Because not only villages, but also cities and towns were mostly based on clans. In the minds of most people at that time, there was no concept of a country or nation, but more of a clan.
This point still exists in some places even in later generations when the concept of clan is stronger than the concept of country.
If the Ming Dynasty wants to be strong, this concept must be changed. Otherwise, small groups such as clans will destroy the foundation of the Ming Dynasty and corrupt the Ming Dynasty from its roots.
But this question was so difficult that Zhong Jinwei frowned and said nothing the whole way.
Near evening, Zhong Jinwei went to the kindergarten teacher's place. Fortunately, the teacher did not go out to visit relatives and friends, so Zhong Jinwei was able to learn a lot about the situation.
As soon as Zhong Jinwei came out of Mr. Yuxue's residence, the county magistrate who had already received the news hurriedly came forward and said: "Your Excellency is here in this county. I am deeply honored. I have specially prepared a small amount of wine to welcome you and wash away the dust."
What happened to Zhong Jinwei that day made him feel that he had a lot to do. Therefore, he was not interested in eating and said directly to the county magistrate: "I want to write a memorial to the emperor, and I will stay in your county tonight. Unless there is something special
Otherwise, don’t disturb me.”
The county magistrate was stunned for a moment, but he immediately bowed and said: "I obey my orders!"
His level was much higher than Dianshi's. While waiting for Zhong to enter the guard, the Dongchang fan had already shown him his waist badge, letting him know his identity instead of just guessing.
As for Zhong Jinwei's identity, the county magistrate did not know and did not dare to ask. An official guarded by so many squads must be of a very high level.
And since the other party didn't want to tell him, he was happy not to know.
Zhong Jinwei had an early dinner at the residence arranged by the county magistrate, and then began to write a memorial to Emperor Chongzhen. Since he would not be able to go back for a long time and could not discuss it in person, Zhong Jinwei wrote the memorial in great detail.
In the memorial, he mainly said the following things.
1. Punctuation marks, blackboards, and chalk are very helpful in preschool education and deserve to be vigorously promoted. However, because most of the preschool students are from poor families, they cannot afford chalk. Therefore, Zhong Jinwei suggested increasing the research on chalk to see how to maximize the use of chalk.
Reduce costs as much as possible so that more people can afford chalk.
Second, regarding Pinyin, there is no simple and easy-to-use literacy method. The teaching progress of kindergartens will depend to a large extent on kindergarten teachers. For this reason, Zhong Jinwei recommended the Chinese he had learned to Emperor Chongzhen.
Pinyin.
In the rules for using Chinese Pinyin included in the memorial, Zhong Jinwei also listed several benefits. With this Chinese Pinyin, it can greatly reduce the difficulty for kindergarten teachers to teach Chinese characters.
Zhong Jinwei also suggested that this set of Chinese pinyin be compiled by a great scholar in the imperial court, and then a dictionary should be compiled to collect the pinyin and look up the glyphs. In this way, as long as students have a dictionary in hand, they can learn Chinese characters by themselves.
Third, there is the issue of traditional Chinese characters. Hieroglyphics have undergone many changes since humans began writing, and one of the biggest trends is that Chinese characters are becoming simpler and simpler. However, Zhong Jinwei believes that the current traditional Chinese characters are not simple enough, and many characters
There are too many strokes, which makes writing cumbersome and time-consuming.
To this end, Zhong Jinwei even explained it in conjunction with the vernacular that was previously promoted. Writing, like speaking, is also a manifestation of communication between people, but this communication is not face-to-face communication.
But no matter what, one of the most important purposes of creating words is to express what the writer wants to express. For this reason, words are the best if they are simple, clear and easy to remember.
Therefore, Zhong Jinwei suggested that the imperial court organize literary scholars to simplify Chinese characters again. At least the characters used in daily life should be simplified to improve the writing efficiency of the people.
Fourth, there is the clan issue. Zhong Jinwei first briefly talked about what happened today, and then analyzed to Emperor Chongzhen the many harms that clan issues might bring to the Ming Dynasty.
Finally, he explained to Emperor Chongzhen that in order to increase the government's influence and control in the countryside, it was necessary to reduce the influence of the clan to the greatest extent.
To this end, Zhong Jinwei made several suggestions: First, it is best to extend the government from the lowest county level down to the village and town level.
If the above measures cannot be achieved in a short period of time, some squires with good deeds can be selected to replace the government. But they must have a term of office, and they must be replaced after a few years.
It is best for the government to select a few squires with clear philanthropic deeds, and let the people in the villages and towns where they live vote by secret ballot to elect the squire they are most willing to help the government with.
This can minimize the number of squires who work for the government and do evil in villages and towns, deceiving superiors and concealing the truth from subordinates.
This approach can also ensure to a certain extent that local officials and some country gentry will join forces to harm one party.
Zhong Jinwei didn't want to write this article at first, but then he thought about it. It was just to elect squires at the village and town levels. They were not officials, and they were voluntary managers who didn't even have any salary. In the end, this was actually just voters, and it didn't involve anything.
Officials should not touch the nerves of Emperor Chongzhen and the ministers of the court, so Zhong Jinwei put this out.
Regarding the clan issue, Zhong Jinwei finally suggested that the cohesion of the clan should be fundamentally disrupted.
In his memorial, he analyzed to Emperor Chongzhen that the reason why clans are so powerful is because they control too many means of production. People must rely on the power of clans in order to survive better.
But if one day, the common people can live a good life without relying on the clan. Then no common people will like to flatter the clan leader and have everything controlled by the clan leader.
In response to this, Zhong Jinwei suggested that the court provide guarantees to banks to a certain extent, so that people at the village and town levels can also get low-interest loans from banks, so that they can start small businesses and reduce their dependence on clans.
This can fundamentally disintegrate the clan.
Of course, people who dare to borrow money and can run small businesses independently from their clans are all smart people, and the number of such people is bound to be small.
But it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter how many people you can create independently. Nothing is perfect, as long as you do it, it will be done.
Zhong Jinwei thought about it, wrote about it, and wrote about it and thought about it. He was busy until late at night, and wrote the longest memorial since traveling to the Ming Dynasty.
Early the next morning, Gu Baichuan arranged for someone to deliver the memorial to Beijing.
However, Zhong Jinwei did not delay in Zhuji County and continued south to Guangzhou.
Nothing special happened along the way, and the group entered Guangdong smoothly. Within a few days, the city of Guangzhou appeared in front of them.