Tiantang Splendid

Chapter 4997 South Ranking and North Ranking
What are we fighting for and compromising with? What are we compromising with?
There is nothing else to it, just the quota.

Be it Li Chengqian, Confucianists, or even the military and civil servants, all forces knew that the imperial examination must not become a one-man show for Confucianists. Other disciplines such as mathematics, physics, astronomy, medicine, etc. must all have a place. The empire not only needs moral role models educated by Confucianism, but also needs professional talents in all aspects.

Once Confucianism becomes the only dominant school and occupies all the places in the imperial examinations, will it be possible for officials all over the world to rule the country with a copy of "The Analects"?
This is not just a matter of suppressing the aristocratic families and supporting the common people, it will completely affect the operation of the country.

No matter how selfish the Tang Dynasty bureaucrats were, they were not lacking in this little bit of common sense.

To put it another way, even if Confucianism is so blindly selfish, it will still be attacked by all schools of thought in the world...

……

The atmosphere in the imperial study was serious and tense.

Yan Shigu shook his beard and glared at Fang Jun: "Now that the world is unified, all the people in the land are the king's subjects, and they are all the people of the Tang Dynasty and your majesty's subjects. They should be treated equally! The Taiwei advised Emperor Taizong to revive the imperial examination system of the Sui Dynasty. The purpose was to recruit talents from all over the world, regardless of whether they were from aristocratic families or common people, and only the talented would be selected! But how can you go back on your words now? There is no distinction between high and low people, and no distinction between north and south. This is absolutely not feasible!"

Kong Yingda on the side also frowned: "The land of Jiangnan is a little remote, and the people are not close to the imperial capital. Since the Sui Dynasty, several emperors have tried to win them over and strengthen their rule, fearing that they will become disloyal. If the imperial examination limits the number of southern scholars, they will think that the court treats them differently, which will lead to unrest."

These two great scholars were suppressing their anger at the moment, but when they learned that Fang Jun had advised His Majesty to divide the imperial examination into "Southern List" and "Northern List", they immediately flew into a rage and could not wait to run to the palace to try to stop it.

Li Chengqian looked embarrassed and said gently, "Please calm down, teachers. The general's suggestion to separate the southern and northern rankings is well-founded and may be considered."

Yan Shigu looked serious and shook his head, saying, "The Grand Commandant may have reasons, but if the southern scholars become resentful and stir up trouble, how should we deal with them?"

This is not without purpose.

Since the Five Barbarians moved south and the Jin Dynasty moved south, the division between the north and the south became increasingly obvious. Even after the Sui and Tang dynasties unified the north and the south, this division did not disappear. The most obvious example was when Emperor Yang of Sui stole the throne and did not have the support of Guanlong and Shandong. He had no choice but to go south many times to contact the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River in order to gain their assistance and control the government. This shows how detached the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River were.

At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, Xiao Xin occupied the south of the Yangtze River and won the support of local gentry. He led a large army and wanted to divide the river with Li Tang. Even though he was defeated and killed in the end, the unity of the south of the Yangtze River was evident.

Even now, the Jiangnan gentry still maintains its own independence, and is wary of both the Guanlong clans and the Shandong noble families...

Li Chengqian looked at Fang Jun helplessly.

He agreed with Fang Jun's advice, but he had no eloquence to persuade the aggressive Kong and Yan, so he could only rely on Fang Jun.

Fang Jun had been listening to the two people's complaints calmly. At this moment, he put down his teacup and said to Li Chengqian, "These two old thieves are selfish and have ulterior motives. They don't care about the interests of the empire at all. Your Majesty can order them to be expelled and decree that they will never be summoned again."

Li Chengqian was speechless. Do I need you to tell me if you can really do that?

What are the identities of these two people? The banner of Confucianism, the imperial teacher of the dynasty, with students all over the world and students all over the court. If they dare to drive them away today, all the civil and military officials in the court will gather under Chengtian's gate tomorrow and scold him as a tyrant...

Yan Shigu had a bad temper. When he heard what Fang Jun said, he was so angry that his hair and beard stood up and his old face flushed. He scolded angrily: "The child is arrogant and has no family education. It's Fang Xuanling's fault!"

Given his age and status, even if Fang Xuanling stood in front of him, he would have to treat him like a young master, let alone Fang Jun?
Kong Yingda was also very dissatisfied: "You speak nonsense and slander at will. You have no idea what you are talking about!"

Fang Jun didn't care about them being called "old thieves". In fact, Fang Jun respected them very much. However, since the negotiation was related to their respective interests, they would do whatever it took...

Fang Jun turned a blind eye to the pressure from the two great scholars, drank a cup of tea leisurely, and said to Yan Shigu: "I am not talking nonsense when I say that you are selfish and disregard the interests of the empire. The Langya Yan family has a long history and is the most prestigious family in the world. Yan Sheng, the 24th generation of Yan Hui, served as the governor of Qingzhou and Xuzhou successively during the Wei Dynasty of the Three Kingdoms. When he was the governor of Xuzhou, he moved the Yan family from the original residence of Qufu City to the vicinity of Linyi City of Langya State under his jurisdiction, and thus became famous in the county."

Yan Shigu had already guessed what Fang Jun was going to say, and his face was gloomy, but he could not stop him because these things were known to everyone and could not be refuted.

