “phonetic system for the Hongwu Correct Rhymes,” however, things were different. The children could be taught enough characters in a short time for the county to reach, or even surpass, the standard for an exceptional evaluation with ease!

That explained why Magistrate Lu was so excited that his heart fluttered like a young deer’s, and why he kept exchanging meaningful glances with Assistant You.

In fact, Mr. Zhang had seen the imperial edict calling for the widespread establishment of community schools in the academy’s official gazette. That was why he had hurriedly pressed Su Lu to complete the phonetic system before Magistrate Lu arrived in person...

~~

Now, in Magistrate Lu’s eyes, Su Lu’s value was entirely different.

At first, he had intended to package the boy as a prodigy by every possible means and use him to make an impression before his superiors.

Now he intended to rely on this genuine prodigy to create genuine achievements in government...

The difference between the two was immense.

From that moment on, there was room in Magistrate Lu’s eyes, heart, and mouth for no one else. He did not take in a word of the examination papers submitted by the students who came afterward.

But those students were respectively the headmaster’s nephew, the regional commander’s grandson, and the company commander’s son, so he still had to put on a show of attention. After pretending to scan their papers—without having the slightest idea what any of them had written—Magistrate Lu nodded and said, “Very good, very good. All of you have great potential.”

He set the papers aside and smiled warmly at Zhu Liu. “Brother Dejia, call them all over. I want to offer them some encouragement in person.”

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“Very well.” Zhu Liu nodded and gave the order.

Before long, the outstanding students from the three divisions entered one after another. Ten of them lined up beneath the hall and bowed together.

“Your students pay their respects to the honored magistrate.”

“Very good, very good. You may all dispense with the formalities.” Smiling amiably, Magistrate Lu pushed himself upright by gripping the armrest. He looked over the dozen or so students and asked, “What are all your names?”

“Honored magistrate, my name is Jiang Hao, and I am from Luzhou Guard.” The senior student at the head of the upper division began introducing himself.

Magistrate Lu listened patiently. When the introductions reached the first student from the lower division, the boy declared in a clear voice, “Your student is Su Lu, son of a military household from Yongning Guard.”

Magistrate Lu’s eyes instantly opened wide. He examined the slender, handsome youth before him with care.

The boy had not yet fully grown into his height, but the upright structure of his bones was already apparent. His features were even more pleasing: swordlike brows, bright eyes clear as water, a straight and elegant nose, and lips as red as rouge. His entire bearing was calm and composed. Beneath the maturity of his manner, however, there was a faint air of youthful spirit and soaring ambition.

“Excellent, excellent! Even his appearance is first-rate. Heaven has truly sent a piece of fine jade to my county!” Magistrate Lu praised him again and again, convinced that everything about the boy, from head to toe, was perfect. He gazed at him as though he had found a priceless treasure, unable to see anyone else.

It was truly a case of one place dying from drought while another drowned in flood. Su Lu felt his skin crawl beneath the magistrate’s stare and nearly turned and fled.

After the next student, Zhu, bowed and announced his name, no response came for quite some time. When he looked up, he saw that Magistrate Lu was still gazing foolishly at Su Lu with delight.

Zhu stood there stiffly, caught in an impossible predicament. At last, his uncle gave a light cough and said, “Your Honor, there are still several students behind him.”

“Oh, yes.” Magistrate Lu finally returned to his senses. He beamed at Zhu Zihe and said, “You must be Student Ma. You look so much like your grandfather...”

Zhu Zihe had recently endured—no, been tempered by—enough suffering that last month he would certainly have flung up his sleeve and walked away on the spot. Now he could only suppress his displeasure and repeat his introduction in a low voice.

“Honored magistrate, a great man has many things to remember. My name is Zhu Zihe, and I am from Luzhou.”

“Oh, you’re Brother Jiade’s nephew!” Magistrate Lu slapped his forehead. “Look at my memory. I saw you during the New Year.”

“Yes.” Zhu Zihe felt not the slightest honor. Instead, he replied with wounded indignation, “During the New Year, I had the good fortune to accompany my uncle in paying you a New Year’s visit! You even praised me as a fine talent and a piece of beautiful jade!”

“Oh, yes, I remember now.” Magistrate Lu gave an embarrassed laugh. “Children of thirteen or fourteen grow so quickly. In only half a year, you look like an entirely different person. I could hardly recognize you.”

“...” Zhu Zihe thought bitterly, I haven’t changed at all in the past six months, all right?!

“You must continue working hard, my worthy nephew. Seeing excellence and striving to match it means learning more from Student Su. Do you understand?” Magistrate Lu naturally could not neglect to offer him a few words of encouragement.

“Yes.” Zhu Zihe answered once and withdrew, exhausted in body and spirit.

Magistrate Lu offered Ma Qianli a few more words of encouragement, gave each student a writing set, and then dismissed them.

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