Fang Jun paused and continued, "During the Yongjia Rebellion, Yan Sheng's great-grandson Yan Han followed Emperor Yuan of Jin across the Yangtze River. For nine generations thereafter, he served in the Southern Dynasties. After Emperor Yuan of Liang was defeated, the brothers Yan Zhiyi and Zhitui moved north and served in Zhou and Qi respectively... However, to this day, the descendants of the Langya Yan family still live in Jinling. The Yan family has a long history of family learning and orthodox Confucianism, and their children are all talented. They are confident in participating in the imperial examinations, and many of them serve in officialdom. But once the imperial examinations were divided into southern and northern lists, the number of places for southern scholars was limited, and the descendants of the Yan family were naturally suppressed."

Yan Shigu asked in return: "Nowadays, not only has the Nine-Rank System been completely abolished, but even the recommendation system has been gradually abolished. All people in the world are appointed officials based on their performance in the imperial examinations. What's wrong with the children of the Yan family being selected as scholars based on their real academic performance? The children of Jiangnan are just looking for fairness. If the performance of the northern scholars is really higher than that of the southern children, I only regret that I didn't study hard enough and should continue to work hard. But if there is a distinction between the southern and northern lists, I will naturally not accept it."

Fang Jun was a little impatient. He naturally respected Yan Shigu, who was a famous Confucian scholar at that time. He was by no means one of those pedantic scholars in later generations who only read books. In terms of Confucianism, literature, philosophy, and history, he was a leader of the time and a true scholar.

For this reason, how could Yan Shigu not know the true purpose and necessity of the Southern and Northern Lists?
He knows everything and is just pursuing his own interests.

"When the Jin Dynasty moved south, all the noble families in the north moved to the south of the Yangtze River, taking with them hundreds of years of accumulated books, knowledge, and cultural roots. The north suffered from foreign invasions and tyrannical rule, and the land was full of blood and the population was dwindling. It has not recovered to this day. If the imperial examinations were to be fair to all the scholars in the north, would it be fair to them?"

Kong Yingda said: "This is a result of history, and it cannot be reversed by personal will. This is the fact, what can we do?"

His reason was that the cultural gap between the North and the South was caused by historical reasons and had lasted for hundreds of years.

Fang Jun looked at Li Chengqian again and said, "Your Majesty, have you seen this? These great scholars of the time are admired by everyone and have many students all over the world, but they only care about the interests of their own family, surname, and faction. They have never taken the interests of the empire into consideration, let alone made sacrifices for the interests of the empire. The imperial examination is to select talents for the country, so we should learn from each other's strengths and make up for each other's weaknesses, develop the overall situation, use the culture of the south to nourish the poverty of the north, and work together for the north and the south to make progress. This is the long-term solution."

Then he looked at Kong and Yan, and said, "Have you two really seen the day when all the officials in the court are from Jiangnan?"

In history, the imperial examination was held at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. As a result, all the people on the list were scholars from the south, while the scholars from the north were defeated. This eventually led to the confrontation between the north and the south, and almost caused the new Ming regime to fall into civil strife...

The reason for setting up the Southern List and the Northern List, in addition to taking care of northern scholars and promoting harmonious development, Zhu Yuanzhang's original intention was to put an end to the situation where southern scholars dominated. Once all the officials in the court were southern scholars, and the southern aristocratic families, landlords and gentry had always been intermarrying and colluding with each other, would he still be able to be the emperor?

Checks and balances are always the core of imperial tactics.

For example, in the Ming Dynasty, the heaviest taxation areas were Su, Song, Jiaxing and Huzhou. Apart from using the wealth of these areas to replenish the scarce national treasury, it was more important to prevent them from hoarding wealth and dominating the country, which would be a hidden danger to the country.

Kong and Yan remained silent in the face of Fang Jun's heart-piercing words.

If the imperial examinations were treated equally, a few years later it would be very likely that the situation described by Fang Jun, "the whole court is filled with children from Jiangnan," would occur. But would that really be a good thing?

But if this happens, the number of places for selecting scholars in the Jiangnan region will be sharply reduced.

However, due to the Zhenguan Academy, the interest of northern scholars in Confucianism has greatly decreased. Students prefer mathematics, physics, astronomy, medicine and other subjects, and are determined to become professionals to contribute to the development of the empire, rather than studying Confucian classics all day long.

Philosophy is a very complex subject. It can be used in all scenarios, but it is also useless in many scenarios...

It was not until this moment that Kong and Yan understood Fang Jun’s true intention.

He really didn't care whether Confucianism continued to suppress the other schools of thought, because the Tang Dynasty today was changing with each passing day, and it was far from being possible to govern the country by relying on a single philosophy. The development and progress of the country required more practical talents.

Shipbuilding, cannon casting, steelmaking, medical treatment, construction, astrology... these are things that Confucianism is not capable of.

Especially the rise of Taoism has made the entire Confucianism feel increasingly threatened. In terms of deep-rootedness and huge influence, Taoism is actually not inferior to Confucianism. It is just because of its consistent low-key style that it lingers in the upper class and fails to settle down.

Once Taoism puts down its airs and enters the secular world, it will not only deal a heavy blow to Buddhism, but will also challenge the status of Confucianism.

Li Chengqian agreed with the advice of the Southern List and the Northern List, but he did not want to conflict with Confucianism. Seeing that Kong and Yan had restrained themselves under Fang Jun's aggressive "persuasion", he quickly struck while the iron was hot: "You two are my imperial teachers, the backbone of the country, and the wise men of the world. You should understand my difficulties and contribute to the development and progress of the empire. But don't worry, the Southern List and the Northern List are just stopgap measures. Once there is a breakthrough in education in the north, the north and the south will be the same, without distinction between us."